Red Bay head football coach Michael Jackson talks to his players during summer practice last Thursday. Photo by Keith Ledbetter.

By Keith Ledbetter

For the FCT

RED BAY – With just over a month to go before opening season, Red Bay head football coach Michael Jackson has been busy with workouts and the conditioning of his Tiger football team.

“We’ve been doing a lot of workouts in July,” Jackson said.

“This is also a big month for working on our schemes.”

Jackson said that he’s excited about the whole month and really excited about the young kids he has out.

“We don’t have a big senior class, but the guys that are here that are seniors are showing great leadership for our younger players.”

Jackson enters his second month as head football coach at Red Bay after the Franklin County Board approved his hiring at their June 17 meeting.

He replaced John Ritter who stepped down May 19 after two successful years as Red Bay’s head football coach.

Jackson said that the participation has been great this summer and his kids have responded well.

“They are starting to show gains, which is always a positive thing,” he said.

“Our conditioning will continue to build as we go through July and we’ve started putting both schemes in for the offense and defense.

“Everybody has bought in and they are doing what they need to do to progress and get better as a team.”

This season, Region 8 will have a new lineup that includes Cherokee, Tharptown, Phil Campbell, Hatton, Sulligent, Mars Hill Bible School, and Red Bay.

Before region play begins, the Red Bay Tiger football program will open their regular season at home on August 22 against Colbert Heights, a team they defeated by a score of 38-20 last season.

Red Bay will host 4A Haleyville the following Friday night.

“They were 10-2 last season and have a lot of their kids back, so it will be a good chance to see where we’re at,” Jackson said.

“The challenge is getting ready to play game one and game two against the biggest schools we play all year.

“It should give us a great measuring stick on what we need to work on to go into our region play.”

Jackson said that he’s thrilled that everyone in the community is willing to help the team get the things they need to compete for a state championship.

“Support from the community has been great and I think the kids have responded in a very positive way to everything I’ve asked them to do.”