While most of the attention in Lower Alabama will be on tonight’s “Clash of the Titans,” a season-opening matchup of the Number-1 teams from Alabama High School Athletic Association’s Class 4A (Jackson) and Class 7A (Saraland), prep football fans in the Atmore area will welcome the opening of new eras for once-proud programs.

At Escambia County High School (ECHS), where the Blue Devils won state titles in 1974 and 1983 but haven’t made a postseason appearance since 2010, former collegiate coach Tommie Lee Lewis Jr. becomes the school’s sixth head coach-athletic director since 2010, when ECHS advanced to the Alabama Class 4A state semifinals.

The new coach is a Birmingham native who was a standout at A.H. Parker High School. He has coached at the collegiate level for the past 10 years. ECHS officials and fans hope the Lewis Era will be a successful one.

At Escambia Academy, where dwindling enrollment has decimated a Cougars program that also has two state titles under its belt, along with six appearances in the Alabama Independent School Association’s state championship game, EA will .

compete in the AISA’s 8-man division.

Coach Larry Nichols will count on a roster of about 15 players, many of them too young to drive themselves to and from practice, as EA competes in the AISA’s newest classification, which has offered the alternative for the past three years.

The association requires a team have “at least 20-to-25 players” in order to compete in standard 11-man play.

Tonight’s area schedule (8-22-25)

AHSAA, Class 4A, Region 1

Wenonah at Escambia Co.

Saraland at Jackson

Elberta at Orange Beach

Cottage Hill at Satsuma

Bayside Academy at St. Michael

AISA 8-MAN

Escambia Academy at Snooks Christian

Cornerstone at Southern Prep

Evangel at North River

Heritage at Macon-East Montgomer5y

Coosa Valley at Springwood

AHSAA Class 3A, Region 1

Flomaton at Clarke Co.

Reeltown at T.R. Miller

Chickasaw at Mobile Christian

Hillcrest-Evergreen at B.C. Rain

Linden at Excel

Florala at Monroe Co. (5 p.m.)

W.S. Neal and Satsuma do not play.

Other games of local interest:

Northview (Fla.) at Destin (Fla.)

Marengo at J.U. Blacksher

Monroe Academy at Rocky Bayou Chr.

Note: The Northview-Destin game will reportedly be broadcast on WBZR (1590 FM) radio.

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