By: Katie McElvy
The second half of the Chambers Rebels’ season heats up quickly as it is littered with region games and 3A opponents. Additionally, the Rebels will only spend one Friday night playing at Torbert-Allen Field, and that is a late October game against the Hooper Colts.
Chambers will travel to former 3A Powerhouse Bessemer Academy in their sixth game of the season. Bessemer will be the only opponent standing between the Rebels and a mid-season bye week. Bessemer brought it all home in 2019 and were runners-up in 2020, but the 2021 season proved to be a rebuilding year for Birmingham-based Rebels. Chambers handled them easily in the 2021 Tuscaloosa Jamboree, and with a roster featuring only six seniors, their time may still be in the future.
Next, the Rebels will hit the road to Abbeville Christian to meet up with a familiar face, former assistant coach Matt Mims, who has taken the reins to lead the Generals. Mims was a member of the coaching staff during Chambers’ first ever state football title, so he is very familiar with how the Rebels play the game. Abbeville Christian joined the 2A ranks just this year moving into the same region as Chambers. However, they are not unfamiliar foes. Abbeville Christian proved to be a formidable opponent for the Rebels when they were in 1A. The Abbeville/Chambers game usually decided the region championship for the season in those days. Even though the Generals struggled through last season, they are no strangers to winning, and this game sets up the perfect storm for the Rebels as it is sandwiched between a bye week and the Rebels’ biggest region opponent of the year.
According to Head Coach Jason Allen, “All region games are huge, but the Macon-East game has had the most on the line the last couple of seasons, and Coach Lott always has those guys ready to play.” That’s why October 14 has been circled on every Rebel fan’s calendar since the schedule release. Macon-East has proved to be the Rebels’ biggest region rival in all male sports over the last few years, so this game is sure to be packed with hard nosed football with play-off contentions on the line.
Chambers will play their only home game of the second half of the season as they host the Hooper Colts. Although Hooper is an established school in the AISA, Chambers has no recent football history with the Colts. Hooper has struggled for a decade in class 3A finishing close to the bottom of their region every year. Could the change to 2A breathe some life into these ponies?
The Rebels wrap up their season with a much anticipated game against the 3A Glenwood Gators out of Phenix City, who hold the number one ranking according to the ASWA Preseason Poll. Glenwood has seen a lot of success in recent years making it all the way to the championship game two out of the last three years. However, they were never able to walk away holding the golden football. Because of this, they play with a little bit of a chip on their shoulders. Since the Rebels have found themselves in the same situation many times, they too carry that same chip. Even though these programs are close in proximity, they have only ever met up in a scrimmage game in varsity football in recent history. The outcome of that scrimmage varies depending on who is asked. It seems as though this match up has been years in the making. In fact, Glenwood was the only team who played in a state championship game among the three classes who were not defeated by the Rebels during the 2020 season. So, the question mark which surrounds who the better team is between these two will finally be erased in what is shaping up to be an exciting finale to the regular season.
Looking to the postseason, Patrician seems to be the team to beat in the west. With Autauga moving to 3A and Escambia both graduating most of their starters and losing their head coach, many have chosen the Patrician Saints to win it all, and the ASWA is in agreement ranking them first in 2A and third overall in the AISA. The Rebels have not faced the Saints since the 2017 AISA A State Championship, a game that saw Chambers on the losing end of a questionable call that determined it all. So, how do the Rebels find themselves back in the championship game?
Coach Allen has an answer for that. “We will need some new leaders to emerge after losing such a large senior class. We will need to win the turnover battle every single game. Ball security is of the utmost importance. Our team will need to be able to establish the run and stop the run, which is always the case for our teams.”
After graduating a senior class who filled a vast majority of the starting line-up and was one of the winningest classes in school history, there are many unanswered questions going into the 2022 season. However, Coach Allen is no stranger to these circumstances and had this to say about this year’s team, “I’m excited about the new faces we have emerging as well as the kids we have leaned on in the last couple of years. It’s a fun group to coach, and they have worked really hard to get to this point. They have put themselves in position to have a solid team.”
At least some questions will be answered this Thursday night at Torbert-Allen Field as the Rebels host the Lee-Scott Warriors. Kick-off is set for 7:00.
