Colbert County High looking to make deep playoff run

After a four-year stint in Class 3A, the Colbert County Indians are returning to Class 2A.

Thanks to the 2026-2028 AHSAA reclassification, the region schedule looks pretty different for the upcoming season.

Gone is Mars Hill, Lauderdale County, Rogers, Colbert Heights, Clements and Elkmont.

Welcome in Tanner, Phil Campbell, Lexington, J.B. Pennington, Falkville and Winston County.

Though Colbert Heights remained a Class 3A school, the Indians and Wildcats will continue their county rivalry as a nonregion game.

“We have to watch film on those guys and prepare the best way we can,” head coach Oscar Bonds said. “We play a lot of familiar teams like Deshler and Wilson, but we have a lot of good teams dropping down into (Class) 2A we’ve got to watch film on.”

One thing Colbert County has become known for is its playoff streak going back to 2012.

Bonds said there is “no pressure” to keep the streak going, while senior Sylas Quillen said he wants the program to take the next step.

“For the past 15 years or so we have mainly had 6-4, 5-5 seasons and have been barely making the playoffs,” he said. “I want last year to be a building step to bringing this program back to where it was in the ‘90s. I would like to be one of them that brought it back to state championship (games) and deep playoff runs.”

In order to take that next step, the Indians will have to replace a lot of production from graduated seniors like Frank Hayes and Elijah Jones.

They had a lot of leadership in the program, and they are both big, physical guys,” Quillen said. “We still have people. We have the physicality and athleticism, we just have to learn to take the leadership roles they passed down to us.

“We are going to work on physicality,” Bonds said. “When we get the pads on, I’ve got to see how physical we’re going to be. We have gotten a lot stronger in the offseason, so I’m really looking forward to seeing how physical and disciplined we play.

“We are going to try and build off of last season. We started conditioning in the spring. The guys know the system a lot better this year and what the expectations of them are.”