High School Football Tour: Pickens County

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REFORM, Ala. (WCBI) – Pickens County reached the Alabama 1A state semifinals last season. The Tornadoes lost by a point to Marion County.

Senior Quarterback Devonte Simon is one of six returning starters on offense. He hasn’t forgotten about how last year ended.

“Devastating, it was horrible,” Simon said. “It took a long time to get over. We were working so hard, we were confident that after they beat us the first time we were going in their house and beating them the second time. It was a good run, everything just didn’t turn out like we wanted it to.”

“It was, it’s hard to say,” senior linebacker Chris Hill said. “We had one blown assignment. We’re just going to take what we did last year and do it again.”

Simon plays on both sides of the ball. He’s a defensive back as well. You don’t see that too often from a QB. Head Coach Patrick Plott is excited about his signal caller.

“He’s been a great leader for us all summer and we expect that to carry over into the season,” Plott said. “He’s a dual threat and people are going to have to try to figure out how they’re going to defend him.”

Running back Jamarcus Brown is another senior returning.

“That senior class brings a lot to the team and I think they’ve done a great job all summer long leading the young guys,” Plott said.

Plott says the defense is coming along as well.

“Defensively I wasn’t happy with us getting off the field on third down,” Plott said. “We gave up a lot of third down situations last season and we’ve been trying to get that corrected this summer.”

Pickens County starts its season against Fayette County on August 31.