#HSFT20 Stop #23 — Lamar County Bulldogs

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VERNON, Al. (WCBI) — Vernon is loaded and reading to go for the 2020 season.

“The desire to be out here,” head coach Robbie Bradford said. “It’s a fun spirit this year. These guys are looking forward to every day they come in excited to be here and to be honest they’d stay all night if we let them.”

Coming off a rebuilding season, the Bulldogs are ready to get back to winning.

“Last season it seems like start to finish we kept getting in our own way. We had a lot of struggles throughout the year and we did have a young team and a young nucleus and we had two very successful years prior to that,” Bradford said.

“Last year we kind of struggled to be a team,” senior LG/NT Shemar Suddth said. “This year we’re just trying to make the team better.”

“We had a really bad attitude last year,” senior quarterback/safety Braxton
Hatchcock said. “I think this year if we go into the season with a better attitude we should come out better with a better record.”

However, that was just a bump in the road for Vernon. In terms of turning things back around, Bradford said it starts with focusing on the team’s core values and playing a Vernon style of football.

As to what that entails, Bradford says, “a passion and a desire to do things correctly. When it comes to your effort level, your technique and being accountable to your teammate.”

“All come together as a family,” senior WR/RB/K Jamichael Cribbs “We got a good coaching staff and a big group of people, big kids.”

The Bulldogs always look forward to fierce rivalries that Lamar County has to offer against Sulligent and South Lamar.

For those match-ups this season, the Bulldogs want to come out on top.

“There’s really good football in Lamar County with South Lamar, Sulligent and Vernon all together. It’s just usually a war whenever we come together.”

“We’re going to try our best to take them down this year,” senior LT Jesus Casas “I feel like we have all the skill, all the technique we need to beat basically anybody.”

Step one of getting those wins on the board this season: leadership.

“This is going to be another year of us being extremely young, but not necessarily that we’re looking to not be successful we just have a lot of new players and a lot of kids moving up from the junior high program. We’re excited to go in and see but there are question marks on both sides of the ball for sure.”

Vernon starts the season off with a road match against South Lamar on August 21st.