Wherever Reeltown went, success followed.
In what could be categorized as “The Year of the Rebels,” athletics took a leg up, spanning across multiple teams. The first being the football team, which, following a Week 0 loss to T.R. Miller left a trail of carnage in its path.
Reeltown won 14 straight games, scoring 40 or more points in nine of them. The team made its way through the playoffs, taking down Houston County, Luverne, Cottonwood and Highland Home to reach its second consecutive state championship appearance. However, this time, Reeltown came out on top with a 49-13 victory over Tuscaloosa Academy to bring the school its fourth state championship in school history.
Head coach and Reeltown athletic director Matt Johnson has been a part of three of those championships himself, holding different roles in each. He captured his first as a player, his second as an assistant coach and his third as the head coach.
“Every coach that has success is going to talk about ‘it's a special place,’ but it really is,” Johnson said in a previous article. “When people know, outsiders looking in, they see that it is special and what does that is the culture. It is a culture that is built, that has been sustained and built around community. It's built around a family concept and love.”
But the success at Reeltown did not stop there, and neither did the state championships. This May, the Reeltown fishing team brought the school its second state title in the calendar year — finishing with two top-10 performances in the Alabama Student Angler Bass Fishing Association championships on Lake Martin.
“Oh, you have no idea how good it felt,” Reeltown fishing coach Chad Ledbetter said in a previous interview. “One of them, of course, was my son Ben so to be a part of that and captain of that was amazing. I’ve watched a lot of these kids from when they were in kindergarten together to playing young football together to wrestling together. To see them go out there and mature like they have and do like they did on the water, I mean, that’s just phenomenal.”
All the while, the Rebels baseball team has one of its best seasons in school history. In addition to capturing its fifth straight Class 2A Area 6 title, the Rebels found their stride in the postseason. They took down schools like Isabella, G.W. Long and Cottonwood to advance to the school’s first AHSAA Class 2A semifinals appearance. Although falling to Pike Liberal Arts on the doorstep of another possible state championship, the Rebels finished with a 24-12 overall record.
It was not just the boy sports either who saw their fair share of success. The Reeltown softball team fought tooth and nail to make it to the AHSAA Class 2A regional tournament, while the girls basketball team also made a playoff appearance.
If the next calendar year for Reeltown is anything like it was this year, the future is bright for all Rebels athletics.