ALAH football eying sustained success in 2024

ARTHUR — Ryan Appleby, Colin Smith and Easton Frederick won’t soon forget a 10-week stretch of 2023 that saw four communities rally behind Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond’s football team.

Those towns at the convergence of Piatt, Moultrie and Douglas counties — with a combined population of about 5,000 — rallied together throughout the Knights’ undefeated regular season that culminated with a Lincoln Prairie Conference championship.

“There was a lot of energy and excitement that we could go 9-0 and win the conference,” Appleby said. “It seems like every class, people were just talking about it. It’s just awesome to see an entire school rooting for our team.”

It’s both motivation and reason for optimism with ALAH’s prospects before the 2024 campaign kicks off. The Knights enter the season at No. 7 in The News-Gazette’s preseason rankings ahead of their Aug. 30 season opener at home against Argenta-Oreana.

Current Illinois running back Kaden Feagin helped put the Knights on the state map earlier this decade.

But last year’s team showed they can make a name for themselves, too.

“There’s always been pressure since Kaden left and there’s always the next season, the next season, next season,” ALAH junior running back Easton Frederick said. “But we just have to just take it on and be confident in ourselves. When we have our backs to the wall, we just fight.”

Coach Ryan Jefferson — now ahead of his seventh season at ALAH — doesn’t have to look far into the past to find leaner years for the Knights, who went 2-7 during his first campaign in 2018 and hadn’t made the playoffs since 2014 prior to that. But aside from the COVID-affected spring 2021 season in which IHSA playoffs took place, each of the subsequent seasons have ended with a postseason appearance for the Knights.

“It’s just been really fun the last three years to see our numbers really improve,” Jefferson said. “I mean, we have 56 kids out this year, which is the most by far (since 2018) so I’m hoping that we continue that rolling.”

Injuries mounted down the stretch last fall for the Knights, who lost 21-14 to Quincy Notre Dame in the opening round of the Class 2A playoffs.

Jayce Parsons — now a running back at Western Illinois — had succeeded Feagin as the Knights’ quarterback.

Next up: Cruz Hale, a junior who will assume control of ALAH’s experienced offense this fall as the Knights’ third quarterback in as many seasons.

“He’s a good athlete, but he is not the same type of athlete that we’re going to build the offense around that we did with Kaden and Jayce,” Jefferson said. “They were more primarily runners. Not that they couldn’t throw the ball, but Cruz, he’s more of a true quarterback. And, for lack of a better word, he does the little things right.”

Appleby — a senior tight end — will factor into the passing game after missing the 2023 season with a torn ACL and watching from the sidelines.

“It was terrible not being out there,” Appleby said. “Football means everything to me, so I put my all into it and getting it all taken away was difficult. But all these guys are my best friends, and I wish nothing more from them than (for them) to go 9-0. I was so happy for them when they did that.”

Frederick will slide to tailback after plugging gaps with the Knights’ receiving corps as a sophomore in 2023.

Jefferson eyes Maddix Stirrett and Frederick — who also had 80 tackles at linebacker — as a replacement for the production vacated by Parsons and Landon Waldrop due to graduation.

“I think we have a lot more chances this year of spreading the ball between all of our running backs because we have so many,” Frederick said. “Last year we had two main scores in Jayce and Landon, but now we have more opportunities to score.”

Frederick, Payton Warrior and Stirrett — who also had 142 stops on defense in 2023 — will run behind an experienced offensive line that includes seniors Jacob Tighe, Mackenley Bowles and Colin Smith, along with juniors Kamden Morfey and Jackson Lebeter.

Tighe’s 6-foot-5, 315-pound frame has helped propel the Knights to 6,000 combined rushing yards during the last two seasons. He could also help the Knights find another groove this fall with Hale under center.

“We’re a big run offense, obviously, but we’ve thrown for 600-700 yards each season, which isn’t terrible,” Jefferson said. “But I could really see (Hale) taking that element of our offense to the next level.”

Away from the football field, the Knights have developed a close bond and rapport. Like playing golf together or going bowling.

Smith said he is the best golfer on the team. By his own accord, and in the opinion of Appleby and Frederick. Smith grew particularly close with Parsons, among other teammates, at a young age and feels those moments have helped this current group of ALAH football achieve sustained success.

“His brother is very close to my age, too,” Smith said. “We all bonded, we all played football in the backyard together actually, and with his dad. It was a good time.”

Appleby’s house is the go-to spot for the Knights following games, 22 of which have ended in victories during his first three years with the program.

That includes the Knights’ 14-game winning streak in LPC play, the longest since the league’s inception in 2019.

“Sometimes after wins we go over to my house and have a fire,” Appleby said. “Have some hot dogs and. some s’mores. That’s just another thing that we do. We’re all just best friends.”