On the Road with Olivia and Alexa Episode 16: Lauderdale County and Mars Hill

LAUDERDALE COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) — Episode 16 of On the Road with Olivia and Alexa features two teams from Lauderdale County: Lauderdale County and Mars Hill.

The Tigers from Lauderdale County had an incredibly successful season last year; they won the Class 3A Region 8 championship, finished with a perfect 10-0 regular season and made it to the third round of the playoffs.

You might wonder after all that success what the Tigers taking into 2024 from 2023 but head coach Jeff Mason is more concerned about looking ahead to the season in front of them.

“What we’re taking from that is we know this is a new season. What we did last year was last year, and hopefully, we take with us what we learned from last year and maybe know what we did to get to that point,” Mason said. “We know how hard we worked and how they stayed together as a team. The unselfishness that they brought every week, their willingness to work and to do the things that were asked of them and hopefully learned a few other things and is always trying to get better so hopefully this year we can be better than last year.”

Down the road in Florence, we find Mars Hill which is a program that’s become synonymous with winning.

The Panthers finished 10-2 overall last year with just one loss in the regular season to Lauderdale County and they made it to the second round of the playoffs.

The Panthers program has seen some great players over the years, but just like every other school those players graduate and move on to life after high school. For head coach Darrell Higgins, how does he prepare to reset every year after losing guys like Griffin Hanson and so many others who helped Mars Hill be so successful?

“I think one of the weird things about me is I really enjoy the development. I like getting new kids in the program and start building a relationship, start seeing them grow and develop and build their confidence,” Higgins said. “I tell these guys that part of your job is to help me develop these guys so when you all leave we want the program to stay up here we don’t want it to drop off.”

Both teams will open the season on Friday, August 23; the Tigers travel to Lexington and Mars Hill will travel to Madison Academy.

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