Disclaimer
As with all years, high school wrestling can be a little volatile. It is a tough sport that requires great commitment from the athletes that participate in it. Every year there are typically a few wrestlers who were being counted on by their teams that call it a career, or get injured. When the dust settles, we would expect the same from every pre-season group we complete analysis on. In addition, a number of football players wrestle in Alabama, which sometimes leads to unexpected attrition of top performers through injury or athlete choice as a result of football season.
That being said, we only know what we know right now, and are going to base our assessments on those details. We are not including any knowledge of injured or not participating wrestlers for this article. Our in season State preview will take into account actual projected lineups and performance up to that point.
On a less serious note, this is a super early preview and is to provide information only to encourage interesting knowledgable discussion and engagement around this topic. Please do not take this too seriously.
Overview
The 7A Divisions is much harder to call than 6A was, Oak Mountain and Vestavia Hills both return 9 qualifiers, Realistically there is a road for either of these 2 teams to come out on top this year. Thompson doesn’t show a clear path to the Championship, but they are still lurking in the shadows. If you were looking for the traditional heavyweight fight, you would think Vestavia Hills and Thompson would be going at it, but Oak Mountain looks to be the team entering as the challenger this year. In 6A, it was a fight for second, in 7A it is more of a heavyweight fight for first, followed by some tough contenders trying to secure a third place finish. Without further a due, let’s get into the details.
Top 5 Returning Pre-season Predictions
- Vestavia Hills
- Returning Points – 125
- Graduating Points – 57
- Last year finish – Runner-up
- This year prediction – Champion
This is a tough one, but looking for some differentiating characteristics between these two teams, we picked Vestavia Hills for 3 key reasons.
- Age – We already know based on the data that age plays a big role in success at the State Tournament (I know it isn’t rocket science, but is important to bring up when used as a differentiator). Vestavia Hills has 5 Seniors and 3 Juniors among their 9 returning qualifiers. I would say that is getting pretty long in the tooth. Age is also a key factor here because these 5 Seniors are going to be hungry to do something special after settling for second last year. This gives us inherent advantage mixed with the desire for greatness!
- Projected Lineup Depth – We don’t know what a lineup will actually look like, because we don’t inspect all of the JV talent from last year at each program, but we do know a few characteristics of teams with depth, a lot of qualifiers returning mixes with several high performers graduation. Vestavia Hills returns 9, but they actually had 12 qualifiers last year and are graduating two Seconds and a Fourth. What does this tell us? It tells us there is a high likelihood for another potential high performer or two to be waiting in the wings to crack this stacked lineup.
- Past Performance – An eye popping 8 of Vestavia’s 9 returners placed last year. While that alone will get a coach excited, imagine if 3 of them were Runner-ups, Ryan Mckelvey (106), Matthew Campbell (113) and Stone Phillips (126). Well that is the case here. Add in the fact that 10 weights do not have a returning Champion in 7A and you start to see the road to a Championship for VH. With that many open holes, it is reasonable to extrapolate that at least 1 or 2 of these wrestlers will find pay dirt this year, but maybe even all 3 can find a weight where they win it. Of course it is never that clear cut since 106, 113 and 126 are 3 of the weights with returning Champions, and these guys may find themselves crossing paths with the very wrestler that beat them last year. The good news is, they also have 2 Fourth place finishers in Grayer Manown (157) and Cooper Cook (190), 2 Fifths in Charles Noto (138) and Colyn Finley (144) and a Sixth place with John Junkin (120).
This team is absolutely stacked, has an old (experienced) lineup and shows the tell-tell signs of reloading with some new talent to fill those spots left by exceptional Seniors last year. While this is definitely going to be an absolute dog fight, Vestavia Hills earns the pre-season nod for these reasons.
| Count | Weight | Wrestler Name | School | 24-25 Record | 25-26 Grade | 24-25 Placement | Points Scored |
| 1 | 106 | Ryan Mckelvey | Vestavia Hills | 37-9 | 11 | Second | 19.5 |
| 2 | 113 | Matthew Campbell | Vestavia Hills | 24-4 | 9 | Second | 22 |
| 3 | 120 | John Junkin | Vestavia Hills | 9-14 | 11 | Sixth | 5 |
| 4 | 126 | Stone Phillips | Vestavia Hills | 29-2 | 12 | Second | 22 |
| 5 | 138 | Charles Noto | Vestavia Hills | 29-11 | 12 | Fifth | 11.5 |
| 6 | 144 | Colyn Finley | Vestavia Hills | 28-14 | 11 | Fifth | 11 |
| 7 | 157 | Grayer Manown | Vestavia Hills | 26-10 | 12 | Fourth | 18 |
| 8 | 165 | Owen Wilbanks | Vestavia Hills | 18-13 | 12 | Qualifier | 0 |
| 9 | 190 | Cooper Cook | Vestavia Hills | 36-6 | 12 | Fourth | 16 |
- Oak Mountain
- Returning Points – 112
- Graduating Points – 0
- Last year finish – Fourth
- This year prediction – Second
Oak Mountain has an impressive 9 qualifiers returning this year. The problem, just not enough proven scoring from this group. I am not talking like top 5 proven scoring, I am talking like beating Vestavia Hills for the title proven scoring. The good news, they do return Champion Trey Denny (126), two Second place finishers, Griffin Gardner (120) and Quinn Ivey (144) as well as Third place finisher Jameson Thomas (113). Ivey will likely be the favorite wherever he ends up and Gardner will depend on if he is behind Thompson’s Braylen Johnson again this year. Regardless there will be some jockeying with so many returning at the lower weights to find a spot at the top of the podium.
We can hear you now, “That sounds like a lot of proven scoring”, and you would be right, but Vestavia Hills has 7 returning double digit scorers, Oak Mountain has 4. Vestavia only has 1 returner who didn’t place, Oak Mountain has 3. They both have one wrestler that didn’t score last year, but Oak Mountain has 3 that scored less than 5, Vestavia has none. Of course we know, that was last year, but extrapolating out the VH likely weights and strengths, and seeing where the 7A podium road has widened, it looks like VH is going to have some guys moving up it. We are not sure that will be the case for Oak Mountain.
In the end, we are splitting hairs here. These are two loaded teams. Vestavia Hills has the pedigree, recent program success and an ever so slightly better path to a State Championship this year. Does that mean Oak Mountain can’t win it? Not this time my friend.
| Count | Weight | Wrestler Name | School | 24-25 Record | 25-26 Grade | 24-25 Placement | Points Scored |
| 1 | 106 | Titus Slaughter | Oak Mountain | 39-14 | 8 | Qualifier | 4.5 |
| 2 | 113 | Jameson Thomas | Oak Mountain | 28-8 | 11 | Third | 19.5 |
| 3 | 120 | Griffin Gardner | Oak Mountain | 42-10 | 10 | Second | 20 |
| 4 | 126 | Trey Denny | Oak Mountain | 53-5 | 11 | Champion | 26 |
| 5 | 132 | James Franklin | Oak Mountain | 37-21 | 12 | Sixth | 7 |
| 6 | 144 | Quinn Ivey | Oak Mountain | 16-3 | 11 | Second | 22 |
| 7 | 150 | Brady Coggin | Oak Mountain | 26-13 | 12 | Sixth | 9 |
| 8 | 215 | Peyton Gamble | Oak Mountain | 45-14 | 11 | Qualifier | 0 |
| 9 | 285 | Evan Smith | Oak Mountain | 27-27 | 12 | Qualifier | 4 |
- Thompson
- Returning Points – 97
- Graduating Points – 124
- Last year finish – Champion
- This year prediction – Third
Imagine losing 124 points and still returning 97, that is what Thompson does this year. This team lost the entire top half of their team last year, losing 6 state placers, 2 Champs, 2 Thirds and a Sixth place finisher from 150 up!!!!
If you have been reading our articles thus far, you now know we believe teams like this have much higher chance of reloading, there is one issue however, the weights Thompson is losing are the upper weights. We also know the numbers show us younger wrestlers tend not to fare well at the upper weights (obvious physical and age related reasons for this). Is it reasonable to assume that several older wrestlers waited their turn behind the group of big boys that just left Thompson, generally, no, but looking at their roster, that may be the case here. After examining the complete picture, we believe Thompson gets some new talent in this year to go with their returning core, which contains no Seniors, and readies themselves for a Championship charge in 2027.
After all the logical arguments we just laid out, we are not sure why, but something feels inherently dangerous about this team. Could it be the 10 state titles over the last 15 years, could it be the mammoth 221 team points they put on the board at the State Championship tournament last year, maybe so, but we hope Vestavia Hills and Oak Mountain aren’t as worried about the boogie man as we are, or they may just let him sneak in for another State title ahead of schedule this year.
| Count | Weight | Wrestler Name | School | 24-25 Record | 25-26 Grade | 24-25 Placement | Points Scored |
| 1 | 106 | Braylen Johnson | Thompson HS | 22-6 | 10 | Champion | 27 |
| 2 | 113 | Brady Walsh | Thompson HS | 31-8 | 9 | Fifth | 17 |
| 3 | 120 | Brody Logan | Thompson HS | 34-22 | 11 | Third | 20.5 |
| 4 | 126 | Will Atkinson | Thompson HS | 26-7 | 10 | Fifth | 11.5 |
| 5 | 132 | Austin Owen | Thompson HS | 35-19 | 11 | Fifth | 9 |
| 6 | 144 | Turner Hutson | Thompson HS | 29-17 | 11 | Fourth | 12 |
4. Hewitt-Trussville
- Returning Points – 69.5
- Graduating Points – 41
- Last year finish – Fifth
- This year prediction – Fourth
The first three on this list were relatively easy, Vestavia Hills and Oak Mountain pass the paper test, and Thompson gets in because that would be like leaving Alabama out of the pre-season top 25. That puts us at number 4, which is not near as easy. We have a big group of teams sort of bunched together starting here. They all have a solid number of returning qualifiers, but not a lot of bona fide point scorers, and without points, you don’t finish number 4 in the state. The reality of it is Daphne, Prattville and Auburn all underachieved at State last year. I am sure they would say the same thing. The trouble with moving them up the ranking ladder is they are all Senior heavy teams that didn’t score points last year. Since we have a guiding principle to go with point scorers, over guys that just get there, in points based tournaments like this, we had to skip over quite a few teams returning more qualifiers to pull Hewitt-Trussville out at number 4.
Looking at how their 5 returners faired last year makes it a pretty simple argument, led by State Champion Delvecchio Alston (190), a wrestler that was right on our borderline as a breakout star in this 7A group, they also have Rivers Harbison (106) Third and Trip Cole (175) and Braxton Reaves (215) who both finished Fourth. Looking at their weights, they have 3 solid Senior point scores in the upper weights, where we know it is hardest for young guys to score. If their lightweights push up, it is reasonable to think that they could sneak a few guys into their lineup at ideal weights for them to make a splash at state, all be it a small one. Every little bit helps when trying to crack the top 5.
As we already discussed, there are several underachieving senior dominant teams with loads of qualifiers that could easily scratch their way into the fourth or fifth place spots this year with an even mediocre run plus infusion of some new talent. For now, this looks like Hewitt-Trussville’s spot to lose. I am sure they aren’t happy with this assessment, and will have their sights set on taking down the big boys higher on our list.
| Count | Weight | Wrestler Name | School | 24-25 Record | 25-26 Grade | 24-25 Placement | Points Scored |
| 1 | 106 | Rivers Harbison | Hewitt-Trussville | 49-11 | 9 | Third | 18 |
| 2 | 113 | Gavin Bittle | Hewitt-Trussville | 37-21 | 12 | Qualifier | 0 |
| 3 | 175 | Trip Cole | Hewitt-Trussville | 34-13 | 12 | Fourth | 18 |
| 4 | 190 | Delvecchio Alston | Hewitt-Trussville | 25-3 | 12 | Champion | 24,5 |
| 5 | 215 | Braxton Reaves | Hewitt-Trussville | 38-28 | 12 | Fourth | 15 |
- Smiths Station HS
- Returning Points – 51
- Graduating Points – 36
- Last year finish – Twelfth
- This year prediction – Fifth
For this last spot we went back and forth between Smiths Station HS and Bob Jones. Staying with our theme, we like Smith Stations for a few reasons.
- Age/Experience – 2 Juniors and 2 Seniors who are proven point scorers.
- Championship Potential – The ultimate decider we couldn’t get over is Smiths Station Hs returning a 1 loss State Champion Eli Sanders at 113. You don’t go 41-1 by accident and even though this is 113, with that record as a Sophomore, we feel like we have money in the bank (points on the board in this case) with Smiths Station Hs in this spot. If that wasn’t good enough, they return Xerxes Ellison, 39-4, who placed Second at 215, a weight he will likely wrestle again, which lost its Champion and Third place finishers from last year. That gives Smiths Station HS potential for 2 State Champions before they even have to worry about the other guys on their roster.
That being said, this only gets them 56ish out of our estimated (fancy word for we are guessing) 100 or so points that will be needed to hold down fifth this year. Where are the other points coming from? That is a question we couldn’t concretely answer with either team, and we had to pick one, so we took the team with the biggest perceived guarantee with the hope our two qualifiers from last year, Amari Allen (175) and Elijah Tatum (120) can score some points this year. Of course, we didn’t make that decision blindly, 165-175 looks to be wide open. Amari Allen had a good year overall last year, and if he fits into one of these weights, we think he moves onto the podium this year. 120 is definitely not our preferred weight for Elijah to help us lock down this spot as we know those lower weights are going to be tough this year. Look for Elijah to try and fit in the best spot around 126-132 to score the points SS needs to hold down this final spot in the top 5.
I know, we did a lot of work to make this decision, but Top 5 is the big time, and we don’t want to take our predictions lightly, plus we really enjoy getting into the details which is why we are writing all this to start with :).
| Count | Weight | Wrestler Name | School | 24-25 Record | 25-26 Grade | 24-25 Placement | Points Scored |
| 1 | 113 | Eli Sanders | Smiths Station Hs | 41-1 | 11 | Champion | 28 |
| 2 | 120 | Elijah Tatum | Smiths Station Hs | 26-16 | 11 | Qualifier | 0 |
| 3 | 175 | Amari Allen | Smiths Station Hs | 31-11 | 12 | Qualifier | 1 |
| 4 | 215 | Xerxes Ellison | Smiths Station Hs | 39-4 | 12 | Second | 22 |
Knocking on the Door
- Bob Jones
- Returning Points – 35
- Graduating Points – 13
- Last year finish – Ninth
We wrote a bunch of fancy analysis above, but the truth is these two could easily be flipped. We don’t believe either of them can crack the top 3, but they could both finish anywhere from 4-12. There are that many unproven lineups full of returning qualifiers in this group. In 6A, Bob Jones and Brookwood Jr-Sr would be more comfortable picks because there were fewer teams with so many returning and unproven (haven’t scored points) qualifiers. In 7A, there are so many teams like this, that if any of them catch fire at the State tournament, they could easily overtake one, or both, of these teams. That being said, either of them could also build on their performance from last year and take the next step to becoming a top 3 power house in this division.
All that being said, let’s dig into Bob Jones path to the top 5. Kaden Clark is a stud. We said money in the bank for Eli Sanders, Kaden Clark is in the same boat. We expect him to be on top of the podium this year. Not quite as confident of a guarantee as our 1 loss proven Champion from SS, but pretty close. Among our other returners we have Zander Samargia, Fourth at 126. Looks like Zander got bigger this year, which we actually like. Moves him out of a weight that will likely be stacked and gives Bob Jones a legit chance to move even further up the podium. If those two happen to pull off the Championship double, then Bob Jones starts to threaten Hewitt-Trussville for fourth. Why? The same reason we like Smiths Station Hs, 215 is wide open and we have the Fifth place finisher Sheldon Sharp on this team. Early indicators say he stays there, and likely moves up the podium to pile on the points. Bob Jones would then need their other 2 Sophomores, Carter Lindsey and Greyson Samargia to score more than the combined 2 points they did last year. Introduce one or more new point scorers to the lineup and Bob Jones is a lock for the top 5 and could go even higher.
| Count | Weight | Wrestler Name | School | 24-25 Record | 25-26 Grade | 24-25 Placement | Points Scored |
| 1 | 126 | Zander Samargia | Bob Jones | 38-13 | 12 | Fourth | 17.5 |
| 2 | 138 | Kaden Clark | Bob Jones | 36-5 | 10 | Second | 21 |
| 3 | 144 | Carter Lindsey | Bob Jones | 25-18 | 10 | Qualifier | 0 |
| 4 | 165 | Greyson Samargia | Bob Jones | 36-21 | 10 | Qualifier | 2 |
| 5 | 215 | Sheldon Sharp | Bob Jones | 45-6 | 11 | Fifth | 15 |
- Huntsville
- Returning Points – 47
- Graduating Points – 127
- Last year finish – Third
Huntsville could have easily gone in the “Big Losses with History” category. The reason we didn’t put them there is because number one, they are returning 3 Third place finishers, Cordell Lee (126), Bo Reynolds (157) and Brandon Bethea (175). Number two, they graduated 7 qualifiers, including 2 Champions, 2 Thirds and 2 Fourths, which should mean there is some help on the way this season from the next generation of Panthers. 10 roster spots were locked up last year by proven performers, all scoring at State. This will open up this lineup to what could be future Huntsville Champions. They have also won the Duals Championship 3 of the last 4 years, and 2 in a row. While most of those Duals Championships can be attributed to the strong core of wrestlers that just graduated, it also shows a program that has depth, and the ability to reload. While we think they are a year or two away from being back toward the top of this class, if enough help were to show up this year, and a couple of their third place finishers take the next step, they could very easily crack the top 5.
| Count | Weight | Wrestler Name | School | 24-25 Record | 25-26 Grade | 24-25 Placement |
| 1 | 126 | Cordell Lee | Huntsville | 38-12 | 11 | Third |
| 2 | 157 | Bo Reynolds | Huntsville | 42-7 | 11 | Third |
| 3 | 175 | Brandon Bethea | Huntsville | 36-9 | 11 | Third |
- Enterprise HS
- Returning Points – 41
- Graduating Points – 68.5
- Last year finish – Third
Another team that could have easily gone in the “Big Losses with History” category. What saved them from that designation, two guys that scored biggish (official term) points, in Second placer Gavin Whiteside (190) and Fifth placer Karter Stiffler (120), plus a little bit of history on their side. Gavin could make a move up or down to improve his chances at getting to the top of the podium this year, and we think Karter Stiffler will make a big jump up the podium as well. They need more from the other 3 qualifiers who only scored 6 points total. They will also need some help from the wrestlers replacing their 2 Champions and Runner-up from last year. Expect Enterprise to be a solid top 10 team, and they will need to start rebuilding quickly if they are going to keep this train on the tracks over the next few years.
| Count | Weight | Wrestler Name | School | 24-25 Record | 25-26 Grade | 24-25 Placement | Points Scored |
| 1 | 106 | Bayani Galvez | Enterprise HS | 32-16 | 11 | Qualifier | 2 |
| 2 | 120 | Karter Stiffler | Enterprise HS | 56-8 | 11 | Fifth | 14.5 |
| 3 | 138 | Tytorrion Gilbert | Enterprise HS | 47-24 | 12 | Qualifier | 4 |
| 4 | 150 | Alexander Braman | Enterprise HS | 35-30 | 11 | Qualifier | 0 |
| 5 | 190 | Gavin Whiteside | Enterprise HS | 43-6 | 12 | Second | 20.5 |
Big Losses with History
We had some teams that were close to this category, but weren’t completely gutted like the teams we saw in 6A. We thought it was more appropriate to put them in the “Knocking on the Door” group. All 7A coaches can breathe a sigh of relief, no one is going back to square one from this division.
Need Help
All of these teams return 5 or more qualifiers. This group is a little different than 6A, where the teams were losing some points scorers, but also returning some. Outside of Daphne, who placed Tenth last year, and I am sure would tell you they weren’t happy with that based on the team they brought to State, the rest of these teams just flat out didn’t score. We said underachieving above, and maybe that was harsh, but knowing these teams, they have higher expectations for the future, and would not be happy with a similar performance this year. With so many qualifiers returning, all of these programs are poised to take the next step. We expect at least one breakout team from this group. The offseason work put in will likely be the deciding factor on who moves up, and who has similar results this year.
- Daphne
- Returning qualifiers – 7
- Returning placers – 2
- Returning points – 24
- Graduating points – 31
- Last year finish – 10
- Prattville
- Returning qualifiers – 7
- Returning placers – 0
- Returning points – 9
- Graduating points – 3.5
- Last year finish – 20
- Auburn
- Returning qualifiers – 6
- Returning placers – 2
- Returning points – 23
- Graduating points – 9.5
- Last year finish – 13
- Dothan HS
- Returning qualifiers – 5
- Returning placers – 0
- Returning Points – 4
- Graduating Points – 0
- Last year finish – 26