By David Sher
I have to admit I don’t know much about high school football.
But I have grandchildren who attend or previously attended Vestavia Hills High School, so I pay some attention to the Rebels.
On September 4th, Vestavia Hills was ranked No. 2 in Class 6A.
Thompson was No. 1.
Thompson beat Vestavia 49–0.
Forty-nine to nothing.
How’s that even possible?
That score got my attention.
So I started digging into Thompson football.
What I found was even more interesting than the score.
That 49–0 Score Wasn’t a Fluke
Thompson has played five games this season.
It has won all five.
The Warriors have scored 237 points. Their opponents have scored only 48.
Consider Spain Park.
Spain Park won its first three games and scored 94 points in the process.
Then it played Thompson.
Thompson won 48–14.
In its most recent game, Thompson beat Tuscaloosa County 62–7.
Meanwhile, Vestavia bounced back from its loss to Thompson and beat Spain Park 30–7.
So maybe that 49–0 score told me less about Vestavia than it did about Thompson.
From 0–10 to a Football Powerhouse
Before Mark Freeman became Thompson’s head coach in 2015, the Warriors had just finished an 0–10 season.
They didn’t win a single game.
Under Freeman, Thompson has won six state championships in seven seasons—four straight from 2019 through 2022, then again in 2024 and 2025.
That’s quite a transformation.
So how did a public high school in Alabaster go from 0–10 to one of the best football programs in Alabama?
There are some fairly obvious answers.
Freeman is an extraordinarily successful coach.
Alabaster has invested heavily in its schools and athletic facilities.
The community has a strong youth football program that feeds into the high school.
Success builds enthusiasm. It attracts families and gets kids interested in playing football.
All of that made sense to me.
Then I learned something I hadn’t realized about high school football today.
Some Players Began Somewhere Else
At least two of Thompson’s current standouts began their high school football careers at other schools.
CJ Cowley played at Spain Park and then Hoover before coming to Thompson.
Mason McClure played at Spain Park last year before transferring to Thompson.
When Thompson beat Spain Park 48–14 this season, McClure played a major role, catching two touchdown passes against his former team.
That surprised me.
My first reaction was probably the same one many people would have:
Can they do that?
And then:
Is Thompson recruiting these kids?
That’s when I learned that recruiting and transferring are two very different things.
Recruiting Is Against the Rules
The Alabama High School Athletic Association prohibits schools and coaches from recruiting athletes from other schools.
And apparently it takes that rule seriously.
Other Alabama football programs have been penalized for recruiting violations this year.
I could find no such finding against Thompson.
Students, however, can change schools, but AHSAA transfer and residency rules determine when they are eligible to compete.
That distinction is important.
A coach can’t simply go find a great football player at another school and persuade him to come play for his team.
But a family can decide that another community or school offers better opportunities for its child.
Success Attracts Talent
Suppose you had a son who was an exceptional football player.
He dreamed of playing college football.
You knew Thompson had won six state championships in seven seasons.
You knew it had excellent coaching, impressive facilities and a reputation that gets attention far beyond Alabaster.
Would that influence where your family wanted him to go to school?
I suspect it might.
And if families are making those decisions on their own and following the rules, there doesn’t seem to be anything improper about it.
Success attracts people.
We see that in business, universities and communities all the time.
Why wouldn’t it happen in high school football?
This Isn’t the Football I Remember
I graduated from Shades Valley High School in 1961.
That was 65 years ago.
My memory of high school football is pretty simple.
Kids went to their neighborhood high school and played for their school against kids from another community.
I’m sure it was never quite that simple, even then.
But I certainly don’t remember thinking about families changing schools because one high school had become a football powerhouse.
Maybe I’ve simply been out of touch.
But what I’ve learned about Thompson makes today’s elite high school football sound a little more like college football than the high school game I remember.
Successful programs attract attention.
Great players want to play with other great players.
Families look for the best opportunities.
And success can produce even more success.
None of this takes anything away from what Thompson and Alabaster have accomplished.
Quite the opposite.
Going from 0–10 to six state championships in seven seasons is extraordinary.
But I started looking into all of this because I couldn’t understand how Thompson could beat a good Vestavia team 49–0.
Now I understand a little more.
I’m still no expert on high school football.
But I do know one thing.
This sure isn’t the high school football I remember from 1961.
David Sher is the founder and publisher of ComebackTown. He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).
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