2022 All-Elmore County Football Team

By DALTON MIDDLETON Sports Editor

The 2022 football season came to an end in November for Elmore County schools, but it was a successful season for the six teams in county. Five of the six teams reached the playoffs, and two of the five reached the second round.

While teams had collective success, individual players from across the county also found plenty of success on the field. The 2022 All-Elmore County team is headlined this season by our three players of the year, Offensive Player of the Year Payton Stephenson, Defensive Player of the Year Justin Crumbaugh, and Two-Way Player of the Year Gabe LeMaster.

First-year head coach Kyle Caldwell of Elmore County has been named the Coach of the Year. Here is the 2022 All-Elmore County Football Team.

QB: PAYTON STEPHENSON, ELMORE COUNTY SENIOR Stephenson capped off his third year starting for Elmore County with a stellar senior season. The 2022 Elmore County Offensive Player of the Year completed 129 of 221 passes for 1,890 yards and 22 touchdowns. He added 704 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns on the ground.

RB: SHAWN BRACKETT, HOLTVILLE SENIOR Despite battling an injury for much of the season, Holtville’s star running back carried the ball 142 times for 869 yards and 14

1-2 area record. During that stretch, Caldwell saw the frustrations.

County. When he took over, the football roster was depleted and was one of the lowest of any school across Class 5A.

So he set out to meet with every single boy in the school. And he wanted to be honest with them and tell them that it wasn’t about him and it wasn’t about the player. It was about representing the school and what each player can do to help their school while they are there.

He then met with players from last year’s team to see what they liked and didn’t like. He then met with coaches about what worked and didn’t work. From there, he and the coaches put together a game plan.

“You have to have a good plan to start,” Caldwell said. “Once you put that together, you have to work on the 1% goal. You want to get 1% better every day. You have to have trust in your plan and be honest with your kids about your plan for them and for the scheme and teammates. It all goes together.”

It didn’t take long for Caldwell’s group to learn how to win, as they started the season 3-0 with an area win over Sylacauga. But the toughest thing Caldwell dealt with was keeping his team up during losses.

The Panthers ended up losing three of their next four games and were entering their final area game with a

“You could definitely see where frustrations, especially early in the season, took over at points,” Caldwell said. “When bad things happened, some of the younger kids would start to hang their heads like ‘Oh yeah, here we go again.’ But we were able to respond and tell them ‘No, that’s not the way it goes. We aren’t looking back.’ And we responded, and we kept looking towards the next play.

But following a 17-13 win over Valley, Elmore County clinched a playoff berth for the first time since 2011 and the Panthers had a chance to finish the season on a high note. They won their last three games of the regular season and traveled to face No. 1 seed Demopolis in the playoffs.

It didn’t end the way the Panthers wanted in the first round, but they fought and played Demopolis closer than nearly any other team on their schedule.

“You could really see the kids start to believe in themselves around the middle of the season,” Caldwell said. “They trusted us coaches, but you could see them start to believe in themselves and their teammates. They started to work harder, and they saw what we could be. You take three or four plays from Beauregard or Tallassee losses, and we’re sitting there with an eight or nine win season. Even in the playoff game against Demopolis, we were only a few plays away.” touchdowns. He was also one of the team’s top receivers with 28 catches for 344 yards and one touchdown.

RB: CJ WILKES, ELMORE COUNTY JUNIOR Wilkes finished his junior campaign as the county’s leading rusher. He carried the ball a team-high 178 times for 1,303 yards and eight touchdowns, good for 7.3 yards per carry. He added 125 receiving yards to cap off an excellent offensive season.

WR: JACKSON THOMAS, STANHOPE ELMORE SENIOR Thomas, a Troy football commit, was Stanhope Elmore’s do-it-all offensive weapon this season. The star receiver recorded 73 catches for 734 yards and six touchdowns, and he added 39 rushes for 233 yards and seven touchdowns, mostly out of the wildcat formation.

WR: JABARI MURPHY, ELMORE COUNTY JUNIOR Murphy had his best season yet as a Panther and was nearly unstoppable in all facets of the offense. He recorded 55 catches for 793 yards for a county-high 10 touchdowns. He added 79 rushing yards and another touchdown to help the run game.

TE: COLTON WALLS, STANHOPE ELMORE SENIOR Walls, who is a Troy football and baseball commit, showed off his skills as a tight end, long snapper, and back-up quarterback this season. He recorded 18 catches for 228 yards and five touchdowns, season, and he passed for multiple touchdowns in seven games. He had only one game this season without a passing touchdown.

He was as efficient with the football as ever, as he completed over 65% of his passes in a game six separate times, and he was held under 50% only twice. He ended the season with eight interceptions, but five of them came in two games.

He played six games in which he did not commit a turnover.

“Coach Caldwell brought in a lot of RPO reads into the offense that spread the ball out to everyone,” Stephenson said. “It’s easier to make reads when you have receivers who will play for you and an offensive line that will protect you. It was a lot of the scheme, but it’s also a lot to him trusting in me to do what I do and spread the ball out. It gave us the ability to win games. He helped me with reads and helped me understand it’s not always taking the long ball. It’s okay to take

Crumbaugh

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“If you can count, you can play. I was coached by a great coordinator, and he made that simple comment to me. What does it mean? It means simplify the understanding of the game. What nine carries for 63 yards, and 197 passing yards and one passing touchdown.

OL: AUSTIN GRAY, TALLASSEE SENIOR Gray proved to be one of the county’s most consistent offensive lineman this year. The senior center graded out at 83% this season and graded above 80% in eight of 10 games he played in this year.

OL: WES REEVES, EDGEWOOD ACADEMY SENIOR Reeves served as the Wildcats’ most consistent offensive lineman this season. Playing at right guard, Reeves graded out at 84%. He also recorded 80 tackles and five tackles for loss on defense.

OL: ETHAN ALSTON, HOLTVILLE SENIOR Alston was arguably the county’s best offensive lineman this season. The star senior graded out at 89% for the entire season while he also tallied 61 pancake blocks and allowed only three sacks over the course of 11 games.

OL: JACOBIE JENKINS, WETUMPKA SENIOR Jenkins lands on this list for the second consecutive year. He had another stellar season blocking for the Indians, and he wraps up his career by helping lead a Wetumpka offense to nearly 200 rushing yards per game.

OL: JONATHAN THAMES, ELMORE COUNTY JUNIOR Thames was excellent this season for the Panthers as a tackle, and he helped Elmore County to See TEAM, Page B3 seven or eight yards on a pass completion and that helped me.”

While he passed for career highs, it didn’t stop Stephenson from making teams pay with his legs.

Stephenson rushed for over 50 yards in eight games this year, and he eclipsed the 100-yard mark twice. He scored a rushing touchdown in eight separate games this year, and he did his most work in a rivalry game against Holtville.

He carried the ball eight times for 71 yards and five touchdowns in the matchup. Stephenson still had his least amount of carries (98) in his career this season, but he recorded his most rushing touchdowns and highest yards per carry in his three years as a starter.

“Being able to sit in the pocket and make throws and just trust my receivers to catch the ball really helped me run the ball,” Stephenson said. “When I had my number called, I was able to do what I do. Some teams would put a linebacker on to spy me, but when they would start to, I was able to pick apart defenses through the air. You had to pick your poison.”

Justin was already good at was being intuitive. He knew where the ball was going to be. Then to be able to line up pre-snap and be able to read the offense and see the big picture helped his game. That’s what I was able to bring to the table for him.”

The defense that Crum- baugh headlined is the defense that Woods brought in from the professional level, and it was the defense that Woods excelled in.

Woods knew exactly what it took to be successful at the exact position that Crumbaugh is playing, so he was able to help him be successful at that position. The most important aspect of the position is tackling, and both Woods and Crumbaugh have taken pride in the fact that they don’t miss many tackles.

But they can always improve, so Woods brought in tackling drills and specific practice techniques that he learned at the professional level to his team and Crumbaugh.

Crumbaugh found it very successful, and that was evident as he recorded 19% of the team’s total tackles this season.

“I was able to bring in some drills that got the entire team better at tackling,” “Tackling is a mindset, and Justin already had that. But I was able to bring in specific drills that helped me in that position and that helped Justin. What makes a good coach is good players, and Justin was already a good player when I got here.”