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This week in HS Sports: Alabama’s best football stadiums, Baby Maxi update

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This week in HS Sports: Alabama’s best football stadiums, Baby Maxi update

This is an opinion piece.

For the past 10 days, my colleagues and I have broken down our favorite places to watch high school football games in AL.com’s major markets of Mobile, Birmingham and Huntsville.

I hope you’ve had a chance to check those out. If you would like to weigh in, you can still shoot me an email at bthomas@al.com. Where is your favorite stadium to watch a high school football game in Alabama and why?

I also didn’t want to leave out some of the other great stadiums across the state that don’t fall into the previous three markets. My buddy Randy Kennedy and I were talking recently about other great venues across the state. Here are a few we like:

Enterprise

After 54 years of playing at Bates Memorial Stadium (known as The Hole), Enterprise played it last game there in 2009. Somehow the old stadium withstood a tornado that destroyed the school in 2007. Now, the Wildcats play in a beautiful stadium that features an upper deck, a rarity for a high school stadium on campus.

Benjamin Russell

This is Randy’s favorite. The Wildcats play at Martin-Savarese Stadium at the Charles E. Bailey Sportplex in Alexander City. It seats 3,500 on the home side, another 1,500 on the visiting side. Outside the stadium features a military memorial complete with tanks.

Etowah High

One of my personal favorites because it is one of, if not the, first places I ever covered a game in Alabama. Jim Glover Field is the home of the Blue Devils. I may be partial to it because I saw Patrick Nix, Freddie Kitchens, Todrick Malone and Carnell Williams, among others, play there. Needless to say, it carries a lot of history.

Some other Stadiums on the must-visit list:

Auburn High School. Duck Sanford Stadium. Home side built into the side of a mountain.

Opelika High School. Bulldog Stadium got a $2 million renovation before this season.

Oxford High School. Lamar Field. The Yellow Jackets’ stadium is full of history as well and recently underwent a massive renovation that added a 90-seat, theater style meeting room, new lockerrooms and a new state-of-the-art weight room.

Fort Payne. Wildcat Stadium is nestled in the mountains of north Alabama. If you want to see long field goals, this is probably the place to go. Not to mention former coach Jerry Elmore gave me one of the most memorable quotes in my career. After Gadsden High coach Vince DiLorenzo said Elmore’s Fort Payne team was really fast, Elmore quipped, “He must have his film projector on the wrong speed.”

Piedmont. Any place named the “Field of Champions” has to be great. Artificial grass. The field is right next to the school and all the other athletic fields. Not to mention, the Hayes boys played there.

There are plenty of other great places obviously.

Here’s my suggestion: Go see some high school football! Also, I would love to know who has the best stadium food. If you have a nominee, email me at bthomas@al.com and tell me the stadium and the specialty and any other information about it.

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