BIRMINGHAM — With the exception of the last three Super 7s, Saraland usually makes good teams look bad and bad teams look forward to next year.
But now it’s the Spartans who must again look ahead. Does Friday night’s 38-21 loss to Clay-Chalkville in the Class 6A state championship game make them a bad team? Of course not. But a third straight loss in the Super 7 — the only times in the last three years Saraland has gone down to defeat — will bring about a lot of self-reflection.
“Every year, you go back to the drawing board and try to find a way to be the best you can be and we’ll do the same thing next year,” said Spartans coach Jeff Kelly, who nonetheless has to be weary of being given Red Maps in the postgame ceremony and walking them back to his disappointed players. He even had to take a Red Map on a somber and rainy Uber trip back to his hotel after he was left with no ride and K.J. Lacey was left with nowhere else to go at the goal line on the last play of the classic 31-28 loss to Clay-Chalkville in the 2023 finals…