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High School Football Alabama The Magazine 2024
The Taste of Victory
The Classics
The colors are different. The mascots change. The geographical location is never the same. However, if we asked you to tell us about your school’s Friday night atmosphere, there would be staples holding each scene together that would be virtually the same across the state. And they would almost certainly all revolve around food.
The scent of freshly popped popcorn. Smoke from the grill drifting into the air as hotdogs and hamburgers are wrapped tightly in aluminum foil by parents and booster club members sharing expectations of the coming game. Funnel cakes that make their presence known by their aroma long before we have laid eyes on them.
These are the classic sights, sounds and smells wafting through the stadiums of Alabama on Friday nights, making their way down through generations of high school football fans attending prep football games.
The Convenience
“We’ll just get something at the game.” That’s a phrase that’s probably been uttered by millions of sports fans worldwide. However, getting dinner at the game hasn’t always been an option in high school football. “When I was a kid, no one gave a second thought to a concession stand. Maybe to get something to drink, or a snack,” recalls Jon Holder, host of High School Football Alabama’s After the Game broadcast. Jon, the son of a high school football coach, has watched the concession stands across the state transform from places where simple snacks could be found to places that now give local eateries a run for their money. “Now, at most schools, you can get a full meal on a Friday night,” according to Jon. “They are like restaurants, and really good restaurants, too!”
No doubt, today’s concession stands boast much more than popcorn and canned soda. On any given Friday night, fans can find entrees, sides, and desserts after they walk through the gates of the stadium, making it easy to say “yes” to attending a game after a long day of work. As for the cost, it may be a little more than making your own sandwich at home, but there’s something about knowing money spent is going to support the programs that support community kids that makes the purchase a little easier to…swallow.
The Competition
Maybe you’ve noticed that, as the concession stand wares have increased, so has the competition to be the “best.” Is the best hotdog the Valley Dog in Alexandria? Has anyone ever had a better steak sandwich than the Ribeye Steak Sandwich in Spring Garden? When you’re looking for the best burger, is it the Falcon Burger at The Donoho School or the Sting Burger at Oxford? We don’t have the answer to those questions, but we know that there are plenty of people who do. All you have to do is ask them.
“It (the valley dog) has been around since my husband and I were kids in the 80s,” remembers Michelle Prickett, 1993 Alexandria graduate and long-time supporter. Michelle and her husband, Lance, are raising their family’s 4th generation of Valley Cubs and worked several years in the home-side concession stand on Friday nights, which supports athletics. Michelle is quick to point out, however, that the visitor’s concession stand isn’t lacking one bit at Lou Scales Stadium. “Not only do we have a concession stand on top of the hill on our home side, but we have a special concession stand at our stadium on the visitor’s side and it is run by our amazing Sound of the Valley marching band leaders and parents,” says Michelle. “It has a history of serving wonderful foods and even homemade lemonade.”
The Friday night contests go well beyond the gridiron. High School Football Alabama’s “After the Game” makes sure of it. Once again, this season, Johnson’s Giant Food is providing $100 every week of the regular season to a concession stand with “the best” food. These schools are featured weekly on “After the Game” and as special segments on our social media pages. At the end of the season, we award the Johnson’s Giant Food Concession Stand of the Year a plaque from Awards to Remember. These will be proudly displayed as long as there are concessions, which we are certain will last as long as the game itself endures.
In 2023, the concession stand item claiming the Johnson’s Giant Food championship title was the Ribeye Steak Sandwich from Spring Garden High School. A hometown favorite, the sandwiches are sometimes even purchased by Panther fans who are on their way home from work and may or may not actually be attending the game but will still swing by the concession stand for the sandwiches before heading home.
The concession stand at Spring Garden is operated by the Tip-Off Club. Club President, Marcus Woods, accepted the Johnson’s Giant Food Concession Stand of the Year plaque on behalf of the school and says the secret isn’t just found in the ingredients that go into the sandwich itself. According to Woods, the night before every game, four people make sure all the steaks are properly marinated and two more cook the steaks on gameday. The club typically cooks about 150 steak sandwiches on a football Friday and those are usually sold out by halftime.
If you’ve priced steaks lately, you may be wondering how much a ribeye steak sandwich from Spring Garden High School might set you back. The answer is $8.00, and if you think anyone is deterred by that price, you’d be wrong. Woods recalls a time when a fan from a visiting school made the trek over to the home side concession stand and walked away with three of the signature sandwiches. “He was walking away from the concession stand,” recalls Woods, “when he passed one of his friends who asked about the price of the sandwiches. The guy told him the price and his friend said, ‘That’s kind of expensive for a sandwich,’ The guy with the three sandwiches in his hands said, ‘Wait ‘til you try it. I’ve already had one and I had to go back and get more money from my wife for these three,’” Woods recalls with a chuckle. “Once you taste it, you’ll understand why they’re $8.00.” Woods remembers a playoff game hosted by Spring Garden in which several visitors came over to the concession stand. “They said they didn’t know anything about our football team,” says Woods, “but they said they had been told not to eat anything before the game so they could have a ribeye steak sandwich.”
As we approach the 2024 season of high school football, some things are inevitable. Some teams will experience a host of exciting wins while others endure difficult seasons of growth. Unfortunately, you may not be able to do much about whether your favorite team experiences success this season. The good news is, if you find yourself at one of our award-winning concession stands, whether you taste victory will be up to you. ►
