The 2026 Alabama high school football season is about to begin in the Montgomery area, and the preseason picture is already sharp: Montgomery Academy is the favorite in Single A, expected to go perfect and reach the title game. Teams are set to start playing as early as Thursday.
That is why searches for Alabama high school football scores are already starting to climb before a single game is played. The Montgomery Advertiser's preseason outlook also put Prattville's Deshawn Hall in the conversation for the ASWA Mr. Football Award after a 2025 season in which he caught 40 passes for 660 yards and five touchdowns. Hall is ranked as a top 10 recruit in Alabama's Class of 2027, which gives the award race real weight before the first kickoff.
The forecast stretches well beyond one player. Montgomery Academy's returning group includes Reid McBride, Braden Gordon, Jarrett Friendly and Ali Nelson, and the school is being treated as the team to beat after nearly missing a semifinal game last season. In a season built around expectations, that kind of narrow escape matters. It tells you how small the margin was, and how much higher the bar now sits.
Montgomery Catholic brings a different kind of pressure. It is projected to get back to a title game under Aubrey Blackwell, even as it moves through a season of change in Double A. That sits inside a larger shift in the AHSAA football season, which now carries an extra championship because public and private schools are split in postseason play. The result is more paths to a title, but also a sharper test of which teams can truly stay on top.
Carver enters the year as a top-10 Class 6A team in the preseason ASWA rankings, with Jayden Tyus expected at quarterback and a region that includes Auburn, Opelika and Central Phenix-City. Mario White's team is also forecast to compete for a region title. For Montgomery-area football, the next step is simple. The predictions end when the games begin, and the first answers can arrive Thursday.
