Blanchard and Williams Rack Up Honors

Here is an excerpt from the Gadsdentimes.com naming JSU signee Coty Blanchard Area Offensive Player of the year and JSU signee Chase Williams Area Defensive Player of the Year. How bout that!

During the past two years, Coty Blanchard has won a lot. The Cherokee County quarterback amassed a 29-1 record during his final two seasons with the Warriors, including a perfect 15-0 mark and Class 4A state title in 2009.




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By throwing for 2,915 yards and 35 touchdowns and rushing for another 1,161 yards and 20 scores, Blanchard racked up the individual honors as well. Among those honors were the 4A championship game MVP, 4A first-team all-state, the 4A Back of the Year and, most recently, the state’s Mr. Football Award.

Blanchard’s most recent accomplishment came today in the form of The Gadsden Times’ All-Area Offensive Player of the Year award. Blanchard led a standout group on the All-Area squad that includes Boaz linebacker Chase Williams, the Defensive Player of the Year; Piedmont’s Chase Childers, the Most Valuable Player; and Piedmont coach Steve Smith, the All-Area Coach of the Year.

“Coty is never scared to win,” Cherokee County coach Tripp Curry said. “I think when you go into a state championship or a semifinal game some people think, ‘Man, can we really win this thing?’ He’s never scared. He’s cool, calm and collected in every situation.

“I think he needs to play Texas Hold ’em. I think he’d make more money playing Texas Hold ’em than he ever would in sports.”

Blanchard will continue playing football at Jacksonville State after signing to play for the Gamecocks earlier this month.

Joining Blanchard next season at Jacksonville State will be Williams, who racked up 128 tackles this season for Boaz in nine games, an average of more than 14 per contest. He also tallied nine sacks.

Boaz coach Drew Noles called Williams the best linebacker he’s coached in his 10 years with the Pirates. Williams’ biggest game this season came when Boaz knocked off Fort Payne in a 5A, Area 13 contest. Williams totaled 22 tackles in the win.

In capturing the 3A state title, Piedmont had a number of representatives on the All-Area team, including MVP Chase Childers and Coach of the Year Steve Smith.

Childers’ leadership helped propel the Bulldogs the state championship with a 35-28 victory over Cordova.Williams was the MVP of that game, rushing for more than 100 yards and tossing a pair of touchdown passes. For the season, he surpassed 1,000 yards both rushing and passing and chipped in on the defensive side of the ball in the Piedmont secondary.

In his fourth season with Piedmont, Smith led the Bulldogs to the first state title in school history. Smith inherited a Piedmont program in 2006 that had not reached the state playoffs in the previous six seasons and had just one playoff appearance in the previous 11 years.

The Bulldogs won seven games in Smith’s first year before posting 10 wins in both 2007 and 2008.

His squad went 13-2 in 2009. The only losses were to 4A state champion Cherokee County and Leeds. The Bulldogs got a measure of revenge against Leeds, though, knocking off the Green Wave in the state semifinals to earn the trip to the state title game.