AHS to sport black helmets this fall

It’s going to be Flashback Fridays for Andalusia this season as the Bulldogs will be sporting black helmets to pay tribute to their early 1970s and mid-to-late 1980s teams.

Every Bulldog will be wearing a black helmet with their number, a bulldog sticker and a stripe down the middle, extending from the top of the front visor to the back.

AHS head football coach Brian Seymore said the inspiration to wear the flash backs came during the off season.

“We looked at the Hall of Fame pictures and looked at their helmets,” Seymore said. “That was the time when we had those really good teams.”

Seymore was talking about the Bulldogs who played from 1973-1986. During that stretch, AHS won back-to-back state championships in 1976-77 and went on to win 58 straight regular season games.

Bulldogs offensive coordinator Randy Bryant, who has been the lead researcher on the use of the black helmets, said that fans will be seeing something “new” this year.

“Fans will be seeing something different about us this year,” Bryant said. “We wanted to celebrate our past as we look ahead to returning to a high level of competition here at Andalusia High School.”

The last time the Bulldogs won a state championship was in 1977.

More recently, it’s been five straight seasons that Andalusia hasn’t made it past the first round of the state playoffs.

Seymore said the black helmets will also serve as an inspiration.

“Maybe it will get us over the hump in the playoffs a little bit,” he said. “We we thought it would.”

Seymore said the players are excited about them because it’s something “different” they are wearing. Additionally, the Bulldogs will be wearing all black to select home games.

“They like the black,” the coach said. “For coaches sometimes it’s not a big deal. For players, it’s the new wave. It’s what’s going on. It’s the latest fad so we wanted to change it up a little bit and try to be a little different. This will maybe get some their good luck rubbed off on us.”