This season was one of many ups and downs for the Andalusia Bulldogs, and they have no reason to hang their heads after having their season end for the third-straight year in the Class 4A semifinals.

Many, including myself, weren’t sure what the Bulldogs would be able to do this year after graduating so many key players, including three Division 1 athletes.

After the first week of the season, many people saw the Bulldogs go down big to Saraland and thought that there was no chance this team makes the playoffs this year.

It wasn’t the prettiest game by any means, but a lot of those people didn’t realize how good that Saraland really was.

Saraland will play Pinson Valley on Dec. 7 for the Class 6A state championship.

It took a few more weeks, but once the Bulldogs got rolling they looked like a completely different team.

The leadership on this team was amazing and they never counted themselves out. Even at the end of the year when they were uncertain that they would even make the playoffs.

It was incredible to watch this team grow as the season progressed. It seemed like with each week they grew more confident.

This was a fun year to watch and the Bulldogs have nothing to hang their heads about. You guys were amazing this year.

Andalusia finished the year 9-5, but three of those losses came to two teams that will be playing for a state championship this week (UMS-Wright and Saraland).

One loss came to the defending 3A state champions (Hillcrest-Evergreen) who the Bulldogs turned around to beat in the Class 4A quarterfinals.

The other loss came to Escambia County who finished 6-4 and narrowly missed the playoffs.

Escambia County was the only Class 4A team in the state with a winning record that didn’t get into the playoffs.

It really shows not only how much this team grew from week one to the semifinals, but it also shows how incredibly tough it is to win in Class 4A, Region 1.

It’s not hard to look at other regions and see the stark contrast in their teams’ records.

Region 2, for example, had two teams reach the playoffs even though they had losing records. Trinity finished the regular season 4-6 and clinched the third seed.

Alabama Christian finished the regular season 3-7 and earned the fourth spot in Region 2.

By comparison, Region 1’s Escambia County finished the year 6-4 and didn’t make the playoffs.