By Peter DeRogatis
Precision Sports Entertainment
A crowd of several thousand people braved Monday night's chilly air to line downtown streets for a parade in honor of Prattville High School's state-champion football team.
The flock of well-wishers in-cluded about 2,000 who filed into Stanley-Jensen Stadium for the official community celebration of the team's second straight Class 6A state title and unde-feated season.
Wrapped in jackets, sweat-ers, scarves and other cold-weather gear, the raucous rev-elers gathered in two sections of the stadium's bleachers or huddled together along the fenced area in an effort to keep warm as evening temperatures dipped below 40 degrees.
Band boosters manned the stadium concession stand and did a brisk business, especially in coffee and hot chocolate, and the Prattville High band added to the festive atmosphere with a rousing rendition of the school fight song.
One by one,area dignitaries -- including State Sen. Wendell Mitchell, State Rep. MacGipson and Prattville Mayor Jim Byard Jr. -- heaped praise on the team and its coaches, particularly head coach and athletic director Bill Clark.
And while the night was, tech-nically speaking, a night for the team to shine, Clark said the praise should include the entire community.
"It's awesome," said Clark, who received a standing ovation as he stepped to the microphone. "Everything we do is about our community. It's a partnership between them, our players and our student body. I feel like we play for our community, and they take care of us and support us. This is a great night, espe-cially when you talk about a month later (after the season ended), and you still have this many people come out."
Accolades weren't the only thing the team and its coaches received. Tony Greene from MaxPreps, the online leader in high school sports, praised the team, then Captain Chris Butler of the Alaba-ma Army National Guard pres-ented the MaxPreps Tour of Champions trophy to head coach Bill Clark.
"Teamwork is the essential building block of any great mili-tary unit," Butler said."It also happens to be the main ingredi-ent in building an incredible championship football program. That is exactly what Coach Clark and his staff have done here in Prattville."
The MaxPreps representa-tive announced that, along with the team's first-place finish in state Class 6A competition, MaxPreps also ranked Prattville High as the eighth-best team in the country.
