After losing a trio of hard-fought contests in 2018, Catholic coach Aubrey Blackwell went back to the chalkboard to tweak his offense a little in hopes of making it more competitive against good competition in 2019.

What he came up with was a design that could feature quarterback Christian Ivey’s running ability a little more in 2019.

“We put in an offense that built on his strengths,” Blackwell said. “We spent all winter, all the way through the beginning of spring, meeting with schools to find out how we can put him in the best situation to be successful and it paid off for us. To go 12-0 with our schedule, there was something to be said about it.”

The changes paid off as Catholic played the most successful season in school history, reeling off 12 consecutive victories before losing to eventual 4A state champion UMS-Wright in the quarterfinals. And if all started with Ivey, a 6-foot, 170-pound multipurpose senior who mixed in a variety of passes with an option attack that included tailback Darrell Gibson.

As a rusher, Ivey gained 683 yards and 13 touchdowns on 96 carries, an average of 7.1 yards per carry. As a passer, the senior completed 86 of 167 passes for 1,453 yards and 13 touchdowns while being intercepted nine times. In addition to his leadership role as a team captain on a 12-1 team, he was 20-5 in two years as a starting quarterback, easily the best two-year stretch of any quarterback in school history.

His performance earned him Capital City Conference player of the year honors in voting by all the CCC coaches.

“It was definitely a better transition than the one we put him in last year,” Blackwell said. “He definitely benefitted from the change. I think the biggest thing was using his speed more and making him more a part of the run game. Last year, we were an RPO (run-pass option) team, a lot of mid-range to deep ball passing that required him to be a down-the-field progression passer and that isn’t what he did well.”

Ivey will continue to sort through football scholarship offers as national signing day approaches in early February, but is already committed to play college baseball at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville. He earned player of the year honors by edging out Montgomery Academy’s William Robertson and six other players in a successful year for CCC football teams.

The voting wasn’t as spread out for coach of the year, where Blackwell became the school’s all-time winningest coach this year in just his fifth season at Catholic. He has 20 wins in two years, 30 in three and is 42-16 in five years, setting the standard for the Knights at each benchmark.

“The first thing that I’m most humble about is the kind of men that I have working for us as coaches,” Blackwell said. “Any time that you’re recognized as coach of the year, it’s not just one person, it’s a group of men and I’ve got excellent men that helped our guys and loved our guys and worked their tails off for them every day.

“The next thing is our seniors. We had an unbelievable senior class that led and were adamant about winning, starting in January. We played some really close games and lost close games last year and for them to come back out and do this perfectly? And overcome a lot of injuries. A lot of guys had to contribute in a lot of ways and contribute highly and that’s something to be proud of.”

All Capital City Conference Football Team

Offense

QB – Christian Ivey, Sr., Catholic

RB – Corey Landers, Fr., ACA

RB – Darrell Gibson, Sr., Catholic

RB – Austin Gavin, Sr., Saint James

WR – DJ Carter, Jr., Catholic

WR – William Robertson, Sr., Montgomery Academy

WR – Jake Hufham, Jr., Trinity

WR – Myles Butler, Jr., Catholic

OL – Matt Prater, Sr., Saint James

OL – Chase Little, Sr., Catholic

OL – Will Wright, Jr., ACA

OL – Will Chandler, Jr., Trinity

OL – Thomas Kirkham, Jr., Montgomery Academy

TE – Michael Shalayda, Sr., Saint James

ATH – Jalen Clark, Jr., ACA

PK – Luke Adams, Sr., Trinity

Defense

DL – Bradley Woodham, Jr., Saint James

DL – Watkins Johnston, Sr., Trinity

DL – Marcus Dees, Jr., Catholic

DL – Khalil Jackson, Jr., ACA

DL – MacLeod Parker, Sr., Montgomery Academy

DL – CJ Owens, Sr., Catholic

LB – Alex Whisenhunt, Sr., Saint James

LB – T.J. Dudley, So., Catholic

LB – Jack Burt, Sr., Catholic

LB – Miller McCarthy, Jr., ACA

LB – Mays McMillan, Sr., Trinity

LB – Hilsman James, Sr., Montgomery Academy

DB – Brock Woodham, Sr., Saint James

DB – Thomas Ladner, Sr., Trinity

DB – James Davis, Sr., Trinity

DB – Nathan Downes, Sr., Catholic

DB – Turner Davis, Sr., Saint James

P – Michael Russo, Sr., Catholic

Player of the Year – Christian Ivey, Catholic

Coach of the Year – Aubrey Blackwell, Catholic

HONORABLE MENTION: Jack Anzalone, LB, Sr., Montgomery Academy; Barr Armistead, DL, So., Saint James; Bennett Blankenship, OLB, Sr., Saint James; Morris Carmichael, TE, Sr., Catholic; Wilson Carter, P, Sr., Saint James; Walton Cherry, LB, Jr., Trinity; Jamal Cooper, ATH, So., Montgomery Academy; Bryan Farrington, DL, Sr., ACA; Drew Fett, QB, Sr., Saint James; Kylon Griffin, DB, So., Catholic; Cam Holmes, DL, Sr., Montgomery Academy; Hayes Hunt, P, Fr., ACA; Britton Kohn, QB, Jr., Montgomery Academy; Mac Main, DB, Sr., Montgomery Academy; Lawson Pemberton, DB, Sr., Montgomery Academy; Preston Perry, DL, Sr., ACA; Griffin Sanders, LB-SS, Sr., Trinity; Brooks Seale, DB, Sr., Montgomery Academy; James Snead, OT, Jr., Montgomery Academy; Jack Thomas, LB, So., ACA; Jan Wachowitz, PK, Sr., Saint James; JaMichael Washington, OT, Sr., Catholic; Orlando Whatley, RB, Sr., Catholic; Jon Clarke Woodward, TB-WR, Sr., Montgomery Academy; Sam Worthington, OT, Jr., Trinity.