By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director

CENTRE – New Cherokee County High School head football coach Bayley Blanchard knew there was a storm coming last weekend, and he wanted to be prepared.

No, we’re not talking about the winter weather. We’re talking about the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s reclassification announcement on Friday morning.

For the first time in its history, the AHSAA announced the split of public and private schools in separate divisions, dropping publics from seven to six classes and privates into an upper and lower division.

Once the new classes and regions were announced, high school football coaches around the state were making calls on their cell phones trying to get their 2026 football schedules finalized.

Blanchard was no different. He was calling other coaches and feverishly fielding their calls.

“I got a new phone the day before,” Blanchard said. “I had an old phone. I don’t ever get a new one unless I just absolutely have to but thank goodness I got a new phone, or it would’ve been dead about four times (on Friday).”

Not only was Blanchard busy trying to get the Warriors’ non-region opponents aligned, he was also coordinating with the 4A, Region 8 football coaches’ meeting to finalize those scheduling details.

“I was like ‘Oh my gosh. I’ve never had to do this before,’” Blanchard said. “I had all of the region coaches call me and ask when we wanted to meet. I called Guntersville’s coach (Lance Reese) and said ‘Hey man, I need a little help. I’ve never done this.’ He talked to (CCHS Principal) Mr. (Bobby) Tittle and they helped me out. We ended up meeting at a neutral location in Guntersville. That’s kind of the middle ground for everybody, and we got it all done pretty quickly.”

The Warriors’ new region consists of Brewer, Crossville, Fairview, Good Hope, Guntersville, Hayden, and Sardis.

If you’re a Warrior fan and travel with the team on the road, be prepared to make some playoff-like treks. Road games this fall at Hayden and at Fairview are around 1 ½ hours, while Brewer will take around an hour and 45 minutes.

“Cherokee County has a good fan base, and I think our fans will travel wherever we go,” Blanchard said. “I know it will be tough and I know there will be a lot of miles put on cars, but ultimately I feel like we’ll have a good crowd wherever we go. We have one of the best places with fan support.”

Blanchard said he was surprised with the Warriors’ placement when it was announced on Friday morning. He said he was watching the live stream announcement in the gym with several of his assistant coaches.

“When they started going through the regions, we noticed Piedmont had dropped to 2A. We all kind of thought we had a possibility of being 3A if they had dropped,” he said. “Once the 3A bracket came out and we weren’t in that, we kind of figured we would be in 4A, Region 6. When we didn’t see our name in that one, we were like ‘Where are we going to be?’ We ended up in 4A, Region 8. It’s still a tough region. I think 4A is going to be pretty tough regardless. It was pretty surprising, but we’re also pretty excited to play some new faces. I’m not real familiar with a lot of the teams we’re playing, but I’m excited to watch film and study up on them.”

Once the Warriors’ seven region opponents were announced, Blanchard’s attention began to turn to the Warriors’ three non-region opponents for the 2026-27 seasons.

His new cell phone definitely got a workout on Friday, he said.

“We were trying to get the region meeting set up and get that taken care of, and then you have people calling you for non-region games,” Blanchard said. “We had a lot of teams calling us wanting to play. We had a lot of big schools. We had Fort Payne, Boaz, Alexandria, Clay Central, a lot of teams like that called us. It was tough to settle on three.”

After getting input from his assistant coaches, Blanchard and the Warrior staff settled on their three non-region opponents: Haralson County (Ga.), Piedmont, and Jacksonville.

“We thought it would be really cool to do an out-of-state game (at Haralson County on Aug. 21),” Blanchard said. “We’ve got a few coaches on the staff who are retired from Georgia.

“Piedmont (on Aug. 28) is always a big one for the communities, the Highway 9 battle, so we obviously wanted to play that one. There are a lot of ties in that game.

“The last one we ended up scheduling was Jacksonville (on Sept. 25). We wanted to get a team from another 4A region we thought would be a really tough opponent, a really good game, a really good gate for both teams. Taylor Hayes (Blanchard’s former teammate at Piedmont) is over at Jacksonville, so it’ll be really cool to get to coach against him. Coach Sully (Jeremy Sullivan) is a great guy over there, so we ultimately settled on that game.”

The goal with the Warriors’ non-region opponents, Blanchard said, is to get the Warriors ready for the playoffs. The 2026 high school state playoffs will begin on Nov. 6.

“I think we ended up with three pretty good (non-region) games, pretty good teams who will get us ready for the playoffs,” Blanchard said.

The Warriors’ lone open date this season is Oct. 30, the week before the state playoffs begin. Once again, Blanchard said he got input from the coaches on his staff as to the date they should take it.

“They said they like having Week 10 off to get ready for the playoffs, and Cherokee County has been in that conversation for a long time now,” Blanchard said. “That was kind of one I really asked all the coaches what they thought about it and that was kind of what we settled on.”

With their 2026 schedule now in place, Blanchard said it’s time for the Warriors to continue working toward next season.

“I think all the kids are very excited getting to know who we’re getting to play,” he said. “I don’t think it mattered what region we were in, if we were in 3A or 4A or 5A, Region 6 or Region 8. They just want to play football.

“They’ve been working hard. I’m getting to know all of them and they’re getting to know me. I’m just really excited to get to open up my first season at Cherokee County with a lot of great people.”

The Warriors’ 2026 football schedule is listed below, along with several others in WEIS Radio’s coverage area that have been finalized and reported.

2026 Cherokee County Warriors
Aug. 21                 at Haralson County (Ga.)
Aug. 28                 Piedmont
Sept. 4                  Guntersville*
Sept. 11                at Hayden*
Sept. 18                Crossville*
Sept. 25                at Jacksonville
Oct 2                    Sardis*
Oct. 9                    at Brewer*
Oct. 16                  at Fairview*
Oct. 23                  Good Hope*

2026 Collinsville Panthers
Aug. 21                 at Sylvania
Sept. 4                  Brindlee Mountain*
Sept. 11                at Ider*
Sept. 18                Sand Rock*
Sept. 25                Douglas
Oct. 2                    at Section*
Oct. 9                    North Sand Mountain*
Oct. 16                  at Fyffe*
Oct. 23                  Pisgah*
Oct. 29                  at Valley Head

2026 Sand Rock Wildcats
Aug. 20                 at Spring Garden
Sept. 4                  Ider*
Sept. 11                Section*
Sept. 18                at Collinsville*
Sept. 25                Valley Head
Oct. 2                    at North Sand Mountain*
Oct. 9                    Fyffe*
Oct. 16                  at Pisgah*
Oct. 23                  Brindlee Mountain*
Oct. 29                  at Cedar Bluff

2026 Spring Garden Panthers
Aug. 20                 Sand Rock
Aug. 28                 at Victory Christian
Sept. 4                  Appalachian*
Sept. 11                Gaylesville*
Sept. 18                at Ragland*
Sept. 25                at Pleasant Valley
Oct. 2                    Cedar Bluff*
Oct. 9                    at Valley Head*
Oct. 23                  at Woodville*
Oct. 30                  Ranburne
*= region game