Football season has finally come to a close in Shelby County, and basketball is in full swing.

The Thompson Warriors (Boys) are off to a great start having won their Holiday Classic basketball tournament on Saturday, going 4-1 overall and defeating previously unbeaten Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa 61-47.

But before I urge everyone support their schools&8217; basketball teams, I want to take one look back at this past football season.

I ended the 2006 season 105-37 in my predictions for a 74 percent rate of accuracy.

The Shelby Academy Rebels won the AISA Class IA Championship, and head football coach DeWayne Kervin deserves my most heart-felt congratulations.

I predicted the Raiders to go 9-1 and make to the championship game. They went 8-2 and won the state championship with an overall record of 11-2.

I have known Kervin for nearly 30 years and consider him to be one of the finest coaches in the county.

The Pelham Panthers were the county&8217;s last hope for a second state champion in 2006. I predicted the Panthers to go 8-2 in the regular season and they did. They ended the year with an overall record of 10-3 and equaled the best performance by a Pelham football team in the state playoffs since their 1998 third round appearance.

Pelham head football coach Brett Burnett also deserves heart-felt congratulations.

In his second year at the helm in Pelham, Burnett has done an outstanding job in a tough 6A classification.

I must also say, having spoken to Pelham&8217;s senior running back Wes Holland and senior quarterback Josh Thomason, the Pelham football program appears to be on the right track. They are both the kind of kids a football program would hope to produce as leaders and leave a legacy the younger players behind them can look up to.

I would also like to take this time to commend all the teams in Shelby County that made the playoffs.

In addition to Shelby Academy and Pelham they were:

2A Vincent, 3A Calera and Montevallo, 5A Chelsea, Briarwood and Shelby County, 6A Thompson, and AISA 2A Kingwood and 1A Cornerstone Christian.

Evangel Christian School made it to the national tournament of eight-man football.

That means 12 Shelby County football programs produced playoff quality teams.

-I predicted Briarwood Christian School to go undefeated and make a strong move to win the state championship. They went 8-2, made the playoffs and ended up 8-3 overall.

-I predicted Calera to go 5-5. They went 9-1, made the state playoffs and ended up 9-2 overall.

-I predicted the Chelsea Hornets would go 4-6. They went 8-2, made the state playoffs and ended up 8-3. I did predict them to defeat Briarwood.

-The Montevallo Bulldogs went 7-3 just like I predicted. They made the state playoffs and ended up 7-4 overall.

-6A Oak Mountain went 5-5 just like I predicted.

-Shelby County went 7-3 when I predicted them to go 5-5. They made the state playoffs and ended the year with an overall record of 8-4.

-Spain Park, another 6A team, went 6-4 just like I predicted.

-The Thompson Warriors went 7-3 just like I predicted and made it to the state playoffs, going 8-4 overall.

-I predicted the Vincent Yellow Jackets to go 7-3 for the season. They went 6-4, made the state playoffs and ended up 6-5 overall.

-I predicted the IA, AISA Coosa Valley Academy Rebels would improve to 5-5 this season from 1-9 the year before. They only made it to 3-7, but it was a step in the right direction.

-The Cornerstone Christian Chargers fell a little short of my 7-3 prediction, going 6-4 and making it to the first round of the AISA state playoffs for a 6-5 overall record.

-Kingwood Christian School had an outstanding season at 8-2 and making the first round of the AISA state playoffs. I thought they would do slightly better at 9-1. They ended up 8-3 overall.

I was pretty close most of the time and hit five schools regular season records on the nose. Calera and Chelsea proved my biggest misses.

Now, I look forward to getting out to more basketball games in the county. And I hope to see much better crowds than I have seen thus far