BY DANIEL SCHMIDT FOR THE OBSERVER

AUBURN — Through the first 10 games of the 2024 season, the Auburn High School football team was poised to finish the year with the best season in school history. They had gone undefeated in arguably Alabama’s most difficult division. Their average margin of victory was 32.4 points per game. For most of the season, they were also one of the top-ranked teams in the entire nation. Despite that success, Thompson High School, winners of five of the last six 7A state championships, brutally ended the Tigers’ dream of laying claim to the school’s first-ever title in the second round of the playoffs at Duck Samford Stadium. Although it was a heartbreaking end to an otherwise historic year, head coach Keith Etheredge now looks back and counts his blessings. His

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