This is an opinion piece.

There are multiple good matchups in tonight’s state semifinals.

Twelve of them to be exact.

One of the more interesting games could be Vigor playing Montgomery Catholic in the 5A semifinals in Montgomery.

The Wolves are 12-1. Their only loss was a 10-9 decision against Class 7A quarterfinalist Baker in the final game of the regular season.

RELATED: AL.com semifinal predictions

Vigor’s defense – led by sophomore Alabama commit Jabarrius Garror and Mobile Christian transfer Kentonio Kelly – has allowed just 62 points this season and held 10 opponents to less than 10 points.

The offense – even without injured starting quarterback Sammy Dunn since early in the season – has scored 480 points. Three playoff wins have all come easily by scores of 46-0, 41-0 and 41-10.

Catholic comes in at 12-0, 27-0 over the last two seasons.

The Knights have outscored their opponents 544-71 this season. They won their first two playoff games by a combined score of 95-0 and then dispatched previously unbeaten Central-Clay County 21-9 last week.

Catholic has held nine opponents to single digits with five shutouts. No team has scored more than 14 points against the Knights.

The coaching matchup is an interesting one as well. Catholic’s Kirk Johnson is 53-2 in his fourth season as the head coach. Vigor’s John McKenzie is 26-2 over his last two seasons as head coach of the Wolves – this year’s run and the 2021 run to the 4A state title. (He coached one year at Murphy and one at Paul Bryant in between).

The AL.com high school picks panel is split down the middle on who will win the game – three for Vigor, three for Catholic.

We will see tonight.

Big decision next week?

The Alabama High School Athletic Association is expected to announce the future location of the Super 7 championships sometime next week.

As we’ve written, the current rotating contract includes Birmingham as the site this year, 2027 and 2030. The decision of Auburn and Alabama to pull out of that contract due to the possibility of participating in the newly expanded College Football Playoff has left a question about where the event will be held in the other years.

We know executive director Heath Harmon and others toured Alabama State’s stadium in Montgomery and South Alabama’s Hancock Whitney Stadium in Mobile and were expected to visit Troy’s stadium as well.

It’s possible the AHSAA could keep the event in Birmingham every year, but my feeling is it will and should rotate between Birmingham, Montgomery and Mobile for the foreseeable future.

Those stadiums – each of which sits around 25,000 or slightly more — are all perfect in size for the event. As cool as it was for the participating teams to play at Bryant-Denny and Jordan-Hare, the large venues made the biggest of crowds seem relatively small.

Some will argue that Mobile’s location is inconvenient for north Alabama teams, but I’m not sure geography is one of the biggest considerations any longer. The state soccer championships are played in Huntsville every year. The state baseball titles are decided at Jacksonville State and softball in Oxford.

The goal of every team is to get to the Super 7. If they make it, I don’t think anyone will mind driving a few more hours to get to the game.

The amazing Mark Freeman

As I wrote in my newsletter column today, my friend Mark Freeman continues to amaze me.

Thompson’s coach has 10 state titles on his resume already (4 at Thompson, 2 at Spanish Fort and 4 more at Bessemer Academy in the AISA) and can add another if his team defeats reigning champ Central-Phenix City in the Class 7A final on Wednesday night.

The Warriors’ regular-season record wasn’t gaudy this year. In fact, they were a pedestrian 7-3 entering the playoffs. They didn’t even win the region.

No matter. The Warriors are in the title game for a seventh straight year despite significant changes to the 7A playoff format this season.

Freeman enters Wednesday’s game with 268 victories in 26 years and a 60-12 playoff record. Pretty amazing run.

News you can use

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Thought for the Day

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Ben Thomas is the high school sports managing producer at AL.com. He has been named one of the 50 legends of the Alabama Sports Writers Association. Follow him on twitter at @BenThomasPreps or email him at bthomas@al.com.