Orange Beach head coach Wade Waldrop has seen the game tapes. He’s seen the history.

And Friday night, he’ll see for himself a perennial high school football contender brimming with highly touted athletes in the form of the  Vigor Wolves at Makos Stadium.

Waldrop, his team now 2-0 after combining to beat its opponents by a margin of 80-14, is expecting a tough test and ready to see how his team responds.

“Let’s go,” the second-year Orange Beach coach said. “They're a ‘measuring stick’ team because they're going to be playing for the state championship most likely. So, let’s go, we’re excited about the challenge.”

The Wolves are also off to a 2-0 start after a state runner-up finish in Class 5A during the 2025 campaign. They have taken home four state titles since 1987, with the last coming in 2021, and talent-laden is one description for the 2026 version of Vigor.

“Defensively, across the board, they're loaded,” Waldrop said. “SEC talent all over the field. They're long, they're athletic, they're fast off the ball. I mean, defensively, they're as good as anybody we've seen here in two years.”

On offense, the Wolves aren’t far behind their talented defenders, Waldrop said.

“Explosive wide receiver, quarterback's a good athlete,” Waldrop said. “They do a good job of getting the ball in space and making you tackle them in space, which is hard to do.”

As for his own Makos, Waldrop has seen a lot of things he likes during season-opening wins at T.R. Miller and at home against Monroe County. He found it encouraging how players handled the flow of the game both nights.

“I think we played clean football, you know, for two weeks, which is really, really good,” Waldrop said. “We've not had a lot of penalties, four the first week maybe five the second. I thought personnel substitution, on and off the field, kicking game, all those things, good on turnovers. I just think we've done a good job in the game management things for two weeks...

...Obviously, this week we will have to be perfect in those areas to give ourselves an opportunity to be successful.”

Another intangible element of this team, Waldrop said, is just plain ol’ “want to.” He loves how hard his guys play.

“That's a personal choice,” he said. “Obviously, we're going to coach it but those guys, they make those decisions about how hard they're going to play. I was very pleased with our effort and our toughness and our focus.”

Offensively, Mako sophomore quarterback Tucker Wade has unofficially completed 18 of 22 passes for 236 yards and two touchdowns, both to speedy receiver Verchaun Simms. The lefty was only 4-for-5 against Monroe County but didn’t see the field for most of the game in a 56-0 rout.

Defensively, the Makos have been led by big plays from linebacker Turner Tillman and edge rusher/linebacker Lee Steele, but Waldrop noted the overall effort on defense.

Against Mary Montgomery in Week Two, Vigor quarterback Anthony Gill completed 12-of-16 passes for 230 yards and two touchdowns in a 47-3 win.

Zy Wilson had a touchdown grab and returned a punt 62 yards for another score.

Vigor’s defense held Mary Montgomery to a total of 77 yards on offense.

The Wolves has won four state championships since 1987 in three different classifications and have four runner-up trophies, including in 2025 when the Wolves lost to Moody 25-0 in the Class 5A state title game.

Vigor was 12-3 last year with losses to Williamson and Baker. The Wolves avenged the loss to Williamson in the state semifinals.

Both of those teams are in the Makos region and ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in Class 4A in rankings by the Alabama Sportswriters Association.