Above: Wade Streeter V and Wade Streeter IV at the Spain Park Wall of Fame. (Solomon Crenshaw Jr./Alabama NewsCenter)

Spain Park senior Wade Streeter remembers traveling with his father when his father was a football coach.

Wade Streeter V runs the ball in a game earlier this season. (Bernard Troncale/Alabama NewsCenter)

“I would go with him everywhere they’d go on the buses,” he recalled. “I’d always be with him or next to one of his players.”

Tonight at 7, the younger Streeter goes where his father went before – into the annals of Alabama High School Athletic Association championship football history.

Wade Hampton Streeter V is a senior running back on the 12-1 Jaguars team that squares off against McGill-Toolen for the Class 7A championship. His father, Wade Hampton Streeter IV, was a member of the 1980 Parker High team that narrowly fell to Vestavia Hills in the Class 4A title game at Legion Field.

“I remember it being a festive atmosphere with a lot of people out there,” Streeter IV said. “The stands were full. We got to experience something that a lot of people in a lifetime don’t get to experience. We ended up losing 15-13 but the experience was insurmountable, something you can’t put into words.”

The former Miles College coach was a freshman on that Thundering Herd team. He would be the starter each season that followed, earning several honors before going first to Ole Miss and then Southern University.

“I’ve told him it’s a once in a lifetime experience,” the elder Streeter said. “He needs to make the most of it and just have fun, go out and do his best.”

The younger Streeter said he feels the challenge of being as good as his father, trying to “fit into his shoes.”

“But my dad always tells me to be your own person, your own player and just to do your best,” the Jaguar running back said. “Knowing that he’s behind me and that I have some of him in me keeps me going.”

Wade Streeter IV would later make it to an Alabama high school football championship game as a coach. He led Aliceville to the 2000 Class 3A championship, beating Colbert County 50-7.