Jason Fitzgerald is smart enough to know he needs to get more than a few strokes when playing golf with Josh Owensby.
That wisdom comes from experience - from playing alongside his former football player and assistant coach.
Owensby's football knowledge has come largely from Fitzgerald, for whom he played at Rhea County and under whom he began his coaching career.
"He makes me feel old," said Fitzgerald, who could not recall previously facing a former player in his long coaching career. "All of our calls this last week have been in good fun."
The fun will take a turn tonight.
Fitzgerald and his Meigs County team are slated to visit Owensby's Bledsoe County team in a Region 3-2A game tonight with a state playoff spot on the line. Each team is 4-5 overall; Bledsoe is 3-3 in the region, while Meigs is 2-4.
"It's a big game because our goal is to get into the playoffs," said Owensby, the Warriors' first-year head coach. "We have a lot on the line, and it's senior night, which is something else to throw into the equation."
Under Fitzgerald's leadership, Owensby developed from a solid player without a major college scholarship into a coach full of wild offensive ideas inspired by his playing days in green and gold.
"He was a very smart player and he knew the game very well," Fitzgerald said. "I could see him being a coach one day, because he liked to study the game."
Owensby's coaching opportunity almost went south.
After studying at Roane State, Owensby made up his mind that he'd move to Arizona and pursue a golf turf management degree. His papers, his transcripts, were all lined up. He sent everything but the check for tuition.
He planned to leave behind his girlfriend at the time - Megan, who is now his wife and mother of his 3-year-old son Bo - so she could continue studying at Tennessee Tech and he could get into the professional side of golf.
"I had decided that I was going to that golf academy in Arizona," Owensby said. "Coach Fitzgerald saved my career, and eventually my marriage. I was all but gone when he offered a coaching position."
He chose to coach instead of teaching golf - a game he still loves.
"I really enjoyed my time coaching the freshmen that first year, and that's what really changed my mind," Owensby said. "I was sitting back, listening and watching. I tried to implement the same things here at Bledsoe that I learned under Coach Fitzgerald."
This season, Owensby is doing more than observing and learning. At 30 years old, he is the head coach of the program that went 5-6 last year with a first-round loss at Red Bank in the 2014 playoffs with Owensby as the offensive coordinator.
"It's kind of neat that we're going against Josh," said Fitzgerald, who has 92 victories as a head coach. "We're trying to find a way to win the football game and get into the playoffs. There's not a lot of sentimental stuff going on."
But phone calls have been placed, and accepted, from both ends of the line this week. All were placed with good-natured fun as the intention.
"How many times are you going to get in that formation?" Fitzgerald recalled asking. "Are y'all going to get into any new formations?"
The victor tonight will coach at least another week this year. The loser will blow the dust off his golf clubs.
"As he gets deeper into being a head coach, he'll play less and less golf," Fitzgerald said. "But I knew that one day he'd get his shot as a head coach."
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.
Meigs County coach Jason Fitzgerald instructs his men during a timeout at Tyner.