Two North Georgia brothers will coach against each other tonight

Staff File Photo by Dan Henry/Times Free Press
Staff File Photo by Dan Henry/Times Free Press
photo Staff File Photo by Robin Rudd/Times Free Press

The Poags are a close family.

That's a good thing, because tonight's Poag Bowl could provide a test to those bonds.

Brothers Preston and Jay Poag will be head coaches on opposing sidelines as North Murray visits Christian Heritage in the season opener for both football teams. Making it more interesting is that Preston spent the previous five seasons leading the Christian Heritage program, with Jay on his staff part of that time.

"It's tough because those guys are my boys, too," Preston said of the Lions, who last year earned the school's first win in the GHSA playoffs since joining the association in 2012. "It will be different being on the other sideline. There are a lot of good memories there, especially after having the success we had last year.

"I hope they continue to have success just not this week."

The brothers downplay any family feud, though they admit their parents are caught in the middle.

"We've been down this road before," Jay said. "We've stared at each other across the sidelines in college (as assistant coaches), so it's really no big deal. It is strange, though, the way it went down with this being the opening game.

"It is tougher on our parents, but they will manage and find a way to make it fun. They're just tired of people asking them where they are going to sit."

Each Coach Poag also has a son on the roster who is a quarterback - Brandon Poag for the Lions and Preston Poag Jr. for the Mountaineers.

Progress report

According to a report recently released by the National Federation of State High School Associations, the number of participants in high school sports reached an all-time high of nearly eight million last year. The 7.9 million is an increase of more than 61,000 from the previous year, according to the NFHS, which governs high school associations in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia.

The total number of prep football players - just more than 1.1 million - remained virtually the same as the previous two years, with just 309 fewer than in 2014. Twenty-four states reported an increase in football players last year.

"The NFHS and its member state associations have taken significant steps over the past 10 years to minimize the risk of participation in football and all high school sports, so this report on the continued strong interest and participation in high school football is very encouraging," said Bob Gardner, executive director for the NFHS. "With the adoption of state laws and protocols for concussion management in place, we continue to believe that the sport of football at the high school level is as safe as it has been since the first rules were written."

Although the top five boys' sports remained the same as last year - 11-player football, track and field, basketball, baseball and soccer - cross country moved to sixth place ahead of wrestling, which dropped to seventh after a decline of 7,555 participants. Tennis, golf and swimming and diving complete the top 10 of boys' sports.

The top 10 girls' sports remained the same as the previous year: track and field, volleyball, basketball, soccer, fastpitch softball, cross country, tennis, swimming and diving, competitive spirit squads and lacrosse.

Leg strength

The Chattanooga area returns several kickers who were difference-makers for their teams last season, and there's no reason to think 2016 will be different.

The top returning all-around kicker is Bledsoe County's Gabe Boring, who was perfect on 25 extra points, averaged 39.2 yards per punt and had a long field goal of 42 yards.

Ooltewah returns Aleksander Toser, who made the most field goals in the area by going 9-for-12 last season. Like Boring, Murray County's Juan Andrade and Silverdale Baptist Academy's Connor Eischeid each attempted 25 extra points last year, making 24 and 23.

East Hamilton's Jake McClure does double duty and averaged 37.8 yards per punt a year ago. Northwest Whitfield's Vicente Vaca matched Boring with a 42-yard field goal last season.

But perhaps the strongest returning legs belong to Sonoraville's Kevin Villatoro, who made a 47-yarder this year in a scrimmage, and Hixson's Austin Slifko. Their coaches said they have the distance to hit from 58 to 60 yards.

"Once we cross the 50-yard line," Hixson coach Dan Duff said, "we're thinking about three points."

Villatoro made 11 of 14 field-goal tries with a long of 42 yards last year, when he was perfect on extra points and had touchbacks on 92 percent of his kickoffs. He averaged 34.5 yards on 25 punts.

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