Hamilton County's largest high schools by population will clash on the football field tonight at 7:30 when Soddy-Daisy hosts Ooltewah. Their head coaches have a connection.
Soddy-Daisy's Justin Barnes was a quarterback at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga from 1999 to 2002 and was a student assistant coach there the next two seasons. Ooltewah coach Mac Bryan is a former college assistant who worked at UTC from 2001 to 2003.
"You can't find a quarterback to have a better friend than an offensive line coach," Barnes said.
Barnes said the two stayed in touch even when he was coaching in Georgia and Bryan was coaching in South Carolina. They were hired to take over at their current schools about a month apart early in 2013.
Ooltewah football coach Mac Bryan watches during their Best of Preps prep football jamboree scrimmage at Finely Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Soddy-Daisy head coach Justin Barnes congratulates Hunter Burke (80) after a Trojan touchdown. The Red Bank Lions visited the Soddy-Daisy Trojans in TSSAA football action at Soddy-Daisy High School on August 18, 2017."He's one of the guys I can ask questions to, or someone I'd call and ask advice about something, especially in my first couple of years," Barnes said.
The two sat in on many meetings together. Barnes cherishes a picture that both are in that he's had on a wall for 15 years.
Ringgold win 'amazing'
There are few firsts for Robert Akins, but the veteran coach experienced one in last Friday's 47-42 Ringgold win over Adairsville.
Ringgold fell behind 21-0 with a myriad of mistakes. However, it took only a matter of minutes - and several Adairsville mishaps - for Ringgold to take the lead early in the second quarter on the way to a 40-28 halftime advantage.
"For us to score 40 points in one half is amazing," Akins said. "I didn't know if our kids could overcome that, but they scored so fast that I don't think we realized we were down that much. The great thing is that both groups didn't give up.
"It was like a heavyweight fight to me. We just took one less blow than they did, I guess. In 40 years of coaching I can't remember a game that went that way."
Adairsville rallied for two scores in the third quarter and Ringgold, as it had done earlier in the season, appeared to be wilting late as stars Ty Jones and Andre Tarver were on the sideline with ailments. Sensing impending doom, Akins implored his guys to gut it out.
"Finally, we said if you don't go back out there we're not going to win," Akins said of the two-way standouts. "Once they decided to do that, we picked it up and held on. Those two, along with everybody else, didn't want to lose another one late."
Watson big for Polk
At 5-foot-9, 150 pounds, Polk County junior Austin Watson is not built like a prototype outside linebacker. But don't be fooled by his lack of size - Watson is a playmaker on the Wildcats' defense. He leads the area with five fumble recoveries, which is also nearly half of Polk County's team total (11). Polk County is plus-12 in turnover ratio, a big reason for a 3-2 start to the season.
Watson is the team's leading tackler as well.
"He wasn't even a starter until the last couple of games last year," said Wildcats coach Derrick Davis. "He's undersized, but every time we put him in a game he kept making plays and was just always around the ball. He made the most of his opportunity. If you see him lined up with other players you wouldn't expect he would be our leading tackler, but he hustles every play and is just the type kid you love to coach. He's made a big difference for us already."
39 still unbeaten
There are 39 teams still unbeaten in Tennessee, and Meigs County (5-0), the state's top-ranked Class 2A team, is among those.
Whitwell, ranked No. 5 in 1A, also is 5-0 while South Pittsburg is 4-0 and the state's top-ranked Class 1A team. The other Chattanooga-area unbeaten is Class 4A's East Ridge (4-0).
On the other hand, there are 40 winless TSSAA teams, including Class 3A's McMinn Central, Class 4A's Hixson and Class 5A's Walker Valley.
Rankin adds a milestone
Already the state's winningest football coach, Gary Rankin added another milestone to his career last week by earning the 400th win of his career. Rankin began his coaching career in 1982 at Smith County, where he stayed for eight years before taking over at Murfreesboro Riverdale and guiding the Warriors to four state titles in 16 seasons. He has been at Alcoa for 11 years, winning eight state titles with the Tornado.