Former South Pittsburg coach Vic Grider has seen a wild
year in the Sequatchie Valley.Ironically the thread that ties together the mapdot towns making up the Sequatchie Valley is the same one that often divides its people. Besides politics and religion, few subjects unite or separate the residents faster than high school football, and it’s a point of pride that no other region in the Chattanooga area can rival the Valley programs in accomplishment and expectations.
Seven high schools make up the Sequatchie Valley, stretching from Pikeville and Coalmont and snaking through the fertile farmland of Sequatchie and Marion counties and ending at the red-clay northeastern tip of Jackson County, Alabama.
While the region’s average family income is nearly $6,000 less than the state averages, it is an area rich in football success and tradition. Teams from Bledsoe County, Grundy County, Marion County, North Jackson, Sequatchie County, South Pittsburg and Whitwell have combined to win more than 200 playoff games, appear in 21 state championship games and claim 10 state titles.
But blind devotion to school colors also creates high drama, and in the last year Sequatchie Valley football has produced more plot twists, budding villains, heroes and would-be divas than a daytime soap opera.
Five of the Valley’s seven schools underwent coaching changes, and the coaching carousel spun out of control at North Jackson and South Pittsburg, which combined for five head coaches in the last calendar year.