While they’re the envy of numerous peers, Sequatchie County’s Adam Caine and Marion County’s Joey Mathis have ventured into new territory.
The two, in their first year as head football coaches, have positioned their teams in Tennessee’s championship semifinals, Sequatchie in Class 3A and Marion County in Class 2A.
Joey Mathis is the first year head coach for Marion County. The Sequatchie Valley Football Jamboree was held at South Pittsburg High School on Friday August, 12, 2016.“Yeah, this is new for me – the semis and 48 minutes from your dream situation. I’m having the time of my life,” Caine said Saturday afternoon. “Last night sitting in the office, I felt like I had played. It’s excruciating mentally. It can be a rough business, but, no, I can’t imagine doing anything different.”
It might be easier being in this situation playing at home on Friday, as both will be.
“Any time we can get somebody at our place with our fans, our support and no travel it’s good,” said Mathis, who stepped up to replace Ricky Ross (now at McCallie) after serving the previous two seasons as the Warriors’ offensive coordinator.
Sequatchie’s 13-0 Indians will host perennial state finalist Alcoa, while the 12-1 Warriors will take on fast-and-flashy Austin-East. Both games will begin at 8 p.m. EST, as will that for 12-1 South Pittsburg, another playoff fixture, which will be at home against Greenback in Class 1A.
Those are the only three teams from the Chattanooga area remaining in the Tennessee football postseason.
“When you’re dealing with eight teams, they’re all good,” Mathis said of last week’s quarterfinals. “Now there are four and they’re even better.”
While Mathis has been to back to back state championship games, the deepest run for Caine, who has spent half his career as a college assistant, is the state quarterfinals.
So how do first-year head coaches get this deep into playoffs?
“I’ve got to give credit where I have all year,” Caine said. “I truly think this is a special group of seniors, and a lot of it boils down to how badly they want to win. If they want to win, I think they’ll do whatever it takes. We’ve had some games come down to the wire and they just wouldn’t let it go.”
Leadership certainly is a factor, but beyond that is the talent pool and beyond that are the physical and mental disciplines that are extended beyond a month of preseason work and 10 games of the regular season.
“It takes a special group, a bunch of guys that are mentally tough,” Caine said. “We’ve been in relatively close quarters for a long time now. You’re going to have little spats and blow-ups, but when you love each other, care for each other and play for each other it’s normal. I have newfound respect, though, for those programs like Alcoa that do it every year.”
Continuity also is involved for Sequatchie and Marion, although Caine didn’t really begin trimming practice contact until the Indians were four games into the season. Now, with 44 players and 18 of those playing often on each side, the Indians coach is looking to keep everybody as healthy as possible.
Mathis, meanwhile, pretty much shelved full contact before the season began. Other standard Jasper football fare – ice baths, daily lifting and extreme up-tempo practices – has continued.
“You’ve got to get the horses to the race ready to run,” Mathis said. “You have to have the individual and overall commitments and a cohesive staff with everybody pulling in the same direction. But we don’t change a lot. You want to have a great Monday, a great Tuesday. You want everything to be game-ready on Friday.”
Caine wasn’t about to rank those things it takes to get deep into the playoffs, but he took a serious stab at noting those things that had struck him as the Indians’ undefeated season took on a life of its own.
“The biggest thing is the team staying healthy. You have to have your key guys, and they have to be playing every week,” he said. “One of the biggest things I’ve appreciated is that there is a good fit of coaches’ vision and philosophy and what the players’ strengths are. There isn’t a lot of frustration over what we’re not doing, but acceptance is who and what we are, which is pound the football and play good defense. The kids love that.”
He and Mathis acknowledged that leadership is crucial and not so much rah-rah speeches, “but guys on the team need to know and acknowledge who the studs are,” Caine added. “And then there’s luck. We’ve been in some close games and we’ve had some extremely lucky breaks.”
* In Georgia, Dalton improved to 12-0 with a 24-14 win over Lovejoy, led by Ahmaad Tanner’s 100-plus yards and two touchdowns. The Catamounts will host Coffee County (7-5) in a Class AAAAAA quarterfinal. Coffee, the No. 4 seed out of powerful Region 1, won a 42-34 shootout over Alexander.
Calhoun (10-2) rallied from a 20-14 halftime deficit to ease past Jackson, 41-20, led by senior Baylon Spector’s 256 total yards, two touchdown passes and two rushing scores. The Yellow Jackets will host Cedar Grove (10-2) in the AAA quarterfinals. The two teams met in the 2014 second round, with Calhoun winning 38-18.
“We remember them and how talented they were,” Calhoun coach Hal Lamb said. “They’ve got eight or nine (future NCAA) D-1 guys coming in here, and they will tilt the field when they hit it. It’s nothing new for us, and we’ll go to work and get a game plan together and get after it.”
In Class AA, upstart Chattooga pulled one of the state’s most surprising upsets with a 38-7 thumping of Washington County. Twins Isaiah and Isaac Foster had a combined five touchdowns rushing. The Indians (8-4), making their first appearance in the quarterfinals, will take their road show to Hapeville Charter (9-3) on Friday.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.