It was a gamble, but one Mark Pemberton believes will pay off once the prep football season goes from August heat to November’s playoff chill. While some coaches prefer to play an easier out-of-region schedule, others believe tougher competition – and even an early loss – can benefit a talented team by helping identify the areas that need improvement for a deep playoff run.
Pemberton, who is doing a marvelous job of rebuilding Rhea County’s proud program, is clearly among those who don’t mind putting their teams to the test right away. By opening the season Thursday night at home against Baylor, Pemberton made a statement that he believes his team has the potential to equal last year’s run to the state semifinals.
In a scenario eerily similar to last season’s heartbreaking playoff loss to Knoxille West, the Eagles showed plenty of grit in rallying from a huge deficit to tie Thursday’s game before a late scoring drive by Baylor was the final statement in deciding the battle of state-ranked foes, 35-27.
“There was some apprehension about agreeing to play because most of the private schools do have a distinct advantage, and that’s speaking from experience,” said Pemberton, who knows the other side’s perspective from coaching for seven years, including a couple of state championship game appearances, at Knoxville Catholic. “Our first year here, we wouldn’t have had a lot of confidence going against them, but we’re getting our program built up where we can compete with really good teams like that.
“We knew they’re very disciplined and do a lot of things well, so we wanted to have a good test early to see what weaknesses get exposed before we start playing region games and later for the playoffs. That’s one thing about this year, we’ve got a lot of quality teams to get ready for, and we’ll definitely get tested. Hopefully that’ll just make us tougher.”