For more than two decades, Maryville maintained a stranglehold on TSSAA Region 2-6A football.
The Rebels dominated unlike any other large public-school program in Tennessee, winning 144 consecutive region games and every league championship from 2000 through 2021. But then Cleveland snapped that streak with a four-point upset of Maryville in 2022, opening the door for three different teams to win the region crown over the past four seasons.
Maryville reclaimed region supremacy last fall, however, and will be favored once again this season, although Oak Ridge has a lot of explosive playmakers. Both Bradley Central and Cleveland appear to have the ingredients to be playoff-caliber teams, and they could even push either of the top two teams to earn a home game in the first round of the postseason.
The Times Free Press is previewing a Chattanooga-area region in Tennessee or Georgia each day as the start of a new prep football season arrives in three weeks. After looking at the two TSSAA private-school classifications with local teams, we continue the series with Region 2-6A.
Team to beat: Maryville went unbeaten in the region last year, winning each of those matchups by at least 25 points. Rebels senior quarterback Will Jones is headed to Jacksonville State next year, tight end J.T. Allen is a Football Bowl Subdivision prospect, and all three starting linebackers are already committed: Dax Cole to Florida Atlantic, J.P. Peace to Tennessee and Wyatt Wilber to Minnesota.