Eight weeks into the Panthers' 2023 schedule, Fitzgerald had already guided them to their most wins. In his first year at Sale Creek, the veteran coach led a program that had never won more than five games in a single season to its most successful showing — and the start of even higher expectations.
The Indians have been building toward a special season for several years, and there are legitimate reasons to believe they have reached the doorstep of that payoff. It begins with the number of starters returning from the 2023 team that hosted a first-round playoff game and reached the second round.
With only four starters returning from last year's unbeaten team that won the program's seventh state title, and with just four seniors on the roster, there are far more unknowns than usual for the Pirates.
A rough season was followed by an even rougher offseason for the Yellow Jackets, who graduated 10 seniors, then had another 10 players who would have been starters or key contributors who opted to transfer. That has left a program that has routinely battled low numbers with only around 20 players on the roster.
There is a level of excitement swirling through the Whitwell community that is reminiscent of the Tigers' 2018 run to the Class 1A state title.
Despite the graduation of a prodigious amount of talent that helped the Red Raiders reach back-to-back BlueCross Bowl state finals, the expectations remain exactly where they have been.
The next step in the program's progression is to follow one successful year with another.
So much for a gradual rebuild.
Coming off their most successful season in more than four decades, the Bears will have plenty to prove.
The small schools made a big impression on the final night of the annual prep football jamboree at Finley Stadium.
