Andrew Price (2) cuts through the Trinity Christian line on the way to a long gain in the Eagles’s victory 56-28 victory over the lions.Bill Price spent part of his Sunday collecting helmets and shoulder pads and getting them ready for pick-up by a Rydell representative. The rest of the day he was spending with his family.
“It all soaks in today,” he said. “You don’t have to worry about next week.”
What the Signal Mountain coach has to worry about is finding a place to display the 2010 Class 2A Tennessee football championship hardware that came Saturday following a come-from-behind beating of Trinity Christian Academy.
With a gimpy-shouldered quarterback who still managed to throw for 165 yards and a touchdown in winds that were gusting and a steady rain for much of the afternoon, Price elected to return to his roots and the real foundation of his Signal Mountain football team.
They rushed for 523 yards on 59 attempts. Donnie Garner was selected MVP after getting 218 of those yards and three of the Eagles’ eight touchdowns in the 56-28 victory. It was Garner’s first 100-yard rushing effort of the season and Andrew Price picked up his third of the year with 133 yards.
“I thought the offensive line had been blocking well and running the ball was something we had done well. I thought running the ball was the best thing for our football team,” Price said. “I wanted our guys to wear the other team down and take control of the game and that’s what they did.”
Whitmire, who passed for more than 300 yards in the Eagles’ second-round victory over Friendship Christian, found a way to wrap his shoulder and complete four passes for 165 yards including an 80-yard pass to Will Queen. And Queen caught two for 141 yards.
“It’s just huge,” Price said of the 14-0 season and the school’s record-setting title run in only its second year of varsity football. “It’s huge for the kids, the community, the assistant coaches and me. These kids committed to being in the weight room and doing all the little things that make for a team’s success. But Signal Mountain allowed me to coach the way I wanted to coach. The kids and the community adapted very well.”
It was an unselfish bunch from the outset. Gervell Morgan, Mitchell Hall, Garner, Zack Bowman and Reese Phillips played on both sides of the ball. A group of seven running backs gladly shared the carries. The overlooked offensive line shouldered so much of the load and never expected more than a pat on the back and the defense bent but never broke.
Those things are the anchors to championship seasons.
This group of 13 seniors, which included a half-dozen starters, leaves behind a bar that includes a 10-0 run through a junior varsity schedule their first season, a 10-2 junior year and a record of 24-2 in the school’s first two varsity seasons.
“You have to have great players to win a state championship,” Price said. “I have coached some great teams and what it always comes down to is having the good athletes but more importantly having the good kids.”
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765.