COPPERHILL, Tenn. – Around Copper Basin, Cougars fans might call a certain group of seniors the Magnificent Seven, especially after they led their team to an 8-1 record. Those with longer memories might call them the Surviving Seven.
Coach Patrick Daly simply calls them “the old guys,” because they were eighth-graders dressing for varsity games as he sought to regain some of the luster that once surrounded Copper Basin football.
There were 22 of those eighth-graders in Daly’s first year, but 15 of them drifted away, most likely discouraged by 26 losses from the 2006 season through 2008.
The seven who stuck it out – Luke Raper, Jeff Roberson, Eric Sisson, Justin Peems, Brady Miller, Zach White and Cody Monteith – have become the core of Cougars football. All but Sisson, the team’s quarterback, play both ways: Raper, Roberson and Miller in the line, White and Monteith as running backs and linebackers and Peems as a running back and cornerback.
“In 2007 I had 22 ninth-graders and most of them were playing,” Daly recalled Monday. “We went 0-10. We had only three seniors. We played teams like Cherokee (N.C.) and South Pittsburg and we took it on the chin.”
In their last game against Lookout Valley, Yellow Jackets coach Tony Webb gave Daly some words of encouragement. The team Webb had that night was playoff-bound.
“He told me that team – they were district runners-up – was 0-10 three years before, and I used that as incentive for our guys,” Daly said. “And now three years later here we are district runners-up and a team that had a shot at a district championship.”
This group of seven likely saved the program because there was talk after the 0-10 showing in 2007 of dropping football. They and their coaches, along with then-principal Darren Danner, refused to give up.
“The kids here now are the reason there is still a football program,” Daly said, “and I don’t know if we would have made it the first three years without Darren’s support and protection.”
The seven are part of a record-breaking team. The Copper Basin defense went unscored upon until Game 6 with a school-record five shutouts, and the team has a greater margin of victory than any previous group of Cougars.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” longtime assistant coach Todd Rollins said. “It’s been a long time, well, people around here who haven’t been excited in years are excited.”
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765.