Coach Derrick Davis and his Polk County football team are honoring the 1985 Wildcats at their game tonight with Sequoyah.
The 1985 team, on which Davis was a sophomore, went 10-2 and had been the last Polk bunch to win a district championship until last year.
The Wildcats are shooting for their second straight district title. Both Polk and Sequoyah are 2-0 in District 5-AA.
“To coach-speak, it’s the biggest game for us because it’s the next one, but, yeah, whoever wins this one will make the playoffs,” Davis said. “Even with a [district] loss, head-to-head would determine the winner.”
Polk’s Jared Allen is a win away from becoming the winningest quarterback to play for the Benton school.
As a starter, Allen has a 25-5 record, which ties the mark set by Russ Burrows in 1985-87.
“There’s no doubt that Jared is a big reason for the success we’ve had the last three seasons,” Davis said. “He’s been a starter at quarterback and at safety in addition to punting and kicking.”
Davis was a teammate of Burrows for one year.
“He won 25 games, which might not be a lot at some schools, but Russ is one of the best players that has ever been through here,” the coach said.
Caslin begins return
East Ridge lineman O’Shea Caslin, who was sidelined by neck surgery before the season began, has been cleared by doctors to resume some workouts. However, Pioneers coach Mike Martin said Caslin had not been cleared to return to the field in any way other than as an observer or coach’s assistant.
Rams’ Jones still out
Tyner will play Central tonight without Travis Jones, who had been the Rams quarterback until suffering a knee injury against East Ridge a couple of weeks ago.
“He could probably play – he jogged a mile the other day – but we want to be safe,” Tyner coach Wayne Turner said.
Jones has been replaced by Sean Neal, who had been playing some wide receiver and running back on offense and cornerback on defense.
“We miss a little bit there,” Turner said, “and we also took him off punt returns because he’s in there so much. But we’re really OK at quarterback. Sean was our starter there last year until Travis took over.”
Softball sweeps
Northwest Whitfield and Dade County joined Heritage, Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe, Gordon Lee and Ringgold in sweeping GHSA softball first-round playoff series Wednesday.
Northwest won 5-0 and 8-4 at South Paulding in Class AAAA, as Emily Boyd allowed no earned runs and seven hits in earning both wins. Mykeah Johnson drove in two runs in each game.
Dade beat Manchester 12-0 and 16-1, led by Elizabeth Burton’s six RBIs and strong pitching from Haleigh McBryar and Madison Gossett.
Calhoun gave the area northwest Georgia teams a 7-for-7 first-round sweep with a five-inning 10-1 win Thursday against Heard County. Calhoun, the No. 4 seed from Region 7-AA, won 8-0 and lost 7-2 against the Region 5 champion Wednesday.