When I pulled into Navarre, Fla. last Saturday and picked up a newspaper from nearby Pensacola, I was shocked to see that Florida teams had just played their season-opening football games. Gosh, I thought, somebody actually waited till Labor Day weekend, three weeks after Tennessee schools were cleared to play.
Maybe they’re smart enough in Florida to realize it’s too hot to play in the middle of August, but to be honest Florida, at least Florida in the panhandle, is no hotter and certainly no more humid that Tennessee, Alabama or Georgia. The Alabama and Georgia teams started a week after Tennessee but all started well before Labor Day.
It’s amazing that the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association continues to set its first week of games — Week Zero, they call it — in mid-August despite high temperature and humidity that clots much of the state from Memphis to Chattanooga to Knoxville.
On the way to Soddy-Daisy a few of weeks ago the car thermometer hovered between 100 and 101, occasionally tapping 102. Ditto for Week One at East Ridge the following week. The only saving grace at Soddy-Daisy was that humidity was relatively low, but trainers were constantly checking the heat index with an eye on delaying the opening kickoff.
Of course, heat issues are more prevalent according to coaches like East Hamilton’s Ted Gatewood, who has said more than once that today’s kids are raised in an air-conditioned society whether it’s at home, in the car or at school.
But anyone who doesn’t call his shots from an air-conditioned office has to question the rationale and the judgment behind this mid-August decision.
As much as wrestling and basketball coaches might holler, it would be so easy to take two events from each of the winter sports schedules and make up one week for football. Then eliminate Week Zero, set a 10-game, no-open dates schedule and go from there. Another solution would be to pare the number of football postseason teams in each classification and cut a week there. That would, of course, cut into money going into TSSAA coffers, but it would also eliminate a majority of mediocre teams with no business in the playoffs. The state did, after all, just recently add two more classifications.
Of course, there are those of us who remember well when school didn’t start until the Tuesday after Labor Day and the first football game was the last Friday in August at the earliest. Yep, it occasionally made for some bundled-up crowds by season’s end but I don’t recall a player dropping, cramping up or being sent to the hospital because he was dehydrated. The majority of high school football coaches in the Chattanooga area would vote for such a change as quickly as it would take to mark a ballot.
Did you realize that this past summer there was a bill ready to be submitted that would reportedly have shifted future school openings back much closer to Labor Day? I don’t think it ever got to the floor for a vote, apparently because so many school systems requested exemptions. It just couldn’t be done, they said. It could have been done; perhaps not this year but surely by 2012-2013 and certainly 2013-2014.
But if you think about shifting the TSSAA calendar specifically, how many of us have gone to a frozen at a mid-March baseball or softball game or a soccer match? Of course by the time spring teams get to the TSSAA’s postseason, and certainly by state tournament time, most seniors already have diplomas in hand.
There are health and heat-related issues to be considered. Yes, athletes might still be playing in 90s and in heavy humidity for a week or two around Labor Day but a two- or three-week shift on the calendar would mean they and other athletes in other sports were doing it much less often.
• Have you heard about the impact indicator? It is a device built into a football helmet chin strap that supposedly measures almost instantly certain functions that would indicate concussion-like symptoms.
A handful of NFL players including the Detroit Lions’ Ndamukong Suh will test the device this season. The device was developed by Battle Sports Science USA in Omaha, Neb., and is designed to measure the G-force and duration of hits.
• Walker Valley is one of the few teams that has yet to play a district game but that run will end this week for the Mustangs, who fell to 0-3 when a shootout comeback against Red Bank came up short (37-33). Walker Valley will host county rival Cleveland Friday.
• Both Boyd-Buchanan and Red Bank have been sliding on a slippery slope while managing to maintain unbeaten streaks. Boyd-Buchanan, which survived an overtime game two weeks ago with East Ridge, won 20-12 over Howard but got its last TD with just 1:15 to play. Red Bank is 3-0, sandwiching shootout survivals against Soddy-Daisy and Walker Valley around a 17-point win over East Ridge. The Lions have their second District 6-AA game this week when they go to Hixson to play the undefeated Wildcats.
• Taking note of defensive efforts, North Jackson allowed just two first downs and only 88 total yards as it moved to 3-0 overall and 2-0 in Region 7-AAAA. The win over DAR was a 55-0 shutout.
• Can’t throw, or won’t? Central attempted just three passes, completing one for zero yards, in a 12-7 loss to Cleveland. They’re determined to run the football but Cleveland showed them a streak just as stubborn, holding the Pounders to 108 yards and one TD on 39 rushing attempts. Of course, Cleveland loves to throw and the Blue Raiders got just 82 passing yards against the Pounders. It probably aggravated coach E.K. Slaughter, but would have more so if the Blue Raiders hadn’t notched their first win of the year after losses to Alcoa, Knox Catholic and Ooltewah.
• Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe is going to catch a break sooner or later. The Warriors, who lost to Heritage on the last play of the game two weeks ago, held a 17-14 third-quarter advantage against Model but just couldn’t hold on and fell 29-17. The Warriors have lost 14 straight dating back to the final game of 2009.
• Speaking of streaks, Signal Mountain’s win streak, which had reached 17 games, was scissored in a big way at Murfreesboro Blackman Friday, 72-35. The host Blaze broke it open in the fourth period with a pair of rushing TDs and two interceptions of Reese Phillips that were returned for scores. Phillips also had a pair of TD tosses to Will Queen and another to Jon Patton.
The game also represents the worst loss in The Eagles’ brief history and the most points they have ever given up. They also gave up 420 rushing yards (on 42 carries), which may also be a school record along with the 319 yards they allowed to Blackman rushing specialist I’Tavis Mathers.
Signal returns home this week to host Grundy County, a 29-14 winner over Whitwell, and another strong running game, this one featuring Johnny Cook. The senior shredded Whitwell for 163 yards and three TDs.
• Here’s another streak. Tyner’s lost three in a row. It’s the first time in Wayne Turner’s lengthy career with the Rams — he took over there in 1991 — that he’s had a team open the year with three straight losses. The Rams play this week against East Ridge, which had an open date last Friday.