WHITWELL, Tenn. – Drive into the heart of this map-dot town and it becomes clear that, at least for now, even Christmas is taking a back seat to the pride the Whitwell High School football team has brought to the community.
Instead of festive green and red holiday trim, many of the storefronts are decorated with Tigers paws, red and white balloons swaying in the breeze and large signs proclaiming to everyone driving along Highway 28 that their team has reached the pinnacle of Tennessee prep football.
Today, for the first time in program history, Whitwell will play for a state championship, taking on Cornersville at noon EST in the TSSAA Class 1A BlueCross Bowl at Tennessee Tech University.
When the team left Thursday evening, it was given a send-off that included emergency vehicles blaring sirens and flashing lights, fireworks lighting up the night sky and hundreds of folks lining the streets to let the Tigers know they were towing the town’s hopes with them on the trip to Cookeville.
“These kids have brought a lot of pride to our community,” Tigers coach Randall Boldin said. “It has really hit home for a lot of people, and I’ve even gotten messages from former players who live out of state now and just wanted to reach out and wish us luck. Everywhere you go in town, you can hear people talking about it, and you just know it’s a really big deal.