Whitwell's Evan Nunley kicks the winning field goal alongside holder Jaren Thames during the Tigers' Class 1A state semifinal victory against visiting Greenback in November 2018. As if the demands of taking over a program coming off the best season in school history weren't great enough, first-year Whitwell football coach Travis Olinger also inherited a scheduling mistake that has made the season's kickoff even more challenging.
When Randall Boldin stepped down as head coach to take over the Waverly program, he had completed Whitwell's schedule for 2019. What Olinger didn't realize when he was promoted from defensive line coach in March was that the Tigers had scheduled season-opening games against both Bledsoe County and East Ridge for Friday, Aug. 23.
Because the open dates on Whitwell's schedule did not match either Bledsoe County or East Ridge, Olinger was faced with a tough choice: Either pay the buyout penalty clause to one of those teams, which could have cost the Tigers more than $2,000 and forced them to take a forfeit loss, or find a creative solution.
After securing an agreement from both opponents to make a scheduling adjustment, Olinger and school administrators decided to allow the Tigers to play two games in the first week of the season, moving the one at East Ridge up two days and the visit to Bledsoe County back one day.
Whitwell now will open its season on Wednesday, Aug. 21, and three days later hit the road again for its second game.
"I got a call in late May from (East Ridge coach) Tim James asking me what we were going to do about the scheduling issue," Olinger said. "I wasn't sure what he meant until I went back and pulled the contracts and saw that our school had mistakenly signed to play both teams on the same date. There really wasn't a good or easy solution, but we had to figure something out. Buying out either of the contracts would cost us a forfeit and be pretty expensive financially, and since it was already May, we likely wouldn't have been able to find another game to replace the lost one.
"We had some mixed feelings about it as a staff, but once we really looked at it, this was the best option. It's not the type thing that you expect to inherit when you take over a program, and being a new head coach I'm still learning about contracts. It's a pretty tough situation, especially with the bumps in the road that we've had to deal with, and I've had my fair share of sleepless nights, but we've got a plan now and we'll just work around it.
"I did have one parent who came in pretty upset, but after I asked them what we should do and explained everything, they were more understanding. For the most part, everybody understands."
Whitwell's Jace Kilgore celebrates after the Tigers made a defensive stop during their Region 3-1A football game against South Pittsburg last October. Due to a scheduling mistake, the Tigers will open the 2019 season at East Ridge on Wednesday, Aug. 31, then play at Bledsoe County three days later.Whitwell went 15-0 in 2018, beating Cornersville 7-6 in the Class 1A title game to win the school's first state championship in any sport.
The Tigers return five starters on both sides of the ball and have a larger-than-usual freshman class of 18 players. When the team takes the field for the annual Sequatchie Valley Jamboree the Friday before its season opener, those freshmen and other backups are likely to do most of the playing.
"Fortunately we've got 48 on the roster as of now, and the plan is we're going to prepare to win both games, but we're also going to play a lot of kids to try and avoid getting anybody hurt," Olinger said. "We're not taking it easy, but we'll be in shells and helmets that whole first week and deal with the bumps and bruises as they happen. There won't be as much hitting that week at practice.
"It is good that neither is a region game, but it definitely changes the way we approach things. We're playing to win, but we're going to play the numbers game, too."
Whitwell's tough season-opening slate continues with another road game, at Chattanooga Christian, the following Friday. The Tigers finally play at home on Sept. 13 against Class 4A foe Signal Mountain and then settle into the region portion of the schedule.
East Ridge is currently scheduled to play its two jamboree quarters the Saturday before the Wednesday season opener, but James said he has requested to swap with a team that plays on Friday to give his players an extra day of rest before hosting Whitwell.
In another odd twist, the Pioneers' second game of the season will be at Bledsoe County on Aug. 30.
"It's an unfortunate situation that happened in between the changing of the coaching staffs at Bledsoe and Whitwell, so we're just trying to work with them and make the best of it for everybody involved," James said. "At first I was concerned about how it might affect our crowd, being a Wednesday night game, but now we're putting a positive spin on it and billing it as the first prep football game of the season in the whole state.
"Hopefully a lot of folks will want to come watch the defending state champions playing the Pioneers a couple of days before everybody else takes the field."
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.