The goal — however realistic — for every prep football team at the start of the season is to win each game on the schedule.
This year, five Chattanooga-area teams managed to maneuver their way through Tennessee’s 10-game regular season having accomplished that goal: Bradley Central in Class 6A, Meigs County (3A), Marion County (2A), South Pittsburg (1A) and Boyd Buchanan (Division II-AA).
As the TSSAA playoffs get set to kick off this coming week, those regular-season accomplishments — however impressive —no longer matter, although the goal of winning out resets for all 232 teams that qualified across the nine classifications, including 26 teams from the Chattanooga area.
But while there are no more than half as many games potentially remaining ahead — the six teams in each public school classification that can win five straight over the coming weeks will bring home state championship trophies, while the Division II playoffs are one round shorter for the three private school classifications — each matchup will get twice as hard with the pressure and anxiety that seemingly rests on every snap.
“We’ve proven a lot to ourselves and other people who doubted us in the regular season, but now we’ve got to keep doing it all over again in the playoffs,” Marion County coach Tim Starkey said.