Just before the regular season kicked off in August, my phone buzzed with a text message from a Hamilton County prep football coach.
Preseason scrimmages and jamborees had just wrapped up, and the veteran coach, who had witnessed dozens of area teams in exhibitions, was ready to make an educated summation: “The area’s best public school football is gonna be in the Sequatchie Valley. Find a team over there that isn’t loaded.”
Nearly three months later, that text turned out to be the most accurate prediction so far this season.
When the TSSAA playoffs kick off Friday night, the road to next month’s BlueCross Bowl state finals at Chattanooga’s Finley Stadium will run through the tradition-rich Sequatchie Valley for Classes 1A, 2A and 3A. Not only did all six Valley teams qualify, five earned the right to host playoff games by finishing among their region’s top two seeds.
Those same five — Class 3A’s Sequatchie County (9-1), 2A’s Bledsoe County (9-1) and Marion County (8-2), and 1A’s South Pittsburg (8-2) and Whitwell (7-3) — are also ranked among the state’s top 10 in their respective classifications in this week’s TSWA polls. Factor in Grundy County (at 4-6 the only Valley team that will travel in the first round), and 11 of those teams’ 45 combined wins came against teams in higher classifications, proving they are battle tested for the type of competition they will face in the postseason’s coming weeks.