It’s been a long, slow climb back, but after more than five years of uncertainty, the Grace Academy football program will take a giant step toward a return to normalcy this season.
Since a violent tornado turned its entire campus to rubble in April 2020, Grace has been fighting just to keep its football program alive. The effort began later that year, when the TSSAA granted the school’s request to be allowed to play a nonregion schedule but resume region play once the roster returned to a number suitable for 11-man football.
That fall the Golden Eagles began a two-year stretch of playing eight-man football in a 12-team independent league due to low overall participation.
While that decision by veteran head coach and athletic director Bob Ateca came against the advice and wishes of several supporters and parents, it likely kept the program afloat until the roster grew to the point that a return to TSSAA region play is now possible.
The alternatives would have been to either shut down the program for a year or to continue to participate in 11-man football with only 17 players — which is where the roster was after the tornado left the school’s immediate future in doubt — which likely would have been disastrous for football’s long-term future at Grace.