Football rivalries fill tonight’s slate
Tonight’s prep schedule features games of ‘intensity’
Highlighted by Class 2A’s topranked Marion County at Class 1A’s eighth-ranked South Pittsburg and Class 6A’s fourth-ranked Bradley Central visiting Class 5A’s fourthranked Cleveland, the Chattanooga area is full of high school football rivalry games tonight. And the players and coaches aren’t the only ones with vested interests.
“It’s not a region game, but it’s one of those you want to win. I can’t stand the thought of having to listen to them for a year,” longtime Bradley Central radio personality Gary Ownbey said of the Cleveland backers. “It’s the same thing on both sides of the street.”
South Pittsburg principal Danny Wilson has been involved in both of tonight’s marquee rivalries. He coached at South Pittsburg from 1987 through 1997. He was head football coach at Cleveland from 2001 through 2008 before returning to South Pittsburg.
“Both of them have an intensity,” Wilson said of the rivalries. “The big difference with Bradley-Cleveland is that there’s a lot more people involved. The county is a lot larger. But South Pittsburg-Jasper is a lot more personable to people.”
Marion County High School is located in Jasper, which is the name the school is referred to by the county’s opposing fans.
“They know when the game ends the Friday the week before the Jasper game, it becomes Jasper week,” Wilson said. “That’s what they call it around here.”
The only other time Bradley and Cleveland played with both owning top-10 rankings was in 1976 — a state-championship year for Bradley’s Bears. The Blue Raiders lead the all-time series 27-14.
“I’ve seen every one of them,” Ownbey said. “This game Friday is one of those games you don’t want to miss.”
East Hamilton, No. 7-ranked in Class 4A, hosts Class 5A Ooltewah in another neighborhood rivalry. The Hurricanes’ first varsity season was 2009. They began playing the Owls two years later.
The ’Canes have lost all five regular-season meetings. But they had
a rematch in the state playoffs in 2013 when both were in Class 5A and East Hamilton won.
Ooltewah public-address announcer Steve Ray dubbed the series the Battle of White Oak Mountain back in 2011. He said at one time there was talk within the community of having a trophy made that the winner would keep for a year, but nothing ever materialized.
As the largest-populated schools in Hamilton County, Ooltewah and Soddy-Daisy have had a longstanding rivalry. Ray believes the games against East Hamilton have moved to the top of the list because of the local bragging rights.
East Hamilton football coach Ted Gatewood formerly headed the program at Ooltewah. His daughter, Taylor, played volleyball for the Lady Owls and is a current member of their coaching staff.
“Ted had such success at Ooltewah,” Ray said. “Losing him was kind of like someone going over to the dark side. Of course, we love Ted.”
Knoxville Catholic (No. 1 in 4A) is playing tonight at Notre Dame (No. 2 in 3A) in a matchup of schools 98.5 miles apart, according to mapquest. com. But they share a common thread.
“We’re the only two Catholic high schools in our diocese,” said Catholic president Dickie Sompayrac, who played football at Notre Dame and also coached there from 1992 through 1998. “Having been at both schools, I do think there’s a healthy respect among certain people that know each other.”
Sompayrac recalls the first game played in Notre Dame’s current stadium. It was against Catholic in his senior season of 1987. It was 0-0 at halftime, but Notre Dame ended up winning 21-7.
“For two schools a hundred miles apart to have a good rivalry, the student bodies have to be excited for the game,” Sompayrac said. “That’s what makes it a rivalry. We should be bringing a fairly large amount of people.”
Another of tonight’s rivalries is between Chattanooga’s Baptist academies, Silverdale and Grace. They not only share the same denomination but also the same zip code.
“My freshman, sophomore and even into my junior year, they beat us in everything,” said Kelsey Dishroon, who has been the softball pitching coach at Silverdale since her playing days ended when she graduated from SBA in 2011. “Then when I started coaching, we started beating them all the time.”
Dishroon has followed the football Seahawks as far away as Copper Basin but said no wins are more exciting than those against the Golden Eagles — especially when the games are close.
She recalled having a stomach virus the day of a Grace game when she played, but went to school anyway. She remembered limiting the Lady Golden Eagles, who had a potent offense, to one run that day, but Silverdale still lost.
“I always got more pumped for the Grace game,” Dishroon said. “If we had been playing any other school that day, I probably would’ve stayed home.”
The description of a true rivalry can be found tonight in South Pittsburg, where this season the Pirates are celebrating 50 years of playing in Beene Stadium. Wilson recalled Marion’s Warriors playing there in the 1994 season opener.
The game’s only points came on an interception return by the Class 3A Warriors’ Eric Westmoreland, who went on to star at Tennessee and play in the NFL. Both teams went unbeaten the rest of the way and won state titles.
Wilson, who as the head coach had just led the Pirates to their first state championship since 1969, was awakened by a phone call at his home in the middle of the night. It wasn’t to congratulate him for bringing back the gold trophy.
“He said, ‘You should’ve beat Jasper,’ and hung up the phone,” Wilson said. “That tells you all you need to know right there.”
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him at twitter.com@KelleySmiddie.