ErikG

When I researched this sort of thing several years ago the "oldest" rivalry I found was MUS and Christian Bros which first played in 1894. They've now played a total of 60 times over the years; the series is uninterrupted since 1989. The longest continuous/uninterrupted rivalry I know of is Harriman and Rockwood. They haven't missed a year since 1923 -- the only year missed since the two schools began playing in 1921 (when they played each other twice). Harriman and Rockwood are scheduled to square off for the 102nd time on 9/24/21 which, to my knowledge, is the most games in any series in TN history. Milan and Peabody have already played this season, their 101st meeting; they had an interruption in '99 & '00 which broke a continuous string dating back to 1930. Theirs might be the most competitive of TN rivalries with, say, 80 or more matchups, as Milan leads 51-48-2. Interestingly, if you consider the most often played rival for a TN school, it involves an out-of-state opponent. TN High and VA High first played in 1911 and have met 110 times. They missed last year with VA not participating in fall sports due to COVID and, strangely, won't be playing each other this season or next. Prior to 2020, TN and VA last missed a fall date with one another in 1943.

WEEK 11 D-B vs Alcoa (non-region Thursday game) Farragut @ Jefferson Co (R1-6A) Science Hill @ Bearden (R1-6A) SCENARIOS D-B, FHS & SH all win: (1) D-B (2) FHS (3) SH (4) BHS Only D-B wins: (1) D-B (2) FHS (3) BHS (4) SH Only FHS wins: (1) D-B (2) FHS (3) BHS (4) SH Only SH wins: (1) SH (2) D-B (3) FHS (4) BHS D-B & FHS win (SH loses): (1) D-B (2) FHS (3) BHS (4) SH D-B & SH win (FHS loses): (1) SH (2) D-B (3) FHS (4) BHS FHS & SH win (D-B loses): (1) SH (2) D-B (3) FHS (4) BHS All 3 lose: (1) D-B (2) FHS (3) BHS (4) SH

Looking at the open dates listed on the TSSAA site and also checking schedules on CoachT, these teams have all begun their seasons, were originally scheduled to play this week, but find themselves w/o an opponent: Scott (has only 4 home games scheduled) Chucky-Doak (has only 4 home games scheduled) William Blount (has only 4 home games scheduled) Perry Co (has only 4 home games scheduled) TN High (has only 8 games scheduled, 4 of which are home contests) Unicoi Co (5 home games scheduled) Cumberland Gap (5 home games scheduled) Coalfield (5 home games scheduled) Notre Dame (5 home games scheduled) Lebanon (5 home games scheduled) Springfield (5 home games scheduled) Crockett Co (5 home games scheduled) Oakland (6 home games scheduled) Then there are these privates, about which I know nothing in terms of their Covid status. None of them played week 1, but all of them had games scheduled for week 2 against public opponents that aren't yet playing. Franklin Road Acad. (7 games scheduled, 4 of which are home contests) MBA (8 games scheduled, 4 of which are home contests) Ensworth (8 games scheduled, 4 of which are home contests) St. George's (8 games scheduled, 4 of which are home contests) Harding Academy (8 games scheduled, 5 of which are home contests) MUS (8 games scheduled, 3 of which are home contests) Of course, new matchups may have been scheduled but not yet reflected on the TSSAA or CoachT sites, and/or by midweek there may be several other schools finding themselves w/o week 2 opponents.

Tues 1/22 Results in District 4-AAA (home team bold) Heritage 58, West 23 Bearden 57, Catholic 15 Farragut 48, William Blount 34 Hardin Valley 51, Lenoir City 50 District 4-AAA Standings 1) Maryville (10-1) 2) Bearden (9-2) 3) Farragut (9-3) William Blount (9-3) 5) West (6-5) 6) Heritage (5-7) 7) Hardin Valley (2-9) 8) Lenoir City (2-10) 9) Catholic (0-12) Fri 1/25 matchups in District 4-AAA West @ Bearden Catholic @ Hardin Valley Heritage @ Lenoir City William Blount @ Maryville

Tues 1/22 final scores (home team bold) Bearden 80, Catholic 54 West 73, Heritage 53 Farragut 57, William Blount 55 Hardin Valley 62, Lenoir City 59 4-AAA Standings 1) Maryville (11-0) 2) Bearden (10-1) 3) West (8-3) 4) Catholic (8-4) 5) Farragut (5-7) William Blount (5-7) 7) Hardin Valley (4-7) 8) Lenoir City (1-11) 9) Heritage (0-12) Friday 1/25 matchups West @ Bearden Catholic @ Hardin Valley Heritage @ Lenoir City William Blount @ Maryville

District 4 standings after tonight: 1) Maryville 8-1 2) William Blount 8-1 3) Bearden 6-2 4) Farragut 6-3 5) West 5-4 6) Heritage 3-6 7) Lenoir City 2-7 8) Hardin Valley 1-7 9) Catholic 0-8 Next week's matchups Tuesday 1/15 Lenoir City @ Farragut Hardin Valley @ Heritage Catholic @ Maryville Bearden @ William Blount Friday 1/18 Farragut @ Catholic West @ Hardin Valley Lenoir City @ Maryville Heritage @ William Blount

All Knox County schools now have field turf thanks to the Haslam Family. If I didn't have somewhere else to be, which I'm grateful is the case, I think I'd be at Dan Boring next Friday. Additionally, it's a 1-sided facility at Central smack dab in the middle of a very neat Fountain City community.

All I can say is WOW in regards to the locker room. Really appreciate the Ooltewah staff sending even more info than was requested to an out-of-town broadcaster. Very helpful and telling. Coach T visitors should enjoy an article from the Times Free Press by Davis Lundy (Gary's son for those in the Knoxville market) detailing the week-long preparation for Ooltewah leading up to its game with Cleveland this season: "A week inside the Ooltewah High School football program"

At least the TSSAA didn't punish the basketball teams for the actions of the football teams as they did a year ago with Unaka.

As it turns out Region 1 teams will redraw for their region schedule over the next 2 years. So maybe that will work out better where the Farragut-Bearden game is concerned. Thanks for the kind words and for listening. Tonight we've got a 1-hour pregame show (lots of series history stuff early in the hour) that will begin at 6 pm ahead of the 7 o'clock kickoff.

I hate that this game is during fall break. And with likely no changes to Region 1's membership for the next 2 year cycle, I suspect the region schedule for all teams will remain constant.

You're right, osunut. The first year for football at FHS was 1947, and it was mostly a "B" team schedule. There's an article in Clyde Floyd's Farragut Football Retrospective about kids in 1954 walking 3 miles to practice and those who couldn't attend the afternoon session during 2-a-days because they were needed to cut corn, take care of other farm chores or, in a couple of cases, worked as carpenters' helpers. Farragut remained a relatively small, country school through the middle 70s. The closest "big city" was Lenoir City. That's the background for how Farragut came to be derisively referred to as the "Farragut Farmers" by Bearden city folk. The tradition continues (though I wonder often times if either of the student bodies understand where it stems from) with farmer attire worn by the Farragut kids. Surprisingly, Bearden didn't field a football team until 1949. Speaking of Bearden, time to turn attention to the Battle of West Knoxville. It should be a dandy.

I haven't heard anything yet. Like you, I'm hoping he can go this week, but if he can't, at least there's an open date that follows. While Gavin is the more pure passer and possesses the stronger arm, I have no doubt that Jake has the full confidence of his teammates and the coaching staff -- and plenty of confidence himself. He's been getting close to half the reps in practice all season long. Farragut's fortunate; who besides Maryville has such a capable backup? Technically, no. But without a win vs. the Hawks, the Tribe would need a serious upset along the lines of last year's Jefferson Co - Science Hill game in order to qualify. By the way, Blazer, I don't know if you intentionally dug that 11-year-old FHS-DB thread out of the deep, dark recesses of the CoachT archives, but it was both a pleasure to revisit some memories of a very special team and sobering to reflect on some beloved individuals in and around the Farragut program at that time that are no longer with us. Time flies. 11 years ain't what it used to be.

Quite simply, we're all blessed to live in East Tennessee. As for the playoff picture, it's hardly as clear as a headwater creek. And last year's win by Jefferson County over Science Hill (completely changing the playoff positions) serves as a reminder that there are no givens. But if I had to guess where teams might finish with 3 weeks remaining, I think it's most likely that D-B takes the no. 3 seed. If so, that would have the Tribe almost certainly traveling to either the Owls' Nest or Bradley in the opening round. Hicks is a pretty special RB for D-B.

I'll hopefully leave this to those more adept at making changes to final scores than me. Last night's score was incorrectly posted on CoachT as a 42-21 Farragut victory. It was instead 42-20 (TSSAA got a correct report). With other sites that have been longtime sources for folks who need to know becoming more scarce, Coach T's data base since '01 is more valuable than ever.