Winning.

It’s a phrase that’s has been mocked since Charlie Sheen used a few years ago.

For Ensworth football coach Ricky Bowers, it’s a way of life.

Bowers won in basksetball, football and baseball while playing at Montgomery Bell Academy in the 1970s. He won while playing basketball under Don Meyer at David Lipscomb University. He won as an assistant coach under legendary Carlton Flatt at Brentwood Academy. He won as a head football and basketball coach at MBA.

He’s taken winning to a new level at Ensworth.

Bowers and his Tigers are a win away from their fifth consecutive DII-AA title game. Ensworth has won four state championships in a row in the tough division.

Bowers, who is also Ensworth’s associate head of school, athletic director and head boys basketball coach (where he has also won four straight DII-AA titles), even won an appeal with the TSSAA to be able to coach in last year’s state title game after he was ejected following the team’s semifinals win.

In order to compete for another state title, Bowers and Ensworth must keep winning vs. visiting MUS on Friday. Should the Tigers accomplish that, the championship game will come against either Baylor or in a rematch against Bowers’ former team and alma mater in MBA. Ensworth won a 50-44, OT thriller over MBA on Oct. 2