H.S. FOOTBALL: Friends to clash at USJ

Andrew Goldsmith and Easton Underwood have been good friends for a few years since they played AAU basketball together in fifth grade.

They played football together in middle school at Jackson Christian for a season as well.

On Friday, the two will be opponents for a couple of hours as they take part in their final football game between University School of Jackson and Trinity Christian Academy.

Each player has had a productive high school career so far. Underwood has excelled one game into his third season starting as the Bruins’ quarterback. Goldsmith has been a key player on both sides of the ball for the Lions, playing running back and linebacker.

But things could’ve gone very differently.

Underwood transferred from Jackson Christian to TCA for his eighth grade year and was set to be there during the summer before his freshman year of high school. Underwood and a few other TCA athletes like Eli Parker and Lion alumni Kyle Akin and James Bonds knew Goldsmith well and said they’d love to have him join their team in purple.

“They even said that to my mom, and we didn’t have any plans to move,” Goldsmith said. “But then we decided to go ahead and make the move.”

So Goldsmith transferred and enrolled at TCA, joining his buddy Underwood. But having Underwood as a teammate quickly ended. Underwood thought he was good enough to be a starting quarterback, but Akin had already secured the starting job at TCA.

“The first week after school had started, my parents and I talked about it, and I decided I wanted to go ahead and transfer so I could play quarterback,” Underwood said. “I was nervous about telling [TCA head coach Blake Butler], but I talked with him in his office and told him what I wanted to do.”

Butler said there were options for him to stay at Trinity, but Underwood had his mind made up.

“I’d be playing safety and receiver for three years and then probably take over as the starting quarterback this year,” Underwood said. “I didn’t want to wait for that opportunity, and I didn’t want to be a quarterback for just one year either.”

Goldsmith said he wasn’t happy when he heard Underwood was leaving, but he understood why he felt he had to make the move.

So Underwood moved, and neither he nor Goldsmith played their freshman seasons. Because Goldsmith had been to more than three practices at Jackson Christian before he transferred, he was ruled ineligible for his freshman year. Because school and the season had started when he moved, Underwood had to sit out a calendar year as well.

Goldsmith became the best scout team player in Jackson that year as he helped prepare the Lions for their opponent each week as they improved from three wins the year before and went 6-4 and made the second round of the playoffs. Underwood had a year to also play scout team but also learn the USJ system under then-Bruins senior quarterback Ryan Garner before sharing starting QB duties with Jacob Denbrock. Since then, the quarterback position has been Underwood’s, and he performed well enough to be named All-West Tennessee first team quarterback last year.

The two, who are both seniors now, have one more game against each other, and as soon as it’s over, they’ll return to being friends.

“We talk every week or two during the season, keeping up with each other and how we did during games,” Goldsmith said. “And we’ll keep doing that.

“I think we’ll hopefully keep doing that next year when we’re both hopefully playing college football.”

Both players have a few offers to play college football, so that’s a possibility. But this week, they’ll each look for one more victory in this north Jackson rivalry.