Wrapping up the BlueCross Bowl
High school football in the state of Tennessee officially ended Saturday night when the Class 6A state championship game in Cookeville was complete.
For those who may have missed it, here’s a rundown of how each championship game ended.
Dresden beat Greenback 62-27 in the 1A championship, and Trezevant claimed the 2A championship with a 42-20 win over Marion County.
Alcoa won the 3A championship by beating Liberty 45-12. Memphis East put on a defensive display by beating Knoxville Central 27-3.
Farragut had a memorable comeback in the 5A championship to beat Independence 45-35. Whitehaven beat Oakland 12-9 in the 6A championship.
Lausanne defeated Knoxville Webb 12-9 in the Division II-A championship, and Brentwood Academy beat Montgomery Bell Academy 42-38 in the Division II-AA championship game in the closest finish of the weekend.
Here are a few more news of note from the weekend in Cookeville:
JCM represented in championship weekend: Bryant Bowers and Stephun Bush are a couple of players who were on Jackson Central-Merry’s final team in 2015. They and a few teammates transferred to Liberty and played in the Class 3A championship game.
JCM’s final head coach was Orentheus Taylor. He took an assistant coaching job at Trezevant and won the 2A championship, the second straight for the Memphis program.
That’s a stark difference for that group considering they went 0-10 a year before and we’re approaching the one-year anniversary of the night Jackson-Madison County Schools voted to close JCM.
Williams awards Liberty the trophy: Liberty didn’t win the gold ball Friday night, but they didn’t come home empty-handed as they brought home the silver runner-up trophy.
In an ironic twist of fate, they were handed that trophy by their district’s representative on the TSSAA’s Legislative Council, West Carroll Principal and newly-appointed Superintendent Dexter Williams. Williams was the first basketball coach at Liberty and led his Crusaders program to its first state championship in 2006 and another one in 2007.
Marley officially in coaches’ hall of fame: Former University School of Jackson head coach Mickey Marley was announced in September as a member of this year’s Tennessee Football Coaches Association’s hall of fame class.
That induction happened Saturday morning in Cookeville, so the coach who had 248 wins and five state championship appearances is now officially a hall of famer two times over including his 2012 induction into the Jackson-Madison County Sports Hall of Fame.
Eliminated by state champions: While every team that makes the postseason wants to win it all, it is some kind of consolation for teams who don’t win it that they were eliminated by the eventual champion.
USJ was eliminated in the state semifinals by Lausanne. North Side and Haywood were eliminated by Memphis East. Liberty was defeated by Alcoa. Peabody was eliminated by Dresden.
One more game: There will be one more high school football game in rural West Tennessee before the year is over. It happens Friday at 7 p.m. when Liberty hosts the fifth annual West Tennessee All-Star Game presented by SportsPlus.
Dyersburg head coach Bart Stowe and Scotts Hill’s Michael Stroup will be the head coaches for the game and will be joined by their coaching staffs and neighboring coaches of their choosing. The coaches will draft their players Monday night.
Brandon Shields is the high school sports columnist for The Jackson Sun. Contact him at 425-9751 or at bjshields@jacksonsun.com. Follow him on Twitter @JSEditorBrandon or on Instagram at jacksonsunsports.