Montgomery Central football sets old rivalries aside with new region

When the 2017 high school football season kicks off Aug. 18 it will debut new regions for just about every school in Montgomery County, including Montgomery Central.

The Indians hosted their own 7-on-7 passing competition Friday that included Friendship Christian, Stewart County, Waverly, Hickman County, East Hickman and Fairview.

Not one of those schools will be featured on Montgomery Central's schedule this season as most of the Indians' traditional rivalries will be gone.

The Leaf-Chronicle caught up with Central coach Jeff Tomlinson to discuss his new Region 5-4A schedule and his 7-on-7 competition.

The past four or five years have seen quite a bit of changes to district or region opponents. What do you make of this latest incarnation for you guys?

It's definitely brand new. We don't know a lot about our region teams other than Creek Wood. We know a little bit about Greenbrier, but I feel like the teams themselves are made up like we are. They have the same types of kids as we do. But it'll be tough on our coaches because we have a lot more prep work because we don't know anyone really. We don't know their kids either. It's going to be a weekly grind for the most part this fall.

Will you miss those rivalries that you've enjoyed with Montgomery County teams like Clarksville Academy and the past few years in your old region against Northwest and Kenwood?

The bad part is that the districts and regions have been switched around so much the past five or six years you can't really develop any kind of rivalry, at least we haven't been able to with the exception of the Academy. Luckily we still have Creek Wood on our schedule and we feel around here, locally, that Creek Wood is our biggest rivalry especially now that Clarksville Academy is gone.

How do you make that up?

Well we're still going to try to schedule some of the teams in our county. We have Kenwood on our schedule (this fall) and of course we lose the Academy. But we'll play somebody in this county each year. For us it's always been Kenwood just because I have such a good friendship with (former Kenwood coach) Brian Beaubien. So we kept them on our schedule, but next year we may have to find another school. It may not always be Kenwood. We'd like to keep playing schools in the county because it gives us a different opponent, a different look. And I think it makes us better.

Speaking of getting better, there's mixed emotions about 7-on-7 among coaches depending on who you ask. What is your opinion about them?

From a workout standpoint, there's nothing better in July. Kids get tired of looking at their teammates in the hot summer heat. They want to be challenged. This is a chance to be challenged and to get those competitive juices flowing. And more importantly, it breaks up the monotony of doing the same thing at practice every day.

Do you place much stock in these competitons?

I'm not looking at the score. I don't care about scores with 7-on-7's. I don't care about mistakes. If our kids make them, we'll fix them. Right now it's about bodies. We won't have much depth like we did last year. So I'm looking at who we have and where we can use them. This 7-on-7 gives us an opportunity to see where our needs are. So for those reasons, I love these things.

Reach Prep writer George Robinson at georgerobinson@theleafchronicle.com or (931) 245-0747 and on Twitter @Cville_Sports.