How Metro Nashville high school football can make history in quarterfinals Friday

Maplewood coach Arcentae Broome has no problem recalling the “glory days” of Metro Nashville football.

After all, the 41-year-old Broome had a front-row seat for the city’s high school football heyday.

“It used to be when you came to Stratford on a Friday night there was a slim-to-none chance you were going to come out with a victory,” said Broome, a 1993 Stratford graduate. “It didn’t matter who you were.”

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That’s not bravado, either. 

In addition to Broome's Spartans compiling a 35-5 record two semifinal appearances from 1991-1993, Pearl-Cohn also won back-to-back Class 4A titles in 1996 and 1997, while Whites Creek  advanced to the semifinals in 1998.

“That’s just how it was,” he added.

And while Broome, who went on to play at TSU before returning to Stratford as an assistant in 1999, admits Metro football has lost some of its luster in the more than two decades since, it’s hard to tell by 2017 season.

“It’s one of those things where we’re all in this together, and we’re all pulling for each other,” Broome said. “Even though we sometimes have to play each other and you have that rivalry attached, I love the fact that we’re all in a position to win and advance.”

Metro is on the verge of having three schools — Cane Ridge, Maplewood and Pearl-Cohn — advance to the semifinals for the first time in the TSSAA playoff era (1969-present).  

“As Metro, we get a lot of flak just for being Metro,” Broome said. “The kids are undisciplined, they’re not coached and all that, but it’s really hard to advance in the playoffs the way we have if you don’t have a good coach and if you’re not a little bit disciplined."

Added Pearl-Cohn coach Tony Brunetti, "It's a blessing to the system. To have three teams have a chance to go to the semifinals, that's big. That's big for the Metro system." 

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Pearl-Cohn advancing to the round of 16 was a virtual lock even before the season began, and Cane Ridge reaching the quarterfinals for the second year in a row was a pretty safe bet as well.

Unlike the Firebirds and Ravens, however, not many expected Broome and his Panthers to be suiting up in mid-November.

“This year it was more just like, ‘Let’s just try and get better within Maplewood and be a better team than we were last year,’” Broome said. “I think maybe around Week 3 or 4 I started telling the kids, ‘Look, there’s a chance we could go far in 4A.’”

Broome can’t help but think last year’s Class AA basketball title has helped the Panthers — at least in terms of confidence. 

“There’s that buzz that a lot of the kids have heard,” Broome said. “Basketball won a state championship, so why not us. It’s one of those things where the kids see it and think, ‘We could do that, too.”

He’s certainly noticed a change in quarterback Bobo Hodges, who served as the starting point guard on last season’s state championship basketball squad.  

“We’ve had a couple talks, and I’ve told him, ‘You’re different this year,” Broome said. “It’s not like he’s playing any differently, but his attitude is different. He’s loose and he looks like he’s having fun, and I couldn’t necessarily say that last year.”

Added Hodges, who’s accounted for 2,999 yards and 32 total touchdowns, “I know what I want now, and I’ve got to get it."

The Firebirds (10-2), led by Mr. Football finalist Jimmyrious Parker (1,978 all-purpose yards, 16 total TDs), will square off against Region 6-3A champion Fairview on Friday for a chance to secure their fourth consecutive trip to the semifinals.

Cane Ridge (11-1), which captured first- and second-round wins over Centennial and Brentwood, will need to knock off yet another Williamson County foe, Region 6-6A champion Ravenwood (10-2),  to clinch its first semifinal appearance.

"The focus is it's the playoffs, and you can't ever look ahead," Cane Ridge linebacker Jahsun Bryant said. "We're just taking it game by game." 

Reach Michael Murphy at mfmurphy@tennessean.com, 615-259-8026 and on Twitter @Murph_TNsports.