BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. — West Ridge was created from a trio of Sullivan County schools, two (Sullivan South, Sullivan Central) of which played in Class 4A in Tennessee and the other (Sullivan North) played in 2A.
They are now playing in Class 6A, a significant jump in enrollment that means the Wolves are playing in the largest classification in Tennessee.
West Ridge handled that move just fine in 2021, the first season the Wolves were in existence, finishing with a 9-3 record and winning a playoff game. After losing nearly 30 seniors from that teams, West Ridge finished 4-6 last year.
No matter what happens in 2023, the schedule certainly isn’t easy for the Wolves. The Big East Conference is loaded as always, led by Science Hill and Dobyns-Bennett, which has two of the top five enrollments in the state. The rest of the schools are competitive as well, including Morristown East, Jefferson County and William Blount.
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West Ridge head coach Justin Hilton, in his third season with Wolves after spending four years at his alma mater, Sullivan South, expects the Hilltoppers to — literally — be difficult to stop thanks to speed, and lots of it.
The Hilltoppers were a perfect 5-0 in Class 6, Region 1 last season, winning two playoff games before finishing 8-5 with a third round playoff loss at Maryville.
“Our conference is going to be tough as always,” Hilton said. “Yu look at the paper on Science Hill, their track team, they have got all those guys running sub-11 100s and they play football so my goodness. I expect Science Hill should be phenomenal. I would be disappointed if they weren’t.”
Don’t count out Dobyns-Bennett, which finished 8-3, losing only to Greeneville, Science Hill and Bearden in the postseason. Still, that speed stands out to Hilton.
“Dobyns-Bennett is always going to be Dobyns-Bennett, but speed-wise, I think Science Hill is probably faster than anybody around,” said Hilton, whose Wolves will host the Indians for a second year in a row, while visiting the Hilltoppers for a second straight season.
The remainder of the West Ridge schedule includes two road games to open the season at Volunteer and Daniel Boone, along with home tilts against Tennessee High and David Crockett. After Cherokee went off the schedule, the Wolves added Lakeway Christian.
West Ridge has won both of its games against Volunteer, while falling in their first meeting with Daniel Boone last season, 33-0. The Jeremy Jenkins-coached Trailblazers had a terrific 12-1 campaign, losing in the third round of the playoffs.
“They were phenomenal. Jeremy does a good job anyway and they had all those seniors coming back,” Hilton said. “I think they are returning a bunch of guys offensively. I know the quarterback is back so they should be good again.”
Located in White Pine near Morristown, Lakeway Christian finished 5-7 last season, advancing to the second round of the TSSAA Division II-A playoffs in their third season of playing football, posting a combined 10-20 mark in those campaigns.
“Lakeway can recruit and I hear they have done a good job recruiting and gotten some guys in,” said Hilton, whose Wolves faced the Lions in a 7-on-7 competition last week at Sullivan East, a event that Lakeway Christian won with a pair of wins over Science Hill. “That will be a challenge because we are going to go down there and play them.”
The Lions showed the ability to score last season, putting up 48, 50, 52 and 43 in four of those wins.
“I think they are categorized as a private school, but they still have to play under TSSAA sanctions,” Hilton said. “If they went to the playoffs, it would be in separate divisions since they can recruit. Their facilities are really nice down in Morristown.”
One challenge that has also faced West Ridge since the consolidation of the three Sullivan County schools was created a feeder program its middle schools. Sullivan Heights was already in existence, while Sullivan Central Middle was added when the high school closed.
“We had to bring a lot of things that we had at those places here and then help them restock what they had down there,” Hilton said. “What has been positive is the head coach at Sullivan Heights was one of my former assistants for many, many years. At Central Middle we have got connections there with those coaches too.
“I think they said Sullivan Heights had 70 kids come out yesterday. My boy is there in the eighth grade so I have some interest there.”
West Ridge still has that new feel to it from a school that is just in its third year of existence. Hilton expects those facilities to only improve with time.
“I think there is a plan of trying to continue to add things and keep things updated,” he said. “Hopefully it not one of those where you build it, it sits and you hope things go well. I think they have got a continuous plan to keep things updated.”