Tennessee High’s football team will spend a lot of time in the Stone Castle this fall, but the two rivals located closest to the Vikings will not be paying a visit.
THS has finalized its gridiron schedule for 2021 and six of the team’s 10 regular-season games will be played at home. Dobyns-Bennett (Aug. 20), Pulaski County of Virginia (Sept. 3), Knoxville Karns (Sept. 10), Abingdon (Sept. 24), Morristown West (Oct. 1) and Cherokee (Oct. 29) will travel to Bristol to tangle with THS.
“It just sort of turned out that way,” said Tennessee High athletic director Barry Wade. “After looking at it with [football coach Mike Mays] we liked it. It’s a chance to recover some revenue that we lost from the year before [with attendance restrictions due to the pandemic].”
David Crockett (Sept. 17), Volunteer (Oct. 8), Daniel Boone (Oct. 15) and West Ridge (Oct. 21) are the road games for Tennessee High.
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Virginia High and Sullivan East are absent from the schedule.
It was announced last September that the longtime football rivalry between VHS and Tennessee High was being put on hiatus due to the growing enrollment discrepancy between the schools.
Meanwhile, East and THS haven’t competed against each other on the gridiron since 2010.
“[Sullivan East] principal [Andy Hare] and I had some initial conversations,” Wade said. “But we never really got deep into it.”
D-B will return to the Stone Castle to play for the second straight year.
“I feel like having those guys on the schedule makes us better,” Mays said.
Pulaski County and Karns will play the Vikings for the first time.
Pulaski is coached by Mark Dixon, who was an All-American offensive lineman at the University of Virginia, played six NFL seasons with the Miami Dolphins and also had stints in the World League of American Football and Canadian Football League.
He went 4-3 in his first season at the helm of Pulaski County as the Cougars lost to George Washington-Danville in the first round of the VHSL Region 4D playoffs.
Prior that, Dixon won 101 games and a state title in 10 seasons directing the Galax Maroon Tide.
While at Galax, he coached road playoff games against the likes of Haysi, Honaker, J.I. Burton, Patrick Henry and George Wythe.
Now, he’ll experience a regular-season showdown in Northeast Tennessee.
“I spoke with our AD, Scott Vest, and we both thought this would be a good challenge,” Dixon said.
It was a matchup several seasons in the making.
“We reached out to them,” Mays said. “In the past, they have reached out to us and we just couldn’t work our schedules out. Pulaski County’s got a great tradition and it will be a good gate. They are right up the interstate from us.”
Karns went 2-7 last year.
“We literally called almost everybody I could think of looking for a game,” Mays said. “That was a game I wanted to go up there and play, but they needed to play away, so I told them to come on up. They’re going to be a lot better and have an all-state running back.”
Wade and Mays both agreed it’s a challenge finding six non-conference games as the Vikings are now a member of a five-team league.
“We try to play at least one of the bigger schools in the area and we got two in West Ridge and Dobyns-Bennett,” Wade said. “Trying to find a non-conference game with schools our own size can be tough. Volunteer is in our conference in everything but football and they wanted to play us in that as well.”
Volunteer will be the first-ever opponent for the West Ridge Wolves – formed from the consolidation of Sullivan Central, Sullivan North and Sullivan South – on Aug. 20 in Church Hill.
Sullivan East opens its season on Aug. 20 at home against David Crockett.
thayes@bristolnews.com | Twitter:@Hayes_BHCSports | (276) 645-2570
Sullivan East
Aug. 20 David Crockett H
Aug. 27 Pigeon Forge A
Sept. 3 Grainger H*
Sept. 10 Johnson County A
Sept. 17 Seymour A*
Sept. 24 Unicoi County H
Oct. 1 Elizabethton H*
Oct. 8 Union County A
Oct. 15 Greeneville A*
Oct. 29 Volunteer H*
Tennessee High
Aug. 20 Dobyns-Bennett H
Sept. 3 Pulaski County (Va.) H
Sept. 10 Knox Karns H
Sept. 17 David Crockett A*
Sept. 24 Abingdon H
Oct. 1 Morristown West H*
Oct. 8 Volunteer A
Oct. 15 Daniel Boone A*
Oct. 21 West Ridge A
Oct. 29 Cherokee H*
West Ridge
Aug. 20 Volunteer A
Aug. 27 Daniel Boone A
Sept. 3 Science Hill H*
Sept. 17 Dobyns-Bennett A*
Sept. 24 Cherokee A
Oct. 1 William Blount A*
Oct. 8 David Crockett A
Oct. 15 Morristown East H*
Oct. 21 Tennessee High H
Oct. 29 Jefferson County H*
*Denotes conference game