Football Playoffs: Grace Baptist Longshot But Ready To Face Columbia Academy

Favored Bulldogs Have Won 21 Of Their Last 22 Games

Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Larry Fleming

Grace Baptist Academy sophomore running back/linebacker Cade Tinsley (9), a 1,000-yard rusher, and senior quarterback/linebacker Jared Thompson will lead the Eagles against unbeaten Columbia Academy on Friday in the Class 1A state football playoffs.
photo by Dennis Norwood

Many high school football coaches and players studied the TSSAA football playoff brackets this past weekend and saw the first-round match-ups – some of them were daunting, to say the least – and immediately thought about the long odds of surviving and advancing.

Grace Baptist Academy was among those teams. The Eagles (4-6) will be going against Columbia Academy (9-0) in Columbia, Tenn., on Friday at 7 p.m. local time. Admission is $8.

What about Tyner (4-6) playing a 9-1 Forrest? And Howard (3-7) against Sequatchie County (10-0). East Hamilton (5-5) plays 10-0 Marshall County on the road.

Don’t forget the Unaka-Greenback contest, this year’s most extreme first-round game. That matchup appeared so one-sided against 1-9 Unaka that Rangers players turned in their equipment following Friday’s 71-0 loss to Midway and walked away.

With Unaka coaches unable to persuade their players to change their minds, the school reluctantly forfeited the game.

For the record, Grace, Tyner, Howard and East Hamilton will show up Friday night and play some football.

“I don’t think any of us have that mentality of just quitting,” Eagles senior quarterback/linebacker Jared Thompson said prior to Wednesday’s practice. “We’d always give it a shot, no matter who the opponent was; we wouldn’t just give up.”

Grace Baptist will be appearing in the playoffs for the sixth time, the third in seven years under coach Bob Ateca. The Eagles have yet to win a first-round game in five tries and the losses were by an average score of 52-16.

But they’re going back this year and hope to win.

“We haven’t won a game since Week 5,” said sophomore running back/linebacker Cade Tinsley, a 1,000-yard rusher. “So we really want to win. We know it’s going to be tough, but if we play our best game we can win. I think this whole team believes that.”

Forfeiting a game is so foreign to Tinsley, it’s hard to even imagine how the Unaka players reached their decision.

“That’s their call and I can’t make that decision for them,” Tinsley said. “But I don’t think it’s the right decision. It’s the last time a lot of those guys will play football. I wouldn’t just give up.”

Grace, the No. 2 seed from Region 3-1A, opened the season with a 65-0 win versus Concord Christian, the same team Unaka beat 56-33 for its only victory this season. The point-spread differential in the Rangers’ nine losses went like this: 42 points, 13, 40, 49, 62, 66, 35, 46 and 71 in the grand finale.

OK, that’s nine tough pills to swallow. Giving up, most people would agree, was not the answer.

Ateca, who also had coaching stops at Houston County, Clarksville, Austin Peay and McCallie before arriving at Grace, and understands “to a degree” how the Unaka players reached the shocking decision to quit.

“I think parents and people in the community have probably been saying, ‘You’re 1-9 and gotten beat all year, why go play the No. 1 (ranked) team and get killed?’ That can get in the kids’ heads. If you’re not going to win, why play?

“If I were 1-9 and going against a 10-0 team in the playoffs, I’m not sure how positive I would be about that as a coach. I would be asking this: ‘Why is the TSSAA putting teams in a position to make a decision like the Unaka players made?’ ”

There was little positive about Unaka’s 2016 season. The Rangers were blown out eight times and shut out by Happy Valley, Hancock County and Midway. They were outscored during the season by 525-68.

What’s one more beating with their dignity still intact when the final horn sounded?

The only disappointment the Eagles have about this season is one goal they didn’t achieve – hosting a first-round game for the first time.

The uncertainty about reaching the playoffs was basically wiped out after Grace won its first two region games. When you’re in a six-team region, along with Copper Basin, Lookout Valley, Sale Creek, South Pittsburg and Whitwell, the postseason picture clears up pretty fast.

Obviously, Grace had a good idea where they would fall on the Class 1A bracket as well.

There’s another aspect of the opening face-off that’s as clear as Rocky Mountain spring water.

Columbia Academy is enjoying a tremendous run on the gridiron. The Bulldogs nine straight games this season and 21 of 22 over the last two years. That loss (21-14) came against Greenback in the 2015 semifinals. A week later, Greenback lost to Nashville Christian in the championship game.

Drill deeper over the past five seasons combined and the Bulldogs are 46-11 and haven’t been below .500 since 2011 when they went 5-6 and lost to South Pittsburg 76-21 in round one of the playoffs.

Grace Baptist would point out the Bulldogs played an exclusively Class 1A schedule. The Eagles have played six 1A schools, one Division II-1A private school, Silverdale (2A) and Chattanooga Christian (3A).

The Eagles were given a forfeit when Tennessee Christian Prep disbanded its team prior to the season starting. The Bulldogs’ season-opening game against Franklin Road Academy was canceled.

Throw what’s on paper a website because the game will be decided on the field and the Eagles won’t go into the game awed by the Bulldogs. They will be respectful, but now intimidated.

“Our kids have practiced well and to their credit have come to work every day with the same effort and attitude,” Ateca said. “That probably speaks to why we’re still playing. I told our kids that only 40 percent of schools in our state in our division are playing this week. You have to be proud of that.”

Ironically, the paths of Grace Baptist have apparently crossed before.

Unaka’s 2003 schedule posted on coacht.com has the Rangers beating Grace 39-20. The following year when Grace played a mix of junior varsity and varsity games, one game between the two teams shows up on both schedules. The Rangers won that one, 49-20.

Ateca, obviously, was not at Grace in 2003 and 2004 and former assistant coach Terry Knecht, who came on board in 2004, could not remember the Eagles playing Unaka when contacted by phone by Ateca just prior to Wednesday’s practice.

Twelve years later, the Rangers up and quit at playoff time.

But, the fact that Ateca’s Eagles are clearly an underdog, they will make the trip to Columbia and play a football team that may or may not end their season. They have a chance, simply by playing, to pull off an upset. They couldn’t do that staying at home.

What would the world have thought in 2007 if Appalachian State had decided to remain in Boone, N.C., and not play Michigan in the Big House.

The Eagles would rather think big.

Dream big.

And, unlike Unaka, the Eagles will travel the 300-mile roundtrip and play Columbia Academy.

Oh, by the way, guess who the TSSAA has come down hard on as punishment for Unaka’s football team quitting on the season? The school’s boys’ basketball team, which has been banned from 2016-17 postseason tournaments.

The 2016 TSSAA Football Playoffs

(All Games Start at 7 p.m. Local Time)

Class 6A

Cookeville (6-4) at Bradley Central (8-2)

Class 5A

Campbell County (8-2) at Ooltewah (8-2)

Walker Valley (6-4) at Oak Ridge (8-2)

McMinn County (7-3) at Farragut (9-1)

Lenoir City (3-7) at Rhea County (8-2)

Class 4A

Chattanooga Central (3-7) at Page (6-3)

Giles County (7-3) at Hixson (6-4)