East Hamilton quarterback Nick Woods, left, and Stone Memorial safety Dylon Dishman were key players in 2015 when the Hurricanes and Panthers squared off in two thrilling prep football games. An intense region rivalry was quickly formed between the two schools.
photo by Dennis Norwood
It took East Hamilton and Stone Memorial less than one football season to fashion an intense on-the-field rivalry that often take other teams years to establish.
In the 2015 regular-season finale in Crossville, the Hurricanes and Panthers battled down to the wire, but an overthrown pass in the end zone wasted a potential East Hamilton touchdown and Stone Memorial won, 14-7, to secure a 10-0 season and the Region 3-4A championship.
After both teams won opening playoff games, the Hurricanes and Panthers squared off again in a win-or-go-home rematch – again in Crossville – in the second round.
This time, East Hamilton escaped with a stunning 28-16 upset – the win was built on a series of big plays from the Hurricanes’ offense – in a game orchestrated on avenging the team’s disappointing loss three weeks earlier.
“The matchups we had with them in those two games were pretty even and led to us playing two close ballgames,” said Hurricanes quarterback Nick Woods at Wednesday’s Region 3-4A media day at Finley Stadium. “We had our two best game plans in the games against Stone and every possession in those games counted.”
It was Woods’ errant pass in the final seconds that prevented the Hurricanes from scoring a touchdown that would have given the team at least a chance to tie the score, or possibly win it with a successful two-point conversion.
“We had opportunities to score, but we let the game get away from us,” Woods said.
In state playoff openers, East Hamilton routed Page, 32-7, and Stone Memorial walloped Giles County, 46-21, setting up the second-round playoff rematch.
The state-ranked Panthers were once again favored. Once again, the Hurricanes played the role of David.
“We were definitely thinking about revenge,” Woods said. “We had a different edged about us. I remember there was a lot of trash talking back and forth on Twitter. Ooltewah is our biggest rival and Soddy-Daisy games are pretty intense, but that second game against Stone was a big one, too.”
From the Stone Memorial perspective, the Panthers were pumped for the second game as well.
Their undefeated season was still alive, something quite amazing for a program barely 10 years old. They were legitimately hoping for a state title.
“When their last pass in our end zone was incomplete and we won, that was a great feeling,” safety Dylon Dishman, then a 6-foot-1, 165-pound junior, recalled Wednesday. “Because of their defense we knew we’d be challenged the second time. It was the best defense we played all year.
“They made some mistakes in the first game, but we made two in the second game that hurt us. Going in we fumbled at the 2 in the fourth quarter and that was bad. That was a big momentum change. The talk all season had been about the East Hamilton games and to end the season like that was heartbreaking.”
Woods hit Jordan Gorman on a 54-yard touchdown pass, Jeffrey Coleman raced 48 yards for a score and David Whiteside galloped 48 yards – his only run of the game – for another touchdown. Whiteside finished with 150 yards rushing on 24 carries.
While the Panthers packed their gear away, due to their only loss of the season, the Hurricanes prepped for a second-round contest against Marshall County. The Tigers posted a 17-7 victory.
Since November 2015 the Hurricanes and Panthers have fueled their fledgling rivalry through the offseason and have marked Oct. 18, 2016, on their calendars. That’s when the two teams will once again close the regular season, this time at Larry Henry Stadium on the East Hamilton campus.
“We know East Hamilton will come back as good as ever,” said Dishman, a four-year starter who also plays quarterback. “We want to go further in the playoffs this time and losing to them last year will be motivation for us.”
Don’t forget though. The Hurricanes will certainly know more about what to expect from the Panthers this season as well.
“Last year I didn’t know anything about Stone or Livingston (Academy),” said Woods, a Tennessee baseball commit heading into his senior year. “Now we know what they like to do. We’d like to be the first East Hamilton team to get past the quarterfinals in the playoffs; we want to set a new standard and leave our mark on the program.”
Central’s big man on campus
McClendon Curtis helped Central’s Purple Pounders reach the 2016 state basketball tournament.
Standing 6-foot-7 and weighing 295 pounds, Curtis is literally the big man on campus.
In less than a month, Curtis won’t be too hard to spot on the football field either.
Curtis, who sat out the 2015 football and a portion of the 2015-16 basketball seasons before regaining his athletic eligibility at Central, has now decided to return to the gridiron this season and will be joined on new coach Courtney Braswell’s squad by his brother, Gavin Spotts.
Curtis was one of Braswell’s first targets of potential new faces for the Pounders.
“I had told him if he came back to Central me and Gavin would play football,” Curtis said. “My dad, Greg Spotts, who is the pastor at New Home Baptist Church, and is part of the support for basketball and football at Central, talked to us and I decided to do it.
“I’m very excited. I haven’t played football in a while, but this feels right.”
Central, which has lost 13 consecutive games dating to October 2014, needs a lot of help while trying to compete in Region 3-4A. The Purple Pounders lost all 10 games last season, including six league contests, and were outscored 293-70.
Central wound up the 2015 season – the last under coach Gary Bloodsaw – with 38 players. Braswell worked with 73 at Wednesday morning’s workout.
Braswell, who has hop-scotched the area with assistant coaching jobs at Ringgold, Soddy-Daisy, East Ridge, Notre Dame, North Murray (Ga.), Central and Bradley Central before getting his first head coaching gig in a second stop at Central, jokingly said that he had to “convince, beg, cry” to get Curtis to join the Pounders’ football family, but realistically his effort wasn’t near that difficult.
“Not really,” said the 16-year-old Curtis, who added that he expects to play wide receiver, tight end, left offensive tackle and defensive end for the Pounders – Braswell mentioned receiver on short-yardage offensive situations. “I decided to give up football after the 2014 season at McCallie when coach (Ralph) Potter said things that hurt me and my family that hurt me. He (Potter) wasn’t with me quitting at all.
“Everyone at Central, it seems, wanted me to play football. I didn’t give much thought about the team going 0-10 last season. Coach Braswell is changing things here. We played 7 on 7 Tuesday and our legs were gone, but we still came back (Wednesday morning) with a great practice and that was a nice thing to see.
“Coach Braswell doesn’t put himself number one. He’s putting the players ahead of him. We’re learning a lot about brotherhood.”
Amazingly, Curtis already has received recruiting interest from Middle Tennessee State and offers from Appalachian State and Austin Peay.
“That kind of surprises me,” said Curtis, who consistently ran 4.9 40-yard dashes at a recent MTSU camp.
He still has a special place in his heart for basketball, but soon my face a difficult choice of deciding which sport to play at the college level.
“Football is on my mind right now,” Curtis said, “but if a Division I basketball opportunity comes around I’ll be there to take it.”
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow on Twitter @larryfleming44)