Randy Smith: Please Support The TSSAA Championships

Maybe I've had my head in the sand lately, but I haven't heard a lot of chatter about the TSSAA State Football Championships (The BlueCross Bowl) that will be held at Finley Stadium this weekend. After trying for years to wrestle the games away from Middle Tennessee, the city of Chattanooga was finally successful in landing them beginning in 2021. Three days and nights of championship football featuring the very best teams in Tennessee will begin with the Division II games on Thursday and will continue with public school contests on Friday and Saturday. 

Unfortunately, there are only two local schools playing for state titles this year. McCallie will face MBA from Nashville on Thursday, at 7 p.m., while South Pittsburg will take on unbeaten McKenzie Friday at 3 p.m. A total of nine games determining nine state titles will be played in three days at Finley. It's a football fan's greatest dream.

For several years now Blue Cross/Blue Shield has been the title sponsor for the championship event. The BlueCross Bowl, as it's officially called, has spent the past decade or so in Cookeville, TN and to be quite honest, there were complaints about everything from lack of locker room space, to something short of a championship atmosphere at Tennessee Tech's stadium. Yet, Cookeville always seemed to embrace the event...the town wanted the games so it was successful in keeping them for 12 years. While the state championship games in Georgia are held at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, the home of the NFL's Atlanta Falcons, Tennessee played theirs at Tennessee Tech in Cookeville. That's a lot of disparity. 

Other than a decathlon or two, Chattanooga has missed out on some of the really big sporting events in the past few years, due to a lack of adequate facilities. Remember when Chattanooga would host the FCS National Championship Game or the SEC Women's Basketball Tournament? We lost both and haven't been able to get anything else to compare with them, until now. The TSSAA also started its "Spring Fling" here in the late 1990s and kept them for a few years, until the middle portion of the state whisked them away. It's only been a few years since Chattanooga was considered to be a real sports destination city with national baseball and softball tournaments held here on a regular basis, but not anymore. We have fallen behind in facilities and, perhaps, active recruitment of big time events. 

The BlueCross Bowl at Finley Stadium gives Chattanooga another nice opportunity for an event that will bring in a lot of money to the local economy. If the community will go to a game or two, and support these high school kids, we may be able to keep it for a while. If we don't support it, we'll lose it just like the other events we've had in the last 20-30 years. I'm excited about the games being played here in our city and trust me, they are a lot of fun to attend.