Stern tests await all Weakley grid clubs

Posted: Friday, January 4, 2013 12:00 pm

By MIKE HUTCHENS
Press Sports
The battle lines have been drawn.
And the enemies have been identified.
With the classification process for the next for years completed by the TSSAA in November and schools then placed in their respective regions, prep football coaches across the state were free to complete the scheduling process for 2013-14 recently.
Weakley County’s four entries all have their slates for the next two falls in order with three of those programs opening their seasons with Week 0 games — Aug. 23 of 2013 and Aug. 22 the year after.
Westview, which went 4-6 last fall for its first sub-.500 finish since the Chargers went 1-9 in 2003 and last missed the playoffs, has the toughest road ahead in 2013 of the local teams.
Martin will play six teams next year that made the postseason in 2012 with the collective records of its 10 regular season opponents 71-44 for a winning percentage of .617.
The Chargers — who will be part of a revamped District 13AA with Milan, Dyersburg, Crockett County, South Gibson and Obion Central — will play five teams that won nine or more games last fall, including Class 1A state runnerup Huntingdon and 3A second-place finisher Milan. Both the Mustangs and Bulldogs posted 12-3 marks in 2012. Huntingdon will move up in classification to Double-A in ’13.
Westview will have five home games and five on the road, continuing a tradition set in 2010 by opening its season vs. county-rival Dresden at UT Martin.
The Chargers will then play three of their next four games on the road, including a Sept. 20 matchup at Milan before returning home to face Dyersburg to end a stretch where their opponents went a whopping 57-17 (.770) a year ago.
The only team on the 2013 schedule to hold an advantage over Westview in all-time meetings is Milan, which has won 28 of 36 previous games.
Dresden, coming off back-to-back double-digit win seasons, will also face a half-dozen teams next fall that made the postseason in 2012. The combined record last season of the teams to make up the Black and Gold’s 2013 slate was 61-53 (.535).
The Lions — 11-2 last year when they made it to the Class 2A quarterfinals — will drop down to Single-A next fall.
Dresden follows up its Week 0 opener vs. Westview with a matchup vs. Trenton, a team it beat in Round 2 of the playoffs in 2012. A three-game stretch against McKenzie, Obion Central and Bruceton — which went a combined 5-25 a year ago — closes out the first half on next year’s slate.
Things get considerably tougher over the next five games, however, as Union City (7-4), West Carroll (9-3) Fayette Academy (9-3), Gleason (6-5) and Huntingdon (12-3) round out the schedule. Each of those foes made the playoffs last season.
Despite its classification adjustment, Dresden will remain in District 13A with McKenzie, Bruceton, West Carroll, Gleason and Huntingdon as league foes.
On paper, Gleason has the easiest 2013 schedule of the Weakley County lot.
Seven of the Bulldogs’ 10 opponents next year won three games or fewer last fall. Collectively, a group that includes Fulton County, Greenfield, Gibson County, McEwen and Scotts Hill — in addition to Gleason’s District 13AA opposition — had a winning percentage of just .378. Five of those foes made the playoffs in ’12.
League opposition Huntingdon, Dresden and West Carroll accounted for 32 wins from a list of foes that went 42-69 combined in the 2012 campaign.
The Bulldogs open their ’13 campaign with games at Fulton County and Greenfield on Aug. 23 and 30, respectively, before playing West Carroll on their first home date Sept. 6.
Greenfield, which snapped a 15-game losing streak in head coach Don Pitts’ first season, will play more teams that made the playoffs last year than any other Weakley County team — seven — in 2013.
The Yellowjackets are also the only local program to not have a Week 0 opener, instead seeing their first action against Gleason at home on Aug. 30.
G’field, 1-9 a year ago, will add Gibson County to its list of District 14A opponents in addition to Humboldt, Union City, Trenton, Lake County, South Fulton and Halls. The ’Jackets’ non-league opposition in addition to county foe Gleason includes West Carroll and Bruceton — the latter the team Greenfield beat to stop its season-and-a-half losing skid in 2012.
Greenfield’s future opponents went 52-59 (.468) a year ago. Published in The WCP 1.3.13