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■ The Mountain Press ■ A8 ■ Friday, October 15, 2010
PREP FOOTBALL
Bears’ final regular season home game is tonight By JASON DAVIS Sports Editor SEVIERVILLE — With an eye on a spot at the TSSAA playoffs, the Sevier County Smoky Bears play tonight for the final time in front of their home crowd at Burchfield Stadium. The Smoky Bears (5-2, 3-1 in 2-AAA) will face the Cherokee Chiefs (3-4, 1-3 in 2-AAA) in hopes of continuing their three-game IMAC winning streak to remain in the conference’s second playoff slot. The Purple and White defense has SCHS linebacker/running back Brad Mason
been especially stingy since the team suffered a 28-14 loss to Dobyns-Bennett on Sept. 10. In the three games since, Sevier County has pitched one shutout and allowed an average of just over six points per game. Defensive linemen Jake Reppert, Ronnie Homerding, Thomas Hamilton and John Berry have led the way for the defense, while the linebackers have cleaned up almost all of the leftovers. “We want our defense to be unrelenting,” SCHS coach Steve Brewer said following the team’s 35-0 win over Seymour. “And I think that describes them right now, I think if they can just
keep that up for the next 12 quarters we’ll be in every ball game we play.” In fact, coach Brewer pointed out the lack of action for the Sevier County secondary in recent weeks thanks to the gusto of the team’s front seven. In the meantime the Smoky Bears offense has begun to click, scoring over 36 per contest. Using several options at receiver, including primary target Bryant Gilson, Sevier County’s Danny Chastain has begun to pass more and scramble less. But Chastian did scramble one play too See BEARS, Page A10
PREP FOOTBALL
Rematch of last year’s playoff loss gives G-P shot at redemption By COBEY HITCHCOCK Sports Writer GATLINBURG — The Gatlinburg-Pittman Highlanders’ mettle will be tested again tonight. Just a week after hosting District 3-AA rival Fulton Falcons for a 22-14 loss that helped the football Highlanders regain some face after an early season 52-14 Tye Marshall embarrassment against the 3-AA Gibbs Eagles, the Blueand-Gold team will hit the road tonight for match-up at 3-AA rival Austin-East Roadrunners, who dealt G-P a 64-0 season-ending playoff loss last November. That’s 64-0 in case you’ve forgotten, which no one on the Highlanders football team has done. “We’ve kindly had that up on our board all week, 64-0,” said 39th-year G-P Ron Durbin head football coach Benny Hammonds, moments before Thursday’s practice began. “We know what the score was last year. “I don’t know if we can use that as motivation, but for a game like this, we need as much motivation and as much gas in our tank and as much desire and want-to and hustle, and hopefully we play as hard as we possibly Walter Barber can, because that’s what it’s going to take to beat them.” Beat them? That’s something G-P has never done against A-E. In fact, the three times the programs have met since 1987, the Highlanders are 0-3 and lost those games by a combined 91-15 margin. So does G-P actually believe it can come out with a big W tonight, which would be the second district win of Hunter Meier the season for the Blue and Gold. “We can’t be intimidated by them,” said Hammonds. “They’re a good team ..., so we’re going to have to be emotionally on top of our game and have a burning desire to perform as well as we can and hopefully get some momentum early in the game.” They’ll also need their big-play threats to come up big, especially with the continued absence of injured tight end Ryan Taylor, along with Turner Merritt, Terry Phillips and Spencer Brien. G-P senior QB Tye Marshall continues to put up big numbers with limited opportunities. Through seven games, he’s completed 43-of-73 passes for 726 yards with 22 touchdown passes against just three interceptions. Despite throwing the ball just 10 times per game, Marshall is averaging over 100 yards passing per contest and his stats translate to an astounding 233.7 NCAA quarterback rating. Senior receiver Ron Durbin has been Marshall’s favorite target with 314 yards on 22 catches with nine TD receptions. Senior running back Walter Barber continues to lead the offense with 726 rushing yards on just 83 carries for an 8.75-yard average with 13 rushing scores. And junior Hunter Meier has been a tackling machine for the Blue and Gold this year with 64 stops, 16 more than the second-leading tackler on the team. chitchcock@themountainpress.com
Ole Miss tabs black bear new mascot Bear will replace controversial Colonel Reb By SHELIA BYRD and DAVID BRANDT Associated Press Writers OXFORD, Miss. — The new mascot of the University of Mississippi Rebels will be a black bear, officially replacing the goateed Southern gentleman “Colonel Reb” who was banished from the sidelines almost seven years ago. Thursday’s unveiling of the “Rebel Black Bear” is the latest move in the school’s effort to distance itself from symbols of the old South. The announcement came after a campuswide vote in February and months of polling. The bear beat out two other finalists, the Rebel Land Shark and something called the
“I think the fans of Ole Miss still want Colonel Reb. We have a petition with 3,500 signatures of “Hotty Toddy,” an attempt students who still want Colonel Reb as their masto personify the school cot and that’s the way it should be.” cheer. The bear received 62 percent of the vote in the final poll. “I know there was a lot of people emotionally invested in Colonel Reb and everybody might not completely agree with the bear, but I think everyone can be proud of how our students went about the process,” said Sparky Reardon, the university’s dean of students. Margaret Ann Porter, a co-chairman of the student mascot selection committee, said the bear was recommended because it had a Mississippi connection, would appeal to children and would be unique to the Southeastern Conference. Ty New, the other committee chairman, said
Brian Ferguson, 2007 Ole Miss graduate and member of the Colonel Reb Foundation
everyone in the university’s community — including faculty, students, alumni and season ticketholders — had a voice in the selection. “The fact that we were completely transparent through the process makes this a credible choice,” New said in a news release. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t griping along the way. In 1997, Ole Miss ended the waving of Confederate flags at sporting events. Last year, the band stopped playing the fight song, “From Dixie With Love,” to discourage
the fan chant, “The South will rise again.” And some of the colonel’s faithful sought to derail the search for a new mascot by staging protests earlier this year and in the last few weeks by gathering signatures to make Colonel Reb one of the choices. “I think it’s hypocrisy. I think the fans of Ole Miss still want Colonel Reb. We have a petition with 3,500 signatures of students who still want Colonel Reb as their mascot and that’s the way it should See OLE MISS, Page A9
PREP FOOTBALL
Seymour Eagles hope to break scoreless streak against south Knox rival Cherokees By JASON DAVIS Sports Editor
Seymour quarterback Dustin Fain
SEYMOUR — What better time to snap out of a funk than at Homecoming? That’s just what the Seymour Eagles will be looking to do tonight as they face IMAC and down-the-road rival South-Doyle. “(The players) are very excited about it,” Seymour head coach Jim Moore said about the game. “Most of the kids know each other, and a
lot of them have played baseball and football and everything down at the little league park. “It’s never been a big rivalry, generally because we’ve never played each other that much before. But now, since it’s a district game, I’m sure it’s going to develop into one.” Last year the Eagles trounced the Cherokees 35-0, but this is a different Eagles team — one that hasn’t scored in 14 quarters. And they’re playing a team that just broke
a 17-game losing streak with a win over Cocke County. “They won last week, and they’ve been the media darlings for the whole week — you can’t turn on the TV or the radio or open a newspaper without seeing or listening to South-Doyle,” Moore said. “It ought to be a good game.” Seymour showed some skill last week against Morristown East, despite losing 7-0. See EAGLES, Page A10