The first weekend of December sure does seem to come faster and faster every year! Ready or not, it’s that time again. Let’s go down the list of the games coming up this weekend that we here at D1 Highlights are looking forward to.
Williamson County is well represented this year after being shut out last year for the first time in a while. The Ravenwood Raptors make their first 6A title game appearance since Coach Hester and the boys went back to back in 2015 & 2016. We are sure that the Raptors were looking for a good ole fashioned revenge game after being knocked out in the semi-finals game last year by the Whitehaven Tigers. Instead, they had to settle and take out their semi-final aggression on Houston. The big talk about the Raptors over the past few weeks has been about the phenomenal play of their quarterback Brian Garcia and the big decision that Reggie Grimes made to take his talents to the Oklahoma Sooners. Hopefully, the talk coming away from this weekend’s match-up with the Rebels will be another state championship for the Ravenwood Raptors.
#7 Keaten Wade
Also representing Williamson County’s “Wilco Sports Conference” for the first time is Coach Brian Coleman and the Summit Spartans. When the Spartans began their school and football existence with several winless seasons no one ever thought that they would see these newcomers in the state title game! If you have followed the Spartans journey up to this point like us then this year’s magical season would be no surprise. Nine short years is all it took for us to be able to cover the Spartans at the BCBS Bowl for 2019. This Spartans team is loaded with talent such as George Odimegwu, The Wade Twins Keaten & Destin Wade, and the “sack monster” Kiston Arnold.
We were hoping for a mid-state vs. mid-state matchup with the Nolensville Knights taking on the Springfield Yellowjackets. But the Knights fell just one round short to Elizabethon in the 4A semi-finals. Congrats to Coach Derrick and the Knights on an awesome season. We will, however, get to see if the Yellowjackets can avenge their 2017 loss in the 4A state title game to Greenville. This will be Springfield’s 2nd appearance in the last 3 years. Head Coach Dustin Wilson has put together a heck of a program in Springfield and we are excited to see if they can capture their first football state title in school history.
Finally!!! We get the matchup that we had hoped for last year in the 3A Finals bracket with our Metro Nashville heroes, the Pearl Cohn Firebirds, taking on the East Tennessee powerhouse Alcoa Tornadoes. I’m pretty sure that Alcoa has won 4 of these things in a row, and I’m also pretty sure that I’m not the only one who has felt that the Firebirds are one of the only teams who can put a stop the Tornadoes title streak! We will have our ey on a few Pearl players that could be difference makers in this game! Desean Wade will have his eye in the backfield the entire game looking to produce a few sacks along the way.
We will see you all December 5th-7th…Happy Blue Cross Bowl 2019
#TennesseeHighSchoolFootball
