August 27, 2021
By: Dwayne Page
The DeKalb County Tigers will host the Smith County Owls in the home opener tonight (Friday) in Smithville. Kick-Off is at 7 p.m.
As it turns out the game will be the season opener as well after last week’s game at Warren County was cancelled due to an outbreak of COVID exposure in the Pioneers’ program.
Speaking on WJLE’s Tiger Talk Program, DCHS Football Coach Steve Trapp said while the postponement of the game was a disappointment, it was the right call under the circumstances.
https://www.wjle.com/tiger-talk/
“We were definitely disappointed. Our guys had really been working hard all through fall camp, scrimmages, and jamboree to kick off the season and it got taken away from us with everything that Warren County was going through and battling. Ultimately it was the right call and while it is not set in stone yet we do share the same by week October 8 so depending on how the year goes and how everything falls into place we could still potentially play that game. It’ll just be October 8,” said Coach Trapp.
“The positive thing about it for us was we had a few guys who would not have been able to play last week anyway. It gave them some time to heal up and they are now able to play for us this week. Now we will have a few guys who won’t be with us tonight just because they are under the weather and Bryan Portillo, who has a knee injury, had surgery Thursday and he is out but the guys who are here have participated all week. They have battled and prepared and are ready to go,” he said.
The Owls come to Smithville tonight with an 0-1 season start after losing to their in-county rival Gordonsville last Saturday 14-0.
“ Those guys (Owls) play hard. You can see that on tape. They are very talented in the front seven on their defense. They have some good, young defensive linemen. Their starting quarterback is out with an injury so they will have a younger guy playing quarterback for them but they do multiple things on offense. We just have to be prepared for all the looks they will show and make sure that our defense gets our checks right. Our guys on offense understand what they are going to see up front but we’ve worked on it and must be prepared to do things correctly. We just have to make sure we’re clean concerning penalties, focused, and play extremely hard,” added Coach Trapp.
WJLE’s Pre-Game shows begin with “Coach to Coach” at 5:00 p.m. featuring former UT assistant coach Doug Matthews with former coach Dave McGinnis and broadcaster Larry Stone talking Tennessee and SEC football.
“Coach to Coach” is followed by “Murphy’s Matchups at 6:00 p.m., a look at Tennessee High School Football from Murphy Fair with commentary on games and coaches interviews.
“Tiger Talk” debuts at 6:30 p.m. with the Voice of the Tigers John Pryor interviewing Coach Steve Trapp and Tiger players Isaiah Harrington, Silas Cross, and Brandon Sykes.
The game kicks off at 7:00 p.m. with play by play coverage on WJLE with John Pryor and color commentary by Luke Willoughby. Listen LIVE on WJLE AM 1480/FM 101.7 and LIVE STREAM at www.wjle.com.