September 1, 2023
By: Dwayne Page
The injury plagued DCHS Tigers will be working hard to earn their first win of the season tonight after disappointing back-to-back losses against Warren and Smith Counties to open the 2023 campaign.
https://www.wjle.com/tiger-talk/
The Livingston Academy Wildcats will be coming to town for a showdown with the Tigers kicking off at 7 p.m. and WJLE will have LIVE coverage.
The Wildcats opened their season with a 9-0 loss to Trousdale County but they led 24-12 over Whites Creek at home with less than 2 minutes remaining until halftime last Friday night when an isolated thunderstorm with strong winds knocked out power in all of Livingston. The game was not completed that night because of the storm.
Speaking on WJLE’s Tiger Talk program, Coach Steve Trapp talks about his mindset preparing for tonight’s game.
“It’s the same mindset that we have always preached to these guys and that is next play, next day, next opportunity and to just take advantage of the day you have and work your best to become better. We have a lot of room for improvement, and we have been on these guys hot and heavy this week. After Thursday’s practice I told them to go out there to take advantage of the opportunity to fix it. We tell them any time it doesn’t go your way, set yourself up to do something great and if we do that it will feel great to get this weight off of us. We have had some sleepless nights thinking about these guys and how they have been performing but I love each of them. Ultimately it can change, and it will change as long as we stick to the process and buy into what it takes so we’re excited about tonight and the opportunity to go out again and get going,” said Coach Trapp.
Senior quarterback Briz Trapp suffered an injury last week that knocked him out of the game. Coach Trapp said the injury was perhaps not as severe as feared at the time.
“Anytime a player goes out like that you think the worst, but Briz had a clean X-ray. It turns out he suffered a sprained ankle. Briz has actually practiced every day this week. Kudos to our trainer. He has worked on a lot of guys this week but especially with Briz. He (Briz) has gotten better each day so it will depend on what we look like in pre-game to see where we go with it tonight,” said Coach Trapp.
The Tigers have reeled off three consecutive wins over Livingston Academy including last year’s 48-0 homecoming victory.
Adding to the importance of tonight’s game is the fact that it opens the region season for both teams.
“This is the first region game and they (Wildcats) understand the struggles we have had the first two weeks so they are going to come in here with a lot of confidence, a lot off hunger, and a lot of desire and they will play their tails off. Our guys need to understand that it is our first region game. We’ve added another team to the region (White County) so to get to the playoffs, it’s a tougher road so we don’t want to start in the hole,” said 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 Tennessee Titans Radio Broadcaster 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” airs at 6:30 p.m. with the Voice of the Tigers John Pryor interviewing Coach Steve Trapp and Tiger football players Aaron Hatfield, Jon Hendrix, and Wyatt Carter.
Kick-off is at 7:00 p.m. with play-by-play coverage on WJLE from the Voice of the Tigers John Pryor. Listen LIVE on WJLE AM 1480/FM 101.7 and LIVE Streaming at www.wjle.com.