October 27, 2023
By: Dwayne Page
The DeKalb County Tigers will attempt to do something tonight (Friday) that no other football team has done this season. Defeat the Upperman Bees.
https://www.wjle.com/tiger-talk/
The Tigers and Bees will renew their rivalry in “The Battle of Center Hill” at Baxter in the regular season finale. The Tigers are hoping to reclaim the oar from the Bees who have a six-game winning streak against the black and gold including a 17-16 overtime time win last year.
The oar, a trophy instituted a few years ago between these two schools, is affectionately nicknamed “The Battle of Center Hill,” because the teams are on opposite sides of Center Hill Lake.
The Tigers (5-4 Overall, 3-2 Region)) will be looking for their third victory in a row after wins against Cumberland County and White County. They have already secured a state play-off berth as the 4th place team from region 4-4A. The Bees come into this game at 9-0 and 5-0 in region 4-4A.
Tiger Coach Steve Trapp said he was very proud of his team’s performance in last week’s win at White County.
“I was really proud of them. They understood what was at stake and what it would take preparation wise and on the field Friday night. It wasn’t always pretty but those guys played extremely hard and bought into everything we were telling them and the adjustments we had to make to ensure we were in the right phase, and they did a good job with that especially in the second half. That was some fun football to coach and fun football to watch,” said Coach Trapp.
And tonight, the focus shifts to Upperman.
“They (Bees) are always very defensively disciplined. They play very good defense and don’t give up big plays. We have watched a lot of tape on them and you can count on one hand how many plays they have given up over twenty yards so you have to earn it and what I mean by that is you can’t have penalties, make mistakes, or get behind the chains and you can’t have turnovers. You also have to be good on first down and you have to convert third downs. You have to stay on the field and they (Bees) make it tough. Offensively, it might not look like that have a very big scheme but again they are very disciplined in what they do. They are a physical football team all the way around. They want to grind out the clock and move the football and score points. They do have the ability to throw the ball a little bit more than they have in the past but all of that is set up based on how they run the football,” said Coach Trapp.
WJLE’s Pre-Game shows begin with “Coach to Coach” at 5 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 p.m. A look at Tennessee High School Football from Murphy Fair with commentary on games and coaches’ interviews.
Following Murphy’s Matchups will be WJLE’s Tiger Talk program featuring host John Pryor interviewing Coach Steve Trapp and Tiger football players Malachi Trapp, Ari White, and Ty Webb.
The game will kick off at 7 p.m. and WJLE will have LIVE coverage with the Voice of the Tigers John Pryor and Luke Willoughby on AM 1480/FM 101.7 and on the LIVE stream at www.wjle.com.
Here are the Region standings: The top four teams earn a state play-off berth at the end of the regular season.
Upperman: 9-0: Overall, 5-0-Region
Macon County: 8-1 Overall, 4-1 Region
Stone Memorial: 6-3 Overall, 4-1 Region
DeKalb County: 5-4 Overall, 3-2 Region
White County: 4-5, 1-4 Region
Livingston Academy:3-6 Overall, 1-4 Region
Cumberland County: 2-7 Overall, 0-6 Region