The Bears of Cherokee Bluff are having an amazing season. In a fall when much of the attention in Hall County on Friday night might go to Gainesville, Cherokee Bluff has maintained an unblemished record. Head coach Tommy Jones will tell you it’s not just about being unbeaten, it’s about how it is being done.

“I definitely think it's a little bit of a throwback,” says Jones. “it's a real community feel. We can talk all about the intangibles and about controlling the things that we can control. We can talk about being a family, playing with great effort, and responding to adversity. Those are some of the pillars of the program.”

After a successful five-year tenure at Dacula in Gwinnett County, Jones moved to Hall County to launch a brand-new program in 2018. The Bears’ debut season finished with an 0-10 record. Just two years later Cherokee Bluff won 10 games. The coach takes extra pride in this year’s team.

Cherokee Bluff

Tommy Jones started the Cherokee Bluff program after a successful run at Dacula. He won his 100th game earlier this season.

Credit: Facebook

“This is year seven,” says Jones. “I think anybody will tell you that when you start a program that it's going to be a roller coaster. We’ve had some lean years. This is a special year. We have a group of kids that's very connected. I think an interesting thing about this year’s team is that every starter we have played on our middle school team. I think that's pretty rare in today’s culture. We’ve had the opportunity to watch them grow up through the whole origin of Cherokee Bluff. It just tells you that we've got kids they really care about each other and love each other, They are playing their butts off and having a good time doing it.”

Oddly enough the seeds for this successful season were planted after a disappointing 4-6 season in 2023 that included several close loses that left the Bears on the outside looking in at playoff time. Jones says it was a learning experience for players and coaching staff that carried over into the off season.

“Wisdom tells you that it’s never as good as you think and its never as bad as you think it is,” says Jones. “We have two really good years, and we won more than 10 games each of those years and  in the next two years we lost a lot of close games, its heartbreaking. I think our kids started the off season more determined to do whatever it took to get over that hump.”

The improvement began by installing some new schemes. And it wasn’t easy.

“It was challenging, installing new schemes,” Jones said. “We were looking at the personnel adjustments within our team. We also have a lot of kids in our program who play multiple sports. We had a lot of kids involved in track. and a whole bunch of kids involved in baseball. There were eight or nine on our baseball team that played in the state championship, so we didn’t those kids in spring. It took really until mid-June through July before we started getting the kid's back in the fold. We went to, 4- or 5-on-7s.  We hosted a padded camp here in July. It was good. We had eight  teams here. You can see it at the padded camp that there were pieces that started coming together.”

While the spring and summer activities went well, Jones felt that he still didn’t know for sure until his team took the field to start the season. Three weeks into the new year, the coach received some of the confirmation that he was seeking .

Cherokeee Bluff

Sophomore Dylan Haley has 14 receptions and two touchdowns this season.

Credit: Gainesville Times

“There were points in each of those games where our guys responded well,” recalls Jones. “We played Lumpkin County in the first game. They were coming off a fantastic year and they were ranked in the state at the time. They scored a touchdown and then our guys got it right back. It’s the way that you want them to respond to adversity. It was one of messages the coaching staff had for them during the offseason”

Last Thursday night Cherokee Bluff took a perfect mark on the road to Watkinsville to face Oconee County in a key Region 8-3A showdown.

“We have a ton of respect for Oconee County, Coach Hall and the job that those guys do,” says Jones. “They’re a perennial power In the state of Georgia. We talked all week long about it being like a heavyweight fight, it would be two teams that might not have the kind if offensive explosiveness that they've had in previous games and our kids had to be OK with it. They had to understand that we might not score 40 points in this game but every yard matters.”

Jones said his team handled the situation well.

“We talked about how it was going to take us playing really good defense, and special teams, taking advantage of some explosive plays, if we had the opportunity, and making sure that we stayed in front of the chains offensively,” he said. “I love the throwback way to play football. That's the way Oconee County plays, too. We're very fortunate to come out of that game with a victory. It could definitely have gone either way, but we made a couple plays that we needed to make when we needed to make them, and it helped us win the game”

The game was tied 3-3 at halftime and in the second half quarterback Brooks Brien threw touchdown passes to Malcolm Millsap and to Dylan Haley. Rylan Ackerman led a defensive effort that lifted the Bears to a 17-10 victory, raising their season record to 8-0. With their unblemished record and win over Oconee County, Cherokee Bluff is firmly in the Class 3A conversation. There is one place you won’t hear about being 8-0.

Cherokee bluff

Two-way player Landon Kemp leads the team with four interceptions.

Credit: Gainesville Times

“I don't I think we talked about it,” says Jones. “We don't mention it. It's something that once you get to Christmas and it's all over, you’ll look back. We'll let that be where we are at that time, but right now it's important that we're where our feet are and we're worried about being the best football team we can be today at 3:30 practice. “

This week Cherokee Bluff will journey to Jefferson for a battle between two teams that are unbeaten in region play. A Bears victory would clinch the school’s third region championship. Don’t expect Tommy Jones or his team to change their style.

 “For us to have success it'll be very similar to what we had to do against Oconee County last week,” says Jones. “We’ll need to play real good defense and we'll need to play with a fanatical effort. We need to have great ball security and play good special teams. I believe that those are things that make football what it is. People talk a lot about keys to success and what the secret sauce is, but it’s still a game of blocking and tackle and whoever blocks, tackles, and executes the best usually wins about 95 percent of time.”

This week Football Fridays in Georgia will feature Gainesville at Roswell. It all gets started at 7:30 p.m. on the Great GPB!