I know what you’re thinking... 

Here’s Jon and “math” again... 

Well, to a point, yes... 

Not every school playing football does so with a full region schedule in mind. Remember when we caught up with Utopian Academy for the Arts, they said they were diving right into region play in Class A. Other schools don’t go in that direction. 

Eleven schools this year chose to construct non-region schedules. A lot of it has to do with enrollment size, participation levels, and factors like that. Most are in Class A-Division II and almost half of them are in Region 1 and most of the non-region schools lose more than they win on a yearly basis. 

towns

Towns County beat Murray Couny 42-14 in the season opener.,

Credit: Towns County Facebook

Two of them played one another last week -- Southeast Whitfield and Towns County. Jason Roquemore is the head coach of the Towns County Indians, who are 5-4 right now. He’s in his sixth season there after spending time at Johnson-Gainesville and he knew what he was walking in to when he first showed up in Hiawassee. The program has had only one winning season since it started in full in 1975 (The school did play in 1969 before stopping) and the five wins this year are the most since 2017. 

“When you decide whether or not you’re going to play a non-region schedule, you first go and re-evaluate your roster,” he tells me. “We only have four seniors this year and we have 15 freshmen. We’re real young. But it’s critical to build confidence in a place that hasn’t had a lot of success. One of the first things you do is change the culture so you can learn how to win and be competitive.” 

Towns must be the most isolated campus in the state from their Class A partners. Their closest opponent in Region 8 is 128 miles away at Lake Oconee Academy in Greensboro. But their football stack would have included two top-10 teams in Lincoln County and Greene County. With those teams out of the mix, Roquemore had to fill a schedule with ten instead of five games.  

“It’s not like it used to be,” he admits. “Our region has natural rivalries but we have to think outside the box. South Carolina is in a reclassification year and they were willing to play us. They’re closer to play us (five of Towns’ opponents are from there) and we have to look at teams that are comparing apples-to-apples for us on the field. We have a list in the off-season that we work from and look at things like competitive balance and the number of seniors the opponent may have.  

“It’s harder up here but it’s doable.” 

Roquemore admits that the community in Hiawassee has embraced the football program as they work. They want the program to be successful and fully understand that the school only has an enrollment of around 285 students total. The Indians started with 38 players and finished with 37 and Coach Roquemore is proud of his staff as they have had to “connect the dots” piecing things together. 

There’s a game on the board that he would like to make up to get his seniors a full ten-game schedule. Hurricane Helene put a stop to a game with Dixie High in South Carolina and Towns had, purposely, left Nov. 1 as their bye week. He’s hopeful the game can be made up but Dixie may be a 3-seed in their playoffs and they have some injuries that have to be monitored. 

Towns County

Junior Dustin Barrett has been one of the most productive players this season for Towns County.

Credit: Towns County Facebook

“Everyone in the community loves these kids that play here. And a little success on the field multiplies the confidence and all that love. Last year, we were 0-10. But they saw the kids played hard and the community has always been there. A little success creates a buzz.  

“You go and pump your gas and folks are coming up to you saying, ‘Hey, Coach, great win!’ The team will be in line at the elementary school car rider lot getting high-fives from those school kids as well. 

“We’re in this together here. Everyone embraces the family dynamic, and it makes it special. My wife and I knew the challenges coming here but there couldn’t be a better spot to be a part of a larger family. While we care about what’s going inside the lines, we care about what’s going on outside the lines as well.” 

Coach also mentioned that there will be times that he’ll be grabbing breakfast and get in conversations from supporters about what the team is doing. Being a foodie here, I asked about where he gets his biscuits in town. He referenced the Main Street Grill where you get (what he called) a “cat head biscuit.” Apparently, it’s homemade and it’s difficult to get a bite out of the bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit because it’s so large. 

Consider me intrigued ... and hungry ... 

But what you get from these conversations like these is a reminder: large or small, 285 or 2850 in a student body, that the more we think we’re different ... the more we’re the same. Some seasons may end sooner than others but all that time together has a greater purpose. 

It’s good to get these kinds of reminders every now and then... 

Play it safe, everyone... I’ll talk to you soon...