This will be a very big Friday for football in Jackson County.
Two programs, Jackson County and East Jackson, have opportunities to snap postseason droughts with wins in their final games of the 2021 regular season. Neither will have an easy road to that playoff berth, however.
The Panthers are 5-4 on the year after an impressive 42-27 win over Greenbrier at home last week, but will now travel to Apalachee. The Wildcats struggled early in the year, but have gone 4-2 in Region 8-5A play and are just one win away from hosting a playoff game for the first time since 2009.
While there is a scenario that could see Jackson County make the postseason with a loss, a win would guarantee the Panthers a trip to the playoffs for the first time since 2017, and the first time under third-year head coach Rich McWhorter. McWhorter said it's been a steady build to get the program to the precipice of the playoffs.
"I really feel like we've been taking baby steps," McWhorter said. "When you take over a new program or come into a situation, I think every coach would look for things to happen a little faster, but it really hasn't. It's been kind of a slow process, but it's been going in the right direction."
Those baby steps have shown up in the win column. The Panthers won three games in McWhorter's first season, four in 2020 and five this season. Now, they're looking for just one more.
McWhorter said he's trying to keep his team focused on the task at hand and not the potential ramifications of Friday night's game.
"I've been in this situation as a coach," he said. "You just don't want to get all hyped up too early, and you just don't want to get them dwelling on 'what if we do win, what if we don't win'. Let's just prepare. It's Week 10, it's a great opponent," McWhorter said.
Meanwhile, about 12 miles east, another team is hoping that a slow program build will finally culminate into a postseason trip.
East Jackson enters their regular-season finale at 3-6 and 1-3 in Region 8-3A play. The Eagles' final opponent is a Stephens County team that is also 1-3 in region play, making this game a win-or-go-home situation.
While that may put pressure on an Indians team that had an outstanding start to the season, the Eagles are viewing it as a big opportunity. Cameron Pettus is in his third year at the helm in Nicholson and has provided something the program has had very little of in its relatively brief 15-year history: stability.
"It's just continuity. I'm one of the longest-tenured coaches at East Jackson that's been here," Pettus said. "The kids know that I'm going to be here, and I'm going to help them grow, and our staff's going to be here to help them grow, and we're not going anywhere and I think they really appreciate that."
They have certainly grown this year. After a 1-8 season in 2020, the Eagles have tripled that win total already this year and were just a few plays away from wins against West Hall and Gilmer earlier in the season. The biggest win perhaps of Pettus tenure to date came two weeks ago in a 26-0 shutout of Franklin County. It was the first region win for the program since 2016 and set up the opportunity that lays ahead of them now.
"You can feel it in the building during the school day. The kids are excited and not just the football players," Pettus said. "This group of kids, and this senior class that I have, just know how to compete. They bring the juice every day and they love it. It's a lot of fun to coach these guys."
So what about the games themselves? For Jackson County, the Panthers will have to find a way to stop a strong Apalachee wing-T running game that has presented problems for everyone in 8-5A this year.
"I've been really happy with the defense the entire year. Even in our worst games, they've done some good things. No way you're going to stop that offense at Apalachee, you're not going to keep them out of the end zone forever, but if we can just make them punt and take away a possession, that's the things we're looking for," McWhorter said.
For East Jackson, the Eagles will have to contain a Stephens County team that has athletes all over the field.
"We know that they're extremely talented. It's pretty much par for the course here in this region. We know that Friday night we're going to have to play extremely well to compete and beat those guys, and I told our kids we're going to have play the best game we've played all year," Pettus said.
While the challenges will be difficult, it doesn't make the possibilities any less exciting for two programs that haven't had much excitement in recent years.
McWhorter said making it to the playoffs after three years of trying to build the Panthers program would be well worth the wait.
"It would be huge because we would have set a new bar. I think when you take over a program, that's what you want to do, you want to keep setting bars a little higher and a little higher so next year's team will know that Jackson County is a football team that expects to win, expects to have a winning season and expects to get into the postseason."
