Fraiser Keeping Warriors Focused Amid Pandemic, Season Delay
On July 1, the TSSAA Board of Control was presented with three different options on how to approach the 2020 football season.
The first two involved a TSSAA-created region schedule, and seven or eight games, respectively. The third option would allow teams to keep their original schedule and play nine games.
While many teams are affected by any of those options, the White County Warriors find themselves in an interesting situation. Before last season, they made the decision to not play in a classification or a region, meaning they would have to wait two years before re-entering.
With 2020 being their second season as an independent, Head Coach Mark Frasier is working to keep them focused amid all the uncertainty.
“It’s a little unique for us, because some of those decisions there would not be great options for us as far as being non-region,” Frasier said. “As far as the options go, it is what it is. I’m still holding out hope that we’ll work something out and get the season started.”
Even though the decision to go non-region was made before he got there, the second-year coach says he really just wants to get the season started so they can get in as many games as possible.
“We were able to build a little confidence last year,” Frasier said. “We’re itching to get back in. We want to be able to play for state championships and the playoffs, and these kids want that as well. As far as this year goes, it may work out that we are put in a region this year just because of the uniqueness of the situation. Either way, we are excited about the way last year happened and we want to finish out this next season, even if we are non-region, and then get ready to go back in and compete.”
Regardless of what the TSSAA votes to do, Frasier maintains that he cares about the number of games they play more than who they play.
“My biggest thing is I want to play as many games as we can play,” Frasier said. “Any of those are fine with me, as long as we get to play.”
