Wildcats To Play Games Friday And Saturday This Week

Two football games in a twenty-four-hour period is not ideal. But that is what the Livingston Academy wildcats will do this Friday and Saturday as they host Upperman Friday and travel to Jenkins Independent School in Jenkins, Kentucky Saturday.

While the TSSAA does not dictate that schools play ten games for the season. The rule is however, that if a team finds themselves in a tiebreaker scenario for a playoff spot, and overall wins come into play, a team with nine games played would not advance against a team with ten wins.

Does playing a Kentucky school count though? It does in the most general sense. If the tiebreaker involved, region wins, the win would be irrelevant.

What about travel? That is a three and half plus hour drive, across the timeline.

Head Coach Matthan Houser addressed just that saying they plan to travel between an hour and a half and two hours, about the length of what would be their longest typical road trip, then stop and eat and let the guys stretch out and get loose. They will then finish the drive, arrive around two hours before kick-off, play the game, and then repeat the process on the way back.

The game is also being played at 4:30 central time to allow the wildcats earlier travel time for the return trip.

One concern in playing the games with a short span between is the potential implication of the additional hits the athletes will take on the field, without the recovery time between.

TSSAA regulation states you cannot play more than eight quarters in a certain time frame. The only issue with a violation of the TSSAA regulation would be if either the Friday or Saturday game saw overtime.

SID and assistant principal Pat Teeples made clear “It is approved by TSSAA. We are working with trainers to make sure that kids do not go above the allotment.”

However, that assumes that the same starting players, play all four quarters against a 3-0 Upperman team Friday, and a Jenkins team Saturday that is a smaller school.

“It is a school, I would say, similar to maybe a Pickett County. they dropped football for a couple years, they’re bringing it back, a lot of enthusiasm to bring it back, but it is still a small school” principal Teeples informed me. He went on to say “it’ll be a varsity game, but I suspect JV players may spend most of the time in it.”

Coach Houser stated he and his staff presented the final options to their team and senior leadership council, ultimately deciding on the games on back-to-back nights.