Rhea County High School Seniors at Media Day 2024.(Photo:GaryBolden)

Rhea County Moving in Right Direction After Coaching Change

Evensville, TN -- Rhea County season ended several weeks ago in Oak Ridge in a tough loss on the road against Oak Ridge in the opening round of playoffs 7-6. Tha same Oak Ridge team is still playing after dispatching McMinn County and East Hamilton over the last two weeks. They face the unbeaten Sevier County team(13-0) this Friday night.

The Eagles finished the season with injury problems, but as we see, injuries are what teams deal with. The positive from the game was the defensive effort that gave Eagles a chance for the upset. So looking back at the season, the 5-5 Eagles have moved on from the end of 2023-24 season. The roster has been built up, A new coach and staff has put a year of experience behind them. Now as is normal, some fine young men will be leaving the program for the next stage in their life. Those players will be missed and will be replaced by middle school players moving up and maybe from the halls of Rhea County High School. The community response was good this year and one big positive was the involvement of the team in the community. Rhea County continued their tradition of supporting the team on the road. There were some tough losses and some exciting wins by this team.

After a tough opening night loss at Soddy, the Eagles defense improved, and offense was good until end of the season, when team health suffered and Eagles played two good teams. The Eagles scored a high of 48 points and a low of 5 points. On defense they began with 49 points given up on opening night vs Soddy and giving up 7 or less points 4 times with 2 of those being shutouts. I think it was a step in the right direction this year. So year two is in process. The first part will be saying goodbye to the seniors. Thanks to those who spent many years on the fields of Rhea County.

Thanks to # 1 Keshawn Smith, # 3 Kaden Knox, # 6, Austun Dunn, # 4Caleb Carr, # 13 Chauncey Odum, # 19 Ace Robinson, # 25 Baron Bruel, # 32 Kyzin Shelfer, # 38 Ethan Mosley, # 41 Blake Maynard, # 46 Carter Jolley, # 48 Zander Yeager, # 52 Ty Masters, # 62 Andrew King, # 73 Cade Whitcomb, # 75 Hayden Futrell, # 79 Mason Phillips, Noah Patton

Chauncey Odum had 131 carries for 762 yards and 5 touchdowns ahd added 10 catches for 171 yards.

Ace Robinson played all 10 games and had 101 solo tackles, assisted on 26 tackles for a total of 127 tackles. Ace also had 11 tackles for loss.

Zander Yeager played all tp ames and had 49 solo tackles and 21 assisted for 70 total.

Kaden Knox played in 10 games with 55 solo and 16 assisted tackles for 71 total.

Austun Fugate played in 9 games and had 40 sol and 8 assisted tackles for 48 yards.

Keshawn Smith led the Eagles with 7 of the 12 Eagles' interceptions on the year.

Sophomore Kicker and punter Austun Fugate will be back after puntin 21 times for 681 yards and accounting for 43 points on field goals, 31 of 34 on extra points and he added 4 field goals.and 3 receiving touchdowns for a total of 61 points.

Mason Ford provided a good year running with 541 yards rushing and 10 touchdowns.

Aiden Wilkerson led the Eagles in receiving with 463 yards, followed by KeShawn Smith with 312 and Austun Fugate with 223 yards. Junior Aiden Wilkerson was also a leader in special teams plays for his kickoff and punt returns.

Senior Caleb Carr had a very improved year at quarterback. Caleb completed 113 of 185 passes for 1355 yards with only 5 interceptions and 11 touchdowns. He added 93 yards rushing for the year.

Line play was very good this year on both sides of the ball.

Team had good unity and played with effort every night. Though 5-5 may not seem like a great record, it was a bit of a rebuilding year and there were several games that could have been wins. The loss to 6A team Cleveland(7-4) was a very good effort and the loss to Oak Ridge was obviously a tough loss. Congrats to the team and coaching staff for providing a very good season for the Eagles in 2024.

Coach Taylor Harvey was kind enough to answer a few questions about his initial season at Rhea County.

How does it feel now that you have finished your first year as coach of the Eagles?

• We ended the season on a disappointing note with a game we had several opportunities to win , but I am proud of this team for a quick buy-in to me and my staff. They worked hard to get better each week. We still have a ways to go ,but this group of seniors really helped us lay the groundwork for things to come.

What was the biggest surprise this year?

• I think we shocked people on how fast they adapted to the new scheme on both sides of the ball. We had a lot of guys make plays this year from new positions or new spots on the field and they will only get better as they get more comfortable in those roles.  

What lessons have you learned that should help you next year?

• I hope we learn that we are going to have a shot to win every game on our schedule. Even the games that we were outmatched with size or speed, we were in every game this year and had chances to win a couple that we dropped. 

What was the strength of this team?

• Our strength ended up being our defense led by Ace Robinson. Through the last 6 games we were holding people to just under 2 scores defensively on average and forced several turnovers. They kept us in every game down the stretch when we started struggling offensively. 

Will you go back and take a more detailed look at film during the offseason to see tweaks you may need to make on offense and defense?

• For sure. The tweaks will come based off of the roster we have next year and how it fits our guys. The scheme will only take us so far, we have to develop a better overall culture with our guys and continue to change their practice habits. 

Do you feel like the season went by quickly?

• It for sure flew by. I can't believe I have already been here for 8 months and year one is over. 

Talk about the community, the touchdown club and the fanbase and the relationship that grew over the year.

• We worked hard to build some broken relationships with our community, TD club, and fanbase. We will continue to do so , but I am very appreciative of the willingness to support our guys and everyone that helped us get through this season. These guys do a ton for our kids and our kids work hard to give them a football program that everyone is proud of.

2024 Rhea Scores	Opponent	Score
42	@ Soddy	49
35	@ Red Bank	7
35	Knox Central	14
24	@Cleveland	31
16	Walker Valley	0
22	@ McMinn County	35
48	Ooltewah	0
24	Tyner	22
7	East Hamilton	20
6	@ Oak Ridge	7