Team Opens 2025 Season On Road at Red Bank
Evensville, TN -- Rhea County Football continues the preseason scrimmage and practices as they inch toward an August 22, 2025 opening on the road at Red Bank High School.
Eagles go from 5A Region 3 to 5A Region 4. Swapping out Howard for Lenoir City and Soddy Daisy. Both teams had successful 2024 seasons, so the league will be tougher. Eagles lost several very good players from last year's team, including it's top 5 linebackers, its top running back and quarterback.Gone are # 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, and Noah Patton.
This year's seniors include # 0 Eli Evans, # 2 Aiden Wilkerson, # 5 Mason Ford, # 7 Benjamin Simpson, # 10 Kaiden Rector, # 34 Cooper Smith, # 55 Max Daughtrey, # 61 Jaxson Skiles, # 65 Connor Mitchell, # 69 Eagle Rose, #79 Tucker Bradshaw, and # 84 Ayden Jordan.
Gone are Demitrius Patterson, Kevin Whitson, Clark Lockerby, and Ted Lockerby. Anthony Loden will also not be on the sidelines, but only coaching Spring City Middle this year.
Back are Zach Ddavis, Taylor Harvey, Brandon Ashley, Eli Evans, Matt Graham and Roy Guthrie. Two newcomers added this year include David Shonts and Jon Lovingood.
Rhea County presently has a roster of 91 players, with a very big 9th grade class of 42 and a senior class of 11 players.
Does the team have a goal for this year?
We have a goal to win the region and host a playoff game. Moving into a bigger region will make this tough, but our guys made that our goal.
What is the strength of this season's team?
Our team strength will be depth at OL/DL and returning the majority of our skill players from last season.
Who will be in your starting backfield?
"Our workhorse is going to be Mason Ford. He has accumulated back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons out of the backfield and has a lot on his plate. We will lean on him all year long. "
Talk about the new teams in the Region.
"We added two teams to the region this year who both made the playoffs last year and will make it even harder to make the playoffs now. Soddy will be a well-known opponent that we have played for years. Lenoir City will be a newer opponent that brings another physical opponent to the region. It will be fun for sure. "
Talk about your Freshman who have shown promise for varsity time this year.
"We have a big freshman class and still have 42 on the roster. There are several that could make impacts. Some of the guys pushing for time right now are DJ Donegan and Rorak Moody."
Have you chosen team captains yet?
"We do not have captains yet. We typically try to finish this week and get through the scrimmages to find out who we lean on the most and who our guys cling towards."
Talk about the difference between this year and last year due to having a full offseason to get to know the team.
"This year I was able to get the full offseason with these guys and full focus on the weightroom. Our guys have gained a lot of confidence off the field. We are able to now move into a more in depth scheme on both sides of the ball as they are more familiar with what we want to do and how we do it. "
Talk about upgrades already accomplished, lights and coming upgrades, scoreboard.
"The lights are going to be really cool for our community, players, and fans. The next move seems to be the jumbotron with the gracious donation from La-Z-Boy. This place is second to none when it comes to public school facilities in Tennessee and we will always be chasing what is next. "
Talk a little about the new coaches coming on staff during the offseason.
"We have had several staff changes this offseason. One of our two new hires are David Shonts who will be handling strength and conditioning and assistant OL/DL coach. Our other new hire is Jon Lovingood. He will be primarily DL and help with our Y backs as well. Both bring many years of knowledge and experience to the table."
How is depth looking at skill positions and line positions?
"We will have more depth at OL/DL than we did last year. We still currently have several people competing for spots. We return a lot of key skill players back from last year. As always, if we can stay healthy then we have a chance to be pretty competitive each week."
How has the linebacker rotation solidified as we approach our final scrimmage game?
"I like how we are progressing. Zeke Romero has taken over as one of our leaders defensively and will lead that room. Eli Evans has jumped back into the swing of things and seems to be playing well right now. We are gaining some good depth as we finish the last few weeks of practice and will have several rotators at LB as the season goes on with most of them being 10th graders."
How has Jaxton progressed over the scrimmages and practices as we approach opening day?
"He has grown a ton since summer. As he continues to mature as a player and as a QB, we as a whole will get better. His ability to pull the ball down and run will add more to the fold that teams have to be prepared for to handle us offensively."
Are you close to a starting lineup for the Red Bank game?
"We have a core group of guys that we have been repping as the 1's. This week for East Ridge will be the closest thing to a depth chart that we have. Since I have taken the job, we base playing time and reps off of practice film. We really try to create competition at practice and constantly make it where someone is pushing for your job and playing time."
Who will be looking to be top performers on offense and defense, kicking and special teams?
"Our guys that you can expect several touches from offensively each week will be #5 Mason Ford, #2 Aiden Wilkerson, #11 Austun Fugate, and #1 Jaxton Schmitt. Each one of them brings different things to the table and different things you have to defend. Obviously it all starts up front. If we can open holes for Mason to run through and protect Schmitt to get the ball in 2 and 11's hands, we will be fine."
"Defensively it will come down to can we limit big plays and make people snap the ball again. In high school, people struggle to put drives together. If we can just make people have to line up and snap it over and over, typically it will result in negative plays and we can get off the field. Our guys who you will hear making plays will be made up of #22 Zeke Romero, #61 Jaxson Skiles, #3 Tristyan Odum, #8 LT Donegan, and #10 Kaiden Rector. The guys listed above with 11,2,5, and even 1 will contribute defensively also."
"ST wise will be heavy on Fugate. He is our do it all guy. He punts, kicks, returns, and will be on the "hands" team. Aiden Wilkerson will be dangerous on the return side as well as he is one of the most explosive guys in the region. We as a coaching staff have to find ways to get him in space"
| Date | Opponent | Kickoff |
| 8/22/25 | @ Red Bank | 7 pmEST |
| 8/29/25 | @ Notre Dame | 7 pmEST |
| 9/5/25 | Ooltewah | 7 pmEST |
| 9/12/25 | @ Soddy Daisy | 7 pmEST |
| 9/19/25 | Lakeway Christian | 7 pmEST |
| 9/26/25 | East Hamilton | 7 pmEST |
| 10/3/25 | Lenoir City | 7 pmEST |
| 10/10/25 | Fall Break | 7 pmEST |
| 10/17/25 | @ Loudon | 7 pmEST |
| 10/24/25 | @ McMinn | 7 pmEST |
| 10/31/25 | @ Walker Valley | 7 pmEST |
| 2025 Region 5A Region 3 | 2024 Record | 2024 Region 5A Region 4 |
| East Hamilton | 9-4 | East Hamilton |
| Lenoir City | 2-7 | Howard Tech |
| McMinn County | 7-6 | McMinn County |
| Ooltewah | 1-9 | Ooltweah |
| Rhea County | 5-5 | Rhea County |
| Soddy Daisy | 9-2 | Walker Valley |
| Walker Valley | 7-4 |