By Staff
The update on the status of T.R. Miller's varsity football home game with Jay (Fla.) is pretty simple.
"Right now, there is no update," T.R. Miller coach/athletic director Jamie Riggs said.
Actually there is one updated piece of information.
"We're going to try to do everything we can in order to play it," Riggs said.
The status of the TRM-Jay game, which was originally scheduled during week 10 on October 29, became uncertain when the Alabama High School Athletic Association decided to reschedule the state's postponed week four games for the week 10 spot. As part of that switch, the state moved the week 10 games into week 11 and backed up the state playoffs a week.
The problem for T.R. Miller in that scenario is Jay already has a game scheduled for November 5 at Milton (Fla.) and is unavailable to play at that time.
That decision left T.R. Miller with three options. It could drop the Jay game and sit idle in week 11. It could find another school which had a game scheduled against an out-of-state team and play it. The final option would be to play two games in one week, one of them the Jay game.
Finding another school to play in week 11 is not a likely option. As it turns out, there are only two additional Alabama schools who had out-of-state opponents scheduled in the original week 10.
Ironically one of those schools is Escambia County, which T.R. Miller defeated 42-6 in its season opener. Escambia County was originally scheduled to host Northview (Fla.) in week 10. Northview is booked in Alabama's week 11 with a home date against Baker (Fla.). The only other Alabama school that had an out-of-state opponent scheduled in the original week 10 is Class 2A member Leroy, which was supposed to travel to West Florida.
"I don't see any scenario where we will be playing in that week 11 spot. I'm not interested in playing Escambia County again or Leroy. I want to play Jay," Riggs said.
There are two reasons why Riggs and T.R. Miller want the Jay game to be played. For starters, the Royals have a highly competitive squad this season and they figure to be a good tuneup for the state playoffs. Perhaps even more importantly, Jay figures to bring a large crowd to Brewton Municipal Stadium since it is only 15 miles away.
"It's hard to estimate what kind of crowd you're going to get get, but we're probably be looking at a $12,000-$15,000 gate," Riggs said.
Riggs said it is not just T.R. Miller which wants the game played.
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"Jay wants to play this game and their people are being very cooperative with us about what can be done to play it," Riggs said.
Which again brings up the possibility of playing two games in a week, most likely in the new week 10 spot where T.R. Miller is now currently supposed to host Abbeville on October 29.
"We might be looking at a Thursday-Saturday scenario or a Tuesday-Friday scenario. None of those are good for us, but it's really the only way we can pull it off," Riggs said.
Riggs said he hopes to have a final decision of the Jay game made by early next week.
Of course, all these headaches could have been avoided if the AHSAA had simply moved the postponed week four games into week 11 instead of moving week four to week 10 and week 10 to week 11.
"That would have made my job a whole lot easier. Instead of tampering with just one week, the state tampered with two. It's always been my belief you don't tamper with the regular season schedule, but the state officials didn't ask for my opinion," Riggs said.
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The AHSAA has made another adjustment with its postseason schedule.
Only the Class 3A and Class 6A state championship games will be held at Legion Field in Birmingham. The remaining games of the Super Six (Class 1A, 2A, 4A and 5A) have been moved to Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. Those games will be played Thursday, December 9.
Class 1A and 4A title games will be Friday, December 10. Class 2A and 5A will be played on Saturday, December 11.
The split in the locations came as a result of Legion Field hosting the SWAC championship game that weekend.
The T.R. Miller Quarterback Club has rescheduled its Tailgate Party for October 29, which has now become the home date against Abbeville.
The 20th anniversary celebration of the Tigers' 1984 state championship football team has also been rescheduled for the October 29 game against Abbeville.
The T.R. Miller Football Parents Picture Day will be November 4 at 5 p.m. at Brewton Municipal Stadium.