Farragut Football is seeking to improve and expand the locker room facility and needs your support. The Farragut Football Booster Club along with Coach Courtney is launching a fundraising campaign to help fund this project. Coach Courtney is determined to provide a first-class experience for the high school student-athletes in the football program. This campaign is essential to enhance the resources needed to support student-athlete development at Farragut. This addition would include positional meeting rooms, study area, nutritional fueling station, and a players’ lounge to be used to provide the best instructional setting for coaches and players to interact and provide the best support for all players.

The new addition would include four classrooms to be used as a space for small-group instruction between players and coaches. It will also provide a space for players to bond in a new players’ lounge. The facility expansion would need to be an approximate 2,800 sq. feet added to the east end of the existing football field house.

The estimated cost for this project is $300,000 for construction and installation of needed technology. Opportunities to give monetary donations or materials are broken down in the following categories with incentives.

Naming Opportunities-

• Name on Building = $100,000+ donation
• Name on Position Meeting Room / Lounge = $20,000 donation

Company / Materials Donations–

• Masonry Cinder Block (approx. 6,000 8″ blocks)
• HVAC (2-Ton Split Systems)
• Shingles / Roofing
• Concrete Slab
• Electrical
• Doors / Frames / Hardware / Labor
• Landscaping
• Grading / Excavation

Individual Donation Levels-

Donation packages will include varying levels of incentives including priority tickets for home games, discounted merchandise in the Battle Station, recognition in the media guide, representation on the FHS Football website, as well as displayed throughout the facility.

• 5 Star Admiral = $20,000
• 4 Star Admiral = $10,000
• 3 Star Admiral = $5,000
• Blue Level = $1,000
• Grey Level = $500
• White Level = $250

If you would like to help Coach Courtney and the FHS Football Booster Club with this campaign or make any type of donation, please contact Head Coach Eddie Courtney by email at eddie.courtney@knoxschools.org . Checks can be made payable to the FHS Football Booster Club.

The contracts have been signed to complete the scheduling for the 2023 and 2024 football seasons. No adjustments were made to the Region 2-6A alignment by the TSSAA so the Admirals will continue to compete with Bearden, Bradley Central, Cleveland, Hardin Valley, and Maryville for a Region Championship the next two years. The TSSAA did however schedule the region calendar in an effort to provide officials at each game every week. In 2023, Cleveland will visit Bill Clabo Field Sept. 1st along with Bradley Central on Sept. 29th. The Admirals will travel to Bearden on Sept. 21st for Rivalry Thursday following an open date, and finish the regular season with two straight road games at Hardin Valley and Maryville on Oct. 20th and 27th.

Coach Courtney and the Admirals’ coaching staff was able to fill in the remainder of the schedule with 5 non-region opponents. Farragut will open the season at home versus Kingsport Dobyns-Bennett on Aug. 18th and will host Powell on Aug. 25th. The Admirals last played Kingsport in 2020 in a Region 1-6A contest. Powell last visited Farragut during the 2016 State Championship season. The Admirals return to West on Sept. 1st to face the defending Class 5A champions before region play begins. Oak Ridge and Jeff County will visit Farragut on Oct. 6th and 13th to close out non-region play. The Wildcats and Admirals have played every year since 1992, but this will be the first October matchup since the two programs were in Region 2-5A in 2008. Jeff County was a first round opponent for the Admirals in 2022 and were region opponents in Region 1-6A from 2017-2020. All told, the Admirals will host 6 home games in 2023 so don’t miss your chance to purchase season tickets when they become available.

Four Admiral players were named All-State this week in Class 6A for the 2022 season. Reese Keeney (Mr. Football Finalist for Kicker of the Year) was named Class 6A 1st Team All-State by both the Tennessee Sports Writers Association and the coaches of the Tennessee Football Coaches Association. Joining Keeney were classmates Luke Johnson (Quarterback) and Ashton Auker (Wide Receiver) on the TnFCA Class 6A 1st Team All-State team. Returning Admiral linebacker Jack Alley earned 1st Team All-State as a junior from the TnFCA. Additionally, Offensive Coordinator Geoff Courtney was recognized as the Assistant Coach of the Year for Class 6A from the TnFCA.

Click the link to a story published in the Farragut Press.

November 9, 2022 by Bill Howard, Correspondent, Farragut Press

In post-season high-school football, each game is a win-or-go-home affair. “Survive and advance” is a common psychological approach.

Friday night, Nov. 4, at Bill Clabo Field, Farragut High School’s football team survived its first-round game of the 6A state playoffs against Jefferson County and advanced to the second round.

But the 17-7 home win wasn’t pretty. 

The Patriots (7-4) had more total offense than the Ads (9-2), numerous sacks and only three penalties (21 yards) to Farragut’s nine (86 yards). FHS did win the turnover battle 3-2.

“It wasn’t clean,” Admirals’ head coach Eddie Courtney said. “I thought at times we just weren’t disciplined enough. We got frustrated some. But our kids hung in there. We just kept making plays when we had to.

“They pressured a lot,” Courtney added about the sacks. “They brought that fifth and sixth guy. We didn’t pick them up enough.”

It was Courtney’s 200th win as head coach of the Admirals. After the game, FHS principal Dr. John Bartlett and athletic director Don Dodgen presented him with the game ball. (See photo on page 1A)

The game had numerous momentum swings, with both teams seldom able to capitalize. At least three times FHS defenders almost had an interception but didn’t grab hold.

Farragut took a 7-0 lead with 3:40 left in the first quarter when, on second-and-1 from the JCHS 35, quarterback Luke Johnson hit Ashton Auker over the middle for the score. 

Johnson was 16-of-24 for 224 yards and the TD to Auker. Landis Davila was Johnson’s favorite target, hauling in seven passes for 83 yards. Auker caught four for 73.

“I have all the trust in the world in my receivers,” Johnson said. 

“It kind of feels like a loss,” Davila said. “We’ll get some stuff together and come out like we usually do.”

A turning point came early in the second. Down 7-0, the Patriots were driving. On first down from the FHS 18, quarterback Izaiah Hall threw into the end zone. Admirals’ cornerback Jordan Sheppard went up and made a spectacular one-handed interception. 

Farragut took over on its 20 with 10:17 left and promptly drove 80 yards in nine plays for the touchdown and a 14-0 lead. Elijah Gibbs scored from 7 yards out on first-and-goal.

Entering the game with 1,094 for the season, Gibbs was held to just 70 on 22 carries against Jefferson County. 

Farragut completed its scoring with 3:31 left in the half when kicker Reese Keeney’s 24-yard field goal attempt was good. The Admirals went into intermission up 17-0. 

The Patriots’ lone score came on the opening drive of the third quarter when running back Bryson Letterman ran 28 yards for a touchdown. 

Jay Smiley had 11 tackles, five solo, for FHS. Kent Carbaugh had 10 total, seven solo.

A special thanks to Carlos Reveiz of CRFOTO for the action shots from the game. Be sure to check out CRFOTO.com every week for a full photo gallery from Friday’s game.  See a photo you like?  They are also available for purchase directly from his website.  Click here for this week’s photos.

November 3, 2022 by Bill Howard, FarragutPress

It was a game worthy of its storied rivalry, and of the playoff implications it carried.

Thursday night, Oct. 27, at BHS’s Bill Young Field, Farragut High School’s football team started slow and fell behind 7-0, roared back to lead 28-7, then held off a furious Bulldogs rally.

The 28-21 Region 2-6A win — the Admirals’ seventh straight — to end the regular season put FHS at 8-2 overall while finishing 4-1 in the region. Bearden fell to 6-4, 3-2. 

Farragut, region co-champs but the No. 2 seed due to a tiebreaker, will host Jefferson County (No. 3 seed from Region 1-6A) beginning at 7 p.m., Friday night, Nov. 4, in the first round of Class 6A state playoffs. Admirals skipper Eddie Courtney will be seeking his 200th head coaching victory while facing the Patriots (7-3).

Bearden, No. 3 seed, will travel to Kingsport to play No. 2 1-6A seed Dobyns-Bennett (8-2).

“I think we started off like we have been, played well the first half,” Courtney said. “We lost a little bit of intensity in the second half.“

“We were very inconsistent,” Bulldogs head coach Josh Jones said. “We did some good things and did some things we didn’t need to do. Having pre-snap penalties is totally unacceptable. Gotta do a better job of fixing that.”

It wasn’t a clean game either way. Bearden had 13 penalties for 91 yards and Farragut had four turnovers. In the previous nine games, FHS had six. 

The Bulldogs led 7-0 with 4:21 left in the first when quarterback Drew Parrott hit Ethan Ford for a 13-yard score. The Admirals’ offense in the first quarter was virtually nil.

But then came the second.

The Admirals tied it at 7 with 8:55 left in the half when quarterback Luke Johnson scored on a 1-yard keeper.  

After Ashton Auker returned a Bearden punt to the Bulldogs 25, Farragut needed but five plays to make it 14-7 when running back Elijah Gibbs took it in from the 2.

Late in the half, Jordan Sheppard intercepted Parrott and returned it to the Dawgs 2. On second down, Gibbs scored his second touchdown from the 3, and FHS led 21-7. 

“They weren’t long runs, but they were hard runs,” Gibbs said. “I felt like during this game we really needed a couple of those.”

Johnson (12-of-24 passing for 164 yards, one TD and one interception) hit Auker for an 86-yard bomb with 7:29 left in the third, making it 28-7. 

Bearden, however, rallied.

A fumbled punt by Farragut gave the Bulldogs the ball on the Admirals 42 with 6:46 left in the third. Nine plays later, Kai Ironside’s 1-yard run made it 28-14 with 3:09 left. “… That gave them a score and some momentum,” Courtney said.

Another fumble by Farragut put Bearden back in business late in the third. With 9:58 left in the fourth, Parrott went in from the 1, and it was 28-21.

“We kept competing, we were resilient,” Jones said. 

“That’s a good Bearden team,” Courtney said. “They took advantage of a couple things. …”

Bearden had one last chance, taking over with 3:43 left in the game on its own 17. A three-and-out gave the ball back to FHS, which ran out the clock. An 18-yard run by Gibbs, who was held to 48 yards on 22 carries, sustained the drive.

Auker had five catches for 129 yards and a score. “Luke was throwing me great balls and the O-line was doing a great job blocking for him,” Auker said. 

Junior linebacker Jack Alley had 13 tackles for the Ads.

“We just made too many mistakes to beat a quality team like Farragut,” Jones said.

A special thanks to Carlos Reveiz of CRFOTO for the action shots from the game. Be sure to check out CRFOTO.com every week for a full photo gallery from Friday’s game.  See a photo you like?  They are also available for purchase directly from his website.  Click here for this week’s photos.