“It’s a rivalry game. It’s always fun.”
Those words from Stephens County High School head football coach Wesley Tankersley underscore the opening kickoff of tonight’s 47th meeting between the Indians and the Raiders of Habersham Central High School.
Stephens County owns the overall record in the “Battle of Currahee Mountain,” winning 33 of the previous 46 matchups, with one tie in the mix as well.
“Obviously, they have the upper hand in the rivalry,” HCHS Head Coach Benji Harrison said. “The last time we beat them was (2019). We’ve just come up short so many times with them.”
The Raiders are coming off back-to-back 3-7 seasons in their 2021 and 2022 campaigns, but Harrison made offseason changes to try to reverse the tide of the program. Challenging the players to buy in, maybe more so than in seasons past, and commit to playing a full four quarters of football on Friday nights.
“I think kids are smarter than we give them credit for,” he said. “You look at 3-7 last year from the outside, you say, ‘Gah, you weren’t very good.’ When we look at it from where we stand, we look at five of those losses, we were leading or within a score going into the fourth quarter. The margin was very small, and I think our kids understand that.
“I think we had the toughest offseason we’ve ever had,” he continued. “We made everything harder and made everything tougher and asked for more buy-in than maybe they’d given before. I think it’s made our team tighter.”
Harrison believes it’s the tough offseason that’s made his team more unified and that much more prepared for tonight’s Battle of Currahee Mountain.
Down the mountain, Tankersley, whose Indians are coming off a Region 8-AAA championship season, said there’s no need to pump up this game to his players.
“I don’t think we have to say too much about that aspect of it,” he said. “The kids want to win it. Just playing them every year and having that rivalry from rec league all the way up through high school, the kids want to win it.”
Tankersley is looking forward to seeing his 2023 squad grow into its own and knows that 2022 is in the rearview mirror.
“We lost quite a few kids from last year,” Tankersley said. “I’m just looking forward to seeing us battle good times, bad times and adversity. Seeing us grow as a team as we go throughout the year.”
Improving from 8-4 in 2021 to 9-3 a season ago, the Indians’ head coach sees the confidence in his players as they take the field being able to build on that success.
“As much as anything, it’s just confidence,” he said. “They have an expectation to win.”
Though the game has been left off the schedule eight times since 2001, Harrison still sees big meaning in the rivalry.
“I think it’s just as big as it’s ever been,” he said. “I think it means as much to the communities as it ever has. I think the fact that it’s Game 1 makes it even bigger, just the excitement of starting a new season and, when you get to start against Stephens, I think that adds to it.”
The Raiders and Indians kick off tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Mt. Airy.
Note: Benji Harrison is starting his ninth season as head coach at Habersham Central, tying the school’s first football coach, Fred McManus, for second-longest tenured coach in the school’s history. John Larry Black holds the top spot with 11 seasons under his belt.
“In today’s coaching world, I think it makes it hard to stay places for a significant amount of time for a lot of reasons. But when you find a place you really like, your family really likes, you feel like it’s a place where you enjoy coming to work every day, you’re just happy you’ve been able to make it that long.
“It’s not about tying (McManus) or (being the longest tenured coach in the school’s history), it’s not about that. The only reason I would like to do it is because I like being here and my family wants to be here. That’s what it means to me. I’ve been fortunate enough to find a place that’s been good and really been a good fit,” Harrison said.
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