Joe Gaddis, Oak Ridge Wildcats football coach
The Oak Ridge Wildcats will play McMinn County at home on Thursday rather than on Friday because of a high chance of thunderstorms on Friday, and a league championship game featuring Jefferson Middle School will start earlier Thursday.
The Wildcats game starts at 8 p.m. Thursday, October 8, on Blankenship Field, Oak Ridge Coach Joe Gaddis said. Gates will open at 7 p.m.
There is also a previously scheduled game on Blankenship Field on Thursday. That’s the Tennessee Valley Athletic Conference league championship game, and it features undefeated Jefferson Middle School and Grace Christian, which has lost two football games, including one to JMS. That game had been scheduled to start at 6 p.m., but it will now start at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Gaddis said.
He said there is a 90 percent chance of thunderstorms on Friday and Friday night, continuing into Saturday morning, and coaches didn’t want to take chances. The Wildcats have already had one game this season stopped in the first quarter and then restarted a few days later because of lightning.
The Wildcats are 6-1 overall and 3-1 in Region 3-Class 5A.
McMinn County is 3-2 overall and 2-1 in Region 4-Class 5A.
Oak Ridge and the Cherokees haven’t had any common opponents this season. McMinn County had been scheduled to play Lenoir City, a team that Oak Ridge beat 55-15, on Friday, September 11, but that game was canceled due to the same weather that delayed the Wildcats-Anderson County game.
After the Thursday night game this week, the Wildcats will have a week off and then play Webb at home on Friday, October 23.
The Clinton Dragons (3-4, 2-2 Region 3-Class 5A) also play Thursday, traveling to Knoxville to face the CAK Warriors (7-0, 3-0 Region 2-Class 3A) in a game that will be televised on MyVLT. It’s the first meeting between those two teams.
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