Andrews – After having its best season in decades, Andrews football won all three of the Smoky Mountain Conference’s major awards: Senior Isaac Weaver was named Back of the Year, senior Drew Martin was named Lineman of the Year and head coach James Phillips was named Coach of the Year.
Weaver was an All-Conference player as a junior, and had an electric final season in a Wildcats uniform, sharing the conference Back of the Year award with Robbinsville junior Cuttler Adams. He finished with 1,494 rushing yards, 394 receiving yards and 34 total touchdowns.
Weaver’s impact was just as high on defense, as he had 40 tackles and 11 interceptions playing safety. He has an offer to play college football from Mars Hill University.
After sharing the Lineman of the Year award last year, Martin is the sole recipient this year. Starting at right tackle, he helped pave the way for an Andrews rushing attack that averaged nearly 300 yards per game, and kept quarterback Donovan Bateman upright most of the time.
On defense, Martin started at linebacker and led the Wildcats in tackles for the third straight season, finishing with 69 tackles, one sack and an interception. Andrews had the best defense in the conference, giving up only 13.8 points per game.
In his seventh season leading the Wildcats, Phillips helped lead Andrews to a 13-1 record, its most wins in a season since at least 1960. The Wildcats also won their first conference championship since 1983, and won three playoff games in a season for the first time while advancing to the Elite Eight in the state playoffs for the first time since 2011. The playoff run came in 2011, when there was both a 1A and 1AA playoff bracket, while this year there was only one 1A bracket.
Seniors Cole Anderson, Donovan Bateman, Austin Martin and Taylor Waldroup, as well as juniors Dalton Rose and Tyler West, were also named All-Conference.
Anderson started at wide receiver and defensive back, finishing with a team-high 551 receiving yards and six touchdowns while recording 23 tackles and five interceptions on defense. Bateman started at quarterback and defensive back, throwing for 1,427 yards, running for 302 and accounting for 19 touchdowns on offense, while recording 12 tackles and three interceptions on defense.
Martin formed a two-headed monster in the backfield with Weaver while being an intimidating defender at linebacker. He finished the year with 1,450 yards of offense and 20 touchdowns while recording 59 tackles, three sacks and two interceptions in his second year as an all-conference player. Waldroup played mostly on the defensive line, finishing with 32 tackles.
This is Rose’s second straight year as an All-Conference selection. He was Andrews’ starting right guard on offense while lining up mostly as a defensive end on defense, recording 55 tackles and a team-high nine sacks. West started at left offensive tackle and also recorded 22 tackles as a defensive lineman.
Seniors Alex Jones and Andy Tatham, junior Cameron Rattler and sophomores Eli Aguilar, Landon Greene and Colton Rose were named honorable mentions.
Murphy had seven players named All-Conference after finishing second in the Smoky Mountain with seniors Cameron Grooms, Jonathan Hamby, Cole Laney, John Ledford and Mason Thrasher, along with juniors Will Joyner and Hunter Stalcup. All but Hamby were named All-Conference for the first time.
Grooms had a starting role at wide receiver and defensive back, finishing with a conference-best 610 receiving yards and six touchdowns, while recording 27 tackles and an interception on defense. Hamby was All-Conference for the second straight season, starting at center and helping pave the way for an offense that averaged 375.6 yards per game.
In his first and only year as starting quarterback, Laney threw for a conference-best 1,609 yards and 18 touchdowns, and also ran for six touchdowns. Ledford bounced back after missing all of his last season with a knee injury to finish with 115 tackles and two sacks at linebacker and ran for 226 yards and a touchdown on offense. Thrasher played both ways at right guard and defensive end and was an especially disruptive player on defense, as 24 of his 73 tackles went for a loss, and he also had four sacks.
Joyner was much improved in his second year as the Bulldogs’ kicker, hitting 34 of 39 extra points and two of four field goals. He was the team’s kickoff specialist throughout the year, and slotted in as the punter by the end of the season.
Stalcup was Murphy’s engine on offense, carrying the team at times after some injuries on that side of the ball. His 2,204 rushing yards are the most in 1A, and he also had 315 receiving yards, 249 return yards and 31 touchdowns. On defense as a starting safety, he had 79 tackles and an interception.
Seniors Jeremiah Dickey, Will Johnson, Ty Laney and Kyle Willard, as well as sophomore Kadence Leatherwood, were honorable mentions.