Due to growth in Wilson County, Middle Tennessee high school football history will be returning this season.
Wilson County has been growing seemingly at lightspeed over the past 10 years. As Nashville has exploded so have the surrounding communities with people looking for an easy commute to the city via interstates 40, 24 or 65. Most headlines just feature population growth but fail to dig deeper into the effects that has on the way things such as high school sports operate.
From the census of 2010 to the census of 2020, Wilson County grew from 113,993 to 147,737. This new growth resulted in the Wilson County Board of Education building a new high school. The city that was split between The Golden Bears of Mount Juliet and The Wildcats of Wilson Central, two 6A schools, are now joined by The Hawks of Green Hill High School.
The method of establishing the 6 divisions as well as the districts within is a precise process that not many people know about. The Executive Director of TSSAA, Mark Reeves, explained it like this:
Every two years the total number of schools that play football is put into a list from highest average daily membership, (or ADM) a number derived from enrollment numbers submitted to the school boards by the schools, to lowest and then divided by six due to the six divisions of football. That number, in this case 50, is how many teams go in each division. So back to the list of schools. 1-50 are put into 6A, 51-100 into 5A and so on. The map of the individual divisions is then separated into districts based on proximity, rivalries, and region. Reeves describes this part of the process as “our charge to group the schools into groups that make sense regionally and rivalry wise.”
The addition of Green Hill to Wilson County rezoned a lot of the athletes from Mount Juliet and Wilson Central, causing their overall enrollment to drop. This resulted in Green Hill, Mount Juliet, and Wilson Central all playing in 5A football. Mount Juliet and Wilson Central had been in 6A with rival Lebanon since 6A was first established in the 2009-10 season. Lebanon, however, was not affected by the reassessment and stayed in 6A. From 2020-2022 Mount Juliet, Wilson Central, and Green Hill became the new three headed rivalry in Wilson County, with the Golden Bears and Hawks who are separated by around just three miles as the crow flies, even establishing a rivalry name and trophy dubbed “The Mayors Cup,” now taking place in 5A. Lebanon was able to keep its historic rivals on their schedule only now as non-district matchups for the first time.
From 2020 to 2023 the population continued to rise as the county grew from 147,737 to 157,859. This rise in population naturally brought more students to the Wilson County School District, and as a result, drove up the ADM. Now as we approach the 2023 high school football season, we in Middle Tennessee have a Wilson County rivals district to look forward to once again for at least the next two years. Reeves expressed his own excitement about the new 6A District 4 saying, “There are a lot of reasons to be excited about Wilson County.”
6A District 4 will include: Mount Juliet High School, Wilson Central High School, Green Hill High School, Lebanon High School, Warren County High School, Cookeville High School, and Gallatin High School, which is another nice rivalry game for Mount Juliet.
After getting perspective from different individuals from these longtime Wilson County rivals and the new addition with Green Hill, the excitement is obvious.
Josh Crouch, Green Hill Head Football Coach:
What does this mean for your program as a whole to move up into 6A?
I think for our school, it’s the next step to where we want to be in relation to high school football in TN. We are excited about the opportunity to compete at a high level and continue to give our community a product they can be proud of every Friday night with stellar competition every week.
In what way does this most impact or change what you and/or your team do/does on a regular basis?
I think it’s a consistent approach of continuing to give our best for each other and the program. I see it as an opportunity for our program to continue to try and make a footprint for who we are in just year three at Green Hill.
Are you looking at this as an opportunity or business as usual? Does the move cause a sense of excitement or is it just a different number for your class and district with the same end goal?
I think it provides some excitement as well as continuing to be business as usual. Our goal in 5A was to make the playoffs and compete for a region title. I think that’s still the goal and attainable for us and our players. 5-5A was a difficult region, so is 3-6A.
The growth in Wilson County has been remarkable. With the rise in population and therefore the size of the schools, how has this impacted your ability to field your best possible team? Has interest in being on the team grown with the size of the student body?
I think we have a team full of players that have an invested interest in the growth of Green Hill. As our community continues to grow, so has our locker room. Being a part of building a brand-new school and creating a distinctive high school experience is something that’s unique to Green Hill. We are thankful for the area we are in and the support we have in our community.
What does it mean for Central, Mount Juliet, Lebanon, and Green Hill to all be in the same district? It should be a pretty cool thing for the community.
Three of us have been in the same region now for 2 years. Adding to a region with Coach Gentry and Lebanon with the success they have already had and proven to be a top-tier program in 6A will be an exciting test for us as a new program in a new region. Last year, all four of the schools in Wilson County made the playoffs in their respected regions. I will be pulling for all of us this year as well to make it in 6A together to compete against Region 4-6A. We are excited about playing ALL of Wilson County and igniting those local rivalries on Friday nights. There’s a pride here in the county and really good football programs with good coaches. We look forward to competing against all of them next year.
Trey Perry, Mount Juliet Head Football Coach:
What does this mean for your program as a whole to move up into 6A?
First of all, thank you for the coverage of our county. The move to 6A really doesn’t change anything about our culture or mindset to be completely honest. We have a standard here that we abide by called “GoldStandard”; that standard doesn’t really have a qualifying number attached to it. We want to outwork everyone, regardless of class, to put ourselves in the best position to compete and win.
In what way does this most impact or change what you and/or your team do/does on a regular basis?
It really doesn’t change much other than emphasizing the need for quality depth at all 77 available positions. The 55 most important ones are not on offense or defense.
Are you looking at this as an opportunity or business as usual? Does the move cause a sense of excitement or is it just a different number for your class and district with the same end goal?
I would say the latter for us in both questions; we’ve been here before and matched up with similar teams in the playoff bracket. I think being in 5A for me personally may have been more eye-opening. There are some well-coached teams in 5A that could compete and win at any level.
The growth in Wilson County has been remarkable. With the rise in population and therefore the size of the schools, how has this impacted your ability to field your best possible team? Has interest in being on the team grown with the size of the student body?
Our time in 5A was warranted; we were actually closer to 4A three years ago after Green Hill opened and we lost half of both our senior and junior classes. We take a lot of pride in a) not using that as an excuse to not compete at a high level regardless of numbers and b) we have done an incredible job at MJHS of sharing athletes across different platforms of sport. This was and still is key to our success and depth as a program.
What does it mean for Central, Mount Juliet, Lebanon, and Green Hill to all be in the same district? It should be a pretty cool thing for the community.
It means less travel and bigger gates! We can hopefully pay a few more bills and keep the lights on. In all seriousness, I said this several years ago and I don’t mind repeating it now. Wilson County doesn’t need to concern themselves with just what happens in this county; we need to turn our attention to the counties that bring home gold if that is indeed the mindset that we’re seeking (I can’t speak for every other program but I can for ours and we work at a level where the expectation is not based on just winning in county defining our season) and find out what is taking place in those counties that lead to titles…when we find it, we don’t need to copy it, we need to do it better. I believe we have solid football in our county; I also believe we can take the next step in the very near future in this county. It’s going to be an incredible opportunity!
Mount Juliet’s athletic director, Ryan Hill, echoed his head coach’s sentiments, pointing to 6A being an opportunity to face the best possible competition. “To be the best you have to beat the best” was the phrase Hill used to describe the new landscape his school is now a part of. To that end, according to Mr. Hill, 6A District 4 will be matched up against 6A District 3 which includes perennial powerhouse, and defending champion, Oakland. Like Reeves said, there are indeed a lot of reasons to be excited about Wilson County.
