The End: No 11th Game For Lions

An additional game added at the end of the season no longer will be a possibility for the Cannon County football team.

Lions Head Coach Joel Schrenk had scheduled an 11th game, per TSSAA rules, at Wartburg Thursday; however, that plan was nixed when Wartburg upset Sunbright, 7-6, last Friday to earn a spot in the TSSAA Class AA playoffs.

The TSSAA allows teams that do not qualify for the state playoffs or a bowl game to schedule an 11th game if desired. Four to six teams generally take advantage of the seldom-used opportunity. District 8-AA member Upperman is playing host to Red Boiling Springs in such a game this week.

Schrenk said he will not seek another opponent for an 11th game and Cannon County's 2011 season is complete. The Lions finished the campaign with an 0-10 ledger and allowed 40 or more points in nine games. They allowed 39 in the other.

"I really didn't know this type of possibility existed but when (Warburg coach Rodney Ellison) called the more I thought about it the more I liked the idea. That's when we started seriously considering it so we scheduled it."

Schrenk said his intial reaction to playing such a game was "no," but the concept of playing time for some of the younger players was too good to pass up.

"I looked at it as another opportunity for our young team to get experience," Schrenk said. "We would have had some kids playing in that game who have not played a lot and that would have helped us for next year in terms of game experience, as well as an extra week of practice."

There are 23 freshmen on the Lions' 44-man roster and all but six players were either freshmen or sophomores.