Knoxville Catholic football, coach Steve Matthews make 5A final despite jump in class

In August, Catholic coach Steve Matthews was planning for the last night of November.

The Fighting Irish don't do two-a-days when practice opens in the preseason. Matthews weighs the benefits with the risk of wearing out players before the end of the postseason.

"We want to be fresh toward the end," he said. "We knew we'd probably take our lumps early, which we did, but we feel like now we're playing our best football. And that's the goal of any team."

The schedule played into that. Catholic opened with what it expected to be three of its toughest games against Maryville, Baylor and Eagle's Landing Christian (Ga.). The Irish lost two of those three, and Baylor turned out to be an easier opponent than expected.

Matthews felt his team got better as it went, losing only to one of the top teams in country in Brentwood Academy, and is now right where he wants it to be: back in the state final.

Catholic (11-3), which won the 4A championship two years ago, takes on Beech (14-0) for the 5A title 7 p.m. Thursday at Tennessee Tech in Cookeville.

The Irish moved up in this season's reclassification. The team hasn't made too big a deal of the change, but it's certainly not lost on the Fighting Irish that they've been able to pick up winning in the higher class.

Catholic's enrollment is listed at 619 by the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, which would put the Fighting Irish in 3A. As a private school, that figure is adjusted for classification purposes to 1,114, which is still on the small end of 5A. There are people who think they belong in Division II as a private school instead of Division I and shouldn't be playing against public schools.

The distinction between the divisions is in need-based financial aid. Catholic does not offer it. Some Catholic churches offer scholarships to parishioners attending religious schools, but the TSSAA recognizes that as separate from the school. 

That doesn't stop the criticism. The Irish know what people say and tweet. It fuels them.

"It seems like every game people come up with an excuse for why we won," lineman Cooper Mays said. "They say we're crude, we're private and we shouldn't be playing them. We always come out with a chip on our shoulder. We don't really know who toward, but we always come out wanting to prove something."

Cooper's older brother Cade Mays, a former UT commit, boils it down simply.

"Everyone doesn't like us because we're winning," he said. "They say we're cocky and arrogant but we're just having fun doing what we do."