Knoxville News Sentinel — Eli Owens knows Alcoa is accomplishing something special. CHATTANOOGA — Eli Owens knows Alcoa is accomplishing something special The Tornadoes padded their state record for consecutive TSSAA football state championships by capturing their ninth in a row, defeating East Nashville 42-20 Friday at Finley Stadium.
“We make sure to live in the moment. It’s fun while it lasts,” said Owens, a four-star junior tight end who caught four passes for 51 yards against the Eagles. “We’re going to enjoy tonight, we’ll enjoy the next weekend and we’ll probably enjoy the next few weeks. But once January hits all I’m worried about is December 2024. All I’m worried about is getting 10.”
The Tornadoes (13-1) have the second-longest active team championship streak in Tennessee among all sports. Hardin County has won 10 straight girls bowling titles.
Summertown girls golf and Cleveland wrestling are tied for the third-longest active streak with six straight. Cleveland has won six consecutive team wrestling championships and dual titles. McCallie boys cross country and Baylor wrestling each have won five in a row.The longest TSSAA team championship streak in history belongs to Baylor girls golf, which won 16 straight from 1995-2010. With nine titles, Alcoa now has the state’s third-longest team title streak all-time.
Alcoa broke its own consecutive TSSAA football championship record with No. 8 last year. The Tornadoes also won seven consecutive titles from 2004-10. Maryville (2004-07) and Brentwood Academy (2015-18) both won four in a row before.
The nation’s longest football state championship streak of all-time is 14 belonging to St. Louis (Hawaii) and Washington (South Dakota). Neither streak is active, nor was each title claimed through a traditional playoff system. St. Louis’ titles came in a bowl format pitting the state’s top two teams in one game. Washington’s were mythical titles determined by newspapers and rankings. More:Why TSSAA doesn’t use instant replay for football championship games while some other states do
Part of Alcoa’s challenge each season is staying motivated to re-climb the mountain in a classification it has dominated. It tries to schedule aggressively against larger schools in the regular season.
“When we hit this field today, the electricity in your veins … If that ever goes away, I’ll quit doing this. It’s too hard. The expectation at Alcoa is you win the whole thing,” second-year Alcoa coach Brian Nix said. “It’s an all-or-nothing thing. I wouldn’t judge the success of our team (based on titles), but definitely our community would, and our kids would feel like they’ve failed if they didn’t win it.”Reach sports writer Tyler Palmateer at tpalmateer@tennessean.com and on the X platform, formerly Twitter, @tpalmateer83.
