Members of the Manchester Grunt at this weekend’s Battle in Rocky Top
The Manchester Grunt 13U football team closed out their trip to the Battle in Rocky Top on Sunday with a shutout win over a team from Blackman. After taking a pair of losses on Saturday, the Grunt blew away Blackman 40 to 0. The Grunt finished the tournament with a record of 1 and 2.
The Coffee County team was comprised of players from both Coffee County Middle and Westwood Middle. The team was made up of mostly 8th grades who plan to be a part of next year’s Coffee County CHS freshman team. Additionally, the team includes a couple 7th graders who will be go to be the eighth graders for one of the two middle school programs.
The team was put together by J.D. Felice (Head Coach) with help from Wesley Colwell. Felice was assisted by Colwell, Jon Helms, Danny Strickland and Tyler Luttrell. J.D., Wesley, Jon and Danny are all board members with the Manchester Youth Football League and Tyler is a senior at Coffee County who just finished his last season as a Red Raider.
The team came up with their own name to represent their team personality; a team of workers, grinders and battlers. The team opened up tournament play on Saturday when they were matched up with a team who has been a 3 time Rock Top champion. The Grunt fell in that morning contest before tangling with an undefeated team from Chicago. Improvement by the Manchester squad was evident as they battled the bigger and more experienced squad for the Chicago Southside. In the game versus Chicago, the Grunt had 4 different series where they made goal line stands. They ended up falling 24 to 7.
