The High School Football Class 4A, Region 4 will be adding another team next season, going from five teams to six. The addition will be nothing new to the Tigers however, with an old foe, Upperman, joining the ranks.

Tigers Head Football Coach Steve Trapp told the Smithville Review will be nothing the team hasn't faced before. "The last few years our region has been made up of five teams, and we are adding another team to it this year, which is Upperman. We've been in a region with them before. They will move up from 3-A to 4-A, so it will be Livingston, Macon, Cumberland, Upperman, Stone Memorial and DeKalb."

Coach Trapp also said that the scheduled opponents next year will be the same with one exception. "Our schedule has all the same teams it had on it last year except for Grundy County, which we replaced with Goodpasture, a private school out of Nashville."

In addition to the regional teams, the Tigers will also again face Warren, Cannon, Smith, and Watertown next season.

The Tigers and Upperman Bees annually compete for the "Oar" as part as their border rivalry. The oar is the trophy won in what is known as "The Battle of Center Hill," a game symbolizing the lake that separates the two teams.

Coach Trapp said that the addition of Upperman will only challenge his team to be better. "We like challenges," Coach Trapp said. "These guys next year have an opportunity. We've talked about all of these teams in the past few years, and who's going to be that first team to get a region championship. These guys are leaving this year with that on their back. Now it's going to be which team's going to do it next. We have an opportunity to do it back to back."

"We've got a lot of work to do," he continued. "We've got a lot of quality players, and I'm excited about some of these guys that have been waiting to come up in the program.”