A rough season ends on a tough night for Trojans

After winning its final regular-season contest to simply get into the TSSAA playoffs, Dyersburg made a quick exit by falling to Sheffield.

There's no harm in losing during the regular season due to mistakes, but one would hope by the time the second season gets under way things have been worked out.

Unfortunately for the Trojans, the same miscues that hampered the squad ever since the fourth week of the season never really got fixed.

Why? Well, there are several different reasons that one could come up with, and while most everyone has a quick fix for this or that, in most cases it's just not that simple.

Entering the season with nearly 20 seniors, and coming off a year where the Trojans finished 10-3 in 2008, the expectations for the squad were as high as one could imagine.

Perhaps this is why a 5-6 overall record seems so disappointing.

On Friday against Sheffield, it was easy to see some giving it everything they had while some seemed ready to simply get it over with.

It's ok, losing is part of the game, but personally I believe this type of season was inevitable. For the last 10 or 12 years, winning has come often for the program. Once the winning starts, not one supporter wants to see it stop. With winning comes the highest of expectations.

There is no way every team, just because of star players or being senior-laden, is going to live up to the expectations of those in the community.

Make no mistake about it though, across the state while traveling to this or that event, when mentioning I'm from Dyersburg one of the first statements made has always been, "you all have a pretty good football team there, don't you?"

In the past the answer has always been yes.

This was a good football team this year, and while there were more losses than wins, I applaud the young men that faced more transition and change in their high school careers than anybody could imagine.

Coaches come and coaches go, players come and players go, but at Dyersburg the expectation of being the best remains. This year it didn't happen, and though there are no state titles in the trophy case, there weren't any there prior to this season either.

Your comments are welcome at msmith@ stategazette.com