Tharptown back to basics in first season under White
After a winless, 0-10 season in 2024, the Tharptown High School varsity football team is beginning the process of rebuilding in 2025 under new head coach Brian White.
White, who has coached in Mississippi and Tennessee and has one previous head coaching stint in Alabama at Sulligent High School, replaced John Johnson who was 1-19 in two seasons with the Wildcats.
The new man in charge has been clear about his intentions to rebuild the program “from the ground up,” which he said will involve recruiting students in the hallways to get out on the field. But that, for now, is for the future.
With the new season imminent, White has said Tharptown’s preseason preparation has revolved around getting back to the basics and making things simple for his players.
“The process is just doing things the right way and being as fundamentally sound as possible, spending a lot of time in the weight room…and getting strong and as fast as possible,” he said. “We’re going to be very drill-oriented because within that comes the fundamental skills to carry us all the way through.
“We’re going to be very old school, we’re going to be very simple, and we’re going to rep things so many times when we get on the field it’s not going to be a matter of doing things right, it’s going to be doing it so many times that we can’t do it wrong. When we get on the field we’re not going to think about what we’re doing, we’re just going to line up and play.”
Tharptown starts the season off hosting Class 4A Danville High School before traveling to Waterloo and Belgreen. The Wildcats will have a bye week week four and then will start region play beginning with Decatur Heritage Christian. Gameday five will be a matchup against Vina, after which Tharptown will round out region play with consecutive contests against Tanner, Red Bay, Winston County, and Lexington. Tharptown will close the regular season with a home game against Phillips Bear Creek.
Looking at the Wildcats’ schedule White said there will be tough times, for sure, but he feels that this team is ready to be competitive against some of the opposition this year.
“We understand we’re going to take some knocks year one, but we know year two and year three and year four is coming,” he said. “We feel like we’re going to be competitive with a few teams this year, and there’s some teams we’re going to struggle with this year—we’re not naive with that. But at the same time we feel like there’s a few teams on the schedule that we will be able to compete with year one.”
The key to the Wildcats competing against that opposition, White said, is not Tharptown focusing on the other team but Tharptown focusing on Tharptown.
“Our focus as a team is us, getting better every single day,” he said. “The fundamentals, the things we do every single day, are the things that are going to make us better.
White was also adamant that he wasn’t concerned about “rivalry” games or making one opponent out to be more important than another.
“You’ve gotta win a few games before you can have a rivalry,” he said. “I know there’s probably a couple schools that are in the nearby area the kids have circled…but to me it’s all just a matter of getting better every single day and us being the best we can be.
“If we will do that and focus on doing all the little things right, then the bigger will take care of themselves,” White added.
White’s rebuilding project will not be judged by what the Wildcats accomplish this season, but Tharptown can take concrete steps to establish a foundation with what the team achieves and how far it progresses during this campaign.
Tharptown will host Danville in its season-opener on Friday, August 22. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
2025 THARPTOWN SCHEDULE
8/22 vs. Danville
8/29 @ Waterloo
9/5 @ Belgreen
9/19 vs. Decatur Heritage*
10/3 vs. Tanner*
10/10 @ Red Bay*
10/17 @ Winston County*
10/24 vs. Lexington*
10/31 vs. Phillips Bear Creek
* - denotes region game