How Clarksville football's last 8-0 start laid foundation for this season's unbeaten team

In 1996, Bob Ateca made the 35-minute trip northeast from Erin to Clarksville, armed with two seasons of head-coaching experience at Houston County and a promise.

Ateca told school administrators when he became Clarksville High School's football coach that if he couldn't turn around the team — which was coming off a winless season — within five years, they wouldn't even have to fire him. He'd walk out the door himself.

In 2000, Ateca's five-year plan culminated, right on schedule, with one magical fall.

Clarksville won its first nine games of the season before a heartbreaking finish left it at 10-2. Players and coaches from that team still reminisce about that special season, and how it could have ended differently.

But in a sense, that ending had yet to be written.

On Friday, No. 9 Clarksville (8-0, 6-0 Region 7-6A) hosts Rossview (6-2, 5-0), its biggest rival, with a region championship at stake. It's the Wildcats' best start since 2000, and to learn how they've achieved it, you need to take a trip 23 years into the past.

"That was the beginning of it," said Marcus Lawrence, an offensive lineman and team captain that season who's now a Clarksville assistant coach. "To where Clarksville High football is now, I always believe 2000 is the start."

'You could tell we were on to something special'

Clarksville struggled at the beginning of Ateca's tenure, winning a combined five games from 1996 to 1998. It improved in 1999, but its 4-6 record still left it outside the playoffs. Going into 2000, Lawrence said, the Wildcats didn't expect to go unbeaten, but they had a goal of being the best team in the city.

After an encouraging performance at a summer camp that featured Portland, which went on to go 15-0, Clarksville beat Northeast and Maplewood to start the season. Next up was Springfield, a historic series with extra meaning despite the Yellow Jackets' 0-2 record. The Wildcats demolished them, 41-16.

Lawrence found himself on the bench in the fourth quarter, thinking he had messed up somehow. He didn't realize that Ateca had pulled the starters because victory was well in hand. In his four seasons of high school football, Lawrence had never experienced that feeling.

Wins over Northwest, Waverly, Kenwood and Cheatham County followed. Clarksville was 7-0, with Pearl-Cohn next.

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"I started to feel the pressure a little bit when we got to 6-0, 7-0," said Isaac Shelby, a senior receiver on that team who is now Clarksville's head coach. "That's when you kind of see the end of it."

The Firebirds, Class 4A state champions in 1996 and 1997, were having a down season at 2-5, but the Wildcats knew that taking down a traditional Metro powerhouse would truly signal their arrival. Trailing 26-13 in the fourth quarter, Mario Merriweather returned a fumble 52 yards for a touchdown. Clarksville got a defensive stop and drove to the Pearl-Cohn 14 with only a couple of minutes remaining.

The ball was never supposed to go to Shelby. By his own admission, he wasn't the most athletic player, and he had a cast on his broken hand. He was supposed to block on the backside so that quarterback Jim Foster could launch a fade.

But once the ball was snapped, Foster saw his intended target was double-covered. Shifting gears, he noticed Shelby leak out and threw it to him for the game-tying touchdown. Shelby thinks it might have been his only catch of the season.

The extra point gave the Wildcats the lead and ultimately a 27-26 win.

"Being able to stack up against that type of competition and that type of athleticism," Lawrence said, "you could tell we were on to something special."

'It haunts me to this day'

Clarksville's biggest strength was its speed, according to Ateca, who is now the athletic director at Grace Baptist Academy. Its option offense produced two 1,000-yard rushers: Merriweather (1,303 yards) and Chris Mosley (1,103 yards). On defense, Clarksville flew to the ball with similar intensity. Justin Johnson (eight sacks) led the front while LaRance Pardue (73 tackles) and Tario Frederick (four interceptions) shut down opposing passing attacks.

"We were so fast," Ateca said. " . . . Our quarterback and our two running backs were all 4.4, 4.5 40-yard kids. We could fly. If we were in open space, it was a touchdown."

Foster, though, was the star that stirred the drink. He was a 600-yard rusher, described as a leader and the kind of player who elevated those around him.

One week after beating Pearl-Cohn, Clarksville traveled to Nashville to face Stratford. The Wildcats' double-overtime win came with a major cost: Late in the game, Foster broke his ankle. Shelby remembers looking at Foster after the play and knowing the senior's season was over.

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"It haunts me to this day, thinking of that situation," Lawrence said.

Without Foster, Clarksville fell 12-7 to Whites Creek on the regular season's final night, ending its bid for a region championship. The Wildcats regrouped to defeat Tullahoma 34-26 with sophomore Ricky Stafford under center, but bowed out to Hillsboro 28-0 in the second round of the playoffs.

“I’ve told people throughout the last 25 years that have asked me," Ateca said, "if Jim Foster had not broken his ankle, we would have won the state championship.”

The foundation for success

Ateca coached two more seasons at Clarksville before taking a job as Austin Peay's offensive coordinator in 2003. Jim Snider, the defensive coordinator in 2000, took over as head coach. In 2006, Snider led the Wildcats to their first-ever TSSAA quarterfinal. In 2007, they went 10-2 and won their first region championship in 26 years.

Before Ateca, Clarksville had made the playoffs just four times in history. Since 2000, the Wildcats have appeared in the postseason 16 times.

"Throughout those years, there’s always been somebody that’s connected to that 2000 team," Ateca said.

For Ateca, a hallmark of those Wildcats was how close they were, how much they cared for each other, how they shared the same mindset and goal. Shelby and Lawrence both see it in the 2023 team. Clarksville has its stars — James Dalrymple, Ahmoyre Galbreath, Jack Stein — but the Wildcats don't care who's scoring touchdowns or who's making tackles.

Twenty-three years ago, Clarksville's fieldhouse was still being built. Ateca often took his players to the site, pointed at the concrete foundation and told his players they were part of that foundation, too. By lifting weights, watching film and practicing with discipline, they could lay groundwork that would last for years.

"We became a real football program at that point," Lawrence said.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly referred to Springfield's mascot as the "Hornets," rather than the Yellow Jackets.

Jacob Shames can be reached by email at jshames@gannett.com and on Twitter @Jacob_Shames.

This article originally appeared on Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle: Clarksville high school's 2000 football team laid foundation for 2023