You’ll have to pardon me for a moment or two, I am going to step onto my soapbox. After the Maroon Devils took over the top spot in the WNC all-classification poll earlier this year, many fans from the Buncombe County area got upset and started bashing the Smoky Mountain Conference. So I am going to take a moment and present a defense for the Grand Ole Dame of the mountains, and perhaps a history lesson.
The Smoky Mountain Conference, in some form or fashion, has been around since before 1960. It’s membership has changed, only slightly, over the years, as has it’s make up over classification lines. For the most part it’s member schools include Andrews, Cherokee, Hayesville, Murphy, Robbinsville, Rosman, and Swain County. During some spans it has also included Sylva-Webster and Franklin, and even at one point had a 1A and 2A Smoky Mountain Conference.
Domination, now there’s a word. I am not here today to debate who has the best football program, I am simply laying out a case for who is the best football conference in their CLASSIFICATION.
Starting in 1960 (and NCHSAA records are a bit hazy on State Championships before 1972) the Smoky Mountain Conference has made an amazing 56 appearances in State Championship games. I’ll give you a moment to do the math on that one… yep it’s 52 years and 56 championship appearances. But remember, there were at least 10 years where the conference was BOTH 1A and 2A.
From 1972 until 1998 the conference had a representative in every 1A title game but 2 (1972 and 1975), for the span of 1972 to 1980 (when reclassification dropped most members down to 1A) the conference missed out on being in the title game only 3 times.
Ten times over 40 plus years the conference sent 2 of it’s schools to compete for a State Title. This year will make 11. Of those 10 times 8 times both teams brought home the biggest prize. As a matter of fact, in an interesting twist, the conference has won those 8 in a row.
During this span the Smoky Mountain Conference has won 37 football State Titles. That is a hefty 66% of the times that they have gone the have won.
So Swain and Murphy’s double win last year, is nothing new really. They were just carrying on a tradition that has been around longer than most of us have.
Saturday the Smoky Mountain Conference will be well represented again, with a chance to add on to its very impressive list of accomplishments.
Not bad, not bad at all, for a little ole 1A conference.