Lions see 2025 schedule altered
The 2025 football season hasn’t started but Concord Christian School has already had to alter its schedule.
The Lions, who will play a full 10-game varsity schedule for the first time in years and will compete in the East Region of Division II-A, were undoubtedly anticipating the new season. There were, however, a couple of early road blocks as The King’s Academy in Seymour and Webb School of Bell Buckle both canceled football for the upcoming campaign.
TKA had their season canceled midway through last month after parting ways with head coach and athletic director Jonathan Sellers in June. Webb-Bell Buckle canceled their season in early July due to lack of players, leaving Concord with a pair of vacancies on its schedule. Both Webb-Bell Buckle and The King’s Academy were also slated to compete in Division II-A East Region.
CCS head coach Steve Matthews said both vacancies have been filled on the Lions’ schedule. Concord was scheduled to play Webb-Bell Buckle on Sept. 12 in Middle Tennessee. That contest has been replaced by a tilt against Christ School in North Carolina. That game will be contested in Arden, North Carolina.
CCS was slated to play TKA on Sept. 26. Concord will now have a bye that week. Its original open date was slated for the week of Oct. 10. The Lions will now play the Georgia Force, a home school team from the Atlanta Area. The game will be played at Gatlinburg-Pittman on Saturday, Oct. 11, as part of the Bear Brawl.
“We had the cancellations, but we were able to fill those slots in less than 24 hours,” said Matthews, who will soon begin his second season as head coach at CCS. “Christ is a good program in North Carolina, and they’re a big boarding school.
“They’ve fallen on hard times but they have a new coach and I knew him and he knew me. He was a successful high school coach in Virginia.”
Christ School’s new coach is Clint Alexander.
On Oct. 11, the Lions will play the Georgia Force in the Bear Brawl, hosted by Gatlinburg-Pittman.
“The Georgia Force is a home school,” said Matthews, who previously served as head coach at Knoxville Catholic High School where he guided the Irish to a pair of state championships. “When you see home school programs, you really don’t know what to expect.
“But I told our kids that the last time I played against a home school team, that Shadeur Sanders (now with the Cleveland Browns) was the quarterback and they had another guy that was a first-round draft pick. Things didn’t go too well for us.”
Matthews and the Irish hosted Trinity Christian, a home school team from Dallas. Sanders’ father, Deion, a Hall-of-Famer, was the offensive coordinator. He’s now the head coach at Colorado.
Concord, which finished 8-2 in 2024, playing a combined varsity and junior varsity team, opens the season at Christian Academy of Knoxville on Aug. 22.
