Concord goes 4-0 in pool play at UT 7-on-7
When Steve Matthews took the reins of the Concord Christian School high school football program, he knew he would have to build things from scratch.
When he arrived at the school, the team hadn’t had a varsity football team in nearly a decade. The Lions
had also never won a varsity game.
Concord re-launched the varsity program in 2024 and played a combined varsity and junior varsity schedule and went 1-2 in varsity games.
Last season, the Lions went 6-5, playing their first full varsity schedule in several years. They competed in Division II-A and advanced to the first round of the playoffs.
Concord is now preparing for the 2026 season, which looms around the corner and late last week, the Lions competed in the University of Tennessee Josh Heupel 7-on-7 Tournament.
And, they put on a big show as they went undefeated in pool play. In pool play, one of Concord Christian’s
wins came over Knoxville West. The Lions shut out the Rebels, 30-0.
After a one-and-a-half hour lunch break, Concord returned to the field and won a first-round single-elimination game against Macon County and earned a showdown with a top team from Georgia,
which ended its stay at the tournament.
“We had a good run,” Matthews said. “We went 4-0 in pool play. The only local team that we played was West, and we beat them, 30-0.
“Then we had an hour-and-half lunch break and we might’ve lost a little momentum but we beat Macon County and then we played a really good team from Georgia.
Quarterback Kohbe Ward, a rising sophomore, will once again be at the controls for the Lions’ offense. He saw some time at other positions while freshman Dylan Brown saw some time as Concord’s field general.
Other key players for the Lions include Don Don Underwood, Amare McKenzie and Dasani Moulden.
Brown, a transfer from Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California, and McKenzie, are newcomers. While
Moulden, Ward and Underwood all return from last year’s squad.
“I think they all did a pretty good job,” Matthews said. “We have some guys who can
run pretty fast. We had a pretty good day at UT.”
