For the first time in quite some time or maybe even ever, Rosman was OPEN for the first week of the season.....The same cannot be said for their first opponent this week as Brevard signaled their return to respectability last week with a convincing win on the road at Andrews(41-6) against a team that beat them in Brevard last season....
The Rosman/Brevard rivalry is really in its infancy as the two teams have only played 12 times since Rosman started a football program in 1959....Of course, back in those days Brevard was a 3A powerhouse around the state playing and winning State and Regional titles back in the day....Transylvania County back in those days had the lowest employment rate in the state of N.C. thanks to Ecusta, Dupont and American Thread....All those industries have long since left Transylvania County, and a lot of the Blue Collar kids left with them as a lot of families have since moved away which has dramatically affected the once 1,000+ Student body of the Bluedevils whose numbers are now reported to be hovering around the 800 mark, making Brevard a small 2A school, presently.....
Brevard won the first 9 games in this series , dating back to the first-ever meeting in the fall of 1975 when the Bluedevils throttled the Tigers 40-6, and again in 76'(49-7) before the teams took a 20yr break in the County battle which continued in 1997 with a 41-6 Brevard win over the eventual state 1A runnerups from Rosman as Jim Fox returned to face former Rosman Coach Dan Essenburg who had left the Tigers to return to Brevard, and Dan also had a very fine team that year that lost a hard fought game to Eastern Randolph in the playoffs, later that year, I think?....
Rosman played the Bluedevils off their feet in 1998, but came up a little short, losing 23-13, but later that season the Tigers shared the SMC title with Hendersonville and star RB Vincent Neclos before losing to Maiden in the 3rd round of the playoffs...It was also the first and last time that Rosman beat every current member of the SMC in the same season....
The two teams played again at the turn of the new Millineum with Brevard scoring 41pts in both wins and the Tigers only managing to score 6pts in 1999 to extend the losing streak to the Bluedevils to 6....
The next 3 games basically ended the series for a little while between the two teams as Brevard shutout the Tigers 49-0 in 2005 and 40-0 in 2006 to extend their winning streak over the Tigers to 8 games overall....
2007 marked the beginning of changes in this rivalry as Brevard blasted the Tigers 62-3 in Rosman in former Rosman Coach Brian Bailey's debut.....Brevard would later make a deep playoff run, losing at Lincolnton in the final 2 minutes on a long TD run by C.J.Wilson who broke a tackle, and raced 50+yds with the game winner.....The Bluedevils have not been back to that stage of the playoffs since that time, and have had their own struggles since then with 4 different Head Coaches since that season, counting current Coach Craig Pritchett....
After several seasons of despair by both teams since that 2007 season, both teams seem to finally be turning the corner back to respectability.....
Beginning in 2013, the series between Brevard and Rosman resumed in Brevard, and Rosman won for the first time ever that season as the Tigers rallied behind a strong Sophomore class led by Tanner Green and Gage Orr to beat the Bluedevils 40-27 to mark Rosman's first-ever Transylvania County title, and first win in Brevard against the Bluedevils...It was however not the first time Rosman had won a football game in Brevard as the Tigers played in Brevard until their own field was constructed, and ready for that first game against Bakersfield in 1968 which was a magical season for former Coach Bill Cathy who would later retire from Coaching football after that season...A season in which the Tigers advanced to the state 1A semifinals, losing to Boone Trail(26-20) in the mud in Brevard.. A game in which the Tigers led at the half....It would be the final "HOME" game for Rosman in Brevard as the Tigers have played in Tigertown at Silversteen Stadium since that time....Joseph Silversteen donated the land , and volunteers made a football field where there once was a swamp on one end, and a baseball field on the other end.....Bill Cathy always refused to call the home of the Tigers Silversteen Stadium, but rather chose to call it the Rosman Football Field.....
In 2014, Rosman beat the Bluedevils for the first time ever 28-14 in Rosman as both Green and Orr scored TDs ....Green suffered a knee sprain which hampered him the rest of the season, while Gage Orr went on to lead the SMC in rushing as a Junior....
Last year, Rosman extended their winning streak over the Bluedevils to 3 games, and did so in convincing fashion 42-7, but in the process, lost SR. QB Josh Rice for most of the regular season, which had a definite impact on the season as a whole, although the season did finish with a winning record for the first time in over 10 yrs.....
This year, Rosman is very Young after graduating a large and talented Senior Class last year.....On the other hand, Brevard returns Preseason WNCAC Preseason Player of the year QB Tanner Ellenberger along with as many as 18 other Seniors I've been told, so Brevard will definitely have the advantage as far as experience goes, and the Bluedevils also have the motivational factor of ending their 3-year losing streak to Rosman and giving Coach Craig Pritchett his first Transylvania County Championship.....
Emotions will likely be running higher than normal on friday night in the opener for the Tigers as legendary Coach Bill Cathy will have the Football Field named in his honor.....Coach as most know still lives in Rosman, and is still jogging into his late 80's and early 90's....Bill Cathy was Rosman's first Head Football Coach, a former town Mayor,School Principal, School Superintendent and School Board Member, so he's been a fixture in the Transylvania County school system since he first arrived from Bakersfield back in 1958......
When there's been any past discussion of Consolidation between Rosman and Brevard, Coach Cathy has always been against the idea, and his feelings are still the same to this day....Don't believe me?.....Ask him!......And ask him what color his blood is, and he will tell you he bleeds Orange....
Doubt he would ever read this forum, but I will certainly congratulate him when I see him....
After this friday, it will not be called the Rosman Football Field any longer, but instead will be rightly named for the man who has inspired generations of young people throughout Transylvania County, and continues to do so to this day...
So welcome Bluedevil fans to Silversteen Stadium and Coach Cathy Field....
As for the game, Brevard will be a heavy favorite this year to end the streak, and start one of their own, but I will be there rooting for those little ole' scrawny but scrappy Rosman Tigers nonetheless!
Roar Tigers Roar!
