UNIONVILLE, Tenn. – When Glenn Tidwell accepted the head football coaching position in 2025, he knew that he would have to build the Vikings’ program from the ground up. What he may not have realized, at least initially, is just how much of a foundation he would have to lay. So much so that he and his staff are still working on putting the finishing touches on a foundation strong enough to begin building up the program in the way that it should go.

“I’ve had to learn the kids,” Tidwell admitted, “At Shelbyville Central and Cascade, I think those kids were a lot further along in football knowledge. Here, you go into it thinking the kids already know what you know and they don’t. We might be talking about certain techniques and certain gaps, and they’re looking at me and nodding their heads like they’re agreeing with me but they didn’t actually get what you’re saying. We had to tell them that if they don’t understand something we are saying, please let us know so they can learn it.”

“We’ve upgraded a lot of equipment, we’ve installed a weight room program which we didn’t have before I got here based on what I was told,” he said, “We’ve had to start things that we didn’t know didn’t exist before we got here. You don’t know what you don’t know. It was a year of fixing a lot of things. The whole culture surrounding the program has had to be changed, and it’s still a work in progress.”

“In the final six games [last season], we didn’t score a point,” he continued, “When I got here, there was a lot more going on behind the scenes and off the field that we needed to fix. We have corrected a lot of that, but it’s still an ongoing process. We are nowhere close to where we’re going to be, but we are so much farther along than where we were. The kids know that, and the kids see it. It just goes to their work in the weight room, and their diligence to do the little things that we’ve asked them to do.”

That statement is indeed true. Community did not score a point in the final six games of the 2025 campaign en route to a second-consecutive winless season. Despite this, the future is looking up for the Purple & Gold. They have a consistent system, and there is more of a buy-in from the players heading into Tidwell’s second season.

“Mental and physical improvement, and just being in a program for a full year, you could tell over the summer how our overall physique’s improved,” Tidwell said, “I’ve only got three seniors, so the next few years should hopefully be on the up and up. There’s a whole other year of retention. It’s a big building block year.”

Offensively, the Vikings are focused on controlling the ball and the clock by lining up under center and running the ball. That’s no secret, but the execution and effectiveness of the system should be improved from year one to year two.

“Of the six running backs, four of them will probably play more than the other two, and of those four – five if you count the quarterback – if all of those guys combine to run for close to 2,000 yards on the ground, that’s a success,” said Tidwell, “That comes out to each kid averaging about 500 yards apiece, and that’s extremely possible with what we’re going to do. The kids running the ball are hard-nosed kids, and they’re going to run the ball hard. They’re not necessarily speed burners, but they can run. Some are more powerful while others are more quick-footed. We’ve got a nice mixture. Same way with the quarterbacks. If we’re throwing the ball 10 times a game, that means we’re not running it well. We’re going to run the ball. We want to minimize the running clock as much as we can.”

In the trenches, Community will be starting a couple of freshmen at the tackles, but the interior is more experienced and should see some success this season.

“We’ll have two freshman tackles,” he said, “Junior at right guard, junior at center, and a sophomore at left guard. Tight end is a junior. Up front offensively, we have good size, and they should all be coming back next year. Our middle three are bigger guys, and our quickest two guys are the freshman at the two tackle positions. We’ve got a freshman that’ll be a backup center while also playing one of the two guard spots throughout the year.”

“It may sound simple, but one of our goals is scoring points,” said Tidwell, “With what we want to do on offense, our goal is to control the ball for as long as we can. Even if we don’t get points, we hopefully took a lot of time off the clock to shorten the game. I think we’ll be able to do that as well as scoring some points.”

Defensively, Tidwell says that the Vikings struggled at times last season just to simply get lined up correctly, but most of those problems have been addressed moving forward.

“Going back and watching every single game every Monday, our biggest problem – especially on defense – was getting lined up correctly,” he said, “We couldn’t figure out why. It was almost like we were talking a foreign language at times, and a lot of that can go back to the fact that they weren’t getting to learn it in youth league, or maybe in middle school. Getting them to answer why they were doing what they were doing. Learning all the little things that will help them get better is what we’ve been working on. I’m expecting those things to be a lot better.”

“The goal is to not give up a bunch of big plays and just be where we are supposed to be,” he continued, “Just to see that we are taking those steps. The defense has stayed pretty much the same, the verbiage has stayed the same, so in the spring when we would make a call, they remembered it and how to line up. That was a positive. We just want to keep building. I don’t want to go backwards.”

One disadvantage Community has compared to much of the state is the lack of competent facilities, like a fieldhouse.

“We’ve got to work on getting facilities,” explained Tidwell, “Right now, we’re in a trailer. If we can get a fieldhouse and stuff like that, it would be huge. Right now, the county just doesn’t have $30 million to build a football stadium, a baseball stadium, a softball stadium, and all the parking lots. It’s like building a whole new school. We need to get more facilities with more than one bathroom and some showers. We’re just not there, and it’s a work in progress. I think the right people know, but a lot of people don’t. The school system really wants to do something, but with how tight the budget is, it’s tough right now.”

“If there are people out there that want to get involved and do some things facility-wise, we’re all open to hear ideas,” he continued, “We’ve got a blank canvas sitting out behind the high school where anyone can come in and donate X amount of dollars into building a really nice facility for folks, there is plenty of room to do it. We just need to get that part of the culture changed. There’s a lot of new faces in this building, and we want to show that off to everybody. Softball showed it’s possible to be very competitive and make good runs. They’re the most recent example. It’s hard to look at what we don’t have compared to what Cascade has for example. We don’t have a fieldhouse. Baseball and softball have no indoor facilities either. Outdoor sports here have nothing. We share everything with the middle school. These kids deserve to have nice facilities that they can be proud of. I know the school system is trying to do everything that they can do, but the community is where we’re going to have to have the most help. Those large businesses can donate large sums to help build facilities. A lot of things should be coming softball’s way because of the success they have had and the fact that they won a state championship. We’ve got the kids, we just need facilities for other sports.”

Despite the massive disadvantage with the facilities, Tidwell says the Vikings will continue to press forward until that day comes. The biggest improvement that he’s looking for is from the body language on gameday.

“One of the big things was body language, and the mental aspect of it all,” he said, “When things go bad, how are you going to react? You have to have a little bit of pride. In life you don’t want somebody to run all over you. How are you going to respond when things go bad? You may not win, but how are you going to respond? I told them starting this offseason in the weight room, bad body language is not something I should have to deal with on a game night instead of coaching the football game on a Friday night.”

Finally, Tidwell thinks that the fans who come out to watch the Vikings on the gridiron will see a noticeable improvement on both sides of the ball.

“I think fans coming out to see us this year will see better execution, better effort, and hopefully it’ll look like we know what we’re doing on the field with putting kids where they’re supposed to be,” he concluded, “I think the overall vibe and culture of the guys with what we’ve been doing will look different this year.”

2026 COMMUNITY FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Aug. 21 – AT Moore County

Aug. 28 – VS Eagleville

Sep. 4 – AT Huntland

Sep. 11 – VS Cannon County

Sep. 18 – AT Richland

Sep. 25 – VS Watertown*

Oct. 2 – VS Chapel Hill* (Homecoming)

Oct. 9 – AT Giles County

Oct. 16 – AT Sequatchie County*

Oct. 23 – BYE

Oct. 29 – VS Cascade* (Senior Night)

2026 COMMUNITY FOOTBALL ROSTER

0 – Kaidyn Brown (QB/DB) 27 – Wyatt Livinston (WR/DB)

1 – Dakota Perkins (WR/DB) 29 – Jasper Small (WR/DB)

2 – Adriel Rodriguez (RB/LB) 44 – Wyatt Elsner (RB/LB)

3 – Braxton Stacy (RB/LB) 50 – Mac Davis (OL/LB)

4 – Kaeden Hensel (QB/DB) 51 – Mason Wyatt (OL/DL)

5 – Jarrett Yancy (K) 52 – Eli Maldonado (OL/DL/LB)

6 – Jackson Collier (WR/LB) 55 – Miles Ashwander (OL/DL/LB)

7 – Guner Harden (RB/LB) 59 – Brayden Thomas (OL/LB)

8 – Mason Bogle (RB/LB) 61 – Andres Navarro (OL/DL)

9 – Austin Shultz (WR/DB) 62 – Carter Davis (OL/DL)

10 – Emmet Paskwietz (WR/DB) 63 – Walter Dugger (OL/DL)

12 – Karrson Wimley (QB/WR/DB) 64 – Owen Lamaster (OL/DL)

13 – Jayden Lamb (TE/DL) 72 – Easton Brown (OL/DL)

14 – Hayden Ronnow (WR/DB) 76 – Gabriel Hendon (OL/DL)

15 – Jonathan McCullough (WR/DB) 77 – Eligah Griggs (OL/DL)

17 – Carson Greenhaw (WR/DB) 78 – Jackson Hoover (OL/DL)

18 – Slaten Neeley (RB/LB) 79 – Dayton Holder (OL/DL)

19 – Miles Ashwander (OL/DL)

21 – Lapray Strayhorn (WR/DB)

25 – Gabe Reyna (WR/DB)