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Marshall County football coach Thomas Osteen doesn’t know what to expect from playing a TSSAA football home game on Halloween, because he hasn’t coached in one during 10 years as the Tigers coach.
He still believes a huge crowd will show up Thursday — Halloween night — when third-ranked Marshall County (9-0, 6-0) hosts second-ranked Pearl-Cohn (7-2) for the Region 5-4A championship.
But Osteen knows other schools might not be as lucky in Week 11 as 58 Tennessee high school football games will be played on Halloween. Games with less implications figure to draw smaller crowds — and smaller ticket sales for the schools — while competing with the holiday.
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“I like playing on Thursday nights, from a coaching standpoint, because sometimes it’s good to break up the monotony, to be a little faster during the week and then have a longer weekend. But it usually never helps your gate (fees),” Osteen said. “And I would think it would affect most people’s gates under most circumstances (this week) because of the trick-or-treating tradition most kids have.”
Some people might be curious about why so many Tennessee high schools are playing on Halloween, considering the holiday falls on a Thursday and high school football is generally played on Friday.
Here’s why there are so many TSSAA football games on Halloween in 2024.
Why are there TSSAA football games on Halloween?
The reason so many Tennessee high school football games are falling on Halloween this year is rooted in the shortage of the state’s referees, TSSAA executive director Mark Reeves said.
The TSSAA took over scheduling football region games beginning last season, assigning each team at least one Thursday night game per season, to ensure enough officials could cover every game. A priority was set on the most experienced officials working region games.
Week 11 presents another obstacle, as few teams want to schedule off-weeks or play non-region games. Out of 174 total games in 2024, only five teams have open weeks and there are just 10 playing non-region games, leaving 162 region games for officials cover. Reeves said the Tennessee Football Coaches Association “said emphatically that they want to make sure that region games are covered with the most experienced officials we have. That’s where some of that moving around takes place.”
So, with Halloween falling on a Thursday in 2024, some schools drew the short straw and must compete on the holiday. The TSSAA is not granting any schools’ requests to move those games to Friday, Reeves said. To ensure fairness, any team playing on the holiday this season will not have to in 2025, Reeves said, when Halloween falls on a Friday.
Schools prefer to not compete on Halloween for reasons beyond getting potentially smaller gate fees. Halloween is generally a hectic day for teachers and administrators, Reeves said, drawing from his own experience. He has been a science teacher, assistant principal and coach during his time in education. His wife, Jill, is principal at Bransfield Elementary in Springfield, a pre-kindergarten school.
“There’s a lot of outside noise happening on Halloween and it’s just a tough day. Then when you add the (football) contest on top of that, managing crowds — people sometimes tend to lose their mind on Halloween and you have to deal with that,” Reeves said. “I’ve worked a state soccer championship on Halloween. It’s not ideal. A lot of times schools like to avoid that, but it’s one of those necessary evils.”
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Reach sports writer Tyler Palmateer at tpalmateer@tennessean.com and on the X platform, formerly Twitter, @tpalmateer83.
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