South Warren quarterback Cody Eblen winds up a pass during 7-on-7 competition July 18 at Greenwood High School.

South Warren is on the move again, and the game that’s probably two years too late will finally happen in October.

The South Warren football team moves up to Class 5A this season and joins District 2 with Bowling Green, Greenwood, Barren County and Grayson County.

It marks the second jump in classes since the school’s inception in 2010. South Warren moved from 3A to 4A in 2015 and won a state championship. That run in 4A lasted just two years and now the school will compete in 5A in the same district as the powerhouse Purples, winners of five of the last six state titles, and Greenwood, which ended South Warren’s 17-game win streak last season.

“It’s something we’re excited for,” Spartans senior Greg Byrd said. “Not just for ourselves, but for previous teams in the past. It’s something we’ve always talked about.”

Entering his fifth year as the head coach, Brandon Smith noted the growth of once having about 30 players practicing at Buchanon Park when the team first started playing to now competing in one of the toughest regions in Class 5A.

“It’s been quite a ride,” Smith said at the Sporting Times Football Media Day Saturday at 6-4-3 Sports Bar and Grill. “We kind of slowly over the years have grown in numbers not just in the school, but on the field. We went from 3A to 4A and that was quite a jump. By nature, larger schools are usually better programs and more competitive. Now we’re in 5A and it’s the same thing.

“You’ve got one of the best programs in the state in our district with Bowling Green and another program like Greenwood that’s on the way there. It’s going to be a new challenge, but if you’re a competitor, you like that. You enjoy taking on new challenges and seeing how you do.”

The showdown between the Spartans and Purples on Oct. 20 at El Donaldson Stadium will at last become a reality. Two years ago, when South Warren steamrolled its way to a 15-0 record and one-loss Bowling Green put another state title on the shelf, pitting those two schools on the same field would’ve been a dream game between the two best teams in southcentral Kentucky separated by seven miles.

But time has passed and significant members from each of those championship teams have moved on, suggesting the game that will finally happen may not live up to the hype the idea once held.

“Everybody in this town has asked me about South Warren,” Bowling Green coach Kevin Wallace said. “My stock answer has been South Warren lost to Greenwood last year. We play Greenwood before we play South Warren. We had our team meeting at the first of the year and one comment I made to them was, ‘I’m going to mention South Warren for the last time until we play them in October.’

“I’m going to remind our guys that Greenwood’s got a lot of people back. They’re a team that beat South Warren last year, so let’s not get caught up in what South Warren did two years ago.”

More so than what it means for the district, Wallace pointed out that South Warren’s addition to Region 1 in 5A now makes it five teams that have played in a state championship since 2010, no matter the class.

Bowling Green has won back-to-back 5A titles and five since 2011. South Warren won the 4A title in 2015. Graves County played in the 5A title game in 2014 and Owensboro, a 4A school at the time, lost to Highlands at state in 2014. Christian County was the 5A runner-up in 2010.

“I don’t think you can find that anywhere else,” Wallace said. “While the district is important, all that is is setting up seeding for what you’re going to have in the playoffs. If you’re going to advance, you better be concerned about the guys you’re going to play in November.”

The challenge is what excites South Warren. The Spartans and Purples will play for the first time in October, but now an ongoing rivalry with Greenwood actually has bearing. The Gators beat South Warren 17-16 by stopping a two-point conversion attempt in the final minutes. The win was Greenwood’s first over the Spartans after losing the first three meetings.

“That’s one we put the asterisk by when we see the schedule,” Greenwood senior quarterback Jackson Adams said. “Obviously a very competitive game and we look forward to it.”

The Spartans have never played either Barren County or Grayson County.

South Warren’s addition to 5A now trims its former district in 4A from five teams to four. Franklin-Simpson, Warren East, Warren Central and Allen County-Scottsville don’t gain a new district opponent by South Warren’s move.

Last season, Franklin-Simpson defeated South Warren twice, once in a regular-season thriller and in the region final of the playoffs on its way to the state championship game.

If South Warren were still in 4A, it would remain a two-horse race between it and Franklin-Simpson as the district favorites.

Wildcats coach Doug Preston said with the Spartans’ departure, it’s now a toss-up.

“It changes a lot when you don’t have the (2015) state champions coming back in your district,” Preston said. “It does effect it for us and everybody, it’s still a big challenge. We feel Warren East has a lot of talent. Allen County already has a lot of talent and numbers. Warren Central will be better. I know it sounds boring, but we just try to go one game at a time and I look at it as a toss-up right now.”{&end}