By Rob Schabert, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Information

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee Tech football coach Marcus Satterfield will load the Golden Eagles onto buses this weekend and take them a couple of hours off campus for their first true scrimmage of spring drills at Alcoa High School, located in East Tennessee.

The scrimmage, one of the team’s 15 official practice sessions during Satterfield’s first spring drills as head coach, is open to the public. It is set to begin at 11 a.m. EDT, with free admission to fans interested in seeing the Golden Eagles.

The former Temple offensive coordinator who was hired by Tech in January, Satterfield played at Greenback High School under his father, Bill Satterfield.

The event is sure to peek the interest of area high school football fans who have seen a handful of prep players from Alcoa go on to play collegiately at Tech, including Jordan Patrick, J.T Rankin, Jake Warwick and Austin Tallant. Other current or recent Golden Eagles from nearby high schools include Jordan Jackson, Riley Patton and Josh Poplar from Knoxville, Zach Sharp and Richard Koons from Maryville, Krys Cates from Newport, Elliott and James Normand from Oak Ridge, and Jay Rudwall from Ooltewah.

The scrimmage Saturday will also be an up-close opportunity for football fans in the eastern part of the state to get a glimpse of one of the teams that will invade Neyland Stadium in Knoxville this fall, with the Golden Eagles scheduled to face Tennessee on Nov. 5.

“This event is a great opportunity for our team to display our brand of football to the fans in this region of the state,” Satterfield said. “We have several players from around the area on our roster, we’ve signed some who will be joining our program, and we’re anxious to show what Tennessee Tech football is all about.”

Alcoa won the TSSAA Class 3A state championship last December in Tech’s Tucker Stadium.

“We’re excited to have them here at Alcoa,” Alcoa athletic director Josh Stephens said. “Any time you can get a college team on campus is a good thing. We've had a lot of players go to Tennessee Tech in recent years.”