ladykee

I sure did! Ha! That’s been over 30 years ago. I vividly recall the whole thing & the whitie tighties showing through. That cleared the whole bench, but one player. Coaches & all were diving in trying to pull guys off. Interestingly, I don’t recall anybody ejected nor anybody missing from the next game. There may have been nothing more than a stern warning & probation or something. I don’t recall anything else happening like that again until now. On the issue of ejections of fans, it seems to happen more in the last decade than ever before in the “old days”. I’m talking the 80s & 90s & prior. Funny thing is these same things were happening back then & rowdy fans yelling out were just as if not more in abundance then. The difference now compared to then was admins & officiating nipped things that needed nipped in the bud & if it was just yelling it went in one ear & out the other to most all involved. Officiators didn’t really react to crowd, players didn’t have a clue what was going on off the court, and those same players were being berated by student sections & hollered at by fans all game long. Players were taught to pay it no mind, if they even heard it. Most games were so packed nobody could really hear much to even know what was being yelled or at who anyways. Games these days are so quiet you can almost hear a pen drop so when that one or two are letting it fly, it stands out loud & clear. Refs are much softer these days in general & Ive seen them eject a mom with a toddler setting on her lap who yelled “Come on”! Just picked her out of a crowd of yells somehow & to this day nobody knows why. They must have heard something & just thought it was her. Made her leave the gym. All the while, completely oblivious to their lack of control on the court, the opposing home crowd’s student section berating & harassing our players, flipping birds across the court at the visiting bench & crowd, etc. Their reaction was all about their feelings. Showed no care for the tension on the court, and everything else going on. How simple to address with an AD they request them to address the fans & warn them to pipe her down while they themselves gain control of the court of play with a warning to both coaches/benches and players to pipe her down or there would be consequences. Just a pause/time out. Basically it’s their job to do just that. The AD takes their cue from officiators. If a ref says, remove them, they (AD or game site manager) by rule are to follow it whether they agree or not. The AD doesn’t need authority from officiators to remove or warn someone, but if told to by officiators to do it that trumps everything. The TSSAA officiators are top dawg. It’s too sad so many aren’t up to the task anymore. That would solve a lot of this stuff from happening. Unfortunately the only action a lot of them do take regarding anything off the court and even on the court is if it ruffles or hurts their feelings which is a big no no. In this instance, yet again, adults actions & lack of actions led to young non adult players paying the price. Yes, many left the court, with a few going up into the stands. Yes, we can’t have that happening. I do wonder how many average teenage boys, with all the tension building up on the court, would have the reserve to just stand there & watch while their Dad, Grandpa, or other loved one is laid out in the stands with another on top & punches being thrown and a few other adults eventually coming in to either join or attempt to break it up to no avail while no one in authority seems to be coming. No officers, no game administrators, no authority whatsoever. I honestly doubt mine would have. I may be wrong, but I don’t know if I would have if it were my parent or kin. It’s a natural reaction to do something. This all happened so fast too. It’s just sad we expect the youth to react better than adults who are supposed to be in charge. TSSAA really needs to think about this & what their purpose is and get their rules in line, their officiators in line, the ADs in line, the coaches in line, etc. to take action & use some common sense in situations. I mean are the fines a cash cow for TSSAA or do they really hope this is an easy way to deter things? Is it too hard to crack a whip on solid officiating & training in how to de-escalate tension on the court with players/coaches? Same for ADs. Isn’t this one of the most important responsibilities of all involved? Maybe require a non Barney Fife type officer be at the games for assistance. Maybe negligence fines for authorities should rattle some people being paid in these positions to do their job or at least attempt to. This isn’t rocket science. But by all means let’s just keep putting the ultimate punishment on the youth, guilty or innocent. That sure seems to not be working.

Partially public. The only vote released was the final vote, but ask yourself this…why was there even another vote? All committee members sit in on interviews and then were asked to submit via email their top 2 recommendations for hire. After tallying the votes, they made their 1st offer to the 1st candidate with the most votes. When he declined, they made a new offer to the guy who had received the 2nd most votes. He accepted the offer & GB has their new coach. At that point people were disappointed but what happened next was a complete turn of events. The coach resigns after 2 weeks. So my question is WHY did they ask to reopen the application process. They had already selected 5 candidates to interview and voted their top 3. Why not follow the process and offer the guy with the 3rd most votes???? It appears some didn’t want that guy to be the new HC so they “changed the game”. Instead of reopening the application process and starting over (which is one way to keep from hiring the guy with 3rd most votes), the county officials said NO!!! They instructed all committee members to VOTE AGAIN with one name to be the HC. This is how they circumvented hiring the guy who very likely had the 3rd most votes and some committee members voted for a guy who had not made the top 2 in their original vote. No wonder they only released the final vote that was unnecessary. Why hide original vote? I believe they are going to be asked for those results & questioned why not be forthcoming if all is on the up & up!

Thanks for update on exact location! Not far from interstate. I had heard North Middle is busting at the seams. I know Loudon HS is getting very crowded & that some county kids were going to LC due to capacity. Maybe you can confirm this. There’s been a ton of growth & new homes built in Loudon County!

Never say never but if that “is” the plan they are telling lies right now in 2023. The land owned with future plans for new county HS is on the north end of 321 out near North Middle School I believe. That’s the other side of I-75. North Middle is 17 miles and 25 minute drive from Greenback School with zero traffic. That’s a drive by car..now think busses. Also that’s just from GB School. GB school district goes east of 411 to Blount & Monroe borders so tack on some more curvy backroads. Those talks ever gain ground & you might as well sell admission & popcorn to watch the “meetings”. They’ve tried this for decades.

The Driver’s Ed teacher? We haven’t had Driver’s Ed at Greenback in decades. May go all the way back to Mr. Hudson. So will they be creating a new position & funding a vehicle for the new course? Would love to hear our School Board representative for GB & our County Commissioner for GB’s thoughts on this.

Amen!!! The adults need to grow up and get over their personal vendettas. This should have been an easy hiring decision….a no brainer, but instead a few are trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes. It’s about these young student athletes, not the adults who are acting like children.

Very wrong!!! Unless this guy’s version of “just fine” is completely different than most. I’m hearing parents of players tell me how nice the coach is but that’s just not enough for them or fans. There is zero relationship off the field. It’s not a job where you just click in and out & get your paycheck. You can’t coach all year with a large void of motivation and then the best motivation you got at the end of the season, as your players are crushed, mad, sad, hurt, etc. watching the other team celebrate, is to point out this could be them if they’ll play harder. There’s a time for tuff coach talk and there’s a time to comfort and this guy doesn’t know how or when to do either. There’s a number of boxes that have to be checked and I’m not sure what boxes you can check for him. I’m sure the AD is on top of this.

My cousin Brock Johnson (WR/DB) 1989-92, husband James Willis (RB/LB/DE) 1993, brother-in-law Dwight Willis (RB/LB) 1993-95 cousin Cory Cable (LB) 1993-96, nephew Daniel Willis (RB/LB) 2005-08, son Hunter Willis (QB/LB/S) 2013-16, & son Holden Willis (WR/DB/S) all played against SP through the years. We win some & they win some. It tends to go in streaks. They were our biggest playoff rival. GB often reloads, but just not as much as SP does.

Speaking of “orange & black”, orange always before black in Cherokee country, here’s a fun tidbit. 12 of the past 15 years an orange & black team represented the east in the championships. SP 7 of those years, followed by GB with 4, and Coalfield with 1. Interesting! This season, SP & Coalfield are still in the running.

Well believe it! My sons played them in semis in 2016, 2017 & 2019. SP is a perineal deep state threat every year with solid teams along with at least 1-3 star players. They often have backups that would start on many a team across the state. They were our playoff rivals many a year, with little love lost between the two, but I must attest to the number of standout players over the years.

Mr. Casteel officially retiring 12/31 but last day is sometime in November before Thanksgiving. Heard he confirmed in staff meeting. New principal will inherit the duties.

By the time I left for the game it looked like a used car dealership in the yard! We don’t mind at all.

Started November 2008….almost 14 years but most active between 2014 thru 2020 with sons playing during that stint. Took a little break from social media for awhile except for checking sports tweets on Twitter. A year into Covid & I’d had enough of the bull crap….throw in our government & well I’ll just stop short of saying anything else. Thank goodness for football season & the peace the Lord can bring when everything seems upside down. Good to be back on here!

Coach Ryan & the white hat would have been entertaining. He’d have gotten tossed or won the battle. How hard is it to check a rule book? Thought most people in general knew that rule.