You are Kidding Me!!

[IUTarheel]

Good Evening sports forum, it's me the "IUTarheel" (not a good year for either program...wa.wa), it's been almost a year to the day sine I last posted, and visited this site. At that time I was following the progress of the school "J.F. Shields" girls basketball program. I was told then, and recently on "al.com" that they are a "small program", and their schedule dosen't reach par. I went along with that premise, because I am not familiar enough with "Alabama Sports" to make judgement about strength of schedule, size of program...etc. But, I will tell you what I am SMART enough to know is this: Any Program, in any STATE in America that goes 57(8)-1 in 2 years, (I believe in a 3 year span 07/10, they are 77(8)-3)........7 time out of 8 years, Region Champ..State Runner-up last year (Girls) .Boys......4 time out last 8 years State Champs, and both are on the way to the STATE Semi-Finals again.....and the entire student population is 124 students.........you MUST BE KIDDING!!! I have researched the programs of Brantley,McIntosh, Mckenzie, T.R. Miller..., just to name a few, and that region has an abundance of talent!!!! I hope and PRAY that any programs, regardless of size, classification, take a SERIOUS look at this region that has produced: Wesley Persons, Chuck Persons, Charles Barkley, John Drew...(just the ones I could find). If it's in "the WATER".........send me a TRUCKLOAD!!!

 

I guess I am a LONG DISTANCE "J.F. SHIELDS/MCINTOSH/BRANTLEY.......cheerleader!!! Keep up the Great Job with your programs.........I'll contact some of my Coaching friends and let them in on you all's SECRET!!!! Best Regards.

[Alabama]

There does seem to be a lot of basketball talent in that area. I don't know who told you otherwise, or tried to convince you otherwise, but yeah I have to agree with you 100%.

[IUTarheel]

And Edward Bell.....school population "42"???......UNBELIEVEABLE!!!......how does Alabama have schools (High Schools) with such low enrollment numbers?? Are there not other schools nearby to consider consolidation with??? Not to demean these schools success, just not use to those type of enrollment figures!!

[Alabama]

Well Alabama tends to have quite a few schools for areas that aren't that populated. I have a friend who moved down here from Tennessee, and he always remarks how he had one high school in his county, and here in Lauderdale County we have 8 or 9.

 

You do see some consolidation. In fact, in the last decade we had Bradshaw and Coffee merge to form Florence High and just recently Hazlewood and Hubbard consolidated to be Hubbard, and other Lawrence County schools also consolidated.

[IUTarheel]

Georgia has the same type of setup. you may have only 2 high schools in whole county, 1 would be the largest town/community, the other would be located central to the county.........Valdosta/Lowdnes County High Schools as an example, also, Thomasville/Thomasville Cental........their are others. This was common practice during the timeframe (1976) that I attended High School. The larger cities, always had multiple schools (sometimes to many), not counting just as many parochial schools. The 2 school regions became POWERHOUSES IN ALL SPORTS....except basketball, where the POWER was found in the larger cities This was before the "SUPER SIZING of CLASSES".........for example, my school, Windsor Forest HIgh in Savannah , Ga., was a Region 3-AAA school when I was there. Now it's a Region 3-AAAAA (largest classification in Ga.). If they had a couple of TRUE SUPER HIGH SCHOOLS in Savannah then, unthinkable about what would have been, nowadays, it seems that it's about MONEY...not about education......that the driving force in the school systems today. Ashame.........ashame!! Hopefully the smaller programs, as like the ones in Alabama, are giving the quality of education these kids need to be competitive in life, as as sports. If the schools like Shields/Bell can produce WINNERS on the hardwood, with such small numbers, then hopefully these kid can take advantage of the small student to teacher ratio, that I know doesn't exist/Can't exist at these SUPER SCHOOLS. Good Luck in the Future with Alabama Sports Programs........hopefully this becomes the LIGHT on the PATH, for other states/cities to emulate. Best Regards

[Southtowner]

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Edited November 18, 2016 by Southtowner

[Southtowner]

... oops

Edited November 18, 2016 by Southtowner

[Southtowner]

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