Big Poppa 17

0-0 at halftime.  Probably double the number of sacks than 1st downs so far.

I completely agree! I had to leave at halftime, plus I didn't have a dog in the hunt, and that one half of watching CPA play was the best "soccer" that I've seen this season and probably in a while. I wish I was good enough of a coach to get my boys to play like that.

But as we have seen at all levels, if you have good defenders and one stud forward, anti-football can get you rings.

2016 Wilhoit College Showcase

Kicking Coach James Wilhoit is holding a combine for 2017, 2018 , 2019 & 2020 kicking prospects at Franklin Road Academy on June 13^th from 1-6 PM.

This camp will have COLLEGE Coaches in attendance and will be designed for long snappers, kickers, and punters.

Schools confirmed to attend

U. of Tennessee

UT Martin

North Alabama

Carson Newman

Cumberland

Bethel

Many more schools have expressed serious interest in attending and are waiting to discuss with head coach.

Cost: $150 until June 1^st & $175 after June 1^st

Sign Up at www.jameswilhoitkickingcoach.com

Email James at jameswilhoit@gmail.com with any questions

2016 Wilhoit College Showcase

Kicking Coach James Wilhoit is holding a combine for 2017, 2018 , 2019 & 2020 kicking prospects at Franklin Road Academy on June 13^th from 1-6 PM.

This camp will have COLLEGE Coaches in attendance and will be designed for long snappers, kickers, and punters.

Schools confirmed to attend

U. of Tennessee

UT Martin

North Alabama

Carson Newman

Cumberland

Bethel

Many more schools have expressed serious interest in attending and are waiting to discuss with head coach.

Cost: $150 until June 1^st & $175 after June 1^st

Sign Up at www.jameswilhoitkickingcoach.com

Email James at jameswilhoit@gmail.com with any questions

2016 Wilhoit College Showcase

Kicking Coach James Wilhoit is holding a combine for 2017, 2018 , 2019 & 2020 kicking prospects at Franklin Road Academy on June 13^th from 1-6 PM.

This camp will have COLLEGE Coaches in attendance and will be designed for long snappers, kickers, and punters.

Schools confirmed to attend

U. of Tennessee

UT Martin

North Alabama

Carson Newman

Cumberland

Bethel

Many more schools have expressed serious interest in attending and are waiting to discuss with head coach.

Cost: $150 until June 1^st & $175 after June 1^st

Sign Up at www.jameswilhoitkickingcoach.com

Email James at jameswilhoit@gmail.com with any questions

2016 Wilhoit College Showcase

Kicking Coach James Wilhoit is holding a combine for 2017, 2018 , 2019 & 2020 kicking prospects at Franklin Road Academy on June 13^th from 1-6 PM.

This camp will have COLLEGE Coaches in attendance and will be designed for long snappers, kickers, and punters.

Schools confirmed to attend

U. of Tennessee

UT Martin

North Alabama

Carson Newman

Cumberland

Bethel

Many more schools have expressed serious interest in attending and are waiting to discuss with head coach.

Cost: $150 until June 1^st & $175 after June 1^st

Sign Up at www.jameswilhoitkickingcoach.com

Email James at jameswilhoit@gmail.com with any questions

Big Poppa...

 

Right now, it only affects a few.  But soon, it will affect a lot more.

OK. I have another question that shows my ignorance.  I keep hearing from different people that soccer as well as all high school athletics will soon be changing...do you know anything about that or is it some kind of wishful thinking?

Argumentative? I laid out exactly the way the education system carries out its duties and reasons why it does so.

 

The rule has absolutely prevented a huge percentage of kids from playing travel sports (AAU etc....) during their respective HS seasons. You cannot deny that.

 

Once again I'm asking you do you believe all coaches always do the right thing for their players? If so then your "absurd" comment has foundation. If not its hyperbole.

 

You're entitled to your opinion and I respect that. I just happen to disagree with your specific claim that all coaches are good.

I don't see how this affects a "huge percentage of kids from playing travel sports".  To me, this looks like it only affects the elite few...I may be wrong, and if I am that is fine, Can you explain that part, please?

I received an email yesterday about this topic.  I can't believe this is actually being considered.  Over half of the coaches in our district coach both boys and girls teams.  How are we going to find that many more coaches?  We can barely get refs for the games we have.  How are we going to cover twice as many games?  Most teams struggle to get buses for away games now, with baseball and softball in the spring.  Who has 2 practice fields?  I can't believe that a meeting between a few private school coaches and travel team representatives could lead to thousands of players being without a coach or even possibly a team, so that a select few could have the opportunity to choose to play on multiple teams.

 

Why don't they move college football to the spring so that players can play in the NFL while in college?  

After reading that same email, and the posts on this thread...I am starting to agree with you.  This whole thing smells like a plan to help the elite travel teams and the very, very few high school teams (mostly private schools) that this affects.  And quite honestly, I am sick and tired of these travel coaches thinking that they are superior to high school coaches!  "Wow! You have a 'D' license...that must have been a hard weekend for you!"  They practice two or three times a week, play their games on a Saturday, coach against teams that are the same age and level of skill as their players...how hard is that?  My biggest victory as a coach was back in 2007 when I took my team that had all of 1 guy playing travel, and we beat a vastly more talented team, on the road, that made the state tournament that year...travel coaches will never have that feeling.

I would ask, just how many kids are we talking about?  How many teams are in that premier league of travel or whatever it is called? Or is it one of those deals where a few kids from an area with a lot of money and influence are being affected and they are trying to get the rules changed for them?

In boys soccer in the spring, college coaches absolutely recruit the kids.  In my 10 years coaching here in the midstate at 3 different schools, I have had numerous college coaches coming to see my kids, and almost all of them made their decision on offering a scholarship based on what they saw. I don't know about girls soccer and I especially don't know about travel (if I was interested in cutthroat politics, I would run for office, but I'm not, so I coach at the high school level instead of travel).  

District 9AAA

Hendersonville - Russ Plummer

Gallatin - Greg Harper

Station Camp - Tom Morand

Wilson Central - Jeff Loucks

Lebanon - Zack Batty

If it was moving boys to the fall, I would be for it (I hate coaching in the cold of the early spring), but I'm against moving the girls to the spring, if for no other reason, the amazing damage that would do to our soccer fields.  Plus, think about all the people who play on football fields...those football coaches would have a fit if there were two games played on a wet day on their precious field.

BigG, is there a timeframe for when this might happen?

I forgot to add that the reasoning behind this possibly happening is because most, if not all, of the states in our region (southeast), play both in the spring.  The way we do it, messes up girls travel soccer.  North of us, almost everyone plays both in the fall, which would be ok field wise, because the grass is stronger and it doesn't rain as much.  

I was at a game the other day talking to a coach that is "in the know", and he was saying that in the next few years that Tennessee will be going to girls soccer playing in the spring with boys soccer.  I am the boys coach at my school.  If it happens, we will all adjust, of course, but I do have a few concerns:

1. My biggest concern-the state of the fields.  Soccer in the spring in Tennessee is often wet and muddy, if you double the amount of games and practices on those fields, it could ruin some fields.

2. Coaches. There are a lot of schools that only have one soccer coach for boys and girls...

3. Facilities. Every school that I know only has one locker room for soccer, the girls use it in the summer and fall, the boys use it in the winter and spring. How will that work?

4. JV. When will our JV games be played?

The other stuff is just logistics (practice times, transportation, etc.), but those are some fairly legitimate concerns.

Actually, many in the school and the community are behind the idea of a promotion from within. There is some very vocal support for that to happen. Just because someone on staff is hired does not mean that he would continue to do things like they have been done previously.

People can get on here all day and throw out ridiculous statements like "they should have won 7-8 games this year"' or "it was the offense that sucked". No one is willing to say the truth, with the exception of Southernfried, that this team does not belong in 5-6A. It does make a difference when you have many more athletes to draw from. And honestly, that is the problem at PHS. Not enough athletes to be competitive in this very tough region. Just because some players daddy gets on here and says there were doesn't make it so.

Good luck to PHS. But it is going to be a vert difficult row to hoe, even to just make the playoffs in this district. Roger Perry left for a reason, and it was because he could see what was coming in terms of athletes.

 

 

 

Before I start my rant, let me begin by saying that I am a proud Portlandian (Portlander?), class of '89, but after all these years of incessant whining "We're Portland, we don't belong in 5/6A Football"...yes we do.  Go to this link and check out the numbers http://www.tssaa.org/Classifications/classification.cfm.  There are 16 schools smaller than Portland in the 5/6A Football classification, included in these are Anderson Co. and Northeast, both of whom are pretty good at football.  The smallest school in 5/6A is Sullivan Central with 1017 students, Portland has 1135.  There is no chance that Portland will be going down in classification soon, so drop it and move on.

This is how the district enrollment numbers look:

MJ - 1903

WC - 1714

Leb - 1638

Hend - 1527

SC - 1433

Gall - 1381

Beech - 1297

Port - 1135

So Portland does have the smallest enrollment in the district, but Beech with only 162 more kids have 2 rings and Portland can't win a game. People can debate the reasons why on here until they turn blue in the face, but it ain't the enrollment numbers and it ain't the coaching.  The same coach beat white house, Gallatin, and Hendersonville last year, and there are few guys that I know of who takes losing as hard as Coach Aric does.  If you don't believe me, take a look at a picture of him when he was the WC coach and look at a picture of him now...he has aged more than the president in 4 years.  

My opinion is that it is the community that is the reason. The recession hit Portland hard.  With all those parents up there working in all of those factories and distribution centers only making $9-$10 an hour, as a kid, when you turn 15, you go get a job and work as many hours as possible.  You don't have time for sports, especially one as time consuming as football.  I could be wrong, but that is my opinion.

Btw, if you don't believe that I am from Portland, check out the grammar in this posting

With our district no longer having ties in the regular season, the head-to-head matchup is the tie-breaker.

Coach Grooms should have at least Coordinator on his resume if not head coach to compete for this job. Concerning Brent Alexander applying for Gallatin. Great guy, not qualified to teach. JPII hired him. Mark Williams is an excellent hire for Gallatin. Gallatin graduated 20 seniors in 2011, 16 of which started multiple years and a down year(s) was expected before a run a title would be possible. Also, Gallatin beat LHS 36-0 this year with a 3-7 team.

How is he supposed to get coordinator experience? Does every black coach that wants to be a head coach in the midstate have to go to Metro (or play for the Titans) to get experience? Besides there are really good head coaches out there who did not have experience as coordinators, John Harbaugh at Baltimore and our own Mike Munchak come to mind (Munchak was 9-7 last year). Would you rather have someone with coordinator experience that was an abject failure when he was a coordinator? If so there are several out there that may want this job.

People need to be realistic about this position. Yes, there is definitely a possibility for a turnaround with LHS. The facilities are brand new, there are athletes in the system and there is size in the system as well. The community cares, the alumni definitely cares. But, they are playing in a tough district, they are the fifth best program in their own county (MJ, FCS, WC, Watertown), FCS will be giving out full athletic scholarships next year. How much does the administration want to have a successful program?

Point blank, the next LHS head coach is going to have to sell his program and his vision to the administration, community, alumni, and most importantly, to the kids, to keep from falling further behind. And some of you may not believe this, but I believe that the presentation of the program and vision is almost as important as X's and O's. And that is why I believe that Maurice Grooms is the best candidate for the job. He has the X's and O's down, but his contacts in the community, alumni, and the kids will move this program forward.

Maurice Grooms. A star athlete at LHS, starter at DT at Western Kentucky, high school coach here in the mid-state for many years. They could bring in "one of their own" to rejuvenate the community and alumni base. And with Friendship going div 2 and being able to give out scholarships, the next coach at Lebanon better be able to keep the best athletes from going down the road.

The only missing part of his resume is that he has not been a coordinator or head coach, but name every black head coach/coordinator in mid-state history, not in Metro...you won't make it to two hands. Brent Alexander was a 12 year player in the NFL and couldn't get a job at his alma mater, Gallatin, and how is that working out for them?

I will freely admit that I am biased, Coach Grooms and I have been friends for many years, and I have heard him speak hundreds of times with immeasurable passion about the city of Lebanon and his beloved Blue Devils, and I believe that is time for LHS to call him home.

Lebanon people always say, "Once a Blue Devil, always a Blue Devil", well here's their chance to prove it.

I would like to pose the question, "How useful is spring practice?" Practicing in pads for two weeks in early May and then no padded practice until the last week in July...around 70+ days. Is it a program killer, or not that big a deal? I no longer coach football, but I always thought that spring practice is very over-rated, but that is just my opinion, I could very easily be wrong.

Gallatin won 20-14. WC completely dominated the game but had 3 turnovers and had 2 punts blocked deep in their territory. Gallatin's last TD came on 4th down when the RB fumbled and the QB had his knee on the ground and picked it up and ran it in. But when you play Gallatin you should expect those kind of calls from the refs.

1. Gallatin - Freakin' loaded.

2. MJ - Chowbay will be District MVP.

3. Hendersonville - like always, they will reload.

4. SC - Last two freshman classes were undefeated, the O and D lines are deep and talented.

5. WC - I know I am biased, but the Wildcats have a lot of speed in the junior and sophomore classes, enough to compete for a playoff spot.

6. Beech - Last two freshman classes were subpar, great coaching, but will fall hard because of the last two graduating classes.

7. Lebanon - Maynard is a stud. Other than that they are a wildcard.

8. Portland - As a native Portlandian, I wish them well.

I am pretty solid on positions 1 and 2, 3-4 and 5-7 are interchangeable.

Do you still have the "man crush" on your former boss? I understand he is looking for coaches; why don't you go help him! I also heard they did not do too well vs MC (LOL). I would consider that a bad sign; MC is no powerhouse. Maybe that "newfound" WC speed was really a lack of MC speed. (LOL)

 

and MJ would crush Friendship with little or no mercy; they will also whip up on Lebanon and WC; I would have to say they will be one of top teams in our league

 

go bucs

First off, I am not going to be involved in a lengthy, war of words on coacht. All I am going to say is that I was commenting on a scrimmage between Macon County and WC. Portland and Beech were not involved. So if you want to start a "Bashing Traye Aric" thread, then go ahead, but leave this one to people who want to discuss football.

I don't have a clue who you are, nor do I ever want to meet you, but Traye Aric has been gone from Beech since 2004, so your irrational and, at this point, pathetic hatred of him, truly shows that you are a small, small man.

 

Heard WC scrimmaged Macon Co last week who FC defeated last year and had mixed results. Also hear that Macon dressed about 85 and Central had about 40.

 

I don't know where you get your info, but with the 1's and 2's in it was 4-1 WC. It could have been worse but WC threw two interceptions in the red zone. WC completely dominated the line of scrimmage with long drives and several 20yd+ plays. WC is much improved with a lot of speed that we haven't had the last couple of years. Macon County's 3's were better than WC's 3's. I'm not trying to anger the Macon County crowd, but they didn't seem to be as talented as they were last year.