lcadad

Reminds me of the situation years ago when Ted Turner (owner of the Atlanta Braves, who at the time were in the cellar) fired the manager, suited up, and tried to manage the team himself. Baseball's commissioner (maybe Bowie Kuhn) odrered him out of the dougout. Ultimately, Bobby Cox was hired and the Braves became the best team of the 90's. So there is hope.

Great observations. If Saintsfan's observations are correct, (and I believe that they are) you have described an accurate portrait of what can happen to a program when it is being torn apart from within. The damage is wide spread and touches everything. It typically takes years to recover. Your're probably too young to remember what a powerhouse SMU was in the old Southwestern Conference. Pure bred athletes like Eric Dickerson, top twenty rankings, bowl games, so much interest that they moved their home games from the campus to Texas Stadium. They played before sold out crowds. The alums were accused of openly throwing money around. After repeated warnings, they got the "death penalty". That was in the mid-eighties (i believe, memory is questionable). Look at them since. It can get ugly on the inside.

Thanks. I too have all the respect in the world for CBHS and MUS. I grew up with those guys and they are some of the best people that you would want to ever meet. I played for Coach Heinz in his first two seasons at ECS. I thought we had a pretty good teams in the late seventy's. *(At least we had good win/loss records.) Having said that, we couldn't last a quarter with any of today's version of those teams. Things have changed, and you are absolutely right that it is a tremendous challenge to step up and play with teams of the calibur of CBHS and MUS. I welcome the opportunity. In my opinion, Briarcrest has a much more serious challenge off of the field. Carrying the burden of increased competition really is secondary to dealing with internal issues of this magnitude. I have many friends who are Briarcrest gaduates, they are also great people. My prayer is that this problem gets resolved and the competition level rises for all of us in the West. The stronger we are, the more likely that we can consistantly compete with the MBA'a and Brentwood Academies of middle Tennessee.

Bros, you're wrong on this one. Saintsfan is right. Your passion for your team is admirable, but is has distorted your analytical skills. The "last time" CBHS won the state championship was the only time. December 1977 at the Liberty Bowl. They beat Baylor 22 to 19. Ronnie Skinner (QB) threw a lateral pass to MIke Pruett (Flanker). Pruett then pulled up and threw it back to Skinner who was running along the opposite sideline for a winning touchdown. (Same play Tennessee ran against georgia a few weeks ago). They won the AAA championship with some great guys who are now Doctors, Lawyers, Bank Presidents etc. Great Guys, and good friends. (I am giving you the play by play because you weren't born at the time.) Since the TSSAA split the state into two divisions, CBHS's has only won about 40%of its games against the original Super Seven teams. So we can safely deduce that you have some room for improvement against those opponents. Saintsfan's point is this, ECS and Briarcrest complied with the dictates and structure promulgated by the TSSAA, and made the very best of the opportunity. Neither school has 850 males between 9th and 12th grades. ECS has maybe 250, Briarcrest about the same. CBHS has the highest population of males between 9th and 12th grades in all of the DII schools. As a result, they played in the large division, the other two schools played in the small division. Student population is the determining factor in creating divisions. If I were to follow your logic, (that these sate championships are not legitimate) then the entire classification system should be scrapped. Rhodes College should then be required to play Big Ten opponents. FACS, St. Georges, and SBEC should then be required to beat Maryville to claim a championship. It doesn't work that way, never has. CBHS has a great program with great atheletes and great coaches. If my team can't win the state championship, then I definitely want a West Tennessee team to win. Don't take anything away from these schools and their past performances. They complied with the rules and the structure of the time, and accomplished somthing that was meaningful. You're better than that. Now that the structure has changed, these schools have big challenges to step it up. Both schools have grown over the years, and have never backed away from a challenge. ECS began its program in 1974. By 1979, they were a top ten ranked team in Single A. in 1983 they won their first Single A state championship. Over the years as the school has grown, they have responded to the challenge. Briarcrest has as well. You're missing the relativity point. It's the resaon that there was no point spread on the Michigan/ App. State game earlier this year. No one could fathom that outcome. They couldn't figure out how to handicap the game. Think about it.

Well said. I don't know Carly Powers, but I have heard from many that he is a good man. Moving up is difficult. Combine that with internal strife, and you've got a lingering, comprehensive problem. No easy, quick fixes. There are many examples of churches having these types of problems as well. Again, good luck to the Saints.

You're correct. I have seen it at other schools before. I know of one instance where it took about 5 to 6 years to recover. Students/Athletes left, coaching staff turned over, etc. it was a real disaster. Resolution came when the Headmaster was replaced. Only then did the situation begin to slowly reverse itself. With the addition of other private schools offering parents more choices, the movement maybe more prevalent now than in years past. The process of change started at the top. It was not without some pain. Briarcrest has some great facilities and some good people. I hope it works out.

Congrats to CBHS. They came ready to play, executed their game plan, and played flawlessly. With the new DII-AA format, it's really hard to get a feel for how Western teams stack up against the others particularly those around Nashville. Should CBHS play Brentwood, MBA, or Father Ryan in the same manner in which they played Friday night, I am not convinced that the Nashville teams could stop them. Time will tell, the season is far from being over. Nevertheless, congratulations are in order.

In your opinion, what talent do the underclassman have? Last Monday I sat through a monsoon during the ECS Briarcrest JV game. It appeared to me that Briarcrest did have several good athletes on both sides of the ball.

Ditto, well said.

Please don't misunderstand, I was not trying to be sarcastic. I agree that it was the right thing to do. I can think of one other school that had too many parents, politics, etc. going on at the same time. It produced a tremendous amount of collateral damage that took about 10 years from which to recover. Briarcrest has had a tremendous athletic program over the years. Hopefully, they can recover. It will take work, and probably some changes in the administration. I think that even the guys on this board from CBHS would agree that a strong western presence in DII AA, is critical. The Nashville schools are particularly though, (this year is no exception). We need to be able to compete with them on a year in year out basis. Good Luck.

Moving up is definitely a challenge. If the politics have been as bad as it sounds, Briarcrest has a much more fundamental problem than need of a talent upgrade. This is somthing that could take years and plenty of patience to overcome. I am not trying to be funny, but this is much bigger than Touhey adopting a linemen to round out the offense. You're talking about setting a foundation at the middle school level and slowly trying to rebuild on a year to year basis. This will be a tough one.

Agreed. I grew up with Phil Massey, played against him at Skyview, etc. He is a great guy, was a terrific quaterback at Skyview, played at Baylor, and is a great coach. Big mistake to let him go.

Thanks. Your description of their approach to football is consistent with what I remember seeing in the past. It does seem that they have fallen since Freeze left. The close proximity of St. George's along with the presence of Coach Netherland will make it difficult to rebuild their program.

I haven't seen Briarcrest play in a couple of years. What were you referring to when you said the saints were continuing their dirty style of play? It seems that CBHSis hitting a stride. How long were the starters in during the second half, how well did the backups play on both sides, etc? Thanks.

Perhaps the principal should devote more time to managing his students and teachers. Recall last spring when several students were marked "present and accounted for" when they were actually on a mini-crime spree in the Germantown and Hickory Hill areas.