sportsnutdad

feel = fill

Don't base this just on the fact he's a talented athlete. I heard of bad behavior that would justify his expulsion. Credit to CPA for taking a stand. To often schools (both secondary and colleges) allow bad behavior to be overlooked for talented athletes.

Just heard a rumor that Vic Wharton is no longer at CPA. Is this true?

How would you compare SH's team this year to the SH team from last year?

Notre Dame and Lexington are out. Sequoyah will have to beat Smith County. After DL was beaten soundly by Goodpasture yesterday, I would have them as one of the favorites to win AA this year. If that was their 2nd or 3rd pitcher pitching, he was pretty good. (They have more than one good pitcher unlike some other teams.) Also they swing the stick pretty well, and have a few kids with power to take it deep.

Just my two cents worth, but I believe the schedule is fine forcing teams to use more than 1 pitcher. Ideally, teams would need 3 to 4 pitchers to make it through the state championship. It is a TEAM SPORT. Just look at the roster for most college teams. Roughly 50% of the roster is made up of pitchers. Of course smaller college teams, and most high school teams will have players who play one or more positions as well as pitch.

So how good is Sycamore's pitching and defense? Can they hit well against good pitching? DL's #1 starter, John Bolton should be ready to go. DL is a young team, but has been playing much better over the last few weeks of the season. John wasn't as sharp earlier in the season, but has really come on lately. Who is your #1 starter, and how good is he? Also, who is the best pitcher your team has faced and won this year?

I was curious if anyone has experience with the baseball program at EH? They look to have a good team, with good coaching staff in place. How strong do they look to be in the future as they have a big senior class graduating in 2012? Also, how strong is D-II-A baseball?

Wow, a list of "weapons" on offense, and a preseason 9 ranking is interesting for DL. There were several games they couldn't get the ball past the 50 yd line. Of course, most of blame should go to the O-line, or lack thereof. Also, the fact Maplewood is ranked ahead of Giles County surprises me.

Looks like he (Swindoll) is having a good year following (according to this thread) his Tommy John surgery. I have a special interest in HS pitchers coming back from this surgery as my son just had his TJ last week. Do you know the month Swindoll had his done? Some doctors are saying can be ready in 9 to 10 months if all goes well. However, a year to return is standard time-frame you tend to hear in baseball. Thanks, and I wish this young man (and others with same) continued success.

You know last year DL and CPA girls were fairly even. I don't believe the teams have changed that much since last year as both teams were young. However, CPA has taken steps forward this year, and DL has not. Not sure why.

Well you're right in that the CPA has beaten us soundly this year. (However, I would argue that they are basically a regional AAU team.) But, to my point about more than one sport, and doing it the right way. If you go to the TSSAA website, and run queries on Team Champions (go ahead and include Team Runners-up) so as to show a high degree of success. Let's just start at 2000 until present. CPA has a total of 10 across 4 sports, and Lipscomb has a total of 30 across 12 sports. The break down is below: *Total Team Champions or Runners-up since 2000* Lipscomb 6 in Girls Cross Country 5 in Football 4 in Baseball 3 in Boys Track, Girls Tennis 2 in Boys Golf, Boys Tennis 1 in Boys Cross Country, Girls Softball, Girls Golf, Girls Volleyball, Girls Track CPA 4 in Boys Golf 2 in Football, Girls Tennis, Girls Soccer I didn't go back past 2000, but Lipscomb has a championship in Boys and Girls basketball, but not recently. Also, did you ever hear of Clyde Lee? Probably, one of the best basketball players to ever come out of Tennessee. He played at Lipscomb, before going on to Vanderbilt and the NBA.

Well like I said before, that's what your AAU team is for. What does it show a college coach or scout to see a "stacked" HS team trounce another HS team of inferior talent? It's true in basketball and travel baseball. These teams usually represent consistently better talent. Therefore, a coach or scout is seeing you and others with talent competing against better talent.

I guess that explains the ally-opp /dunks and backcourt pressing when CPA is up on a team by more than 20 points. I mean after all, you've got to make sure you impress the college coach in the stands. (Sorry, this was meant to be in response to jett, not kbrks.)

How patronizing and condescending. Now back to the subject. How did all of these great athletes work it out to come to CPA to play? I mean it's not easy, or very practical to pack up your family and move 25 or 30 miles. Especially in today's economy. Do you expect us to think Jalen couldn't have found a good HS team near Murfreesboro? Or if a christian education was the bigger motivation, that couldn't be found closer to Murfreesboro? How about Bradshaw? Aren't there other schools closer to Greenbrier? I mean seriously, if you're a very talented basketball or baseball player, your summer AAU or travel team make more of difference to your college recruitment than your HS team. It also makes more sense, why uproot your family, change jobs, move brothers and sisters, etc.. to go somewhere else to play HS basketball?

You're just making up stuff. The numbers, and the scenario you put out is crazy. You don't make a bit of sense.

This is total bunk. All privates DO NOT RECRUIT. BTW why don't you talk about, or acknowledge how the "open enrollment" scheme works in metro and other counties in Tennessee? For example the d1 privates get a 1.8 multiplier applied to account for a perceived advantage when the TSSAA classifies their school. While at the same time a school like Pearl-Cohn can draw athletes from other metro schools (like MLK where they don't have a football team) without including that school's student population in the count that TSSAA uses to establish their classification. This is not to mention all the transfers for classes, or programs not offered at a particular school. My kid's have played and still play at Lipscomb, and the biggest advantages I can see are that our coaching staff is good, and there is a great deal of stability. Many public schools are constantly turning over the coaching staffs. I'll also throw this in. Just as in the cases where there is a winning team at school with several very good atheletes, we've always been able to show anyone that the best athetes often have attended school for several years often back to elementary school, as was pointed out about CPA in the early days. You only have to look at the top players on CPA's football and basketball teams to see these kids came out of the bushes and rocks all across the state. Lipscomb's baseball team is the reigning state champions, and the coach (Ernie Smith) was just named a national coach of the year. I don't see great baseball players coming out of nowhere to come to Lipscomb and join our baseball team. The football team has competed at a championship level for many years, and Coach McCadams and staff have won many awards. The track team, golf team, etc... but no mass inflow of very good players. They occasionly get a good athlete transferring in, however I know there are more that they lose. On the other hand you get this massive, random, spontaneous inflow of basketball talent out-of-nowhere to CPA. I'll call that what it is....bunk.

From what I know Lipscomb was without at least one of the starters inside. They're not very deep on the front line.

I bought a Marucci Cat 5 for my son last fall. It's a great bat, and a very balanced one-piece bat. However, he's a good-sized kid and I wanted to get him another bat that was a bit more end-loaded. I found an Easton XL3 on Ebay and bought it. He's been mashing with the Easton the last two weekends when taking BP. It's a very good bat. Now for less than the price of one Easton S1 or Demarini CF5 ($399), he has two nice one-piece bats. One is more balanced, and the other is a bit more end-loaded. Please understand, the Easton is still a fairly balance bat, and is only slightly end-loaded. He's been working all winter using a -2 wood bat, so a slightly loaded BBCOR bat is nothing. BTW his hitting coach has a son who is a freshman D1 player. He's always used the Demarini Voodoo, and still does. He's tried some other bats, but says there's not that much difference in the BBCOR bats. The same thing that CoachMikeCorn said above.

I would tend to agree based on what I know. I woud stay away from the first generation BBCOR bats, as they all were probably retro-fitted to gain BBCOR certification. The big difference will be some are more end-loaded and others will be more balanced. The $199.99 models are usually one-piece aluminum, the $299.99 bats have a composite handle and aluminum barrel. The $399.99 models are usually all composite. I would focus on my swing mechanics. If you work to develop a fundamentally sound swing you'll get good results with most any decent bat.

Yes, but a bad principal shouldn't have anything to do with a parent, or parents not knowing how to behave. They should know better. Also, if the parents are doing this, it could explain the poor behavior from some kids.

A quick question. If DL were to beat East Lit, and then win the remaining district games except for the CPA game. I believe both DL and East Lit would be tied with identical district records. (Also, assuming EL wins all remaining district games.) What is the tie breaker criteria that would determine the 2nd place team in the district, and of course post-season tournament seeding?

Coach Smith was just named Nation Coach of the Year by the NFHS. He's a wonderful coach and person. He's very deserving of this award. Ernie Smith, National Coach of the Year

My son played in the Grassland Rec League along-side a number of these kids, so I've seen them for a number of years. Jake Allsmiller, Duncan Smith, Nathan Moran, and there are probably others. My son, quit basketball after MS, and now just plays baseball and football. I agree there's a good deal of talent in this sophomore class in middle TN. However, it's a very strong class in baseball and football as well. It's been fun watching them grow-up and develop as athletes!

I doubt there's a way to fully regulate this, but hopefully TSSAA is educating the umpires and officials before the season begins. If they look over the bats, they can at least identify some bats looking suspicious. What are the rules if an illegal bat is found, either before, during, and after the game?