innocent bystander

Maybe you should ask the Ravenwood student section that question seeing as how the paper said this morning that they had to be stopped by the Smyrna coaches on Smyrna's field trying to get in the Smyrna players' faces. Just a thought.

This is my last post on the subject... If the Smyrna players showed no class or dignity then the whole student body of Ravenwood showed even less. There is no place in sports or life for profane chants or verbal attacks on individual players. If you hold football players to a higher standard than a cheering student section, then that is just hypocracy. They are both representatives of the school. I'm all for having school spirit and supporting your team, but there are limits. The "Raptor Nation" was eating it up in the earlier season matchup when it taunted and belittled Smyrna and got a response out of a player or two, and they tried again last night. However, they got no response out of the individual player or the team until the game was over. They let their play talk for them, and then they made sure they saw the scoreboard without profanity or obscene gestures. It wasn't their fault that the game administrators at MTSU gave out the championship hats right in front of the student section. In my opinion last night was more harmless banter back and forth, unlike last time when both sides definately crossed the line. There is and was nothing but respect between the two teams and coaching staffs. However, there wasn't much respect given or received from the "Raptor Nation." If that is all people are complaining about grow up and get over it, or else you might want to look at reigning in your student section before pointing a finger at someone else... you know that whole "Take the plank out of your eye, before removing the splinter out of another." As for fans outside of the game being disrespectfull. I want to apologize for the whole town of Smyrna. That is just plain classless, I will agree. In a town of 30 to 40 thousand people, there are bound to be the basic handfull of morons. They in no way reflect the class and dignity that are shown by Mr. Raikes and Coach Shadowens. I haven't lived in Smyrna that long, but it is truly evident the kind of character and love for Smyrna these two men have displayed over their lives and careers and pass on to everyone they contact. So please, drop this whole nonsense. It does nobody any good except to show the kind of character we have hiding behind cryptic screen names on a chat board lobbing insults and general characterizations. As Forrest Gump says, "That's all I have to say bout that"

Guys, listen. The ONLY reason the Smyrna players went over there was because the people that administer the game brought out the championship hats and dropped them right over there on the 15 yard line to hand them out. Then some of the players started holding up their new hats for the Raptor Nation to see and pointing to the "S" on their helments. I personally didn't see any obscene gestures from my vantage point in that corner of the endzone. I did see a group of kids that enjoyed watching the "Raptor Nation" have to eat a little crow after the lengthy pregame chanting session they had at Smyrna's expense.

I'm sorry, Cat was right...Your student section can dish it out, but they can't take it. I was watching from the endzone, and all I saw was mild taunting. I didn't see anyone flipping anybody off. The real problem was whoever administrated the game decided to hand out the championship hats right in front of their student section. That is the only reason the Smyrna players were over there in the first place (not to go purposefully taunt the Ravenwood students). Once they were there, they started pointing at the "S" on their helmets and holding their new hats up. Grow up and if you want to let the Ravenwood kids be kids, then let the Smyrna kids be kids too. Great job by both teams on a terrific season!

So you WERE at the game? It's just a little confusing that you can sign up for your account at 7:34PM (kickoff was at 7) and post 6 times between 7:41 and 8:26, which is during the game and still be at the game. Maybe you do work for the Nashville paper. Does your boss know that you are getting on some message board during the game and ripping a team and officials at a game you are "supposed" to be covering. Also if all of this happened, you couldn't have "seen" the ball cross the plane as you said, because the news trucks were over 100 yards away at the other end and side of the field. I guess you set up your little laptop down at the other goaline, though. I'm sorry to take this thread a little off topic, but it is a major pet peave of mine to see somebody try to argue something and they weren't even there! Now I get to use the beautiful CoachT Ignore feature for this guy.

I live in Smyrna. I didn't graduate from there or have a kid at the school, so I don't really have a dog in either fight. After reading several posts of this game, I felt like I had to say something. How could you "see" two teams play last night when not only did you just sign up during the game but also posted all throughout the game. It sounds like you need to tone it down and let people that actually saw what happened comment on what happened. If anybody is complaining about the hit on your QB's head (even though pictures clearly show he didn't get hit in the head), why aren't you saying anything about the "2" helmet-to-helmet hits on the Smyrna QB in the 1st quarter? He was a little woozy on the sideline and the trainers looked at him for a while. I had heard all the hype and I wanted to see the game for myself. Like most people said, it was a great, hard-fought high school football game. The refs were definately not a factor. The Ooltewah receiver had the ball knocked out before crossing the plane. The interception overturn and the fumble that was called both appeared to go in Ooltewah's favor. The bulk of penalties on the Owls were jumping offsides and delay of game. Like I said, I went to see a good game and it was worth every bit of my $7. Good luck to the Owls next year as you all have a lot of outstanding talent returning, and good luck to the Bulldogs next week