BLUEMOM

Congratulations to MUS on a well played game. Best of luck on your continued trek in the brackets. The video was most excellent complete with replays! Rest up gentlemen, on to winter!

Spartan you are right about earning home adavantage. Maybe our guys this season wanted to take the trip to Memphis? They might have planned it all along! They should be finishing up study hall about now and uncircling the wagons! I re-checked on the streaming. The athletic office had it on the word of the MUS AD that it was on. I think the TSSAA article only mentions the ones they are doing. At least I hope that is the case as my plans include a bucket of owl wings, ranch dressing, celery and beverage!

I checked with the athletic office yesterday to verify and they said it was a go. There is also a link to an audio stream. Hopefully it will all work out. I know it is possible to do your normal video stream as long one pays the fee! Travel is definitely a factor. They split it up, but it is still "abnormal". Not your own bed, icky hotel breakfast. Hopefully they will overcome!

http://www.musowls.org/netcommunity/FLASH_STREAM/stream.html That is the link posted on the McCallie athletic page. Looking forward to being able to see it. I know how to connect the laptop to the flat screen and plan to watch in large screen splendor while munching on a bucket of wings!

The McCallie buses just pulled out of campus heading west with a rousing bon voyage party. Understand the weatherperson is predicting tornadic activity tomorrow evening in the Memphis area at kickoff time! A big shout out to MUS for the video stream planned for the game! Although I will monitor this tweety thing... McCallie - 27 MUS - 24

Sorry I meandered! On topic: MBA 28 B 27

Aggravating but I don't think devastating. Let me know when it gets to 11.

I have to agree with slowrunner. It is very easy to blame officials...you don't have to look at them across the dinner table, you don't have to examine closely what the team/coaches may/may not have don't right in the game, missed opportunities... As to the Chattanooga association, they are a fairly strong association with lots of strong officials. Their grading supervisors are all very experienced and currently serve in the ACC and SEC and oh yeah, that little thing call the NFL. Each crew is graded twice during the regular season and those grades along with how they score on a written rules test determine if they are submitted for a state playoff game. Apparently, we did fairly well in all those areas.... at least 6 first round games (36 officials) and 4 second round games (24 officials). Most of those positions were not repeats from the first round. Now, does that I mean agree with everything called or not called... nope. Does that mean I don't have some spiritied discussions with BlueRef as he is taking off his stripes on Fridays.... nope. But I also have had more than one occasion to offer a little rules education to the fan in the stands. (It really makes them angry when you start the education with "Now, sweetie, your coach gets 3 choices on Friday night. The ref doesn't arbitrarily assign a choice." I was trying to be nice to the poor Ooltewah guy.) Hope everyone has a spirited contest across the river and I will most certainly be pulling for MBA!

Very objective and pretty much right on the money. The Blue is typically undersized but a very scrappy bunch and can be very determined and effective if they remain disciplined. #24 is a very slippery runner and is very difficult to bring down. QB has a decent arm although we don't see much of it, but when we do it has been critical. Ball protection is a huge key for us, one where we have struggled. We will most definitely need to establish the running game, protect the ball, and complete our assignments. We must execute and play mistake free football. It will be a long trip over, hopefully it will not throw the Blue for a loop! As always, my never-ending support! Go Big Blue! Thanks to Coach Carpenter for the tweet updates last week and forcing me into another social networking avenue!!

Well, well, well.... Awesome job gentlemen! My hat is off to you!

I'm sorry I forgot my manners... hope everyone has a safe trip to and from the game both those near and far. For those Blue fans in attendance, yell loudly even if looks dim and always remember that "It could happen!" Now to turn over my keys to my faithful golden, Maximus Blue Nader.

Ok, I have stocked up on tissues and a large bottle of astronomical proof adult beverage and will shortly be ready to brave the game. I am not very hopeful for this evening. I'm afraid we are too one dimensional and don't seem to protect the ball well. 38-27 BGA I think this may be the first time I've not picked the Blue. I'm going to pretend that I am Victoria Principal and I'm going to wake up and this season will have all been a dream!

But thankfully the size challenged female has not sung yet!

Officials are usually assigned to games by the assigning officer of the local association. The assigning officer is usually elected by the local association and approved by the state. At the high school level an alumni is not an automatic exclusion. Automatic exclusions from a school at the high school level are being an employee of the school, married to or related to an immediate family member who is employed by the school, having a child or close family member on the athletic team in question. An official may recuse him/herself from a school if they feel there is a conflict of interest. Coaches usually have at least two exclusions available to them. These are true for the Chattanooga association and probably very similar for all across the state. It is really difficult to not use alumni at the high school level due to geography, growing up in the area and the # of games in the geographical location and the number of officials available. The usual problem is that the official who is an alumni holds his alma mater to a tougher standard than the opposing school. Actually unfair to his alma mater. If an official appears to be biased towards a school, it is usually handled internally by the assigner. It is actually pretty common for alumni to call their school if they grew up in the area. My better half, "BlueRef", has called his school numerous times even in big rivalry games. Last night on his crew one of the officials had actually played for the head coach at a previous school.

Upon further contemplation, I don't need #'s, I will just pass along the report of less than honorable behavior and maybe the whole team could use a little counseling.

Well I reckon we will just have to call that conduct unbecoming. While it is no excuse, I would offer that some young gentlemen had just been handed a tough loss and might have been experiencing some difficulties in dealing with that loss. If you would like to provide the #'s of those in question I would be happy to pass them along to those that can address the issue and provide them some counseling in how to better conduct themselves in these situations. I did not witness the line handshake I was busy sweeping out the concession stand. I apologize to any MBA players who were offended.

Congrats to MBA on the win and hope the trip home is a safe one. As always an extremely good game, hard fought, good fans! Please apologize to the MBA coaches for me as I didn't have time to bake them cookies this week, but hope they enjoyed their candy sack! KW, when you make your trip to the Blue, look me up! I will be happy to give you the 50 cent tour and will even treat you to a coke and hot dog! Then of course we might have to sit on opposite sides of the stadium!

oldwiseone you are just a fine wine in a really great bottle with a fantasttic label! As to the game, it should be a close one if we have a little ball protection! Blue by 5

This was in Ward Gossett's Journey to Signal Mountin article in the TimesFreePress: “He and his mom both began texting me asking for my help because they wanted to get him in school at Signal because of the educational environment and [the fact] that I would be there to make sure he got done what he needed to academically,†Roberson said. “I went to the Hamilton County [school board] offices and spoke to them about him, gave them his history and the reasons he wanted to transfer Direct quote from Shane Roberson.

Free Press reporting hearing set for Oct 20.

I saw the "are considering" but not the "will appeal" by ward gossett at 6:30am. Just saw it now at lunch. Sorry! http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2011/oct/11/signal-mountain-will-appeal-tssaa-decision/

Times-Free Press just posted that SM will appeal and has asked for an immediate hearing.

I am not a SM hater nor am I bitter about your success. I am not fixated on any particular player, only mentioned the Hwy 58 one as he was mentioned earlier in the thread. I am not an insider to your program and only know what I read and hear which must be taken with a grain of salt. As to our own rules, the Blue is a member school of the TSSAA just as SM is and is required to abide by their rules and bylaws the same as any other member school. We are classed in another division because we choose to offer financial aid and follow additional rules related to that. So I do not feel that we operate by our own rules. We complete the same paperwork ya'll do. I'm sure that I am not the only interested bystander. I sympathize with the young men involved, what a tough lesson. BTW, like the smeaglize it.

Well, I guess someone is in severe need of a good stiff one or possibly some derriere salve. I know you are having a tough time right now, but I will defend myself. It was not difficult to pay $20K a year or so for my son to attend the Blue. It was worth every penny. BUT, it was not spent in an effort for BlueSon to simply have a shot at a state championship in any sport. Although, he was on a team that had a shot in 2006 which I might add was in a much tougher division than yours. And at that time, Baylor was trying to figure out how to stop #11 on a streak. I would also stack my 100 years of educational excellence and history against SM any day of the week, month or year. At the Blue, we attempt to follow an Honor Code that ya'll seem to be having a few difficulties with. Also, SM was not in existence when we were choosing schools for BlueSon and even if it were, we would not be in your zone and would not have asked for a hardship. As for the Blue chances, our time will come again as these things cycle. But this situation is not about McCallie or Baylor, it is about someone not being able to properly do paperwork or simply a malicious attempt to circumvent rules. But since you seem to worry about BlueSon's education and opportunities in life, he is great! A 4.0 collegiate football player looking at a bright future ahead with a full complement of great high school coaches who are still there for him. Now, if I were a signal parent, I would want my administrators to look at previous hardship paperwork, to assure the same "innocent mistake" had not occurred previously. And I would attempt to ascertain responsibility and re-educate those individuals associated with this. And if I were honorable and found additional innocent mistakes, I would self-report asap. As a taxpayer, I sincerely hope that none of my tax $ are going to pay your fines.

What would worry me is how many more forms for hardship transfers were done incorrectly (not saying deliberatly, could be mistakenly)? I'm assuming a player with a Hwy 58 address is not in SM territory... most likely Central or Tyner. If this error occurred on #3 due to ignorance, then what about that one which would have to have a waiver also. When I listened to the Hargis interview Friday on local talk radio, he expressed that the TSSAA could look into other instances as well from previous years. I did not hear him state that they were at this moment, just that there is no "statute of limitations".