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When you are playing championship high school football most teams have 2 or 3 players that have the ability to play D1 in college. The difference is the coach that can make his average players better that the other teams average players.

Is Franklin County an open zoned county? If so would Rankin be interested?

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It does not sound like Bradley Central and the Bradley County School Board are ready to win at this time! Often times you will find that individuals on the various school boards will make a promise to the incoming coach and then will not follow up with that promise or commitment. Everyone needs to read between the lines on this story.

Give Lussier another year and maybe Ryan could play Oak Ridge.

You are correct that both Riverdale and Hillsboro have great programs. However, you are wrong in that people would just move into the Hillsboro zone. The only area zoned for Hillsboro that most people could afford is the Melrose area and many of those homes are going for over 150 grand now. The homes in Green Hills are probably over 300, 0000 in most instances. The home prices in the Hillsboro zone have exploded in recent years. But hey with the way that Metro works you don't have to make a move into the zone you only have to take a class that your "ZONED" schools does not offer.

Was this not his 1st year and Bradley? If so what is going on with football at Bradley?

Some people may not want you to tell the truth!!!!!!!!!!! Those same people place their head in the sand and claim that only the private schools recruit.

How is Metro not open zoned schools for high school? They all offer one subject area that the other schools don't so that students can choose to take that one class and attend the school of their choice. The consolidated high schools were established this way and are still this way to my knowledge. Hey, let's not play dumb on this issue as everyone that has graduated from a metro public school knows what is going on.

What about MBA vs Byrnes in a rematch of this years Clinic Bowl? Would MBA like to have another shot at Byrnes or would Riverdale, Maryville, or Oak Ridge like to have an opportunity to play the Rebels?

We have D2 in Tennessee because Riverdale couldn't beat Brentwood Academy.

I have heard that BJ Coleman almost didn't play football this season due to his love of baseball. Will he go D1 in baseball or football because it seems as if he will have the opportunity in both sports?

You are so correct in everything that you have stated but you should also add the following: 1. Many times the high school coaches have not played in college and do not have the contacts to become a GA where they can get started. 2. As a young assistant you have to live a vagabond life with very little pay. 3. Often young people are scared of the unknown and do not want to move very far away from their family and firends. How many poeple not only coaches but in other fields will take a job on the opposite side of the United States? It takes a very determined and mature person to do this. Just look at how many student/athletes travel more that 4 or 5 hours away from home to attend college and you will find that it is very few. The ones that do are both very good players and mature. 4. Young coaches must be good recruiters and some young graduates do not have the personality to go and get that blue chip player. 5. Established high school coaches would probably have to take a large cut in pay to become as assistant on the college level. How many of the big time colleges that pay their assistant coaches well would hire a high school coach? They would probably have to start at a very small college and that would be a low paying and often times part time job. I don't feel that you can blame it on a wife and kids because how many young college graduates have a wife and kids? If you can blame it on anything it would be that most high school coaches don't have the playing background and connections to even get to 1st base with most college programs. We are talking about two different worlds.

The Tennessee teams that could charge $15.00 per game if they played each other: Maryville Riverdale Oak Ridge Christian Brothers Memphis University School

Is there a chance that Notre Dame will start the Sunday afternoon matches with Father Ryan again? Why did Notre Dame drop out of the long running series? From a fan perspective it was well attended when being held in Nashville.

Metro schools are as screwed up as any schools in the World. We have been dealing with these problems for almost 40 years now and it may take 100 years to fix the problems if they can be fixed. The reason that the ABC schools have done so well is because the parents that used to be strong supporters of the public school system decided that they would place their children in the ABC private schools. Hey you can only beat your head against the wall for so long before you decide that it's not very smart and it hurts. Look at the people that attend schools it Rutherford, Sumner, Wilson, Dickson, and Hickman counties. Many times their parents went to school in the Metro school system but moved out of Davidson county to avoid the crazy system in Davidson County. No, comparing metro schools with any other school system is not apples to apples in comparison. So now we have it, all schools are not the same and they never will be. Let's take a close look at the different types of schools: 1. Public with defined school zone. 2. Public with open zone. 3. Public magnet school 4. Catholic schools 5. Christian schools 6. Coed prep schools 7. single sex prep schools 8. single sex catholic schools 9. public charter schools 10. rual small public schools 11. rual large public schools 12. inner city public schools The point is that schools are like people and everyone is different. Just because schools are different is no reason that they should not compete against one another in athletics. Last year the Tennessean had an article about the Pearl vs Father Ryan basketball game in 1964. This was the first athletic contest in Nashville to break the racial barrier. A reunion was held at Father Ryan to honor both teams and allow those men to rekindle some old friendships. Pearl and Father Ryan were as different in those days as any two schools could be but the adminstration at both schools should be commended for playing the game. That one basketball game changed the way that people were treated and viewed. Why can people not see that the benefits of everyone playing one another is not a good thing?

The officiating in Tennessee is way down from 15-20 years ago and there are two major reasons: 1. The loss of college programs in Tennessee. UTK, MTSU, Tennessee Tech, and UT Martin have killed their wrestling programs. These programs all produced both good officials and good coaches. The officials that wrestled in college just have a better feel for what is happening on the mat. 2. The TSSAA playing politics. The TSSAA passed over some very good officials by not allowing them to officiate the state tournament if they were not political with the proper people. This was a huge mistake and the local associations have suffered for this act. Just take the best officials to both the state duals and individual state tournament.

You need to keep in mind that many of the small private colleges, all of the service academies, and all of the ivy league schools do not offer athletic scholarships. When you take a close look at the total package many of these athletes receive academic scholarships & financial aid but receive very little if any athletic money because the small colleges have very little if any athletic money to offer. Just because the high school or newspaper claims that a student/athlete signs with a University does not mean that the student/athlete will receive any athletic scholarship moeny. The Tennessean exposed some student/athletes from one high school a few years ago that were signing to attend D1 schools. What those students were doing is signing admissions papers to attend the school but were not going to receive any athletic money and were merely invited walkons. Todays waters seem to be murky most of the time and you have to examine everything under a microscope. The student/athletes that attend one of the service academies get the best deal of all: 100% of their expenses are paid, they draw a salary and benefits from the government and when they decide to leave military life they are the highest paid executives in the world.

Laz, I guess that we will just have to disagree on this one. But would you please answer one question for me. If the private schools win so many championships then why is it that most of the football scholarships in Tennessee go to the athletes that attend the public schools? The last time that I saw the precentages it was about 20% private and 80% public school athletes getting football scholarships. What does this tell everyone?

Go to www.d1sportstraining.com They will have a link for the Knoxville location.

Mikie Minor (LHP) Forest High School Vanderbilt Richie Goodenow (LHP) John Overton Vanderbilt Steve Liddle (OF) Franklin Vanderbilt

Gary Rankin is a very good high school football coach but other states do not view Tennessee as a great high school football state. Do we know for sure that Rankin is leaving Riverdale? Valdosta is having trouble because they are not allowed to go and get the best athletes from their county due to the boundries that have been established by the school board. Does this sound similar to Riverdale and Rankin now? Could it be that he will remain as a teacher and just not coach football anymore? He has some young children so would he consider taking his retirement from the state and become an assistant or head coach at a private school so that he can continue to live in the Boro? Gary Rankin is not a dumb man and if he has turned in his paper work to retire from the State of Tennessee my guess is that he already has another job waiting on him. It would be out of character for him to quit with the hopes of finding another job because he would loose all of his leverage and not have his golden parachute for backup.

The sad thing about CBHS & MUS playing for a state championship is that they have to travel 4.5 hours to play each other. It would be great if the game could be played in Memphis where it would draw a big crowd. This game could probably draw 15,000 fans in Memphis.

Don't take the TSSAA's word for anything be sure to get it in the form of a certified letter with King Carter's signature!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ask yourself a question before transfering: Has a student in the last ten (10) years been declared eligible after transfering from a public school to a private school? My understanding of the rules is that if you go from a public to a private school without moving 30+ miles from your current residence you will not be declared eligible. The loophole in the rule is if you transfer to a boarding school you will declared eligible without a change of residence.