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What is going on with the Tennessee Wrestling Federation website? Have they closed the site or are they going out of business and will another organization represent Tennessee?

Bauber, If you are looking for a tough out of state team to play you could give Byrnes, SC a call. I think that the MBA fans will admit that Byrnes is a quality team that will play most anyone at any time.

Silverpie, You are correct that the TSSAA would not be responsible for a LAX game when it is not a sanctioned sport. Where the problem lies is with being forced to play region games that are 3-6 hours away in TSSAA sanctioned sports. IMO the TSSAA needs to place everyone back in one division and have some type of merit based playoff system or place all private schools in their own division so that they can play a local regular season schedule if they wish. It has been reported that each of the D2 schools are having to spend 25,000.00 or more per season on travel for football games. Is it just me or is something wrong when schools are forced to play region games that far from home and spend those kind of dollars on travel to the games? What is the travel budget for most of the D1AAAAA schools?

DS2001 What is Father Ryan going to do in the future? The rumor on the street is that they will go D1 during the next classification period unless all of the private schools are placed in D2. From what I hear the new headmaster and board wants to cut back on the amount of travel (play a local schedule) required of the D2 schools. They feel that the time away from school is too great and the financial resources used for travel should be used to in other areas of the athletic program. Everyone associated with D2 understands that all of the schools have been lucky that a group of students or a family has not had a fatal automobile accident returning from an athletic event at 2 or 3 in the morning.

With the new weight certification rules there is very little if any unnatural weight loss in high school wrestling. If a football player drops some weight during wrestling season while eating three nutrious meals per day they probably were overweight during football season and needed to drop the weight. With wrestlling season being both a mental and physical grind in prepares student/athletes for not only football but life. Remember that win or loose the wrestler has no one but himself to depend on. Everyone wants to talk of how much wrestling helps the linemen in football but IMO it helps the DB's more than anything. Let's remember that when a DB plays man coverage they are on an island by themself (like wrestling) and alot of hand fighting (like wrestling) takes place. If the WR does catch the ball the wrestler will make the tackle or in the very least hang on until help shows up 99% of the time if they can get their hands on the WR. Another point to be made is that wrestlers don't push the panic button when the game is close in the last few minutes. Let's remember how many times a wrestling match is decided in the last fifteen seconds of the match. This prepares the wrestler/football player to stay cool and do their job when the football team needs a stop or score in the last two minutes of a game. Any good wrestling team get's in the weight room 3X each week during the season. The weight workout combined with wrestling practice should make any high school football coach happy.

Overton plays defense like most all metro schools. They place 8 or 9 players in the box and challange the team to throw the ball on them. If you have any type of passing attack you could light them up for 30 or 40 points. Their LB'S blitz on most every play and don't have a clue as to how you cover a back out of the backfield or a TE that drags across the middle. Teams with average passing attacks like Ravenwood or Brentwood would probably put 50 points on their defense.

The close score made it a fun game to watch. I can see where Father Ryan has improved and that is a result of good coaching. On a side note: Where was the great MBA fans from past years? Was there another school activity going on last evening because the attendance on the MBA side was rather small? Let's hope that the fans are not staying home because the Big Red has lost a couple of games.

I heard a rumor the other day that with the price of gas & travel becoming so expensive both the public and private schools are asking for something to be done quickly. Some schools are spending up to 85% of their football budget on travel alone and adminstrators are starting to demand that something be done. It is my understanding that "King Ronnie" wants to put both D1 & D2 back together and have 4 divisions in football. They would be willing to leave the rual 1A schools in a division without any private schools. By doing this most schools would not have to travel more than 30 minutes for a district game which would save on gas (remember that schools play varsity, jv, and freshmen) and families would not be getting home so late after games. Has anyone else heard this rumor?????

rollred, I am not trying to defend Bruce (I don't know him) but from the way that I read the article, Bruce was not trying to say that any one player from another school was on financial aid. IMO he was saying that he did't have a player as good as Snyder, Ford, or Tate but if he was given the same amount of financial aid he would be able to go and get a few good players. Who knows what is going on? My educated guess is that the article was published to try and wake some of the Father Ryan alumni up and let them know that they have alot of work to do if they want to compete in D2 football.

IMO, it states what most everyone already knew. Father Ryan is giving financial aid the same way that they were before the D1 & D2 split. If you take the figures that were in the Tennessean you can do a little mathmatics and figure out that it looks like this: Father Ryan Boys: 465 Financial Aid to male students: $88,500.00 Father Ryan has 3 choices: 1. Continue down the same path that they are on and not be able to compete in D2. 2. Do what Kurt Page said and go back to D1 3. Decide to give more financial aid to athletes so that they can compete. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few years.

Antioch, Hillsboro, & Overton are one dimensional teams. They can all run the football but they don't have a clue how to spread the field, no huddle, pass, or run a two minute offense. Any team that can play average defense and then spread the field on offense could kill these teams. Let' see what happens if they play Ravenwood or Brentwood.

BA will make sure that they win big. Don't be shocked to see the score be 60-7. Remember that BA wants to keep Ensworth down so the athletes select BA if a decision needs to be made.

This was a smart move for both Notre Dame's and Knoxville Catholic's whole athletic department. The amount of travel required for D2 sports is crazy and if ND & KC can find anyway to participate in D1 and be legal they need to do it.

5sportdad, Again, Roger was a very good high school football player but he must not have had enough athletic ability to help win a national championship or he would have signed to play in one of the major conferences. That does not mean that he is not a good player but the big time college coaches did not offer him the opportunity to play at their school for some reason. It is my understanding that he had his heart set on playing for Vanderbilt but things didn't work out. Golden is a much better player now than Roger ever will be just based on his athletic ability. Yes, Roger worked very hard and had a great attitude (which I liked) but college coaches want to see athletic ability first and foremost. Don't be shocked to see Golden playing football in Coral Gables in the future. With his grades, did Roger ever consider playing in the Ivy League? That would be D-1 and IMO be better fit than the SEC or ACC for his ability.

Golden Tate is a very good player with great athletic ability. Most people are lucky to watch a player of Tate's ability much less play with or against them. Roger Herndon is a great kid, student, and was a good player but he is not close to being the athlete or football player that Golden is now or he would have been offered a scholarship to an SEC school. Golden Tate will be the #1 prospect in Tennessee next year because he has what you cannot teach; speed.

Most schools charge $5.00 or $6.00 per person for school aged people and older. The problem is that they are leaving money on the table. Charge whatever it cost to attend a movie in your town. In the larger metropolitian areas that would be $8.00 or $9.00 per person.

maj, You are correct that they should be allowed to move up and wrestle against better competition. However, the problem is that USA Wrestling has a rule that says you cannot do that. If the Tennessee Wrestling Federation is going to be a member of USA Wrestling they have to follow the rules of the association or they don't need to be a member. If TWF does not like a USA Wrestling rule they need to get the rule changed within the organization. The problem is that some adults are not patient & deligent enough to get the rules changed and feel that it is ok to fudge birth dates on entry forms, manipulate the rules, tell half truths, etc... to get what they want out of life. When people call their hand on the issues they want to get mad and start slinging manure to deflect the attention and place the spotlight on someone else.

Mark it down: He will go to a prep school or junior college. Do we need to say more? He is only about 80% of what his father was as a football player and 10% in the classroom.

Riverdale is one of the best programs in Tennessee and no one can argue that fact. Coach Rankin has done an excellent job and has had the support of the school adminstration and community along the way. Like someone else said, we need to see how Riverdale does if & when Coach Rankin stops coaching at Riverdale. IMO, Riverdale (Coach Rankin) & Brentwood Academy (Coach Flatt) will both drop off for a period of time. Let's remember that both of these coaches have more power at their school than the principal/head master and get what they want when they want it. To put it in simple terms both of these men are bigger than life in their own little community and control everything at their school. I doubt that whomever replaces them will ever be afforded the same respect and latitude that these two men have at the present time. Both of these coaches get whatever they need to be successful and no one questions them more than once.

silverpie, Something has to be done to reduce the travel cost & time out of the classroom. When schools from Memphis travel to Chattanooga they leave around 11:00am don't get back home until around 2:00am and IMO that is CRAZY for high school student/athletes. When the federal government is asking people to conserve fuel the TSSAA is sending people from one end of the state to the other. Could it be that people need to contact Senator Frist and tell him what is going on and how they feel. The TSSAA will bend to political pressure but that is the only way something will happen.

Why would a coach not play the best players on his team? I understand not playing someone if they have been a discipline problem or they have not worked hard enough in the classroom but other than that you play the best and you play to win. We have all heard how some coaches will not play underclassmen over a senior even if the younger players are better and IMO that is a formula for failure. If the senior is a good player they will play, period, end of discussion. If they are not a good player they could loose their position to a transfer or underclassmen and that is the way that it should be. Since when did being part of a football program for 4 years determine playing time or position? Would you give an employee a raise over a more qualified person because they had been with the company longer? If you make a habit of doing that you are crazy and your business will not be around very long!!!!!!!!!! Yes, high school football is a business!!!!! How many times have we discussed coaches that were fired for not winning enough games? It happens at the end of every season. On a side note: I just received a phone call from someone in Memphis and CBHS has 3 transfer students that will sign D1.

antwain, I feel the same as you about the fact that small rual schools are not able to nor do they want to compete with the small private schools. However, I do feel that the D2 AA & D2 AAA schools and the 5A schools should be placed together and the competition would be very equal. The metro schools would have trouble with the D2 schools just like they have trouble with the 5A county schools. If you took the 4A & 5A metro schools and placed five of them in a 10 team region with the county schools it would be a miracle if the metro schools had more than one school make the playoffs. The large metro schools seem to have problems similar to the small rual schools when it comes to athletics and I don't have the time to touch on all of the large metro schools problems. IMO there are only 2 ways to solve the problem: 1. Have a complete split between the public schools and the private schools 2. Bring D1 and D2 back together into 4 classifications and don't have a miltipliar rule A: Small rual public schools (IMO, it's not fair for a school with 3 football coaches to compete against a school with 10 football coaches) For the most part this has been done with the miltipliar rule. AA: Small non financial aid giving schools and the D1 schools that fall into the classification AAA: Large D1 Private schools (Lipscomb, Goodpasture, Notre Dame, Knoxville Catholic, etc...), Public schools, and small financial aid giving schools AAAA: Large public schools, Large D2 private schools (McCallie, Baylor, MUS, BA, etc...) All open zoned public schools, large financial aid giving schools, coop public schools and all public magnet schools Any school that wants to play up a classification in a sport may do so without all of the other sports being required to do so. This would allow teams that dominate their classification to move up without hurting the other sports that the school offers. My personal opinion is that it would be better for the state of Tennessee and the student/athletes to bring everyone back together but I doubt that my plan would ever be considered.

Did Byrnes, SC not win the Hoover 7 on 7 tournament this Summer?

Golden Tate is the best WR & Return man in Middle Tennessee. He does all of this with raw athletic ability. If he ever becomes disciplined in running his routes he could play on Sunday, he has that much raw talent. As it is he will probably be the number 1 prospect in Tennessee for the class of 2007. Just a hunch but don't be shocked if he ends up playing in Coral Gables.

MBA should have a much improved showing against Trinity and the following week against MUS. If the Big Red were to take another bad loss at Trinity it could become a very interesting season. While MBA has a great coaching staff and good players they do not have the skilled position players that they had with Coach Bowers and when Coach Rutledge first arrived at MBA.