Nashville Panther

I was going to post about the 3 teams in Metro as I have not seen anyone comment on Hillwood, Overton or Hillsboro. Obviously, not much is expected from them based on this poll. Anyone in the district see any chances for them to pull some upsets?

DCA beat East Lit. in a scrimmage 4-1. MLK has been winning their scrimmages according to Eurosportscoreboard. No info on Goodpasture or Ezell. FRA beat Davidson

GREAT POINT!!!

That was one of the most glaring disagreements that i had with the list. Lavergne should be higher. Also, in the second list I have a problem with Smyrna being in that group. Their record last year was not good at all. I think McGavock or some District 9 A-AA teams (CPA, HF, MLK) should be in the mix.

Well, I would think barring any major changes. Page should be at the top. Any Williamson County squad should have strong players especially compared to the more rural nature of the region. Not sure if Columbia Acad. is in this district (I know they are in the region) but they are usually top notch as well.

The story has disappeared from the Tennessean web page. Oddly it had many comments posetd by readers.

Well, I appreciate the hard work it must take to work in such an environment where the safety situation requires such methods. I could argue with you that these searches of cars does very little in regards to attacking the root causes of crime. I will also argue that just because its being done doesn't make it Constitutional. Last, if the concerns of violence are so bad at these schools then they probably shouldn't be allowed to host such sporting events.

The only reason that I mentioned Franklin/ incident is to direct the people to the article. I have nothing against the guy. I am actually rooting for this travesty of justice of a case to be thrown out. I does have to do with soccer as the searching of cars at HS sporting events in MEtro or other districts can impact our sport.

O.K. I just read an article on The Tennessean that reported that a basketball coach from Franklin was arrested at Hunters Lane HS. (Metro) which was hosting basketball playoffs. The Metro School Security Office was according to the Tennessean "searching vehicles in the parking lot". They found some pot in his car. I am not posting to attack Franklin. I am not posting to discuss the coach. I am not posting to discuss pot. or pot in cars, or zero tolerance. I am posting because I think that this is a horrendous misuse of the powers of a hosting school. The searching of cars at a sporting game is an enormous violation of the 4th Amendment. Also, these were not police with a warrant according to the story but school security. This case in my opinion should bother anyone who attends a high school sporting event. Besides the constitutional issues that may concern people there are athletic issues as well raised by the actions of Metro School Security. First, in theory a team hosting a key playoff game could decide to rattle the other team and its fans by conducting a search of all vehicles. Imagine. Team from School A is hosting a big game against a hated private school or rival from another county. Principal from School A decides to ask the district security to search the parking lot before the soccer game. He tips off his coach say 3-4 hours before the game, he in turn tips off his players. They are prepared for the search and park their cars elsewhere, say off school grounds. When the other team's bus pulls into the lot they are ordered to be searched?? You don't think that can upset a team. Parents are searched. Say a player's dad refuses/ argues and a conflict erupts. This can upset a team. Or say a visiting team gets permission to use a locker room at a visiting site. Right as the team is dressing, the home school's security demands to search the players cars and bags. The searching of cars at athletic events puts us down a slippery slope of the potential abuse of power. I think the TSSAA needs to discuss this incident and these policies immediately. To some who will argue that the security situation is so bad at Metro Schools that they need to search cars at sporting events. Here is what I would respond. Don't play road games at their schools and do not let them host District tournaments and such. If safety is so much of a concern that grandma's car needs to be searched for a pistol then its probably not a place to play.

Hello. Here are two questions for the board. 1- Has anyone avoided playing an opponent due to concerns about security? 2- Is anyone else annoyed by the lengthening of the basketball playoffs? My thoughts. 1- As you can tell by my title I am in Nashville. There have been several incidences of guns at schools, etc. Also, there have been threats and fights at rec. games and such in the city. Several of the schools near my team have had trouble with student violence. That being said I don't think we have intenionally avoided scheduling some of the schools but I am worried about the future. Are we far from the day where a policeman is required at all soccer games in Metro? I don't think so. 2- Sort of. If a soccer squad had several guys on a legit state contender for basketball probably not. However, a team that advances to the region as a 4th seed knowing they are going to get creamed the extra week of the tourneys stinks for Spring sports. It used to be District was 1 week of games now its like 1 and 1/2. region also is 1 and 1/2 in length.

yes. District 9 & 10 meet in regionals. The winners of this region then play teams from southern Middle TN in the substate like Columbia Acad, Giles, MTCS, Page. Tradionally district 9 has won their match-ups with district 10. FRA was able to beat the district 10 team during their title runs easily. However, last year Heritage made district 10 proud by beating CPA. Also, Montgomery Central nearly pulled an upset against CPA a couple of years ago. So the region is a tad more competitive lately.

I think you are missing Cheatham County and Montgomery Central. Honestly, this has been a very competitive district. The number of teams that have advanced to regions has been high over the past decade. Heritage won the district last year but Cheatham was champs in 07. Sycamore, Fairview, Harpeth and Montgomery Central have finished in the top 2 spots over the past decade. East Robertson, Creek Wood and Clarksville Academy have been at the bottom (then again CA was very good about 15 years ago). One thing is certain. The play will be very physical.

Good analysis of District 9 A-AA. Sadly this is the last year of this great distirct to be intact. It has been together since the 90s. The only change was the loss of Page about 7 years ago. As you know Ezell, DCA and FRA are leaving. Maplewood and Stratford will be added but its not certain that they will have teams. The 3 leaving teams have had great history in the district with FRA dominating most of the early part of this decade and DCA dominating in the 1990s. Ezell also made the state tournament once. I think there will be an extra motivation to win the district this year as it is the last time it will have all of the teams. As to predictions. I think HF, CPA, MLK and Goodpasture which were the top 4 last year will be tough to beat. Then again you can never count out a team coached by Ken McDonald. DL, DCA and Ezell were towards the bottom but you never know in this district where teams can rise and fall in the standings dramatically. Take Goodpasture which finished 8th in 2007 yet won the district in 2008. Sadly the only consitency in the standings has been East Lit at the bottom but you never know!!!

To DeKalb Coach, I think that was a indirect attack on Station Camp mentioning their enrollment. There are lots of A-AA schools with large enrollments that stink in soccer. S. C. is a growing area thus their increase in enrollment from when they were placed in A-AA a few years ago. They are going to be AAA next year. That being said, Station Camp is successful for more than their enrollment. As to public schools It should be noted that Hume-Fogg is a public school and made he final in A-AA in 2007. White House and Ridgeway were frequent participants at the state tourney in the past at A-AA. So have Sheffield, Livingston, Haywood Co, Northside and Martin Westview. No doubt the private schools have dominated in A-AA. But it is not impossible for public schools to make it.

Meigs out of Nashville has won something like 4 city championships in a row and is always willing to play anyone who is a challenge. I don't think they can play in 2008 as its now winter sports season but next fall they would play Tullahoma, Chattanooga is a tad far.

Its very simple. Several girls sports are played much more by girls in higher income brackets. Girls Soccer in the USA is dominated by the affluent. I can promise you here in Nashville you will find many more girls playing in high income areas of town like Brentwood, Hendersonville, Green Hills than Madison, Antioch and Inglewood. The same is also true with Tennis and Swimming. When it comes to girls soccer at AAA it is the affluent schools that dominate (also holds true in boys soccer). For example, Brentwood, Franklin, Ravenwood and CEntennial whip schools like McGavock, Antioch. In A-AA its the private schools or affluent public schools (Hume-Fogg, MLK, Station Camp) that have the advantage. Why? Simple demographics. Soccer has not yet caught on in the more rural less affluent areas of Tennessee. Especially for girls.

Domination in soccer in Tennessee is centered in 5 parts of the state. These areas are all near the major cities (but not in the inner city). You will find that year after year the teams winning state have players that come out of one of the five areas. 1- The Western Suburban area of Knoxville (Farragut area) 2- The Eastern Suburbs of Memphis (Germantown area) 3- Williamson County/ SW Nashville (Brentwood) 4- Southern Sumner County (Hendersonville) 5- Wherever the nice part of Chattanooga is. Sure every now and then a team from a smaller city does well (Kingsport, Murfreesboro, Cookeville, Tullahoma). But overall soccer in Tennessee is dominated by schools with affluent students. (ITs much more dominant in girls in the wealthy areas). The most affluent parts of Tennessee are listed above. It is from these areas that the best private schools and public school teams come from. I would bet that if you got out a map of Tennessee and put a push-pin on the map where the starting 11 from each team in the state finals for the last 10 years lived you would find that the 5 areas listed above had probably 80% of the players living there. Look at Nashville. The best teams (MBA, RYAN, FRA, Brentwood, Centennial, Ravenwood, CPA) are located in the wealthy parts of Nashville or Williamson. Also- Hendersonville, White House, Pope Paul, Station Camp, Goodpasture - which made state are all near southern Sumner Co. THIS IS NOT A TENNEESSEE ISSUE ITS A SOCCER ISSUE. Soccer in America today is dominated by the affluent. It started being spread across the nation that way in the 70s and 80s and it came to Tennesse in similar fashion. In Nashville the first schools to have soccer were private schools (MBA, USN, RYAN) the magnet schools (HF and MLK) and schools which in the 80s had many affluent kids like Hillwood, McGavock, Overton and Hillsboro. Pearl-Cohn in the 1980s had about 6 time the number of students as MLK yet they had no soccer. Why? the same reason they don't today they have virtually no affluent students. As to the rural areas. I think that despite the lack of club programs a dedicated coach who was backed by the community could build a good team. HOWEVER, often there is very little community support. A good friend of mine started a team in a rural Middle Tennessee County. The support he received from the school was minimal at best. I say the current system is best. A team does not have to be a state champion to be considered a success. Further dilution of a State Championship is not needed.

Absolutely not. There are not enough teams in A that play soccer to justify this change. Odds are that there never will be. The TSSAA would be wasting major cash organizing a state champion for A. Lets look at Middle Tenn. I am going to include the entire Grand Divsion area. Here are the A teams with soccer Friendship Christian Merrol Hyde (they will be AA in about 2 years) Mt. Juliet Christian Clarksville Academy East Robertson WH- Heritage (they will be AA in about 2 years) Forrest Cascade Middle TN Christian Columbia Academy Zion Christian (I might have missed 1 team in Southern Middle TN) Many A schools cannot field more than 1 or 2 Spring Sports. If you are Friendship (Wilson County) do you want a district schedule with - Clarksville, Columbia. They will be travelling all over Middle TN for their district the costs of transportation are too high as well. I would love the day when 20 or 30 more very small schools add soccer to justify A soccer but it is not going to happen any time soon.

In District 9 A-AA, look for Hume-Fogg to be back. Goodpasture returns most of their players. MLK and CPA should be both good but both have lost their top offensive stars. I hope that FRA gets back to their winning ways. Not much info. on Ezell, DCA, DL and East. All struggled last year but I don't know if they had any strong players graduate.

All of them.

Predictions CAK 6 Heritage 0 Catholic 5 Goodpasture 0 USJ 2 Station Camp 1 Boyd 3 Madison 0 The Catholic - CAK match-up in finals will happen this year. It was a very down year in Chattanooga and Nashville. Also, some of the traditionally strong teams in A-AA Middle Tenn. had rebuilding years. Hopefully, next year the teams representing the other regions will be able to challenge Knoxville's region like in 2007.

I think that Station Camp and USJ will play a fine game and I think each has a good chance for the victory. I am not sure that either team is that great (I have seen both play this year). Nonetheless, they are evenly matched. I see USJ winning as they have more players with skill.

Brentwood wins by at least 5. Independence a slight favorite over McGavock. I will be there to root on my local McGavock team but the Williamson County schools have dominated over the past decades.

CPA and HF were the best of the district. Its a shame they ended up playing in the semis. HF had too many ties with lower placed teams and it threw off their seeding. I think CPA will roll G.C.S. who should be thanking their lucky stars that MLK got upset. (MLK was #2 seed and dominated Goodpasture in the season 4-0)

It all depends on how White House responds to their results in the tournament whence they lost 3 games 1-0 to 3 good teams. They have played much tougher teams than S. Camp so if they have learned from the tough games then I think they win. If they hang their heads down they will lose. Knowing how strong a coach Mr. Lamberth is and the great pride in their town and school I think they will respond strongly.