Nashville Panther

WHAT?? Weak. McGavock is 8-0. WH won their region last year.HF was Region champs and state runner-up. Dickson and Mt. Juliet are good. MLK is strong this year. Unless Guess Who is from Brentwood, Bearden or Farragut or a team of that caliber I think his comments are way out of line.

Often times teams like Giles CO. which have had great records in the past are kept on the top 30 list representing districts that get less publicity. I would bet that if Livingston Academy had 2 or 3 down years they would still appear on the poll because when pollsters are being asked who is best in the state they will name teams for areas that they don't live in who have had good past performances.

The usual suspects - Brentwood, Ryan, Hendersonville. ALSO= McGavock. They have great talent overall. At times a bit too fancy but awesome individual talent. It will be interesting to see how they fare with some tough teams come playoffs.

I have been wondering the same thing. Aside from a few smaller towns in southern tennessee there has been little discussion of any soccer from Nashville and suburbs on this site.

In one group I think McGavock is the favorite. HF has not been able to score many goals, Hillsbor and White House are decent. I think they are all good games and should be fun to watch. I think McGavock is the tops. Also, they do have home-field in the tourney. The the other group I think MLK, Dickson and Mt.Juliet will be fighting for first. Oakland is still a year or two away. I say McGavock vs. Dickson. McGavock the winner

They would have to be AAA. Their student population is all of the home schooled children in Middle Tennessee. That has to be at least 1000 (mininum size of AAA school). I don't think they will be in the playoffs because there are many issues that would come up. For instance, if a student plays for Hillwood and then transfers to another school then they often have to sit out a year. Would the same happen for a student that is now home-schooled? Also, what region/ District do you put them in with? Do they play in the Nashville district or Williamson County or Clarksville? They have players from all over yet they have no central location. I think that they will continue to have a good team but it would be extremely difficult to place them into a district classification for TSSAA playoffs.

Lots of reasons. 1- Financial. If your team doesn't have lights and can't bring in many fans to pay admission then the cost of officials can be a burden for some teams. Thus, they may only be able to budget 5-6 home games. 2- Isolation- For many rural teams especially in the area between Nashville and Knoxville there are not that many schools with soccer nearby and thus some teams can't find 16 matches/ spots. 3- Depth- Some schools have to worry about having enough guys due to other committments/ jobs. There are some teams that only play games on certain days of the week because many of their players have say Band or Football workouts on the other days of the week. 4- Philosophy- Some coaches prefer less games to limit injuries and add more practice time.

Where are these fields??? I didn't realize that USN had so many fields at their complex.

Anyone playing Wilson Central better take advantage of any scoring opportunities as they have a very stingy defense. I haven't seen Pope John Paul play, however they have traditionally beaten some good teams. HOw about the usual Wilson County result of 1-1.

Its based on enrollment of the school. There are lots of examples of A-AA having larger numbers on the team. For example, FRA and D. Lipscomb has a small A-AA enrollment but they usually have enough guys for a JV. Yet, Whites Creek is a AAA school due to enrollment however they haven't been able to get enough guys out soccer to field any team.

Good job overall. I would put MLK in the top 15 of A-AA. Then again they may prefer staying under the radar. Station camp should be a bit higher as well. I agree with the drop in Overton's ranking. McGavock should be about ready to crack the top 30. The USN tournament should be a good one as well. USJ is top 10 but not top 5. I saw them beat the FRA panthers but FRA is in a rebuilding year.

That is a bad break with the red cards. I think they ought to make hard fouls 1 game but unsportsman like 2 games. I think Antioch is moving in the right direction. I hope that the split with Cane Ridge doesn't take away too many people from the soccer team.

Wow. A shot at Region 5 (Hume Fogg, FRA, MLK, CPA). They are a tad down this year but they are by no means an easy route to the state tourney. Clearly the East Tenn. Region (1&2 = CAK, Knox. Catholic and Lenoir) are the tops and have been. No Doubt the West Tn Regions (7&8) have struggled. BUT... The Nashville teams have been pretty even with the Chatt. teams overall. It was a Region 5 team Hume Fogg that beat Chatt. ND in the semis. Also, FRA if they hadn't been matched up with CAK several years in a row would have won state. Last, had CPA not been as injured as they were in the tourney last year they would have been even stronger. Lets not put down Region 5 to build up Station Camp.

The real contest will be between the coaches. Which one will complain at the refs. more?? Seriously, I think it should be a good contest. Wilson has a great keeper and Antioch a great sweeper. I think a 1-0,1-1 or 0-0 score is likely.

Station Camp if they win their region would host the runner-up from the Chatt. region. Thus, their chances improve if they can hold off the other teams in their district and region. This year there haven't been many cross-regional games so its tough to determine how good the teams are in Chatt. vs. North/Middle Tenn. S.C. has a good goalie. With a good goalie anything is possible in a situation where you have to win a sub-state game.

On A-AA I think the order is decent in terms of which teams are the best in each part of the state, HOWEVER, as with last year I think that you are over ranking the teams from west tennessee. Westview, USJ, Madison and Northside are not top 10 teams. The representatives from A-AA west tenn. have been routinely trounced at the state tournament. Due to the lack of games played between teams in middle and west tn. I would think that by default the A-AA teams of middle tn. like FRA, MLK, HF, CPA, Station Camp should get the benefit of the doubt over the west tenn. teams.

I can see 9-0, 10-0, 11-0, 12-0. BUT IN NO WAY SHOULD THE SCORE EVER GET HIGHER THAN THAT!!! I think that the team can find enough restrictions to keep the score from getting that bad easily. The key is to start the restrictions at about the 4th goal.

FRA? Which keeper are you talking about? Who does Lee play for? CPA has a good goalie. Hume-Fogg has 2 very good goalkeepers. I was also impressed with the keeper of USN. They beat FRA 4-2.

I would not assume that because they are a new school that they would be bad. I would assume that East HIckman players came from Hickman Co. HS where they have had a team for years. If they were a new program in a community that has never had a team ala Macon County in 2005 or Wavery this year then its one thing. A school that is splitting away from an established program that is another. I mean CEntennial and Ravenwood were pretty good their first years.

Should be a great tournament. The teams played some tough matches against each other last year. Should be some exciting games.

District 9 A/AA thoughts 1- Could be a down year for this district. Many teams lost great players to graduation. Lots of new coaches and transition. Early scrimmage results not very promising. That being said these teams might be hitting their stride around tournament time. 2- MLK will be very tough to beat. Unlike most of the top teams last year they only lost 1 starter. Also, they have some very good young players. 3- I think East Lit might finally climb out of the cellar. 4- As long as CPA still has Dean Meyers they will be in the hunt. 5- Don't know much about Goodpasture or DCA other than they have some good new coaches.

Now that is a playday!!! 9:00 until 8:00 at night. If you were a coach in that district you can do your scouting all in one day

Do you mean that their entire starting line-up from 2007 either graduated or moved?? Either way they are usually a good team. Also, they are in an area that is growing in population. Maybe they have some newcomers that will be good.

Ugghhh. 6-0. A dark day for A-AA. I predict White House will turn it around and be a force this year.

A very good posting. I understand a good deal of your problem. There is another possible explanation of the lack of a flat back at many schools- the frequent changing of coaches. I am not sure of it is as big of a problem in all of Tennessee but in Nashville the turnover of coaches is very great. In District 10 A-AA which my team is in (Nashville) the teams have been relatively successful however in this year there are many new coaches. Of the 9 teams in the district only 3 have coaches that have been with their team for longer than 7 years (FRA, East Lit. and Ezell). Hume Fogg and MLK's coaches are in their second season with their respective team. Goodpasture, DCA, CPA and Lipscomb are with new coaches this season. DCA has had 4 coaches in 5 years. MLK has had 6 coaches (1 person had 2 different stints) in the past 10 years. Lipscomb is on its 3rd coach in 3 seasons. There are many other teams with frequent coaching changes as well in AAA. These changes makes it difficult for a coach to implement a new style. Often, the new coach feels compelled to go with what he was dealt first and once established make the change to a new system. Well, if the team is constantly changing the easiest system for the team is that of a sweeper. I also agree on the level of talent needed to implement a flat back. The number of teams in the state tourney that run a flat-back is very high compared to all teams in Tennesee. A testament to its effectiveness, but also a testament to the talent and stability in coaching.