jdub101

Due to unfortunate incidents there were several football players who left Grace Christian Academy (located in the Karns area of Knox County) after the last school year. My son was one of those, so I have some insight. In an attempt to clear up some of the questions on this thread here are a couple of things that I know for certain. First, the student in question did not play in 10 varsity games last season, he played in 11. Grace, a Region 1 single A team played in one playoff game last year. He also participated, at Grace, in another varsity sport (for a short time) and in spring Football practice in May. Second, there was another student who left Grace at the same time, who transferred to another school in Knox County (Karns). He was deemed ineligible by the TSSAA, even after an appeal, and his family moved residences within the county. It is my understanding that all of Knox County is considered Grace???s territory in addition to anything outside of the county with in 20 miles of the school. I certainly hope for the other players on the team that he was granted a hardship. Section 24 of the TSSAA Handbook gives the Executive Director ???authority to set aside the effect of any eligibility rule upon an individual student when??? they meet certain criteria and I hope that is the case. However, I don???t think it will be an issue after this week. Roll Tribe

The statement about the right administration is insightful and true. The administration is focused on basketball. They seem to run off the best athletes in other sports. The athletes named in this thread are good examples, yet are not the only ones who left, just this year, and are contributing at big name schools. Just as a side bar, not all of the kids who left this year were deemed eligible to play at their new schools by the TSSAA. Probably the best athlete to play at Grace is a prime example of this problem. He was the dominant player on the first three Grace teams. He also qualified for the state-wrestling tournament while at Grace. Picky baptist things happened (Not Christian) and he and his family moved to Georgia where he earned a football scholarship and by-the-way he also WON the GA state 215 lbs wrestling title. Pujo you are correct, they have money and should be on top, they have had great coaches and players. The people making the decisions are not football savvy. One example of the non-football centered priorities is the dual ???Press Box??? for football and baseball (the football and baseball fields are side by side). This three story ???Press Box??? has hardwood floors, wood molding at the floor and ceilings, a full kitchen, two bathrooms, and stained oak desks for the coaches to write on. Yet there is no place in the football ???Press Box??? to film the games and you cannot see home plate in the baseball ???Press Box???. A football savvy origination would have built a field house and functional press boxes not a place to entertain visiting administrators. By the way Manager this is Grace??™s sixth season and fourth head coach.

I can not answer your question as to why Grace fired Coach Satterfield. However, I would like to clear up your misconception that Coach Satterfield started Grace’s football team from “scratch.” Grace football started in 2002 with a middle school super midget team. (There were seniors on last years team that played for Grace as eight graders, and a sophomore who played as a sixth grader.) The next year, 2003, Grace played a JV/varsity schedule. 2004 was the year that Grace played their first full varsity football schedule, the year before Coach Satterfield stared. Grace has had a middle school feeder team four out-of the last five years, the only exception was 2005 Coach Satterfield’s first season. Coach Satterfield, like all coaches, builds on the work of others. However, he was a coach of several football firsts at Grace, including: first coach to take Grace to the playoffs, the first coach to win four games in a season, first coach to play on a home field, and the first coach to have seniors on the team.