Old Warhorse

Most of Central's OL and DL were freshman or sophomores who did not get much PT on Fridays. Polk is the team to beat in 5AA. Well coached, physical football team.

John Mullinax in at Tellico.

Great hire! Perfect Fit for Tellico. The Bears will be very sound fundamentally on offense and defense. I had heard that he started to run a little option while in Georgia. The option game integrated with the Wing T can cause lots of folks trouble. I wonder what "Railhead" is going to do. If he comes to coach the defense, Bears will improve quickly. I think Gene Davis is available, too.

Well that is not what the post implies at all. Winning a state championship is a lofty goal BUT since you bring it up.......In 1992 the Chargers went 1-9, then started the 1993 season 0-4, went on to finish the regular season 5-5 if I remember correctly. Beat York Institute,state ranked Seymore team, defeated a Grundy County team that beaten Central by 28 in the regular season and then defeated the NO 2 ranked Kingston Yellow Jackets in the semi-finals to complete a playoff run that was remarkable to say the least. Got beat in the championship game but they made it! So you never know!(Well most of us) That was a GREAT YEAR for sure. Oh and Central dressed all of 31 players at Vanderbilt! BC93- Did you freeze your butt off that sunny December day 20 years ago?

2012 Schedule- Only Loudon failed to make the playoffs in 2011. Every team on this schedule had at least 5 wins in 2011. This schedule is as tough as most in 3A. Compared to the rest of district, it is a challenging schedule. Polks schedule was better but not the rest of D5. Only Polk was a blow out from the get go. The way we played against quality opponents Kingston, Bledsoe and Sweetwater give promise. JV won consistently. Beat Loudon, Sequoyah, McMinn and Sweetwater. Lost to Meig (Last Play) and Polk. Meigs, Sweetwater and Sequoyah lost alot on both sides. Central returns 8 or 9 starters on defense plus 9 starters including all the skilled positions. Just how you view things glass half full or half empty. McMinn County- 16-0 at the half. Norte Dame- Lead at half-time. ND had one of the top QB-WR combos in SE Tennessee. Polk County- Beaten Loudon- Close at half time- Turn-overs. Meigs County- Win going away at Meigs Bledsoe County- District 7 Runner-up- Senior-laden squad---Let it come down to officials bad call. Sequoayah-Played poorly in 1st half. Got game close late at 25-20. barely missed OS kick Out played SEQ most of the second half Kingston- 7-0 at half time Kingston. Defense played really well. How many 9th graders were playing on defense? Sweetwater= Did not Central lead at the 1/2 and was dominating game until RB Boyd got hurt. Sweetwater had as good of player in Davis that is in this district. Stone Memorial Two best offensive players did not play (injured) and started 4 freshman on defense.

Might be tough for the Eagles to find scrimmages. May have to offer some incentives to potential opponents. Sparing partners may be hard to find.

Who were the teams involved?

No surely not.

I had this predication all wrong. Lady Tigers played very well. Coach Powell had a good game plan. Lady Tigers seem to be able to match up physically. I thought the 3-2 zone force the Chargerettes into shooting the three and kept them from getting the ball inside to Massingil. Chargerette freshman continue to improve. Meigs will get some calls at their gym. The return match should be interesting.

Meigs girls not a threat at all to Central. Central will pressure the Meigs guards. It will be tough to get the open three ball against Central, Suspect Meigs will turn it over and Chargerettes will be off and running. Central has too much of everything for the Lady Tigers. Central by at least 20.

Tellico is looking for a head coach.

Tyner have that much returning? Will Coach Turner coach another year?

Walker Valley is terrible. No wonder Tucker left. Lady Mustangs were slow and not paricularly well coached.

Nice article. Have known Coach Stoika for awhile. Great story!

I thought Bradley was impressive. The physical style of play gave Central some trouble. Bradley was skilled and did enough to beat the man to man pressure most of the time. Great expereince for the freshman post players from Central. Playing a team like Bradley is going to have some benefits come playoff time.

The Chargerettes will find out how far they are along so early in the season. I believe that Bradley will present some challenges for Central. Should prove to be a very interesting game.

7 and 3? WOW! Basketball? Interesting.

After watching them tonight against Alcoa, you are exactly right. Played lots of combinations around Massingil. As usual thought the defensive pressure bothered Alcoa on and off during the course of the game. Surprised with how many foul shots we missed at the end of the game.

Now Charlie, This post is really beneath you. Looks like you have some real issues with McMinn Central fans. Lighten up a little, take a deep breath and smile.

The announcer no doubt loves his Bledsoe County Warriors but the intro "back to back to back District 7AA Champions was interesting since Alcoa has won how many STATE TITLES in a row.

This is cracking me up. A Polk fan complaining about the officiating.

Saw Brainard in a summer scrimmage. It is absoluely remarkable the job Coach Jackson has done at Brainard. Limited resources and low numbers but still in round 2. If I had a vote for Coach of the Year- He would be it!

I looked at Central's schedule. The Chargers played the 11th toughest schedule in 2A so that would include both 3A and 4A play-off teams. McMinn, Polk and Bledsoe were all districts champions. Kingston was 7-3 and finished third in District 4 behind CAK and Alcoa. Stone, Sequoyah, Meigs, Norte Dame and Sweetwater all made the play-offs. That only leaves a 4-6 Loudon team that did not make the playoffs. The Chargers were in every game but two. This is a huge improvement from a team that was mercy ruled in 8 of 10 contests in 2010. Clearly there are areas that need improvement both offensively and defensively but the schemes are better. There was very little attrition this year after the season started so I expect most of the players to return. The JV team was 4-2 with wins over McMinn, Loudon, Sequoyah and Sweetwater. Believe that the future is bright. Got the biggest class of freshman coming from Englewood and Central. They are talented, athletic and have some size. One of the reasons the senior class is not as large as we need is that many of the seniors did not play as sophomores. 999 is right, we need to have at least 15 seniors that have played all four years. Look at Bledsoe, Sweetwater, Sequoyah and Stone. All had at least a dozen seniors. They elected not to play because most were going to playing JV since the varsity had guys like Ben Stiles, Maury Ragland, Josh Moss, and others. When you miss a year, especially lineman you lose game experience and one year in the wieght room. Typically when you quit once, it is alot easier to quit the second time. At some point in time, the coaching carousel at Central needs to stop. The program has made some strides. In 2012 got all the skilled guys back, talented freshman and sophomore classes that have game experience. Next year is lining up alot like Derrick's second year when the Chargers won the District championship.