easttnref

Hard for me to believe they are missing developmental time when highschool practices more than club. The clubs are losing money while the girls are playing highschool. All the while the college coaches are coaching not to much recruiting but they still do. If the kid is quality enough, doesn't matter who they play for the college coaches will find them.

G,

All that recruiting is paying off. Boys recruiting sure has went down since you left.

This is where you respond that you all do not recruit; and you do not tell the whole truth.

In all seriousness, what is everyones thoughts about these girls going to club over highschool?

Akula,

Your insight was greatly appreciated!

You failed to mention the cats you coach as an established program that could make a run this season...quietly under the radar this season...just the way you want them!!!

1. Catholic

2. Hardin Valley

3. Bearden

4. Farragut

5. CAK

6. Oakridge

7. West

8. Halls

9. Sevier County

10. Maryville

Outside looking in: Greenville, Morristown west, south doyle, Webb, lenoir city, Seymour.

Let me know thought and opinions...

Oh akula you made me blush... Ive missed you to. Shouldn't have let your buddy mute all my post for about a year. Look I bet I was more responsible for plus memberships than anyone. Hope Oakridge is treating you right. Was a rough year this year by the results I saw. You had some big shoes to fill, and im sure there was a huge contrast in coaching styles. I know you are gonna do fine. Wish you luck the guy before you was ran out of town by the piranhas out there so be careful all he did was win and that didn't help.

Rumor has it that Coach Wally has Farragut playing some bunker ball. Interesting if so--tough to lose all those studs last year and have talent more in line with the rest of the district, huh, Coach C?? I haven't seen this but my sources were pretty solid. Will make for an interesting match-up at Bearden tomorrow if the Ad's have 4+ in the back in an attempt to frustrate/slow down the lethal killing machine that is Bearden soccer. Might work for a bit but the Dawgs are too gritty and blue-collar to let Farragut come onto the Bearden pitch and slip away with a win. Bearden, 3-0.

Catholic sprang the upset on West. Shocking/didn't see this one coming. Leader is a sly dude so Maryville better be prepared for a skirmish. I think Maryville's talent and experience at moving the ball around a big field will lead to a Rebel win. Say 3-1.

 

RE the complaint on another thread about the dead board---look no further than the writing paralysis that has struck down G, Akula, and dins. You guys need to re-enter the fray.

Akula and G have moved on. The true fans remain...

Easttnref wants more topics, and a little playoff talk.

How about the east TN matchups? From what I understand, Catholic destroyed West so now they head to Maryville, while Farragut is set to play at Bearden.

Any chance that Farragut could pull an upset tomorrow night? How about Catholic?

Ah... That is so much better.

Over the last two years the soccer boards have completely dropped off. What would everyone say the reasons behind this are. The other sports boards seem to still be generating alot of chatter. Soccer I cant even find District tournament matchups being talked about. Its sad! At one point it was fun to get on here and talk, but now nothing....

I have watched a lot of games this spring and the quality of referees in East TN seems to have taken a sharp nose dive. There seems to be a lot of younger refs who do a very marginal job. Has anyone else noticed this, or is it just me?

You are spot on! What do we expect. Pay a couple bucks pass a test and you are a ref. The good refs are getting out because of being paired with incompetent peers. This ultimately is hurting the players. There stil is no consistency in officiating in East Tn.

I mean, this is probably the worst Farragut team in over a decade no? I'm sure it's a conspiracy with knox county. They didn't like Farragut winning at stuff so they took kids away. I mean, they took some of the classes away from Farragut that they didn't have at other schools didn't they? Farragut had them because of the amount and type of kids that go there. Taking them away meant there was no need for the classes anymore. They had to even out the schools in the county. They can't be raising all the schools to Farragut's level, because that would never happen. Their only option was to bring the top down. Just sayin...

 

Anyways. with soccer, I just think it's tough to lose as many people as Farragut did and still be a championship team. You just won't see it happen too often at the high school level. The experience isn't there. I kind of figured Farragut would be getting better as the season goes on, but they are also playing some tougher teams as the season goes, so it's hard to say. If Maryville fans did celebrate too much, I can't say I blame them that much, but at the same time, it'd be like Farragut freaking out and rioting if they beat a Maryville football team that had a losing record and no real shot at competing that year. It's still great that you beat them, but it's not like you beat them when they were good.

You sounded like Glenn Beck. Its a conspiracy to bring Farragut down.

How can you believe that Farragut has no shot at competing this season? They can and should always compete! Its Farragut soccer. Loaded with club soccer talent, and and backed by West Knoxville money.

Next week the CAK faithful are going to come out and say that the US fiscal situation has led to their drop off this season. Nope never mind they wont they understand the state of their program and support the kids in it.

I mean come on!!! No excuses its a rebuilding year. No one was complaining the last two years about these same issues.

Dobyns Bennett has a talented and deep soccer team this season. Coming into the season expectations were high and Coach Woods Added to these by saying he thought this team would be better than last year. It seems something changed and he decided not to put his best team on the field but to play as many sophomores as possible. At the begining of the season he loved to tell everybody that he coould have as many as seven sophomores starting which turned out to be the case. As of this weekend there are now eight starting.These are all super young men with a great amount of potential. There are three or four that are certainly ready for their starting roles. Coach Woods has pushed aside a talented group of juniors and seniors that were big contributors on a team that went 19-2-1 last year. He has taken two juniors and two seniors that played major roles last year and put them on the bench. Three of these players started last year and all four averaged at least 40 minutes a game. Now one is averaging about 40 minutes and the other three are getting 20 minutes or less.

 

It is pretty easy to see what the coach's agenda is. take this year and next and prepare this class for their senior year. It is amonst like watching a preason game, after 15 or 20 mminutes he subs six players for their obligatory 10 minutes of each half. It reall doesn't seem to matter the cicumstance or situation, six in six out. To make things even more obvious a couple of weeks ago he called a meeting of only sophomores. Maybe it is time to chage fron "One Team, One Tribe" to "One Coach, One Class" (or one coach one player, but I won't go there).

 

It is very telling from time to time on the field. For example, our second game this weekend. The score is 0-0 when coach makes his usual shift change, six for six. To this point our defenders and keeper are fighting off attack after attack with the ball staying, for the most part, on our end of the field. After the change we start winng balls, switching the field and attacking their defense. We score before this groups 10 miutes are up so the coach lets them finish the half. the score at the half is 2-0 DB. This with our all state senior and all conference sophomore on the bench. How good could this team be and what kind of year could this senior and sophomore be having if he would just put his best players on the field together and subbed in a normal way??? WE WILL NEVER KNOW!!

 

Do I think these senior and juniors are more skilled than the sophomores? No, not really but physically they are just not ready. Bigger, stronger and faster wins a lot of games. How many times have we seen that this year alone.

 

I know playing time is a coach's decision and his alone. But it is a shame that a coach would do this to his seniors. He should give this team their best chance for success every time they go on the field. Each and every year it should be his goal for the team to be the best that they can be. I think most would agree with that, but maybe not. I bet Science Hill loves his philosophy.

I bet Coach Woods has been belly laughing at these comments!!!

I am curious to see how Maryville doesn't know how to act. I figure an excited group of boys took down Farragut for the first time in a long time. Maybe Farragut fans are upset because they celebrated to much after the game or after goals...I would bet Coach Feather has his boys disciplined on the field, playing as a team, and with passion. Passion is something alot of Farragut teams are missing if you ask me, but talent of course is never a problem. Now Farragut knows what it feels like to be on the other side. To those who say act like you been there before...this Maryville team has not been there before, but they are going to get there!!!

Ouch!

lol...

Fix the issue for whom? It would mean way more travel and state titles that are even more watered down. Do you really want a participation trophy?

Without one state champ it will be watered down. More travel, like the privates would have a problem with that. For the A/AA division it would mean parity across the board instead of domination of the privates.

G I got nothing against you at all. Though I know it seems so on here. I don't even know you. What I do know is what I see. These programs in A/AA soccer are about the dads who have to mow the cowfields for there sons and daughters to play. Take the goals to their house to weld them back so they will be ready for their sons. Come tournament time they don't have lights, so if you go to go extra time they might pull their trucks up to the goal to light the area. That's what grass roots soccer is all about. I truly believe the private schools being in the same division with the schools like this is a smack in the face. You take the privates out and into div 2 or big school. That's the fix.

First off this teams didn't just challenge oakridge they beat them.

Second everyone isn't stepping up to oakridge. Oakridge is on there way down. Not taking anything away from the teams mentioned. It's the truth... First time in over 20 years if ever Oakridge hasn't made it out o the district.

Ps: I think te people of Oakridge need to take a step back and realize...whoops we messed up.....come back Oj. Our boys and girls teams really have suffered since you left. We realize we were wrong. Your way of holding children accountable and playing the best regardless of who there parents is and was right. We miss you!

First off this teams didn't just challenge oakridge they beat them.

Second everyone isn't stepping up to oakridge. Oakridge is on there way down. Not taking anything away from the teams mentioned. It's the truth... First time in over 20 years if ever Oakridge hasn't made it out o the district.

Ps: I think te people of Oakridge need to take a step back and realize...whoops we messed up.....come back Oj. Our boys and girls teams really have suffered since you left. We realize we were wrong. Your way of holding children accountable and playing the best regardless of who there parents is and was right. We miss you!

First off this teams didn't just challenge oakridge they beat them.

Second everyone isn't stepping up to oakridge. Oakridge is on there way down. Not taking anything away from the teams mentioned. It's the truth... First time in over 20 years if ever Oakridge hasn't made it out o the district.

Ps: I think te people of Oakridge need to take a step back and realize...whoops we messed up.....come back Oj. Our boys and girls teams really have suffered since you left. We realize we were wrong. Your way of holding children accountable and playing the best regardless of who there parents is and was right. We miss you!

First off this teams didn't just challenge oakridge they beat them.

Second everyone isn't stepping up to oakridge. Oakridge is on there way down. Not taking anything away from the teams mentioned. It's the truth... First time in over 20 years if ever Oakridge hasn't made it out o the district.

Ps: I think te people of Oakridge need to take a step back and realize...whoops we messed up.....come back Oj. Our boys and girls teams really have suffered since you left. We realize we were wrong. Your way of holding children accountable and playing the best regardless of who there parents is and was right. We miss you!

St George

Baylor

Notre Dame

Franklin

what can i say i like the underdogs

You do understand that Catholic "joined" AAA because their numbers put them in the higher division. It was not a "choice" to go up. The reclassification period put them there. If CAK ever gets to that size, the will go up, as well.

 

You do have some good points, however. South America has GREAT soccer because it is played as a "grass roots" sport. Every kid plays it all the time. You just don't have that here. My daughter plays church league soccer, frankly, because we can't afford the club teams, and I also don't want to travel every weekend.

 

There is talk about developing that kind of "grass roots" league in Knoxville in the inner city and beyond. I would love to see that come to fruition. Contrary to what people might think, I am all for the advancement of Tennessee soccer as a whole, not just the private school's success.

G, you do understand that they could have went to Div II as well. I commend Knox Catholic for being better than the rest, and competing with the big dogs!!!

G, also you always say you are for the success of Tennessee soccer as a whole, but that is easy to say when you have how many A/AA championships because of the way the system is? Why will CAK, Notre Dame, and CPA )and others) just not go Div II like FRA, USJ, and Jackson Christian did. It would fix the issue all together would it not?

Agree with easttnref. Of the ones mentioned, West should have made it through, but then again made some late season mistakes. Farragut s always a good side but struggles playing as a team. OR not organized and too much internal strife to push forward. I would think with the emergence of Karns, Halls and HVA, that stronghold on the district is over.

I concur!

MVM can attest to this... it is NOT an issue of public and private. It is an issue of club players vs non club players.

 

Look at ALL of the successful soccer teams across the state. If you would poll them you would find a HIGH percentage of players on their teams that compete on Division 1 club teams, and this occurs even in AAA public schools.

 

Alcoa boys took the time to develop their club programs and their players worked hard in the off season in these clubs. Where did this get them? State finals in 2009 and state tournament in 2010 (and they got to 2009 by beating a private school).

 

Greeneville has a good club system. Where has it gotten them? State semi's and possibly beyond!

 

The argument used to JUST be about publics and privates. Now it is moving to privates and magnets vs. publics.

The fact is G its an uneven playing field and you know it, and just cannot admit it still and probably never will. The public schools cannot play 8th graders. Like Ben Holt who you used to beat that same Alcoa team you spoke of as an 8th grader. The private schools recruit just by being private. There are no lines as to how far kids can travel to go to your school. Publics are not afforded that opportunity. Nor do the publics in small schools have the money the privates do to upgrade facilities which aides in recruiting. Privates win 3 state championships a year in soccer as history shows us. Publics win 1. Argue that G!!! One day the Privates will join up with the big dogs like Knox Catholic did and prove they are one of the best, or at least go Div II with schools that are afforded your same opportunities. But beating up on the small schools in the state and blaming it on them not having club is getting old!!!

Oak Ridge for sure.

Definitely not Oakridge this year. West, Maryville, and Farragut.

Bearden 1 Hardin Valley 0

Catholic 3 Halls 0

Sevier County 4 Sullivan Central 0

Science Hill 2 Jefferson County 0