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Congrats South Lady Rebels on 5th state championship! Not as many as Brentwood but certainly the gold standard on this end of the state. PS - this says at the very bottom that Hannah has committed to Western Carolina: http://tricitiessports.com/high-school-football-playoff-picture-coming-into-focus-p77342-116.htm

Pretty sure Hannah is a junior this year. Think her older sister was all-state at South when they won AA title two years ago and is a freshman on the team at VT now.

http://www.coacht.com/tennessee/scoreboard/

Can you name ONE D1 VB player from Knox or the entire state for that matter that did not play in high school? OK if it makes it easier some D2 or NAIA names would suffice. I agree with almost everything you say above but without proof that club-only works you are taking a risk. No doubt some college coaches would have some reservations about a player (or their parents) that was not willing to play for their school. Three to four college head VB coaches often attend South's big matches like DB and regionals. All are local, most are D2/NAIA, and some are also involved with club, but it happens. My daughter ended up at one mostly due to getting noticed then instead of a club tourney. Of course if it weren't for club she probably wouldn't have been worth watching.

Starters still in the game with a 30-pt lead and 3 minutes left. Sounds like the respect issue goes well beyond the PG.

I'm guessing she was still in the gameto make their full court press more effective.

Losing top teams during regionals hurts but one of the top 5 or 6 volleyball teams in the state is elminated every year in DISTRICT tourney in 11AAA.

Someone needs to go to Crockett feeder schools and start a program with 4th/5th grade girls. It will take time and someone to catch them at the middle school level, but in 6 or 7 years you will see it pay off on the high school floor. I've seen it happen at 3 different high schools. And, while it may help some, one or two years of daddy ball from even a well intentioned parent won't be enough. Or, you could sit back and wait for Science Hill to go downhill since Joe took his act to Erwin. Yes, Keith was helping Joe in JC and could keep it going but don't know if he wants to do this, too.

Brentwood-Ravenwood play tonight for state volleyball championship and on the football field. Which will have the bigger crowd? This shouldn't happen.

Here's a link to the local take on yesterday and today: http://www.timesnews.net/article/9069061/south-volleyball-team-advances-to-state-finals Sounds like HF is going to "take it to them." knightsfan, in the 9 years I've been watching TN HS VB I've only seen 3 other OH's that hit like #9: Brentwood's OH in '06, DB's Devine in '10, and Ravenwood's Hutson. Sounds like you've got a good one, too.

A best of 3 win in an early season weekend tourney in Knoxville means nothing at this time of the season. Likewise, pulling off the comeback win today guarantees nothing tomorrow except that South WILL be playing tomorrow. HF wants a South rematch, too. Pretty late to be switching positions but depending on the situation may be worth a shot.

Finally twitter confirms South won over CAK in the the 5th (15-12?) after being down 2-0 to advance to the AA championship game. Not easy to do.

Last twitter feed said South won 3 & 4 to go to five. So South won the fifth?

From a South twitter feed CAK wins first two over South 25-20, 25-22.

TSSAA site says South lost 1st set to H-F then won next 3. Did you find the hitters knightsfan? It is double elimination so you may have another shot at it.

You shouldn't have any problem identifying her on Wednesday.

Sad news confirmed with an obituary in the Tennessean. Yes, his posts may have been excessive and often rambling, but who can deny his support for this sport that can ill afford to lose it. Think I'll start cheering for Siegel VB.

Based on their 5-game match with South last night, DB looks like the team to beat in the Big 7. And, they may go a lot further than just the districts.

Saw Bearden's libero in club ball (K2) this winter. Remember thinking she might have made the difference between 3rd & 4th in the AAA state tourney last fall if she had played. (South knocked out Bearden before losing to Brentwood in loser bracket finals.) Probably not enough to get to the finals, but she would have made Bearden better. Picking balls up and putting them where they belong is great, but like bigblue said you have to put them down to win. Ask DB who is struggling with an all-state libero.

The bracket would be single elimination. You've gone to the trouble of seeding it by playing pool games so no need for double elimination then. Like most ideas, this isn't a new one. Just a slight modification (best of 3 instead of 5 in pool play) of a format they've already used. And pretty much the same thing they do at every weekend tourney.

If you look at past state tourney results from 2005 & 6 on the tssaa web site you will see they played two 4-team pools (best of 5) then 8-team bracket. Pool play was on Wednesday and Thursday morning with bracket play on Thursday afternoon and Friday So, it took the same 3 days it does now. You may also notice there was only 3 divisions back then: 1) combined A/AA, 2) AAA, and 3) division 2. With 5 divisions now this would take more games, courts, time, etc. However, if you cut back the pool games to best of 3 this might reduce it enought to still get 5 divisions done in 3 days. And everyone would get at least 4 matches (3 in pool play, 1 bracket) even though 3 of them would be best of 3.

Two 4-team pools say pool A and pool B. In final bracket pool A first plays pool B 4th, pool A 2nd plays pool B 3rd, etc. The only constraint on putting teams in initial pools would be keeping teams from the same district out of the same pool. For example, don't put Ravenwood and Brentwood in the same pool. I think they do something similar in the draw for the double elimination bracket today.

Current format puts the best two teams in the championship game. There are other formats that should do the same, but single elimination is not one of them. The best two teams could meet in the semi's or even the quarterfinals in a single elimination bracket. Just because basketball doesn't care when the best two teams meet is not a good reason for volleyball to do the same. I like the idea of pool play to set the seeding for an 8-team single elimination bracket. This is similar to the weekend VB tourneys most schools participate in. If playing too many games is the problem with this format, then borrow again from these weekend tourneys and make the pool play matches best of 3 since they are only for seeding purposes. You could go back to best of 5 for bracket play.

Similar to smdad, I've been to state a few times with 3 different formats: 1) pool play followed by 8 team bracket, 2) pool play followed by 4 team bracket, and 3) current "double" elimination bracket. I agree that using pools to knock it down to 4 teams is unfair since the pools can be unbalanced. Pools and 8 team bracket is probably the fairest, but it takes more games to finish it. The current double elimination bracket is a good compromise. It does seem to get it down to the two best teams. Not requiring the "if necessary" game in the finals is the only thing that seems unfair. If you view the first two days just as a way to narrow it down to the two best teams, then leaving out the "if necessary" game doesn't sound that bad. Certainly it sounds fairer than a single elimination bracket without any kind of seeding.

Coach Shaffer leaves coaching after 27 succuseful years at Dobyns-Bennett and Sullivan East High Schools. She posted a record of 869 wins and 402 losses, 9 Conference Championships, 6 District Championships, 6 Region Championships, 1 State Championship, and 3 State Runner-up finishes.