rebelswebsite

Geez Louise....Haven't we learned a lesson about tinkering with the playoff system? In 1992, if memory serves, they switched from three classes to five and only took three teams from each region. Top seeds got first-round byes, which proved disastrous in some cases because battle tested teams took on teams that had lost their edge. So they abandoned the three-team-per-region deal and allowed four from each region to go, which meant more 1-9 teams got into the mix. An example of the fallacy is in Region 8A where there are only five teams. Win one region game, lose the remainder, and you are in the playoffs. In 2A, teams that had seemingly just played each other, or were in the same regions, were battling in the first and second rounds of the playoffs. It is almost like the basketball shooting game "HORSE," where at the end you have to "prove it" by hitting the same shot twice. The TSSAA tinkered with the basketball playoffs about eight or nine years ago with that silly sectional format and it almost ruined the state basketball tournament. They went back to the old way of doing things, making the substate games mean something instead of having silly three-day events after we had already been districted and regioned to death (not to mention the college conference tournaments and March Madness). People were worn out by hoops. I remember a friend having a poster with a listing of all of Murphy's Laws. Three of those axioms stand out in my mind: If it ain't broke, don't fix it; if you try to please everybody nobody will like it and finally -- DON'T MESS WITH MRS. MURPHY!

As someone who has served on the Mr. Football/Mr.-Miss Basketball committees and several of the all-state committees in a variety of sports, let me see if I can help temper the conversation a bit. The TSWA selects a very dilligent list of athletes in ALL football classes. Each member of the committee gathers nominees WITH STATS from each his/her area. In many cases, the nominees are discussed via email/phone or in person before the all-state meeting. Usually a dozen sports writers are at the meeting and it is usally a good mix of people from all three grand divisions. Kingsport, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Nashville, Clarksville, South-Central Tennessee, Memphis, Jackson and rural West Tennessee is often well represented and all nominations are scrutinized carefully. I can recall when we knew of an athlete who wasn't on the list and the sports writer wasn't at the meeting, we called him at 1 a.m. to get the info just to make sure we had the best all-state team we could. Every nominee is considered and gets fair assessment. And it's done for all five public classes and each private class. The TSWA prides itself on its all-state teams. There are placements for each position on the field in addition to some auxilary spots, often known as "athlete." It really is done quite well and the state should be proud that it has good people on the committees (people like Mo Patton, Steve Hargis, Chuck Morris, Mike Hutchens and others) who feel it important enough to make every meeting, whether they have a team in the state finals or not. As for Mr. Football, coaches and media nominate via fax/email/regular mail. Those nominations are tabulated and presented to a committee of sports writers. Those writers also keep track of players in their area and ask for help from other media in their region. The sports writers come from every grand division and from each splintered area from each grand division (like Tri-Cities, Knox area, Chattanooga area, Nashville, Murfreesboro, Gallatin, rural West Tennessee, Jackson, Memphis). It is a top-notch committee. There is discussion for athletes in each class, then the members vote for first, second and third place. First place gets three points and so on. The one with the highest votes is Mr. Football (or whatever sport). But before the person is awarded, the TSSAA makes a call to each school, often referred to as the "Hooligan Call," to see if the kid is worthy or a hooligan. If the kid gets the thumbs up from his school principal/director, he is awarded. There was an instance where a kid, who was voted Mr. Football and signed with a major D-1 school, didn't pass muster, so the award was rescinded. The TSSAA had to go back to find a high-balloted nominee for the third slot, who wouldn't have gotten the runner-up award in the first place. So there are backstops. Each grand division is well balanced to avoid an imbalance of the award distribution. Yes, each year, there is controversy, but the Mr. Football awards are done as well as the TSWA all-state ballots...and many of the same committee members are on both. As for TFCA and AP, I don't know how they compile their lists, so I can't speak cogently about that. But TSWA does offer all-state lists for each class and every opportunity is afforded those to get their submissions in, even if it means a phone call at 0-dark-30 two minutes before the vote. One last thing, often those meetings take several hours and every committee member gets a say. It really is done quite well. I hope this clears up the process and the listing by TSWA and Mr. Football. Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwanzaa, et. al. to all.

McKenzie 3, South Pittsburg 2.... HAHAHAHAHA!

Somebody asked about the highest scoring game in championship history? I haven't had time to look it up and I'm heading to the McKenzie basketball game in a few. But if memory serves, Bradley Central won a big overtime game against Jackson Central-Merry 50-48 back in 1978. If memory serves again, I believe that score was 14-14 at the end of regulation. Some have said this was the most thrilling game in championship history. I believe that game may have been played in Cleveland (back in the days before they played the title game at a central locale). Could be wrong, though. An offensive track meet would make for great drama next Friday. Best of luck to the Pirates, but GO REBELS!

Hats off to Mt. Pleasant. The Tigers field a great football team. Marco Dailey is a true talent. The fans and administrators were courteous and very affable. It was great to have you visit our stadium. This was one of those games where it was a shame someone had to lose. Best of luck to Mt. Pleasant. You have nothing to hang your head about. Congratulations to the Rebels. All the hard work has paid off. Now is your chance. Getting there is the hard part and chances like this are fleeting. But it can be done. Lake County knocked off South Pittsburg for the 1985 Class A title, so the Pirates can be had. What a great semifinal game, though. It's the kind you want to have to advance to a state title game. Go Rebels! www.mckenzierebels.com

Hey fans of McKenzie and Mt. Pleasant. I'm a newcomer on here so bear with me. I run the mckenzierebels.com website and Murphy's Law has reared its ugly head this week. We have major server problems and we are fixing them NOW. It's going to take some time. We have the Rebel Insider video production posting tomorrow and other stuff. So if you see the website and it just has a parking page, that's the deal. We should have it up at least 80 percent by tomorrow, perhaps even tonight. Bear with us. We really appreciate your patronage from McKenzie and Mt. Pleasant fans...and all indications are there are many Mt. Pleasant fans looking in. We appreciate that. Rebel fans spread the word...and Tiger fans, too. We're not playing games, it's just one of those random things that happens at the absolute worst times. We appreciate the kind words that have been posted on this site about mckenzierebels.com, too. Be patient with us as we fix the problems. In the meantime....Go Rebels!

Hey fans of McKenzie and Mt. Pleasant. I'm a newcomer on here so bear with me. I run the mckenzierebels.com website and Murphy's Law has reared its ugly head this week. We have major server problems and we are fixing them NOW. It's going to take some time. We have the Rebel Insider video production posting tomorrow and other stuff. So if you see the website and it just has a parking page, that's the deal. We should have it up at least 80 percent by tomorrow, perhaps even tonight. Bear with us. We really appreciate your patronage from McKenzie and Mt. Pleasant fans...and all indications are there are many Mt. Pleasant fans looking in. We appreciate that. Rebel fans spread the word...and Tiger fans, too. We're not playing games, it's just one of those random things that happens at the absolute worst times. We appreciate the kind words that have been posted on this site about mckenzierebels.com, too. Be patient with us as we fix the problems. In the meantime....Go Rebels!

Hey fans of McKenzie and Mt. Pleasant. I'm a newcomer on here so bear with me. I run the mckenzierebels.com website and Murphy's Law has reared its ugly head this week. We have major server problems and we are fixing them NOW. It's going to take some time. We have the Rebel Insider video production posting tomorrow and other stuff. So if you see the website and it just has a parking page, that's the deal. We should have it up at least 80 percent by tomorrow, perhaps even tonight. Bear with us. We really appreciate your patronage from McKenzie and Mt. Pleasant fans...and all indications are there are many Mt. Pleasant fans looking in. We appreciate that. Rebel fans spread the word...and Tiger fans, too. We're not playing games, it's just one of those random things that happens at the absolute worst times. We appreciate the kind words that have been posted on this site about mckenzierebels.com, too. Be patient with us as we fix the problems. In the meantime....Go Rebels!