SingleAFan

Jeff was IMO the best male basketball player to ever come out of Celina, that district,and that Region. At 6'3 or better he could take you from the outside by simply elevating over you to shoot, he could score off the dribble, & the Celina press could be be stifling and usually led to lots of rim rattling dunks finished by him. Remember his Sr. year in high school was the last year before the 3 point shot was brought into high school. I'd guess he averaged easily 30+ a game and that was with no 3 point line. And he wasn't their only player averaging double digit scoring. In the mid 80's Celina dominated the upper Cumberland area and had no peers in class 1a or 2a in that area. The only team they could not beat was BOLTON from Memphis who had players like Sylvester Gray & Vincent Askew who both went on to the NBA. Seemed like each year Celina would draw Bolton 1st game in the state tournament. As an opponent I remember how he never talked much trash just played hard (especially on the offensive end) rebounded like a beast, and loved to snowbird at times defensively to absolutely tear down the goal on dunks. He was easily the best player on our schedule & we played against Carlos Groves (East Robertson/UT), Phillip Hutchison (Lipscomb/Lipscomb-college basketball's all-time leading scorer when he graduated), as well as many Nashville & middle Tennessee 4A and 5A publics at that time. I also remember him entering a dunk contest at TSU. It was highly publicized and most Nashville dunkers showed up and strutted around thinking they had no peers. Then this white kid from the sticks of Celina stepped up and threw it down every which way imaginable to a thunderous roar and the entire gym erupted. Needless to say he easily walked away the winner and won over the crowd at th same time. Rumor had it that his vertical leap was over 40 inches and his work ethic to develop his jumping & shooting skills was incredible. Offensively, Arms could do it all in high school!

The dominance you refer to changes as those same kids move to the big field as 13's. The game changes unless you play in East TN with pitchers moving back to 60' (55' in East TN) and those 225'-275' HR's become long fly balls and lots of outs. West TN has alot of talented 12 and under teams and imo East Tn tends to recruit a little wider territory than Middle TN at the 12 year old age group. I've seen the stronger 12 yr old teams from East TN, Middle TN, and West TN in tavel ball and I believe the talent levels are similar. I've also watched some of those E. TN power programs at 12 come back to the pack by the time they are 14, 15, and 16 yr olds after "dominating" as 12's. If you want to gauge competitiveness of baseball in TN look at the high school level and see who consistently wins titles or look where the MLB draft is selecting more players and I think you will see that there are players coming out each year from each geographic region of the state. I know yesterday Franklin High & Marshall Co High (both Middle TN high schools) had players drafted on day 1 of the MLB draft. The good news is travel ball, quality coaching at the high school level, & many strong college programs in our state have TN putting out more and more baseball talent than ever before.

Heard the same smack last year outta West TN and then saw JCS run-ruled by FCS in the finals and Huntingdon leaving the boro with their tail dragging as well. Hope you show up with better pitching than what we saw from West TN 1A's last year. Summertown, Richland, LV, and FC are for real and have played and beaten some of the big AA and AAA programs in their areas as well. Keep talking the smack and you'll leave the Boro disappointed---again. This tournament is about solid hitting and depth in your pitching staff. Fall into the losers bracket and you better have 4 or 5 top pitchers.

Two seam has no clue what baseball talent is, go back and read some of his earlier post. I'd like to se him face some fomer 1A players like Mikey Minor, Will Clinard, and Logan Darnell when they were freshman pitchers in class 1a. I'd also like for him to compare his freshman skills with former 1A stud hitters that have recently come thru programs like USJ, JCS, Goodpasture, FCS, that are now Collegate stars at programs like UT, Cumberland, Lipscomb, Trevecca, and Vandy. Granted now USJ and Goodpasture are in 2a but 4 years ago they were in 1a and I find it amazing how quickly they went from 1a title contenders to 2a State Champs. Those 2 prgrams now own the AA class and regularly beat AAA programs who are brave enough to schedule them. The difference in the "top" 1A programs and the 2A and 3A programs is non-existent. USJ, JCS, FCS, and Goodpasture all play anyone who will schedule them and win more than their share. They also turn out as more collegiate talent per student ratio than most of the larger AAA and AA schools. Get a clue 2 seamer.

Your program is great, your fan base is strong and your knowledge and exertise on BS is unsurpassed in S Pitt according to many. However, I'd still say your team is 2nd to none in 1A right now. Sorry for the compliments! /rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":rolleyes:" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" />

ZP, GENO, & OP I assure you there was no sarcasm intended. After watching your team "steamroll" every opponent they faced in las years playoffs I have the utmost respect for your team and program. As for the Maryville& Alcoa statement I was just referring to some threads I saw last year where some in SPitt claimed they could have beaten those teams. Personally, I'm not sure that you couldn't have beaten Alcoa. Maryville may have been a stretch, though. I heard numerous people say S. Pitt was the best in the state in 1A-3a last year and I can't say that they weren't. Can YOU? Apparently you guys need to learn how to take a compliment. Is it customary to bash anyone outside S Pitt who pays your program compliments? Anyway I'd say with Temple dropping football, Satterfield & Dillard stepping stepping down as coaches that it only leaves a few coaches in 1A who can say they have coached teams that could play with South Pitt and the great program you guys have established. Learn how to take a compliment and recognize when others outside the Pitt ae paying you respect. Best of luck with your season. And by the way I meant what I said about the next 6 state championships! ZP has convinced me of this.

Region 3 = South Pitt Hands down the best team in the state. Some fans think they can even beat Alcoa or Maryville. Just go ahead and pencil them in for the next 6 - 1A state titles. Rumor has it their recruiting of talent ha now crossed state lines into AL & GA. Should this be considered open zoning or should they be re-classified as "private"? Region 4 = Trousdale County will easily walk away with this Region title since Gordonsville had huge graduation losses and some discipline problems off the field cost them other returning players. However, they better watch out for Watertown and their TC voodoo dolls. Others from the midstate to watch will be Cascade - building a consistent top 5 program. Jo Byrns - this "program" no longer rebuilds just reloads. Wayne Co - get ready Coach Rice will build this team into a powerhouse for the next 4 years. Collinwood - consistent program with playoff experience. Eagleville - 2 words - Carlton Flatt - back on the sidelines. If you want to add a private school to this list(other than S. Pitt): Friendship Christian will have holes to fill at RB but returns most other starters from a team that started over 8 underclassmen last year. Mt. Pleasant - now that opposing teams will actually have to game plan to compete against 11 rather than 1.

BY FAR???? Pretty bold statement for a team that has lost 4 of their last 5 games. It looks like their early season schedule migh have been real weak and lately they might have been playing a little tougher opponents. If memory serves me correctly we heard similar statements about LV this time last year on coach T and then saw them lose back-to-back to state tourney runnerup JCS by a combined score of 45-6. Everyone will see how good that pitching staff is real soon when the sectionals and State roll around. Best of luck.

From what I have heard everyone better lookout for SUMMERTOWN and RICHLAND. I'd also beware of the defending 1A State Champs -Friendship Christian. They might have lost 7-8 Srs. off last yrs team but still have managed to consistently beat all challengers in 1A with their only losses being to out of state 4a,5a, and 6a teams in AL, Goodpasture, and 3A teams in TN. I would also say JCS, Lookout Valley, Rockwood, and McKenzie will be contenders. As for Cascade the might be ready to join the elite in 1A but will have to be more consistent at the plate. A recent 12-2 home loss to FC and an upset to HUNTLAND might have been just the ticket to get them focused.

Tell that to the kids that play at USJ, Goodpasture, and FC. Those 3 programs can & will play anybody, any classification, anywhere and love to take on the larger schools. Also try telling a former single A lefty now pitching at Vandy named Mikey Minor (Forest High) or an early signee at Vandy (East Robertson) named Will Clinard that the only good players come from the big AAA programs -particularly only those in Chattanooga. IF YOU CAN PLAY YOU CAN PLAY! And top level coaches like Corbin will find you. It doesn't matter the classification in high school. Most of the top level talents play Showcase travel ball in the summer with kids from every classification. I can't remember coach Corbin asking Mikey Minor or Will Clinard what classification they played in high school. Instead he watched them throw, researched their work ethics and academics and then recruited them based on their athleticism. So instead of speaking about something you know nothing about. Id spend more time working on my kids game and less time on coach T running down smaller programs. BTW, when was the last time Chattanooga teams (Red Bank, Soddy Daisy, Ridgeland, Ooltewah) won a AAA title in baseball. Seems to me that Memphis owns the AAA level. /roflol.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":roflol:" border="0" alt="roflol.gif" />

I thought the same thing PB & J. Anyone who has been around him much knows of his distaste for 1a privates. Despite rumors of "large gates" everyone knew they moved to 3A years ago to avoid David Pack's CPA monster teams, DCA, BGA, USJ, & Goodpasture in 2A. As soon as the multiplier was instituted he drops TC back into 1A and wins another title. 2006 & 2007 Back to back losses to both Watertown & FC, Dillard's gordonsville program that is rising back quickly, an up and coming Clay Co program, a Grider South Pitt program that is back on top and in his way in the playoffs, and the fact that the acronym privates might be back in 1A all seemed to make this "retirement decision" easy for him. Of course look for him to return to the sidelines or the pressbox as an assistant if the privates and publics split!

Thanks for correcting me on the Temple mistake Wardawg. I am not saying that Manassas and Union City should not be favored to win this years 1A basketball title. They are the clear favorites. But don't count out the other 6 teams like dcballas was trying to do. As for 1A football titles I think your last 3 years statement is correct but if you look at the past 10 years I think you will see that West Tn's only 1A title is JCS and WEST TN only has 2 in the last 15-20 years in 1A. JCS is now 2A and if you look at Baseball USJ has won some titles but they are now 2A as well. Other than that baseball in 1A is dominated by Middle TN. There is no doubt that WEST TN tends to dominate in basketball. Especially in the AA and AAA classes. However in 1A things are pretty balanced with the exception of Temple's domination in recent years. Best of luck to all teams and participants.

I was referring to the past 1 yr and all sports in 1A championships. I count 0 gold balls in the past year for west TN in the 1A classification. Football = South Pitt destroyed west TN (McKenzie), Baseball = FC run-ruled west TN (JCS), and Basketball= TEMPLE is defending 1A Champ. How's that for 1a west TN production? But I know you are a Dyer County fan and you know they will get destroyed in 2A so I understand your trying to jump on the Manassas and UC bandwagons because they are your best hope at a GOLD Basketball returning to West TN this year.

Well said Green Acres. It's the same way in football & baseball with alot of those West TN teams until they reach the Boro and get soundly defeated by teams from east of the TN River. Just look back at the past 10 years in any sport and see who is winning the 1A titles. The past two games I remember hearing about UC was when TC destroyed them in the 05 football title game and when Temple sent them packing in basketball. Or look back at South Pitt in football vs "Mighty McKenzie" and the absolute beat down they took this past December. Or look back at last years baseball when big bad Huntington rolled into the Boro and FCS came out of the losers bracket to destroy all comers and take the title in a run rule over west TN teams of Huntington and JCS. Looks like West TN needs to do less talking and more producing.