champs1

I know it is illegal to pay for an individual to go to a camp. I am not sure about paying for the whole team.

I too know the coach at Blountville personally. You are correct. He is a GREAT coach and person.

Sometimes that is easier said than done. In one of our games this year, we knew that the other team was really having a tough year, so we pulled up several 7th graders in hopes of keeping the score under control. We played everybody we had, did not play a starter after the 1st quarter, and played all 7th graders most of the second half. We played several kids out of position, trying to keep the score down. By the end of the game, we had a 5 playing the point in hopes that the other team would steal the ball. We sit down in a zone the whole game, did not press, and the whole second half we told the kids to shoot nothing but three pointers, in hopes that the lower percentage shots would not fall. We also told them that they had to make several passes before taking any shots. Now keep in mind that we had post players playing the perimeter. We still beat the other team by 51 points. The other coach shook my hand and said that he realized that we had done all we could to help him out. The only other thing we could have done to keep the score down is to come down and play keep-away. I have seen that done before and it is more detrimental to the other team than just making it hard for your team to score and hoping that they miss the shots. It is a tough situation to be in. I don't think it is fair to blame a coach if his/her team is that much better than the other team. Now if you are up by that much and still pressing, or have your starters in that is a different story.

I agree. It would definitely be tough to work out. I think the first thing that would have to be done is to have large and small divisions, maybe even a middle division.

My mistake. I thought I was posting on the girls sites. I think we agree on the fact that you are only as good as who you play.

I am not sure how they did in the Christmas tournament, or even which Christmas tournament they played in. They did advance to the Area 1 tournament. They lost to Unicoi and T.A. Dugger. It would be tough to do, but you could set up a conference from the Big 9 middle schools. Our baseball and softball teams have a conference which has too many teams to play everyone twice. They have the conference broken down into 2 divisions, east/west. They play everyone in their division twice, and everyone in the opposite division one time. I was just using Blountville as an example. The same could be said of Holston, Bluff City, or anyone else for that matter. All I am saying is that in order for a team to reach their full potential, they have to play good teams. The Middle 8 consistantly has good teams. Colonial Heights figured this out. They will suffer more losses than they would have if they had stayed in the county conference. However, I think both Colonial Heights and South will continue to get stronger because of the move Colonial Heights made. Anyway, it was just an idea. I did not mean to step on any toes.

TMSAA is the one who sets the limit on the number of games we can play. What I would like to see happen is for all of the schools to play in the same conference that their high school plays in. At first, this would hurt teams like Blountville and Holston. However, in the long run, it would help them to develop into better teams. That is the ultimate goal for the middle school programs. We are supposed to be developing players for the high school programs. This would also cut down on the amount of travel time for everyone. The Coach at Blountville is one of the best middle school coaches in the area. However, as a coach, it is hard to make a team step up to the next level when they are already beating most of the other teams in their conference by 20.

Congratulations to the Lady Toppers! They played well all year. They definitely deserve it!

Obviously numbers do help. However, I don't know how you could make a decision on where to make your cut-offs. If you make your cut-off at 75 for small school, 150 for medium school, and the rest are large school, the you still have schools with 155 students playing schools with 500 students. I have coached for several years. Our teams have been to the state sectional for 3 of the last four years. I have beat schools with twice as many 8th graders as we have, and I have been beaten by schools with one third of the number of 8th graders as we have. I don't think it has as much to do with the numbers as who you play during your regular season. A good example of this is Blountville Middle School. They always have a good team. They are almost always one of the top two teams in their conference. More often than not, they win their conference. However, when they move to tournament ball, they struggle. They have a VERY good coach! They usually have good talent. The difference is that they are very seldom pushed to play to their capability because their conference is weak. I think that for a team to do well in post season, they have to play good teams during their regular season. You are only as good as who you play.

Barry Wade is now the head coach for Tennessee High Girls. I am sure he will do an excellent job.

I don't know anything about this situation, but sadly enough it sounds like a situation here at one of our local high schools. 4 years ago the parents convinced the administration to let the football coach go. I have to admit that this guy did not have the best winning percentage, but as a parent of one of his players, I can say that without any doubt, he loved the kids and they knew it. As a coach at one of the opposing schools, I can say that he was fun to play and always showed good sportsmanship. After this coach was let go, the next coach lasted a whopping 3 years before the parents turned on him and he was let go. This new guy, who has a tremendous backgruond, went 0-10 last year. After only one year, the parents now want his head on platter. He will be lucky if he makes it 2 more years. To make a long story short, this school went from playing 500 ball on a regular basis towinning 2 games in the last 4 years. I have to say that 500 ball is not great but it sure beats the heck out of winning 2 out of 40 games. Especially when the 500 coach loves what he is doing and loves the kids.

All I know is I have heard several names mentioned. All of which are great candidates. I am sure that who ever the administration at Tennessee High chooses, they will do a fine job. One thing is for sure, the person who gets that position is going to have some big shoes to fill. Kim Bright did a great job with that program.

I totally agree. If they were not enjoying it, then there was no reason for them to continue. I have coached at several different levels and the one thing I always try to stress to my players is that if you don't have fun, you are not going to be the best you can be. Be it elementary, middle school, or high school, we all need to remember that it is only a game and we play games to have fun.

I am not sure what happened at Boone with all of those seniors deciding to end their basketball careers. I hate to see them put in all that time and give up their last season. However, if they thought the coach was too harsh, which is what I am getting from your posting, then it is probably the best thing for them to do, especially if they had any hopes of playing college ball. The reason I say this is I have 2 children playing college sports. In college the coaches get after the athletes VERY hard. So these players would probably have quit at that level. At least this way they have probably saved their parents some money.

Has anyone seen either of these two teams play? I am told it will be worth the drive up to Sevierville to see them square off. How do they match up?

The final score was Unicoi-43, Blountville-18.

Feb. 9 at 10:30.

They can handle pressure.

Blountville does play Unicoi for third. Unicoi should win, but it is not out of the question that Blountville could upset them. Blountville is playing pretty good and Unicoi has already been upset by Colonial Heights. Either team is good and would represent Area 1 well.

All 3 of these teams are pretty good. Unicoi is Big and very fundamentally sound at the half court game. Vance and Colonial Heights are both a little quicker and like to push the ball.