Axeman

I thought it depended on which parents were happy.

Any coach who can figure out to put the 6'2" girl around the basket instead of outside the arch, not to put the weakest defenders on the other team's best players and keep Carden on the court will compete for 2nd or 3rd in the district just by doing those things and getting out of the way. They probably could have gone 500 last year just by doing those three simple things. I believe the political climate has changed so they may hire a coach who's there to actually achieve something. With the players that are available and coming up on the AAU teams, it could be a good situation for several years to come for whoever is applying.

The truth hurts, huh?

Actually when Brian Selvage started helping at the Middle School the team had its first winning season in 5 or 6 years his first year. The first group of girls he coached as 6th graders won the championship as 8th graders. But then the ole boys at the high school ran him off to Karns and a lot of the girls from his AAU team quit because they didn't get to play under Turner and Lambert. Luckily a lot of younger girls up there now play for AAU teams and know better than to look for real coaching at the middle school. The question is will those girls go to Halls or go somewhere where they don't have to deal with all the politics.

In this case the disgruntled parents appear to be completely in the right. From what I'm told Halls girls sports in recent years has suffered virtually every negative associated with high school sports. Favoritism, cronyism, a booster led coup and a sordid coverup have all been on the menu. The parents coming in now got a good look at what some of the kids before theirs suffered thru, and what some of the parents before them did, and enough is enough.

What happened to Karns this year? Was it all graduation or did they lose girls to Hardin Valley?

Sydney Carden, Maddie Keith and Chelsie Bennett from Knoxville Halls. They should obviously be starting ahead of both the seniors and one of the juniors right now. They won the county in middle school last year and Carden and Keith have both already had team highs off the bench in games this season and Bennett is 6'3". Watch out next year once all the playing time just goes to the girls from the Halls Hazard AAU team.

There are plenty of camps for players but does anyone know of any clinics for coaches?

Halls HAZ Hoops, May 16-18. email: hazardbball@tds.net

KELSIE BENNETT from Halls Middle in Knox County. Legit 6'2" with a good touch around the basket. County MVP on the Knox County middle school champions. Blount County AAU teams will see her this weekend at the ET Air play day. She probably won't go to Halls High though, her brother played college ball and they know how important it is to have a good high school coach. JAI JAI MCLAUGHLIN from West Valley is also terrific, not sure where she will go to High School. SYDNEY CARDEN from Halls would also be the number 1 point guard walking in the door at a lot of schools with better programs than Halls but she probably won't get much playing time even though Halls was 8-20 last year.

I've Googled but can't find it. Do the Travelers have a website?

Everywhere my 12U Boys team goes we end up playing teams that are loaded with 7th graders who should be in 13U. This past weekend there were 10 teams signed up to play as 12U and it turned out only 3 were legit. Are there any non sanctioned tournaments where they actually enforce the AAU age guidelines?

Just go to aaubb.com and do a Tennessee search. They're all pretty much listed right there.

Sorry. You've got me confused with somebody else! Know anything about the meaning of that rule?

Does anyone know what this section of the TSSAA Handbook Eligible Transfer Student section means? According to the Handbook if you fit this description you're eligible. But what is it describing? Is this there to help new schools get started? E. The student is transferring to a senior high school into the same system into the earliest grade offered at that senior high school, i.e. at the student's first opportunity to move to that school.