mat73557

If he wanted to stay, he would have.

I thought we only cared about D1 wrestlers around here....smh. Sammy is a stud!! Chase Brown too!

We tried bro. Hats off to Belcher and crew.

I like the guys on CoachT who do what they say they're gonna do.

The Blackman school zone is small to begin with and there is a ton of commercial real estate in the Blackman zone. So not much available housing compared to Oakland, Riverdale or Rockvale.

Still not enough time to be certain that the KID is ok. I've been on both sides of this and I can tell you only one thing. If you don't want to get DQd, don't hit illegal moves.

The rule is in place to protect kids. I saw the video and Griggs clearly hit his head hard and both officials agreed immediately that the return was illegal. Injury time is only 1.5 minutes. There is no way to be sure that a 16-17 year old kid is ok during that short window of time,. especially when trying to evaluate a possible head injury. It doesn't make the kid a chickens**t or a coward at all. Its a good rule.

Blackman band was waaaay better back when we had Karaoke Girl....and the rock band.

What part???

When Tygard took over Blackman a TON of kids quit... and coaches too. I think if you want to beat Oakland, you have to hire a guy who can get us better in the trenches. Hate it, but our O and D lines have been soft as butter. Oakland has their head wrestling coach out there coaching linemen. It has made a huge difference. Watch film of Oakland's linemen vs Blackman. Our kids arent strong and gritty and that is why we are getting beat. One of the biggest mistakes I ever seen at Blackman was back in 2009 or 2010 when they took out the weight room at the middle school. They used to have a nice weight room across from the gym near coaches office, and Coach Greene had those kids in middle school excited about getting stronger. Plus, he was teaching them proper lifting technique so when they got across the road, they knew what they were doing. The last class to have that benefit was the 2013 team which went the semis.... and only lost to Maryville because Shad switched it up to try to showcase Jauan's arm. They were bigger and stronger than any Blackman team since that time.

I have also been at Blackman for many many years as well, and have been close to athletics at both school for years. I can say this. Pierce has been an extremely reliable and successful fixture in the Blackman community since about 2016. I have heard from some parents that he and the Tygard didnt see eye to eye on some things, but so what. Maybe that has driven some of the talk. However, he is still here, and he has had plenty of opportunities to leave. He sure appears to be Blackman thru and thru to me.

Impressive to see this back after a decade!! LOL

I've said this before and I'll keep beating this dead horse forever..., If those linemen would get in that wrestling room and develop some toughness, things would be different. And I will say this, Justin Brown was the best athlete on that field tonight, and no one wanted to win more than he did. I could see that in every rep he played. While most football players are content to just play, he competes! Great turnaround for the Blaze this season. Need to fix a few things but much improved from last season.

You probably could have just emailed Coach Harrington instead of trying to blast him and his program on CoachT.

I had forgotten how entertaining this thread was back in the day!!!!

All this from a guy who once SWORE that he would delete his account and never be seen again if Mt Juliet lost a playoff game...... which they promptly lost.

I read somewhere that in High School, most kickoff returns leave the offense starting at the 38-42 yard line on average. With really good play, maybe an average of the 35 yard line. Now, onside kicks usually average about the 47 yard line. So about 10 yards difference in the two kicks on average. Sure, sometimes the kicking team does better, but when they have a bad play, you are giving up long runs or potential touchdowns. Having the opportunity to get an extra possession and the resulting incredible momentum is often of greater value to some coaches than the 10-15 yards of field position... especially when you dont have to worry about speedy running backs taking a deep kick to the house on you while you are playing many of your non-starters on special teams. When the game is tight, it is still hard to watch. LOL And Blackmans kicker is very good btw!

Agree. Why weren't they throwing the ball to Brown? What did he get... like two balls? And he was one on one with his defender...

This was a glaring truth last night. I wonder what all those linemen could do in the football off-season to build physicality, endurance and balance while learning to win lots of individual man on man battles?

Yes. That was what was implied. We suck over here in Middle TN. Its cool.

How exactly will this promote and grow wrestling?

This didn't age well....

"But the State tournament is to find out which kids are the top kids in the state" Yes. That happens no matter how many kids are in the bracket. Right? No one said that everyone needs a trophy. Nothing of the sort. What I am saying is that wrestling needs to increase in popularity, participation, and visibility. Having smaller numbers of kids at the state championship events runs counter to those ideas. Some of you would probably be happy to just send the sectional winners to state. Then you can have 4 man brackets with only the best kids. Boy wouldnt that be awesome. Heck, maybe Brentwood or Franklin would just do it in their gym after school and it wouldnt even take three days. smh...