Oldschool31

May God pour out his comforting grace on this community, especially the family's. Prayers from OS.

Hey Slim, Why aren't you posting on the Alcoa vs Your Rockwood Tigers post. Hmmm could it be you realize the results of throwing stones into a Tornado when you're in its path. Sorry just couldn't resist.

To the guy who says Alcoa plays in a weak district, this year i'll agree it's down a little. But in the past several years there have been some pretty good teams, the last couple years for instance CAK & Loudon have probably been top 10 teams in the state in 2A, Alcoa just is that much better ( remember we are talking 2A football). And in years gone by Rockwood and even Oliver Springs have had some decent teams, if I'm not mistaken OS was the last team in the district to hand Alcoa a loss. It's just not easy for small schools to reload year after year when they have closed school zones. To Alcoa fans & team, good luck in your quest for that 5th straight gold ball & in the future, and there are (I'm sure) a few teams in the district that are glad they don't have to play the mighty Tornado's any more, I know I am. Again good luck to the Tornado's, I know you"ll need it coming from such a weak district.

I'm not going to get on here and accuse anyone of recruiting. The fact is if you have a good program they will come to you. I don't like it but it's the truth. If little Johnny don"t like his coach, don't like it because his team is not the best, don't like it because he's not playing the position he likes, or not getting to play enough, he wants to quit or transfer, and if Mommy & Daddy can afford it they either move, send him to a private school, or an open zone school. The fact is it's destroying the local schools, especially the small schools. You see some schools don't have an over abundance of talent to start with, and when you loose that special kid who could make a difference to another school it REALLY hurts the program, I know I've seen it happen. Or in the case of my Alma mater you can't get some of the good athletes to come out for football because they don't want to play against these jacked up teams, not a good reason not to play, but it's the truth. In closing I don't like it but that's the society we live in.

The fact is, if something isn't done to spark local interest (small rural schools) being able to compete in football then alot of sports programs will have to be cut, because the fact is most spring sports aren't self supporting and depend on revenues from football to survive. Needless to say football revenues are down, budget is tight and if things don't get any better some programs might have to be cut. I don't see where plan B is going to change anything, the same schools will be in the same classifications playing the same schools according to enrollment. Maybe I'm missing something but thats how I see it. And while plan C will help rural schools, having (urban) schools with 100 students trying to compete with schools with enrollments of 900 or more isn't a very level playing field either. Whats the solution , I don't know, not everyone is going to be happy any way you slice it. I read a post that suggest some kids aren't working hard enough to compete, in some cases thats true but not all. When you have a team with several talented young men that work hard then you are going to beat a team with that only has mediocre talent that also works hard. So its not always a lack of effort, because when you're down you don't have parents moving to your neighborhood, or paying tuition (if you are an open zone school) so their kid can play on your team.

Amen

Just one more thing, add the multiplier to them (magnet & open zone) also.

What a mess, this is confusing. I wonder if plan C with a little tweaking would be better? I like everything except schools with 900 students playing schools with 100, there's nothing fair about that. I kinda see where TSSAA came up with the Rural/Urban thing, all you have to do is look at the list of teams in AAA. There are several (not all) teams in that classification that have either won or played in championship games, or go deep into the playoffs on a regular basis. What if they just bumped them up one classification and kept the 5 classification format. Sounds stupid? maybe, Just throwing it out there for discussion, not to insult anyone.

I don't think Maryville or Alcoa would be crying. I mean look at it while Maryville has had a few close games in their district, Alcoa hasn't really been challenged that much, which probably hurts their gate as well as the teams they're destroying. Looking at plan C it would give them good competition & probably a few fantastic gates, also it would probably help the gates of those teams they clobber every year to replace Alcoa with someone they could compete with.

Hey guys, just got off the phone with Mr. Menees (TSSAA) he said the 8th graders could participate in workouts & conditioning, but "as soon as they bring out the footballs (spring practice) the 8th graders are gone".