BattleCat

Numbers don't mean a thing. Most coaches around this area only play about 18 to 20 players anyways. I'm sure the owls will be fine, most of the boys at East Hamilton came from Ooltewah Middle and most of the guys at Ooltewah came from Hunter. Both middle schools had/have good teams that continue to play on up.

The Chattanooga sports section is only concerned with hockey, nascar, McCallie and Baylor. I was shocked to see them actually put a picture of the Oolt vs East Ham on the cover prior to our game. I do think the Chattanoogan does a great job considering they do not have near the staff but they seem to cover more of the regular public schools. I think the TFP could learn alot from the way the Cleveland Daily Banner runs their paper.

We are fine with him not subbing. That just keeps our guys on top for the future. We have a JV schedule, they do not. The guys starting for him are young, have no experience because they never made it into games the last couple of years. (Quoting a few dads I know with that team.) There is more to being a head coach than just thinking you can ram it up the middle every play. They tried that with us and went backwards. If Central has the defense the early guys who commented mentioned, well I think they will find the same results. Their young QB looked good ...when he was not lying on his back. I am pulling for East Hamilton but I do not see this being a decisive victory. Maybe their enormous fan support can pull them through.

What is up with our band this year? They no longer play music but spend all their time trying to make the trampolines look like something normal for a marching band. I think someone has been over doing the caffeine during the off-season. I would love to see our band get back to playing music and showing off their musical talents. I predict a split Friday night. Owls football team wins with defense and the Cleveland Blue Raider band wins with playing music.

You were making sense up until this statement. I would not call EH's coaching superior by any stretch. If you would have seen our game against them last week you would have seen why we are happy he left. Up by 28 points late in the fourth quarter Coach Williams put in the subs, Gatewood did not. Our back ups got some experience and theirs did not. So how many points do you have to be down if you are Gatewood before you decide to sub? 50? 60? Not sure about Central's coach but I certainly would not call the opposing coach superior to anyone.

For all those who have wanted Gatewood back instead of Coach Williams, I think you see who did better job getting the players prepared. Our guys came out ready and with a game plan. The other was as predictable as he has always been. Run it up the middle and when that does not work, keep doing it and punt. Our defense looked extremely impressive last night and they made no adjustments to stop our rush. Great game Owls, keep it rolling.

For anyone who was there and was not a fan of either team, this is the best post of the real outcome. If you incorporate a line to throw over then EH completes a fourth of the passes they threw. SD's QB struggled the first couple of series but came on strong as the schrimage came to a close. Both teams will look totally different once the pads are on and pressure is put on the QB's. Good Luck!

This is the Owl board but since I saw the Canes vs SD 7 on 7 I am going to chime in. Canes go 3 and 7 AT BEST. Starting QB looked decent ONLY because he had NO RUSH. He starred at his receivers and he crouched when he threw the ball. Their back up QB looked much better but I heard he was only going to be a sophomore. The other reason EH looked decent was because SD looked that bad. They struggled and they will have a long season this year. Not sure what happened to them. As for my Owls, I really think we have a lot of holes to fill... and I am not referring to the guys who graduated last year. Our line should be the best part of our program this year since most of them have had two year varsity experience. However, you still have to do your job because the other teams are not intimidated because you wear a jersey that says Ooltewah. Our crowd size has dropped tremendously with a program that has taken a huge hit. However, we have a large upside as the coaching is BETTER than before and the attitude is BETTER than in the past several years. Get it together, buckle up and lets play ball. Go Owls!!!

They are in the right classification per their enrollment. People forget after seeing the size of the school that the school houses 6th -12th grades. They will not be at a full high school enrollment for at least another two years. This years senior class is small and the junior class is not a whole lot bigger. I'm an Ooltewah fan myself and can't wait till they do go up so we can play them.

Not sure about the best QB but I do think he is one of the top "Running Backs" in the area. Should be an interesting game to watch with all the hype Rhea County is getting on this board. Good luck to both teams and let's hope we can both stay injury free. Go Owls!

Regardless of how the Owls perform, the Maplewood announcer is worth the trip. I wonder if the Brown's are still handling the chain duties?

The thing that can hurt a school the most is what happened at Ooltewah. The beloved coach canceled the JV season after only one game and all but three players did not return the following year. Now those guys are seniors and Ooltewah is hurting because of it. It is a shame because they were an awesome freshman team that beat Farragot for the Southeast Freshmen Championship 30 to 0. Three out of forty-five is all that remains out of that group and now we are struggling.

BAND IS NOT A SPORT. Band members are not athletes. Playing instuments and marching is an ART form. Why would you want to take away years of dedication by young musical artists and call it a sport?

I would like to make a commen on how there seems to be less playing of music and more holding out notes. The ball game I attended last Friday night featured the home band playing what sounded like a group holding notes as long as they could to about six different notes while moving randomly around the field. Nothing about their performance was entertaining or enjoyable for the people who did not have a kid in the band, and I question how much enjoyment they were actually having. I can remember back about 20 years ago when bands played music. You were impressed with how well they sounded together as a unit and could be blown away by certain individuals being pulled out to perform solos. Without calling names, my home town band has gone over the edge and has finally reached the point of irrelevance. I feel sorry for the kids because I know it is caused by their longtime band director who feels it is more important to hear his own voice on a tag around PA system then to hear the members of his band. In addition, I feel this band has lost its connection with the football atmosphere as they have been known to show up during the middle of the second quarter at away games, including one that was only about fifteen miles down the road. If I am not mistaken, I would say MOST of the band members DO enjoy playing and supporting their team as well as enjoy watching them play. In addition, as a former player of a state championship football team, I enjoyed and was motivated by our band firing up the crowd. Now it just seems like some bands are fighting for attention and not there to support and BE AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE GAME. At one game last year, during the third quarter, I saw the band director had the band behind the stadium going through their few songs and the color guard was having their own workout. It was very distracting to those of us who bought tickets and wanted to watch the game. Again, I know that this comes from over zealous or even jealous band directors and not the students. Not sure how this can be corrected, but I really wish bands would at least work on perfecting their music more than their movement.

I don't think Ooltewah will lose any more. In fact, they will start to grow again as East Hamilton gets rezoned sending more students back to Ooltewah. Several of the negatives about Ooltewah have gone and now the remaining student body is happy about the current changes. The new principal has brought a bright spot back to a school that was in much need of new blood. With a new football coach that cares about ALL players will keep the athletes in the school. Their basketball and baseball program look to be on the rise with quality coaching in both of those sports. I have talked with several parents and the buzz is something I have not seen at that school in a long time. Word is spreading and they will soon be back to overcrowding. If I am not mistaking... that school was only built to hold around 1,200 students and they are still over that total by a couple of hundred students. As far as East Hamilton, there are so many new subdivisions popping up in that area that they are doomed to be overcrowded. I think Hamilton County needs to review the policies in many Florida counties where they make developers pay a certain amount of money to the local schools with every property they develop. They were having similar problems and this slow down the development and took care of the added burden to the schools. As far as shutting down Lookout Valley and rerouting them to Howard... don't think but a handful of students would change. Most would just find a way to attend South Pittsburg or start attending a private school. I think developers should be given an incentive to develop in that direction to help replenish an area that has less upcoming students.