basketball1234

I remember both that Powell team and Oak Ridge team in 2007-2008. That game was an awesome game to watch as Powell won with the seconds ticking down. Those two teams were two of the best teams I have seen at both schools in years. Oak Ridge was big and lined up 5'9, 6'2, 6'4, 6'7, and 6'9. Powell was smaller, but were very very fast, athletic, and could really shoot and score. Something else to consider is to think about the level of talent in the East Tennessee area back then and to go 32-3 is very impressive. Oak Ridge was number 1 in the state when Powell beat them and Nationally ranked according to powerade 50 rankings. No disrespect to the teams in the district now, but you take that Powell or Oak Ridge team and put them in the district now and it is ugly for everyone lol. I miss watching basketball from the 2005-08 time period. East TN area was loaded with talent from top to bottom. In all the years I have been watching high school basketball I have never seen as much talent in this east tn area. A lot of teams lined up like colleges size wise if you look at Oak Ridge, Maryville, Bearden, Farragut, Fulton, AE, Carter, etc.

Game was over once Strozyk went out. I do not believe it was the physicality that took Strozyk out of the game, but was a missed assignment on a block that led to a tackle in which strozyk landed on his head. Strozyk is one of the hardest hitters I have seen at the high school level and I am sure he would have wanted to get back in there and return the favor. Strozyk is a game changer on the defensive side of the ball and if he even gets a sniff of where the ball is going two things happen. 1) He intercepts the ball. 2) Someone on the opposing team just got there head taken off. With Strozyk playing I do not see the game being very close, but as natty stated above my post, injuries are part of the game and teams have to adapt and adjust. Good luck to Columbia in the finals. Powell had a successful year and should be proud of what they accomplished.

The officials are not Powell officials. I believe they were from the campbell or Scott county area in Tennessee. Please can we put the bad officiating garbage to rest. Powell won 31-10.

Actually, lets see Powell recovered the onside kick on the 50 yard line. On the kickoff who exactly did you think recovered the fumble? That little running back (32 maybe?) was on top of the pile not close to recovering the fumble. I could also say Powell stripped number 32 running back, on the first drive of the second half, but bottom line is this.................................. POWELL WON AND TENNESSEE HIGH LOST. Accept it and move on. Powell was the better team, and as you said your team is young and you guys will have a good shot at it next year.

After factoring all that in Strozyk still came away with 2 interceptions, nearly 3 (almost picked the very first pass of the game). Strozyk also had a td, and several tackles. Now on to the Powell team. Powell played a good second half tonight. TN High had an offense that stayed on the field much of the first half. Tennessee High had a good defense as well. Powell was the better team though. @couch qb... The officiating was not well on both sides. That is not the reason Powell won the game. Powell only punted the ball one time (maybe 2) the entire game. One of those punts was on an officiating error saying that it was 4th down, even though it was third (after the holding call on first down, they changed the possession to second down). Secondly, Powell's defense gave up one long play in the first half, but played a solid game defensively and that is the reason they come away with the victory. Lets be clear the coaches were not trash talking to 24 (I am sure you thought that from the other side of the field on the visitor section lol)... He was being disrespectful to all of Powell's coaching staff trying to spark a confrontation (it didn't work). Good luck next year.

When I was mentioning Powell may have the best defensive back in the state on their team I was not suggesting that the rest of the secondary is weak, nor that the defense was weak. There secondary is experienced with one guy being a 4 year starter, one guy being a 3 year starter and another being a 2 year starter. Saying that Powell has been vulnerable to the pass at times this year. Powell's defense is usually very good against the run though. Powell's Strozyk will be the fastest guy on the field on Friday, reads the ball great, and is the schools all time leader in INT's. He will come up and lay the lumber on some people. He has had some very big hits this year playing safety and cornerback. Last week he made a key hit on a guy that tried to run over him that forced a fumble on the two yard line and was one of the hardest hits I have seen at the high school level. Fortunately, I believe the kid was ok and only suffered a concussion after taken to the hospital. Devin Scott is a linebacker who also reads the ball very well and seems to always be in the play. Washington is also a very good defensive back that sometimes gets overlooked because of Strozyk, but he has made some very good plays this year and is a very good athlete. Powell does not have very many weaknesses as a football team. Offensively Powell has several of weapons and it tends to make for a pretty hard offense to stop. I believe that Powell's 6'5 freshman receiver Daryl Middleton may be out this week with an injury, but even though he is a good weapon Powell shouldn't miss a beat. Powell doesn't have a lot of size, but they do have a lot of speed. I look for Tennessee High to come out ready to play and fired up. Powell will have to play disciplined against the spread offense. Look for a tough game from both sides.

Powell has got to be ready to play. Tennessee High cant be overlooked. Tn passes the ball quite a bit. That could be a good thing considering Powell may have the best defensive back in the state on their team. Powell's defense has got to be focused and disciplined.

What rankings are these? Just curious because in all the state AP polls I have seen 5A top 10 is much different. 1) Beech 2) West 3) Jackson Northside 4) Lenior City 5) Powell 6) Clarksville 7) Ridgeway 8) Daniel Boone 9) Henry County 10) Hardin County http://blogs.knoxnews.com/preps/archives/2012/10/ap-high-school-11.shtml http://www.wbbjtv.com/sports/high-school/State-Football-Rankings-172184151.html?m=y&smobile=y

Powell has one 4 year starter All-State defensive back last year and was pre-season all-state this year, and another defensive back that is a 4 year starter and pretty good as well. Also, some of the less experienced guys are stepping up lately. I guess we will see Eric Ainge tested.

Not a chance. Powell will win this game comfortably. Powell has speed, so it is not going to matter that much that #32 has speed. Actually, ironically I bet Powell's #32 is faster . Powell struggles with teams that are bigger up front... not so much with speed. Secondly, Powell is not having a down year. Thirdly, Powell did not have a bad game against Karns regardless of the score. Powell tallied up 280+ yards of offense in just the first half. Powell made a lot of mistakes that game that costs them points, but they played pretty well considering the 4 defensive starters they had out.

In a nutshell that was a different Oak Ridge team both offensively and defensively I have seen this entire year. Not taking anything away from Maryville because they are a great team, but Oak Ridge did not show up to this game. They were not disciplined, missed simple assignments, executed as poorly as possible. Just a very bad game. Idk if it was Maryville's name on their jersey's or what, but Oak Ridge played uncharacteristic to a coach Blade team... especially this coach blade's team. Good luck to both teams the rest of the season.

Ignorant comment. Before the AC game Powell's first team defense had only given up 4 TD's on the season in 4 games. Their defense has been very tough this year. Just because Powell's defense was sleeping against AC does not determine how good Powell's defense is this year. Also, lets not forget Powell's leading tackler who also has 10+ sacks on the year got kicked out of the game in the first half. That makes a difference. Ridge has a good offense and a very good defense. This game will be close unless Oak Ridge decides not to show up or gets intimidated by the name on the opposing teams jersey (I don't see this happening by the way). The team that wins this game will be the team that executes better offensively and defensively, which is usually Maryville, but execution wise Oak Ridge has mirrored Maryville this year. Should be a good game.

I am not a LC fan. I am a Powell fan. Polls are just polls, but LC is not a school who gets their ranking by their name. LC is usually horrible besides last year and this year therefore they have to be ranked that high for a reason one would conclude. I think LC has the potential to beat Farragut and Catholic this year. Bearden has a solid team this year, but LC should play them close. I believe LC will beat one of the teams you mentioned whether that be Farragut or Catholic. I see them losing three games though to Bearden, Maryville, and Farragut/Catholic (one of those teams). Polls can sometimes be right though because Powell and Henry County last year were ranked 1 and 2 for much of the year and they ended up finishing 1 and 2 after a great state championship game. So yes, polls can be wrong and are wrong a lot of times, but then again sometimes they can be right too. Who knows right now.

You have some guys who are freakishly strong. I would be surprised though if he cleaned almost 300 as a sophomore. Dyshawn Mobley who played at Powell last year and now plays RB at Kentucky has already set weight lifting records at UK and is one of the strongest guys on the team per head coach Phillips. He deadlifts 700 pounds 3 times and squats over 550 pounds from what I read in an article and heard from an interview with Coach Phillips. Coach Phillips also said that Mobley is, "Very, very, very, very, very strong. He could be one of those guys who could set all kinds of records here for a skill position. In terms of dead lifts, squats and bench press, he’s probably the strongest.†Even as strong as Dyshawn is, I believe he only cleaned around 300-350 pounds his senior year in high school and he is the one of the strongest guys at an SEC school this year as a Freshman. If that guy truly is that strong as a sophomore, then he is going to be a load to bring down in the coming years. By the time he is a senior he will be stronger than most college athletes if he stays on track.