JDHoss

You keep harping on enrollment, but it doesn't mean squat without a good infrastructure and organization from the youth leagues on up, and it's never going to matter who DB hires as a head coach until that is addressed.

Florida had 8 classes before, mainly because they have 22 schools over 3K enrollment, several schools over 4K, and a bunch more right at 3K. They went to the Metro & Suburb classes because the Metro schools were dominating in all the classes. They also have no separation of privates and public, which makes things even tougher for the public schools. Could it be done in TN? I honestly don't know. The only truly large metro areas in TN are Memfuss, Nashville and Knoxville with a combined population of around 4 million. In contrast, the Miami metro area has around 10 million alone, and combined with the Tampa Bay, Orlando and Jacksonville metro areas, it's around 17+ million people. I'm not sure in TN how many schools you'd wind up with in each class if you did that, especially since the public and private are separate.

Everyone from Bristol to Memfuss plays for fun. Otherwise, no one would be playing. What matters is organization and coaching from the youth leagues through the feeder programs to high school. Toss in demographics, population (not school size, but area population), and it's not hard to see how the bigger metro schools dominate 5 & 6A. Last year here in Florida, the FHSAA revamped their classification system to Metro and Suburban divisions. Instead of Class A through Class 8A, we now have 1M - 4M and 1S - 4S. There's also a 1R (Rural) class for remote rural schools like Pahokee. The Metro schools are comprised of the Palm Beach county to Dade county metro area, the Jacksonville metro area, the Orlando metro area, and the Tampa metro area. The reason they did it was because these schools were dominating the state championships for the most part. It didn't matter how good of a youth league program, feeder schools and coaching staff someone like a Vero Beach had, there was just a ton more talent available in the big metro areas, and while I can't speak for Tennessee, the schools here recruit like crazy and in the metro areas, teams can really load up.

The games that really stood out to me when he was at RNR were the games against Duggar. Duggar was in another universe in terms of physicality and organization, and the results confirmed it.

Our grandson played up through the ranks and graduated last year, so I have a good understanding of the mindset. TBH, after watching RNR and Sevier both struggle so much when he was at Robinson, I'm amazed they were able to win as many games in high school as they did. This program won't ever be much more than what it is now until somebody turns it over to a coach who will hire who he wants and retool the youth and middle school programs to fit what type of system he wants to run.

Not saying they need to keep Christian, but until the youth league and middle school programs are better organized, whoever the head coach is will have their work cut out for them.

I went to an opening round playoff game there several years ago when they were playing Bradly Central. There were probably less than 500 paying customers there that night.

I wouldn't discount Graham, now that Clements is healthy.

Tribe 20 Toppers 14 Just because I want it to be. Regardless. it'll be the last win for either of them as R2 sweeps the 1st round.

Tribe 47 Crockett 14

Much obliged. He was dynamite in that game against South Pitt. I enjoyed watching him.

I'm sure this has been discussed previously, but whatever happened to the Jackson kid who had the big game against South Pittsburg as a freshman in the state championship game?

WERE'S THAT DILLARD MAN AT? HE CAN BUILD THESE WEB SIGHTS SO THEY CANT' BE HAKED.

Love football at all levels from middle school to the NFL, but after watching well over 300 different teams in 9 southeastern states over the years, high school football holds a special place in my heart. Last night, we watched Pahokee at Atlantic in Delray Beach, FL. We sat with the Pahokee fans, who packed the visitor's side while Atlantic maybe had 400 people in the home stands, which probably hold between 3-4K. The Pahokee fans were crazy loud, had cowbells and air horns and their band played constantly for what made a great atmosphere to be in. We love going to different communities and eating at different mom & pop restaurants like last night's Fran's Fried Chicken Haven.

I despise the running clock. I understand the intent of it, but unless you've got a case of some B-hole coach who leaves his starters in to run the score up on an opponent, all the running clock does is take way playing time for kids (on both teams) who normally don't get much.

Chatter? There's what, maybe 5-10 DB fans who post here and a couple or so JeffCo posters? I'm not sure how much chatter you're looking for. My interest in DB football has fallen off since our grandson graduated last year, I still keep up with it through this site, but it's more of a casual interest. For most people, unless they have someone close to them playing, high school football is just another form of entertainment in an area with many other entertainment options. We went to our 9th high school game of the year tonight. It was between #3 (Class 4M) Sanford Seminole and #3 (Class 3S) Treasure Coast and there were less than 1K people in the stands, with the majority being students there to socialize. People just have other options.

What do you do about.... * Gate receipts? Did everyone get their money back tonight? Would they have to pay to get back in tomorrow night? * Officials? The crew who officiated tonight is probably calling a game somewhere else tomorrow night and there's a shortage of officials. I live in South Florida, and about the only games I've seen made up are district games, played the next day or on Monday. Yesterday Palm Beach Gardens played at Vero Beach in a game ppd from Friday because of a COVID outbreak at PBGHS, but that was a game that was ppd before it started. Treasure Coast and Pahokee were playing a couple of years ago and severe weather moved in before the end of the 1st quarter and it wound up being canceled. Basically, it's high school football, and as much as we love it, it's not the NFL or college football where TV contracts are made and they'll do whatever possible to try and get the game in no matter how long it takes.

I was at the last Alcoa game. Betsy gave them all they could handle and had a shot to win.

Weres' that Dillard man that used to create these web sights?

The coaching "search" was a farce. Christian is a nice guy, but things are never going to change.

Alcoa, CAK (Rusty Bradley era) and Greeneville (Ballard era) are way more than a "hump" to get over. More like getting over the Himalayas, and IMO not a reflection on Witten's coaching ability.

Seriously? He started coaching there in 2007 and was in the 4th round in season 3.

Obviously, but highly unlikely. I'm guessing it would take a pile of money to move Witten, and even then, he may not be interested in leaving his hometown. It will take several years, but if they have upgraded their youth league the way my friend who works for Parks & Rec says they have, it will pay off. No more dads coaching their sons for a couple of years and moving on.

Not sure why anyone would be surprised by this game. Lizabethun has a better staff and a better, more organized program from the youth leagues on up. Johnson City Parks & Rec has taken over the youth league this year from the Boys & Girls Club and invested heavily in it, so we'll see if it pays off in a few years. For now though, Lizabethun (and Greeneville) are the two best programs in upper East TN for the foreseeable future.

Numbers don't mean squat if you don't have both the coaching and youth league infrastructure to go with it.