JDHoss

Rush Propst is available, and Oak Ridge is a great place to raise two families...

A well funded, highly organized, tightly monitored and well coached youth league system is the backbone of just about any highly successful program.

It's not just a Science Hill problem. It's a high school football in general problem. What type of crowd would D-B have w/o band families? It'd still be more than Science Hill, but it would be a noticeable drop. Right now, I hear the West Ridge crowds have been good, but it's a new thing and they've had a successful year that's been beyond expectations. Seems like most of the better crowds come from the smaller communities, or extremely successful programs like Murville. Here in South Florida, there are some really big schools that rarely draw more than 500 or so. Locally, Treasure Coast high school has an enrollment of nearly 3K and ranked in the top 5 of Class 8A, but some home games they'll be lucky to have 300-500 people. I think in general, a lot of old timers like me who used to come out and support the schools are either dead or just unable to make it out, and the "younger" crowd really doesn't care unless they have kids in school who are playing.

Again, your reading comprehension is terrible. I told another poster that I agreed AND disagreed that lack of competition in NE TENN hurts because...well, lack of competition hurts everyone no matter who you are, but also helped from a standpoint of D-B getting tons of playing time for the younger players. It's far from the biggest problem that D-B faces in advancing further in the playoffs, but that's been discussed here ad nauseum.

Waco has already pointed it out, but your reading comprehension stinks. I was also going back more than 20 years, which I'm guessing is before you were born.

Agree and disagree. Yes, D-B has played a ton of weak opponents over the years, but most of them have been teams they were required to play. They've always tried to schedule good teams in their out of conference games. The games against teams like Central/East/Volunteer, etc. have hampered them with the lack of competition, but OTOH, have provided tons of playing time for younger players to develop. IMO, the thing that has hampered D-B more than anything has been the lack of highly organized, tightly monitored youth league programs that the high school coaching staff is heavily involved in. Those leagues should focus on fundamentals like blocking/tackling/rules of the game and have everyone running the same basic offensive and defensive packages of the high school program. As for tonight... Murville 49 Tribe 14 Roll Tribe anyway

Love Rocky's. The Aroma Cafe is excellent as well. Is it still open? Been a few years since we ate there.

K-West v M-West = a running clock in the 2nd half. Central v THS = a running clock in the 2nd half. SC v DC = Don't know much at all about SC, but Crockett's last game was a narrow 14-7 win over a struggling Class AA Richlands, VA program. Richlands is 4-5 on the year, and Crockett was the only loss where they weren't completely smoked. I'll go with SC in this one. Halls v Boone = Boone is a tough, physical team, but won't be able to hang with Halls over 4 quarters.

Before the season started, I had the Tribe finishing 7-3. After watching the scrimmages, I still had them finishing 7-3...and they finished 7-3. Everything considered, not a bad year.

There's only a handful of D-B fans and maybe a couple of SHHS fans on here. Most of the other posters don't care about the outcome, as neither team is going to make a dent in the playoffs. I'm not sure what you were expecting.

Toppers 28 Tribe 24 Roll Tribe anyway....

Won't matter. There's a good possibility Region 1 goes 0-4 any way you slice it.

There's nothing wrong with D-B football that a highly organized, tightly monitored youth league program couldn't fix. Our grandson is now a junior at D-B, but when he was in the 7th & 8th grade at RNR, TA Dugger crushed them. Those kids from Duggar were head and shoulders better in blocking and tackling and any fundamental you could name. Our kids from that team (as well as JSMS) have gotten better since then, but they were behind when they got to D-B and have been playing catch up ever since.

Unless OR has packed it in for the season, this will be a tight one. Tribe 35 OR 28

I use MP some for schedules, but their rosters are really unreliable. I try to use their rosters down here because most schools don't sell game programs, but most of the time, they're inaccurate. I think the school MP sites are maintained by fans and/or coaching staff members, so accuracy can really be spotty.

Understood. Roster size doesn't mean much unless you're running extremely low on players, like some of the smaller Class A schools where many kids play both ways.

Absolutely. Anytime you have a roster that big, there's a lot of, as you say, window dressing players who only play in blowouts. Having 35 or so who you aren't afraid to play at any point in any game is really about all you need. That said, if you start getting some injuries, it hurts depth regardless of how many you have filling out the roster. Our grandson is one of the injured right now.

Not sure what website you looked at, but the school website says they have 85, which is a huge difference, but I'd say way closer to being correct than 53. I never personally counted them along the sidelines though. https://athletics.k12k.com/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=573072&type=d&pREC_ID=1068053 53 is still plenty though if you have 35 or so that are capable of playing at any given point in any game. The two biggest schools in our area have enrollments of nearly 3K students, but have football rosters just under 50 players. I don't know if they limit the number of players that make a roster, but there's not a kid on either of those teams that looks like they don't belong on a football field, and both teams are ranked in the top 10 of Class 8A.

SHHS has always had the athletes. We went to a SHHS v Murville game in JC several years ago. We watched the teams in warmups, and I told my wife that if I didn't know anything at all about either of the teams other than what I saw in the warmups, I'd have went with the Toppers to win. As expected, Murville blew it open early and never looked back. Looking for reason(s) why SHHS underachieves for the talent level they have every year, I'd guess that like D-B, they lack highly organized, tightly monitored (by the high school staff) youth leagues that develop kids to have the fundamentals like blocking & tackling, as well as understanding the rules of the game and playing without committing needless penalties.

Did you make it over for Union v Ridgeview? All of our games here last night were washed out by a big line of slow moving severe thunderstorms from the Lake Okeechobee area last night. Hopefully we'll get some Monday night games. Tribe 31 Bill Blount 14

We ate at the Aroma Cafe several years ago. The Cuban was excellent. Is Jamaica Sunrise still there too? We've ate there a couple of times as well.

Agreed. We ate at Dead End once before a game at West. It was just "ok".

Again, it's not "pretty good" when you give up 35. Greeneville averaging 58 has squat to do with it, because they got that average by burying some really bad opponents, except for Central, Elizabethton and D-B. Knox Central and Elizabethton "held" them to 42, but I guarantee you that no one from Central or Elizabethton thinks they did a "pretty good" job.

No, D-B losing by 28 to Greeneville isn't "pretty good". Maybe if D-B had been playing IMG and lost by 28, or maybe if North Greene played Greeneville and lost by 28, I might say that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but "pretty good" wouldn't be my description.