13aafanatic

Here you go, GCP. Fussell Verbally Commits to Texas Congrats to the Wings on their big win! Keep up the great work, ladies.

Westview, that's who. They did it once last year (took OT) and almost did it in Martin. Now granted, the Lady Pioneers rolled twice in district and region but nobody was able to stop them then. Gibson Co. will be VERY good. No question. But the odds for back to back aren't in their favor. Only 1 (Austin-East) of the last 5 AA champs made it to state the year after winning a championship, and they lost in the first round. The other 4 didn't even make it out of region. Plus, Russell is one of the best coaches ever in this state but at GCHS: 3 trips to state, 1 and done the last two times. Not to mention that the #1 and #2 scorers in West TN are back, and they both play for other schools in 13AA. Best of luck to all our teams. There will be some exciting games this season.

sls, Didn't realize that Covington returned so much talent. Dyersburg beat them by 30 last year, but the Lady Chargers on 51 did beat North Side. They will be good, probably better than where I had them. Rumor has it that Haywood and Ripley are both planning tributes to the legendary WesCharge when the Martin crew visits their gyms. Can anybody confirm?

3A - agree with Alcoa, Austin-East, Milan and Tyner Sub Goodpasture for Westview Here's the thing about Westview. They return one of the area's quickest backs in Demarcus Williams, a good young QB and a better, stronger defense. This team was really young in '08, but as noted they got lots of good game experience. But look at their first 5 games. #5 Huntingdon, at #4 McKenzie, at #2 Milan, #3 Camden, at #11 Dyersburg Those will set the tone early, and the Chargers could go 1-4 or 2-3. If Westview earns a playoff spot though, they will be ready to battle. Remember that Milan had to beat them on a last-minute FG in the 2nd round.

Finally some roundball talk. 1) Westview 2) Gibson Co. 3) Obion Central 4) Haywood 5) Milan 6) Dyersburg 7) Covington 8) Crockett Co. 9) Ripley

My top ten, same as Indian with one change. Avant, Lausanne Campbell, Blackman Crouch, Hillsboro Fussell, Obion Central Graves, Clarksville Hall, Morristown West Jefferson, LaVergne Newsome, Millington Robinson, Overton Whiteside, Memphis Central

FYI, paid attendance: DI Boys: 22,203 in 2008 and 15,383 in 2009 DI Girls: 17,322 in 2008 and 19,343 in 2009 I'll use the same argument as I did on the football thread. The teams that make it have a bigger impact on attendance than location. Teams like Bradford, Gleason, Clarkrange, Jackson Co., Gibson Co., Westview, Livingston, Upperman, etc. will bring the whole town regardless of where they play. Then some teams from urban areas will bring 50-100 people. Obviously a West Tenn guy myself, but honestly Martin and Jackson have no business hosting the state tournament. There are some great women's basketball programs around (Union, Freed, Lambuth). But we sure struggle to support a minor league baseball program. Keep the tournament in Murfreesboro or move it to Cookeville.

Just for discussion sake, here's how the Prep Performance Ratings say it shakes out. 2A: Humboldt (55.0), Peabody (43.1) 1A: Union City (52.1), Lake Co. (42.0), Halls (35.2), Greenfield (27.0), South Fulton (17.9)

Last year's state tournament teams and the starters they return: Gibson Co. (3), Livingston Academy (2), Westview (4), South Greene (3), Elizabethton (4), Bolivar (4), Hume-Fogg (3), McMinn Central (1) Some other favorites from an earlier thread: Greeneville returns 8 players on the roster Chattanooga Christian loses just one senior Sequatchie Co. returns 3 starters Upperman returns 3 starters Obion Central returns 4 starters

It will be tougher for Milan to go undefeated this year. They have the talent for sure, but Dyersburg and Crockett Co. should be great games. JCS, Huntingdon and Humboldt will be good. Really all they need to do is beat Westview and Gibson Co., and they get the automatic playoff bid. Milan could go 8-2 or 7-3 and still probably play for a 3A championship.

Attendance will be up only if they LOWER ticket prices back under $7. Doesn't look like that will happen, though. The teams playing and the matchup will have more of an impact on attendance than the location. Most of the teams in the new 1A-4A that have played in the state championship recently are either from small towns (ex. Trousdale, South Pitt, Alcoa, Milan) that shut down and bring everybody to the game OR have strong traditions and fan bases (ex. Goodpasture, Lipscomb). These are the fans who would drive probably anywhere just to watch their team play for a state championship. 6A will have a huge crowd because it will probably feature a midstate team like Oakland or Brentwood. Then there might be some schools that don't bring hardly anybody. Bottom line, I'm sure Cookeville will do a great job with the BlueCross Bowl.

Two good QBs moving into DII-A West: JR Jake Overbey, Univ. School of Jackson 2008 stats: 202-336, 3060 yds, 29 TD, 8 INT 2A Mr. Football finalist, West Tenn Offensive POY, All-State SR Cody Jones, Jackson Christian 2008 stats: 199-328, 2683 yds, 22 TD, 13 INT

Capacity is 16,500. Artificial turf. Tucker Stadium

West TN: Huntingdon at Westview (Thursday, 8-20) Dyer Co. at Dyersburg Jackson Christian at Milan Liberty Magnet at Henry Co. MUS at Millington

Corbin Branson, is that right?

Again, this district is going to be lots of fun to watch. Some very good basketball teams and players. Greenfield, Lake Co., and Bradford should be at the top of 14A. The Lady Red Devils still return Wallsmith, Street, and Combs, as well as bringing in Coach Eddings. As you guys have mentioned, Greenfield and Lake Co. will be two of the top A teams in the area. Peabody returns some key players (Hudson, Harper, Bolden) but don't really expect them to be much improved. Humboldt brings back two starters, and they had quite a bit of young talent. Coach Johnson has done an excellent job down there. He took a program that went 1-27 two years in a row to the district championship game. The Lady Vikings should compete and will be a tough draw every night. Union City loses Ward, Ross, and Strayhorn, but they too had some good young players. Throw in a proven winner with Coach Suiter, and the Lady Twisters could challenge for a top four finish. South Fulton loses three seniors but had no juniors. They relied heavily on their only sophomore, some freshmen, and a few 8th graders, who will return with game experience.

Now that's funny right there, I don't care who you are! Howdoitknow, it is fun to speculate and your points are just as valid as any right now. It was late last night when reading your post, and I didn't count the number of teams listed. Last year, Alcoa, CAK and Loudon went Q1; Tyner, Smith Co., Marion and York went Q2; Lewis Co., Goodpasture, CPA and Camden went Q3; and Q4 was all West TN. Did find this in the TSSAA minutes regarding playoffs. "The eight teams are placed in the bracket so that NO teams from the same district play each other in the first round except where there are 5 or more teams from the same district. Placements are then done with priorities given to automatic qualifiers based on their district finish followed by Wild Cards. There may be times when teams have to be placed other than their order of finish to avoid teams in the same district meeting in the first round."

Howdoitknow, great job putting together your statewide bracket predictions. The only questions from me are the placement of some teams (Alcoa in Q2, Smith Co. in Q3, Cheatham and Harpeth in Q4), and obviously those won't be answered until the first week of November. I'll focus on Q4. JCM will have to be much improved to make the playoffs as a WC from a tough district. If not, that would leave another wild card (probably for a Memphis team, or another of the 11/12AA teams comes). Camden, Milan, Westview, Manassas and Carver are all solid picks for teams west of the river.

The history books and trophy case say it was Milan. That's really all that matters. But for conversation's sake: The Bulldogs made quite a case for themselves. They went 14-1, scored nearly 600 points for the season and beat some pretty good competition (Camden, USJ, JCS, Westview, Goodpasture) on the way. Not sure how you could say Loudon would have been #2. The Redskins had a strong team but were shut out big time twice by Alcoa (37-0, 34-0). Even though Loudon beat CAK, the Warriors matched up better against the state champions. If you didn't think it was Milan, though, it probably would have to be Marion Co. or Boyd Buchanan.

I'll comment, to say thanks for an insightful post on Yellowjacket football. Leading rusher, QB and leading tackler return. Bigger line. Young talent. Good coach. On paper, Greenfield looks like the third best 1A team in this district behind Union City and Lake Co. Tough for the Jackets to beat those two and Humboldt. Games vs. Peabody, Halls and South Fulton look to be winnable. Saw where they have Bruceton in non-district action, probably a win. That leaves three other non-district games. Any idea on who those opponents are? (Gleason, Dresden maybe) The talent is there for Greenfield to be a contender. They will have to be strong down the stretch, though. After barely missing out on the playoffs for two years, maybe this is their season for a postseason trip.

Besides Gleason and Dresden moving, the other eight teams stay the same in 14A. (Bradford, Greenfield, Halls, Humboldt, Lake Co., Peabody, South Fulton, Union City) Maybe the player misunderstood, and Humboldt is playing Dyer Co. and North Side for non-district games?

Absolutely. I'm not usually one for making predictions, but I did this time just for conversation sake. Might change my mind by July /thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" /> Of course, I know these three teams or any of the other favorites won't take one game for granted. In fact, this year as we have discussed, even making the playoffs won't be a "sure thing" for several very good teams. Noted your find on JCM. The Cougars went 0-9 last year with a young team. They have a good coach in Jim Glover and should be improved, but not enough to finish in the top two. That leaves us with 23 automatic bids. Boy, late July and early August can't come soon enough.

Lots can happen in 6 months, but early on it looks like we'll have Alcoa vs. Milan/Goodpasture in the championship with the Tornadoes taking home their sixth consecutive gold ball.

Merideth had an incredible basketball career at Bradford and Union, where set several records for both programs. To top it off, she is a wonderful young lady. Congratulations and best wishes! The GCSSD folks just made a top notch choice to start their program at South Gibson.

Check out: http://tssaa.org/BoardofControl/Actions/June2008.pdf Scroll down to the end of page 5, item #40 If my math is right, there are 24 automatic bids in Class 3A. The remaining 8 teams will be wildcards based on TSSAA tiebreakers. Then the 32 teams are placed geographically in 4 quadrants with 8 teams in each quadrant. Sounds exactly like the way they have done the 2A bracket the last couple of years! (except there were 27 automatic bids and 5 wildcards) That means, in all probability, either CAK or Loudon won't get an automatic bid. Same thing for Howard and Tyner. Westmoreland and Westview probably won't. These are very good teams who may have to wait on a wildcard spot to get into the playoffs.