LostTime

What was the score of the Centennial vs. Glencliff girls game on 1/30/14? I have not seen it posted anywhere. After beating Lighthouse Christian their record is showing as 9-16 on the Tennessean's website. If that is correct that would mean that they lost to Glencliff. I can't believe they would have lost to Glencliff, but they seem to be really struggling down the stretch of the season. I thought they would have improved more this year after having shown some progress last year with a very young team. I saw that they beat Ravenwood to start the district season 1-0, but they have not won another district game since and I think they have only been with double digits, against Summit, since then. They play Summit Friday so maybe they can beat them to end the season on a positive note and finish tied for 6th with Summit. If anyone has seen them I would love to hear your thoughts on their play this season.

What does thst mean? I don't see a lot of similarities between the programs.

I understand that the girls basketball position is now open. What happened to the previous coach? It is really unusual for a head coaching position to open up this late. Is it also true that the boys position is now open too?

Bond and Bradshaw are both very good coaches. I don't think Bond would leave Central to go to Lebanon. I think Bradshaw would be more likely to go back to LHS. I don't know about the climate at LHS right now. definitely a lot of turnover going on in the building and not just with coaches.

According to the Wilson Post Coach Keil was fired over the phone on Sunday by principal Myra Sloan after having met with her a couple of times since the end of the season and being assured that he was in no danger of being let go. Really bad timing for such a move.

Just saw on the TSSAA bulletin board that Lebanon was looking for a boys basketball coach. What happened to Doug Keil?

After reading the Wilson Post article on Coach Inman's hiring, which was mostly a cut and paste job from the EKU press release of his retirement announcement in 2008, I thought it might be interesting to give folks just a little more information on Coach Inman's record. After going 23-8 overall, 15-1 in conference, winning the OVC regular season and tournament championships, and going to the NCAA tournament in 2004-05 things dropped off the last 3 years at EKU. During the last 3 years of his tenure EKU had records of 7-20 overall/ 7-13 OVC in 2005-06, 12-18 overall/9-11 OVC in 2006-07, and 14-14 overall/9-11 OVC in 2007-08. Final 3 years totals 33-52 overall/25-35 OVC. My guess is that he got a little tired of the recruiting grind and that might have been the reason for the drop off. With 2 years off, his batteries should be re-charged and he should be fired up and ready to go at LHS. I think this is one of the most interesting hires in the mid-state in years and it will be fun to see how it all works out.

There were 40 applicants, but not all 40 were interviewed to be sure. My guess is that 10 or less were actually interviewed for the position.

This report is accurate. Coach Inman retired from EKU in 2008, but I guess the he hasn't gotten the coaching bug completely out of his system yet. It will be interesting to see how he does against the Brandon's and his old school, MJHS.

I have heard that there were over 40 applicants for the job. Does anyone know who some of the coaches are that have applied and which ones have been interviewed? Also, does anyone have any idea of when LHS is planning on naming the new coach?

Darian Brown was not begged to take the job. He applied for and pursued the position. He was Scott Benson's second hire for the girls basketball position. He was also the AD when Coach Dilligard was hired. As everyone knows the second hire worked out much better, although it should be noted that Coach Dilligard inherited a roster that had lost several seniors that played most of the minutes the previous season and also had a solid senior-to-be post player decided she no longer wanted to play basketball. No matter who took the job under those circumstances was likely to see some level of drop off. When Coach Brown took the job 3 years later the program was drifting, but there was some young talent to work with and he did a good job developing it. Coach Johnson came into a good situation with the confidence level high with the team coming off a sectional appearance. They finished strong her first season, but finished with a overall losing record. Her second season ended with a winning record, but the team faded down the stretch. After looking at the schedule they beat 3 AAA schools with winning records (Wilson Central 15-13, Creekwood 18-11 and Cookeville 19-12) and none after beating Wilson Central on Jan. 5. In their last 11 games they went 4-7 and lost in the first round of the district tournament. I think Coach Johnson did a good job, but I don't know if I would describe it as "striking gold". I am not saying that she was not a good coach, but I think it should be kept in perspective. Over the last 4 years Lebanon has gone 60-65 with some very big wins, a district championship and a sectional appearance. The last 2 seasons Barbara Hallums coached the Devilettes were 32-22 with wins over Riverdale with Krystal Horton, Mt. Juliet with Alysha Clark and a victory at Jackson County over a team that eventually won the AA championship. Maybe there should be a little more appreciation for Coach Hallums. I get little tired of everyone seeming to believe that Lebanon had been in the dumps for a long period before the Brown/Johnson era. Yes, the bottom dropped out for a 3 year period, but Barbara Hallums also inherited a program in shambles and turned it into a very competitive program in the old 7-AAA before she retired in 2003. So this is just an attempt to put the recent history of Devilette basketball into some perspective.

I don't believe that there is now or ever has been a AD for girls athletics at Lebanon High. Bobby Brown is the current AD and Scott Benson was the AD that hired Darian Brown. I don't know who was the AD at the time of Ashley Johnson's hiring, but I don't believe there was a AD for girls involved. Denise Joyner was the AD at one time, but she wasn't just in charge of girls athletics as far as I know. I can confirm that interviews are being conducted.

LaVergne High School has its girls basketball position posted on the TSSAA website. What happened to Coach Dean?

PHargis, maybe it is just me, but I really don't have any idea what you were trying to say in this post. Maybe someone else can translate it for me, but I cannot follow it at all.

On #1 new schools are sometimes given some money to get started, but extra-curricular activities are generally self-supporting. I definitely don't think state tax money is supposed to be used for these programs, but it may be that the local government kicks in some money. I can just speak to the schools that I had dealings with and at those schools we were self-supporting, even non-revenue sports like tennis and track. As for #2 field construction is a fixed cost that all taxpayers pay for. This is one argument for allowing homeschoolers to participate in extra-curricular. They pay for the construction and upkeep of these community facilties with their taxes regardless of whether they choose to take advantage of the academic offerings at the school. Athletics are extra-curricular activities that are not a required portion of the academic program so why should students that are home educated be prevented from participating because their parents have chosen a different academic track for them. No student that is participating in the school's academic program is prevented from having an opportunity to make the team. Just as in Metro students at Hume Fogg that want to play football can, I believe, participate with the team at Hillsboro. How is the homeschool student different from the student at Hume Fogg? Don't they both deserve a chance to participate?