Blackchatt

For the sake of transparency, I am new poster, middle school boys and girls coach at CCS. I have served as asst. the past four times our boys have gone to state. I offer this as a perspective, not a solution. On the boys side, we have lost twice to CAK in finals, Knox Cath and Alcoa in quarterfinals. We could respond by demanding we set up separate classification for Knoxville. I think AAA might agree. Rather, our answer is program. Hats off to Coach G and the Alcoa team for building a great public program and Coach G and CAK for building a great private program. As I worked up a scouting report in prep for match with Alcoa, I was most impressed with the quality of their program. Visit their soccer website. CAK has been a class act since I first met the team in Memphis in 2003. So, our response has been to develop a program that prepares our kids to compete at this level. After playing CAK 5 years ago, we recognized our technical deficiency. This shaped our middle school emphasis on technical development. Following the match with Alcoa this week, we responded by encouraging our players to add 5 pounds of muscle by next season. They are one physical group of players. Take CAK, Alcoa, Carter, Catholic, Loudon, Station Camp, USJ, FRA, and Ridgeway in years past, out of the mix, and what have we accomplished by winning a state title. We want to beat the best, public or private. So, let's focus on program. We have 3, maybe 4 club players in any given year. Others are at that level, but do not play club. It is expensive for many of our families as well. Consequently, we looked internally to develop a comprehensive program. We developed team camps internally to keep expenses down during the summer. Our middle school coaches, myself included, strive to prepare players to be successful high school soccer players. This is difficult for public schools if they do not know their feeders, but possible when you have a good idea of who is coming your way and have middle school coaches that understand the goal is to develop players to compete at the HS level and are more committed to player development than middle school championships. For us, it is one of the keys to becoming and remaining competitive at the highest level. Club will never make it happen for CCS. 5 freshman received major minutes against Alcoa. Only one has played club in the past two years. No one is addressing the fact that teams without club support are hurt by the TSSAA rule changes preventing fall open field and fitness work. For rural public schools to be successful, players must play together during the fall. Club players are the only players able to play out of season in an organized fashion. Some talk about pay, fields. Our coaches are paid less, as are most in A/AA among private Chatt schools, than their public school counterparts, based on a comparison years ago as we tried to address low coaching pay. In terms of facility, our coaches have built our fields. We were given flat plains of clay. Coaches installed a sprinkler system and sprigged our game field and practice field. Our head coach for some 20+ years, David Stanton, prior to Coach Brower, actually built our concrete stands by hand with his players mixing concrete and pouring the sections in molds. It took the better part of a year. In the 80s, he built the first field on a dump. All of this work was done without additional compensation. The players actually walked the field after practice with buckets picking up rocks, glass, and digging up the occasional tire. The level of commitment and sacrifice has been incredible. Parents matter. We have had to raise funds for the materials used in the construction of our facility and parents have toted rakes, mowers, buckets, and concrete. I am a product of Raleigh, NC soccer, Raleigh Sanderson (public, similar to Farragut) in the mid 80s. Our program dominated state for a decade during that period. Parent boosters built and maintained our practice facility and maintained our game field, actually going out every other day to move sprinklers during the summer and to cut the fields because the city's answer was a bush hog every three weeks. We benefited greatly from club in terms of talent, but the commitment the program demanded and expected led players to train on their own in the off season 3-4 days a week just to earn the honor of making the team and sitting on the bench. Parents sacrificed time and resources. It all required great sacrifice and commitment. It still does, public or private. I believe this is mark of great programs regardless of classification. All of this, and we have won one championship each, boys and girls, since I came to CCS in 1994. Nonetheless, I do not believe our players would trade the experience. The relationships, sacrifice, teams bonding, training to be champions, make for a successful program, not the number of championship rings. What is the overarching goal for Tennessee soccer? I for one want Tennessee soccer to be top notch at the H.S. level and the ODP and club levels. Competition must be stiff, and programs top notch. I want players playing for D-1 schools, top NAIA, D-2 and D-3 programs, and competing for spots on our national teams. Raleigh Sanderson hasn't won a championship since the early 90s after winning 11 of 13. Watch out CAK! /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />