Hoya

"Be the best by beating the best." I agree. Don't get me wrong, Baylor and McCallie were, are and are likely to always be great soccer programs, but I guarantee you--- based on my own personal knowledge--- that no soccer coach at Catholic ever lamented not being able to beat them on a consistent basis in DII--at least not since the turn of the century. After spending two or three seasons getting up to DII speed, the Knox Catholic Irish beat both of them very consistently. Catholic was in the DII East Region for 8 years from '98 to '05. I think DII East soccer was the most difficult region in the state because only two teams advanced to states from the East, with 3 each from the Middle and West. During those 8 years, Catholic advanced to States the last 5 years in a row (2001-2005), twice with Baylor, twice with McCallie and once with Webb. Catholic's move to A/AA was a diocesan decision (ND was included) and had much more to do with travel expenses (although District 4 a/aa is just about as bad) and a sense that the diocesan schools had far more in common with the public schools than with the big prep schools like McCallie, CBHS, etc. As for soccer, we were never consulted and we liked DII much better than A/AA overall because nearly every team was capable of beating every other on any given night. It was simply much more competitive in our sport. A/AA has far more variation in teams within one district and blow out games are not fun for anyone---unless of course you are blowing a rival like ND, Farragut or Webb. My bottom line on the championship thing is very much like yours. I'd like to see one championship for all schools in the state regardless of size or type. It would make the state championships much more meaningful and it would increase the value of district and regional titles. As for CAK v. HF, well I've got to pull for our distict rivals. If it can't be the Irish, I hope it will be the Warriors. I wish both teams good luck.

Catholic lost to ND in PKs. Final score: ND (1) v. Catholic (0). Congratulations to Catholic on a fine season and good luck to ND in the semis.

By now either they are in PKs or I'll have to fire my communications experts for not updating me. Sounds like a great match.

After two full overtime periods, Catholic and Notre Dame are even at 0-0 in the first of the golden goal OTs.

Final CAK (1) v. CPA (0).

Hi Kaz. The game starts at 4pm CDST.

Amen to that! /ph34r.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":ph34r:" border="0" alt="ph34r.gif" />

I am an unabashedly biased Irish fan and while I saw a few cardable (is that a word?) incidents, there is no way I would call either this match nasty or Pigeon Forge dirty. Frankly, to me, there was very little that was noteworthy in this match. Pigeon Forge played very hard from the beginning of the match to the end despite being pretty much overmatched. I thought Catholic played some pretty uninspired soccer for several long stretches of the match, but turned up their level of play in the second half sufficiently to secure the win. Pigeon Forge would really benefit from a stronger regular season schedule. I think they have the nucleus of a very good team.

Don't apologize. Your analysis was interesting and not wordy. Short sound bite word bursts aren't conducive to the meaningful exchange of information. Keep up the good work!

The last update I heard was that CAK was leading 3-0 with 12 minutes left.

BigG, be nice. /mad.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":angry:" border="0" alt="mad.gif" /> You and I both know that any team that starts to believe in their own press clippings will soon be left at home reading about the other teams that advanced and thinking about what might have been. This Irish team is a hard working, blue collar lot that needs to concentrate and work hard to win. They are no where near as talented as most of their rivals and they need to play one game at a time to keep playing. Pigeon Forge is the next hurdle and the state finals are a long way off. By the way, your Warriors are the side I fully expect to have one of the two slots in the finals, especially if Brandon and your other injured kids can get healthy. Good luck with Elizabethton on Saturday, my friend. /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> Finally, what are you doing surfing CoachT at 1:20 AM? That sounds like something an aging insomniac would do. /wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" />

BECKHAM. He hit a rope from about 25. Nice goal. Very good game by both teams. It didn't have as much energy as the District Final, but it was a very good match to watch. Now I want to see game four. Good luck to the Warriors this weekend.

Whattttt!!!!!! /mad.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":angry:" border="0" alt="mad.gif" /> Hey, my friend, are you coming to the match?

I think Bearden's wider field benefits Farragut's possession style of play. This one will be interesting.

Bearden v. Farragut is old news. CAK v. Catholic is today's top Knoxville story! /laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":lol:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> I know, I know....the front page KNS Sports article on Friday will be the AAA game with a near life-sized color picture of some obscure player like Radcliffe or Backstrom. CAK and Catholic will be a blurb on page 6 that might mention the score. /wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" />

hey stevescarb. You spotted my annoyance. I'm all better now---as if anyone cared! You and I usually see things pretty much the same and I think we do with respect to keeping the game safe. See you at the game. /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

Come to one of the games. The little fishys will be there on Friday. /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

Tsk, tsk, my friend. "Clean" is in the eye of the beholder. Neither of these teams are shrinking violets and Catholic has easily received as much as it has given in the earlier matches with the "Christians". [i trust we don't need to discuss that Catholics were among the original Christians, do we?] The teams dependant on real hackers are no longer playing at this point in the season. If the refs are fair and consistent, that is all that should matter when good teams meet. That certainly was the case in our two earlier games. (Of course they are listening!) Enjoy the match. The last one was fantastic. As for Bearden v. Farragut---I think Bearden by a goal.

It's a reasonable rule. This debate is endless and not likely to ever be solved in a manner viewed as fair to all. BigG, it looks like weather could be an issue again tomorrow. I hope for both teams' sake they don't have to sit around with a lightning delay again.

Good decision! But I still don't like playing at ND! /wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" />

I would also suggest that, despite their size, the vast majority of AAA soccer teams are no where near the soccer equals of Webb, CAK, Knox Catholic or any of the other strong small school programs like Alcoa, Baylor, CCS, CSAS, LC, , CPA, MUS, CBHS, MBA,etc. Bearden, Farragut, West, Science Hill, Brentwood, Hendersonville, Germantown Houston and other similarly stong AAA schools that are administratively committed to their soccer teams are clearly their equals, but the range between good AAA soccer schools and most AAA soccer schools is vast. What I think the seperatists really want is for all the good teams to go and play amongst themselves---regardless of size--- leaving all the weaker teams lacking institutional commitment to soccer to have their own weaker team "championship". I am old school enough that I'd rather go back to no divisions at all. There would be a single, meaningful, champion in each sport just like it was before the "everybody has to be a winner" mentality leeched into TSSAA thinking in the mid-'90s.

I really do understand your concern, but it isn't that simple. How do boundary limitations explain Bearden or West for example? By the early '90s Bearden was an almost dead school. It was old and surrounded in its fairly tiny boundary by an aging population with fewer and fewer high school aged kids and the school itself was running down. Its population was shrinking as Knoxville's younger families moved toward Farragut. As I recall, West had exactly this same problem as well and there was serious talk about closing or consolidating these schools. Then along came Eric Turner, an excellent and experienced soccer coach with a real plan for how to succeed at Bearden in soccer despite its boundary and enrollment limitations. Very quickly a soccer power was born that has maintained itself for nearly a decade. The same is obviously true for Coaches Gohn and Ashe at West. They had a plan and worked it to the max with great results. Boundaries and shrinking enrollments were never used as an excuse for being uncompetitive at these schools and they are examples for every other school to follow of how to succeed. On the flip side, Farragut has much smaller boundaries than CAK, Webb and Catholic, but year after year it seems it has more club players standing on its sidelines (between varsity and jv) than the other three schools have combined. In the last 10 years I don't think I can name a year when Catholic had more than a couple "extra" club players outside of its starting line-up and in most years we didn't even have 11 club players on the entire team. I know this has been true at Webb and CAK as well. Farragut's boundaries sure haven't held it back. It's cup of soccer talent runneth over. I can't speak for other sports, but I really think that in soccer the schools that have brought in solid and experienced soccer coaches have turned into the schools with solid soccer teams. A couple of "severly limited" public schools illustrating this point just this season are the rise of Morristown West with Shane Calvert and Karns with Mike McLean. They were not very competitive until experienced soccer people arrived on the scene. Same border, different coaching ability, vastly different result. I know it's not that simple, but coaching is a huge part of the differences between the soccer powers and the rest. I don't think public v. private or big v. small is the key.

Oh yea, back to the original topic---game three. I predict another very close game between two evenly matched teams. /wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" /> I also agree with uniden. This will be the best soccer match in Knoxville on Thursday night even if the KNS gives the big schools top billing, as usual. CAK and Catholic, this year and most recent years, are the soccer equals of Bearden and Farragut and, in my totally biased opinion, the recent matches between the Warriors and the Irish have been more intense than those between our two AAA rivals in West Knoxville. BigG, what would you think about a charity benefit tournament next year involving Farragut, Bearden, Knox Catholic, West, Webb and CAK? Let me know if you see any potential. Oh yea, and good luck Thursday at Catholic----just not enough luck. Go Irish! /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

Slight correction, uni. Catholic went to the DII state tournament 5 straight years, three times to the semis in a row (2002-2004). Yes, and the soccer team was very content in DII. As for the recruiting comment above from easttnref, Knox Catholic has never and will never involve itself with recruiting and athletic scholarships. You don't know what you are talking about. I'd say that goes for CAK as well, but I don't have personal knowledge of the Warriors' program like I do of Knox Catholic. If the private schools are ever forced out of Division 1 because of the constant whining and endless nagging of a few public school coaches, administrators and parents, I hope the private schools take their unwanted presence and resources and leave TSSAA altogether to form their own independent athletic program, seperate and apart from TSSAA. This is precisely what has happened in other states, in my opinion to the ultimate detriment of both kinds of schools. And yes, BigG, I know there is a seperate forum for this debate. I just get tired of the whining and totally false accusations. /mad.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":angry:" border="0" alt="mad.gif" />

Great match played by both teams. DeRosa was huge for the Irish in goal saving 3 out of 4 Warrior penalty kicks. CAK plays Alcoa in the Region semis while Catholic plays Seymour. Hopefully, we'll see round 3 of this series in the Region 2 Final next week.