supersteve17

What an awesome run to the state championship these guys made! To win the last two games on PK's is incredible. They were a pretty thin team (depth-wise) but they showed tremendous heart! CCS was top-ranked all year and heavily favored in this match. They had a great season and are to be commended and congratulated as well. (I think they only lose four seniors.) At least five of these Bucs came up short in the AA state football championship game (American football) against Trousdale County. I'm sure nothing will really make up for that loss, but this has to be especially sweet for Taylor Shull, Ben Beasley, Joey Glisson, Jake Lockert and Clint Babb (did I forget anyone?) who were all key cogs in December. Congratulations to the entire team and to coaches Owens, Walker and Campbell!

DCRiverside "run rules" BBS by a score of 10-0. Great run for my Bucs but it seems obvious that Riverside is loaded. If my math is correct they won their four games in the Fling by a combined total of 49-5, three of those by the mercy rule. Congratulations to them! BBS made an unprecedented run to the final game. No Bucs baseball team had ever been past the sectional round. To make it to the finals is awesome! It will be hard for the kids to keep perspective on this right now but they will appreciate it more in the next few days. Congratulations to the 10 seniors on this team, all their teammates and coaches Robbins, Rider and Parker.

Final Score: BBS 3, Madison Academic 0

BBS, making its first-ever appearance at the baseball state tourney, edged Adamsville 8 to 7 in Class A first round action. Winning run scored on a walk-off walk. Wow!

I'm sure the Bucs will be back in the hunt again. The Jackets will have some work to do before we climb the hill to Cookeville again. But, who knows, stranger things have happened I suppose. Thanks for answering my questions. Fair and honest answers, all. I always find you to be that way, even if I disagree with some of your opinions. To follow up just one more time, I have this question: If TC (along with South Pitt and some others) can compete and even dominate the private schools you face, in your opinion, why can't other small public schools do the same or at least be more competitive? It seems most small public schools are very similar. Most are from rural counties without a large population base from which to choose. I get that. But why can TC and SP do it but others can't?

Wasn't ignoring your post, SS, been out of town for a few days, just got back & trying to catch up a bit. My opinion is, and always has been, privates have at least the opportunity to do this. A small private school, that consistently comes up with this many athletes from a small pool of nearby residents, is suspect. The enrollment has to come from somewhere else. If a star athlete walks in the door, compared to the average Joe, who do you think is the likely choice? Will you find this decision on paper? Of course not. Our friendly neighboring private, FCS, boasts of a nine county draw. Does BB cherry pick? I don't know what they do, and won't claim to know. And, no one else is going to admit to anything, so......... As for South Pitt, I'll let them do their own talking. Aside from that, Boyd played a great game Sat. vs TC. The team should not hang their head, they gave all they had, and that's all anyone can ask. Thanks for responding...but you really didn't answer my question, at least not directly. Did it look to you like BBS "cherry-picked" (your term) the best athletes of the two teams on the field during the BC Bowl? No knock on my BBS boys but it didn't look that way to me. As far as "star athletes" walking in the door, it has not happened very often during the twenty-plus years I have known anything about BBS. I would venture to say TC has had more that fit into that category than BBS has had. The enrollment at BBS is down a little from its peak a couple of years ago and I believe they have spots open at virtually every grade level from pre-K through 12th grade...so they really can't be too "selective." They would love to have all of those spots filled because they want to offer a Christian education to as many kids as would like to take advantage of it. The admissions process does not include a bench press test, shuttle run or a 40 yard dash timing...pretty sure about that. I've heard that line about "nine counties" regarding FCS's student base so often that I have begun to wonder if it is an advantage or a disadvantage. You guys never seem to have much trouble with them on the football field! Thanks for the compliment toward the Bucs' effort. I thought they played hard and came up a little short. Frankly, I thought they were outmanned. Congratulations to TC on continuiing your domination of all schools (public or private) in whatever class you find yourselves. Your record is exemplary in that regard. Your program should be a model for all small public schools to follow.

Hey grunt, I asked in a post the other day (a couple pages back) if you thought Boyd Buc "cherry-pick(ed) the best athletes" after you watched them play your TC team? You never answered. What think ye? Once again, congratulations to Trousdale County, a highly successful small public school that has won more small-school state football championships than ANY small private school -- probably more than any two private schools. If they (and South Pittsburg) can do it, why can't others?

Your opinion, of course. Perhaps the "poor passing" was made poor by the play of the excellent BBS secondary and the pressure put on by the Bucs d-line. I'd say that "average" defense did pretty well four times from the one yard line in the fourth quarter! Just my opinion of course, but I doubt that the TC team or coaches share your opinion.

Congratulations to Trousdale County on a well-deserved and hard-earned eighth state title. IMHO every time TC threw the ball they did BBS a favor. The TC line was great. Their execution was not flawless but it was pretty great! I'm not sure BBS "outweighed" the TC line by "40%" as was previously posted. In fact, with one or two exceptions, I'd say TC outweighed BBS pretty much across the board. Seay was THE difference in the game as I saw it. Anyway, congrats to the Yellow Jackets. The Bucs did themselves proud. I'm sure they are disappointed but they lost two games all year by a total of 13 points to two pretty good, traditionally strong teams, Red Bank (14-7) and today. Pretty impressive season!

Congratulations to Trousdale County on another state title. If you guys can dominate the private schools in your division on a fairly consistent basis with good coaching, great administrative and community support, excellent, hard-working kids and great tradition, why can't other public schools? Did you really feel that BBS cherry-picked the "best athletes?" I'm a true-blue BBS fan, but in all honesty, that's not what I saw today. Once again, congratulations on a hard-earned state title.

Now be careful. You'll be accused of "whining" like some of my friends have been for the last ten years or so...

There aren't any private schools in the girls' state tourney are there? There are a few magnet schools. Hmmmmm?

What are the percentages now? Can anybody do that math? Let's face it. The multiplier was a reactionary policy enacted by public school administrators that was designed to prevent independent schools from winning championships -- primarily football championships. It almost worked 100% this year.

So, in other words, we paid/are paying for TSU to have the right to use LP Field?

OK then. Only one private school left in the division one playoffs in any classification.

One could make another point. 36% of private schools survived the first round of the playoffs while only 26% of public schools are still in the playoffs. I guess the privates do have a huge advantage after all.

No, actually I was being facetious. I knew the numbers were approximately proportionate as you pointed out. Many people have the erroneous assumption that private schools dominate the football playoffs, which it could be argued they did before the multiplier (depends on one's definition of "dominate"). My point was that at least for this year, they did not "dominate" the first round.

Let me quickly correct myself. It is actually 9 of 48. 2 in class A, 5 in class AA, 2 in class AAA.

There are only eight private schools of the forty-eight teams left in the Division one playoffs (if I counted correctly). Anybody want to venture a guess as to why this is? I guess maybe the private schools just need to work harder?

Is that to imply that those who may not agree with your points on this topic are God-less, bad people who do not try to be better, never attend church and do not believe the same? Just wondering. Be careful about broad, sweeping generalizations.

By the way, "separation" is spelled incorrectly many times in this thread. Remember, it has "a rat" in it! (I learned that in school many years ago -- a public school at that!)

It could also be that in the fall (when girls' soccer is played in Tennessee) the only sports going head to head with soccer are volleyball, cross country and golf (if in fact all three are even offered). In the spring, boys' sports that go head to head with soccer include baseball and track and field, not to mention spring football. Typically those girls' sports require fewer participants than the boys' sports mentioned. The result would be that the talent pool is less diluted for the girls than for the boys in smaller schools (which the D-1 privates tend to be). Maybe sheer participation numbers account for some of the differences. Does any of that make sense?

Red Bank does it and has never stopped doing it. They are student-led invocations instead of "community" church leaders praying. I guess that makes some difference? The University of Tennessee has always had an invocation as well. I'm not sure if they put limitations or restrictions on the prayers or not. I have notiiced that the name of Christ is seldom, if ever, invoked. UCLA did not have any kind of invocation at the Rose Bowl on Septemvber 1 this year. (Tennessee obviously wishes they had!) I wonder what makes the difference?

Ah yes! The old "level playing field" resurfaces! Haven't heard that one in a long time. Are you saying that Jackson County and Sale Creek (both public schools) are on a level playing field in, let's say, girls' basketball? And South Pittsburg and Whitwell (both class A public schools from the same county) are playing on a level field in football? Do you really believe Rockwood has no advantage over Copper Basin in baseball? The myth of the "level playing field" strikes again!

With success comes criticism. Just ask Maryille, Alcoa, etc.