LCborn

I think you guys need to start a separate thread: "Tony Delmonico: Rocks or stinks?" Guess what? Whatever Tony D is capable of doing, it won't--I promise, it won't--affect D4AAA this year. Really, he won't have an impact on that district this spring. Really, he won't. I promise. Another thing--it won't matter to D4AAA that Tony is playing for his dad. Really, it won't. I promise that, too.

I think LC will struggle. First, they've typically been a fourth-place regular season team in 4AA over the last 5 years (even the year they won the 4AA tournament, they were 4th in the regular season). Second, they're coming off of three classes of pretty good players--including two all-state picks--and they don't seem to have replacements for that talent. Third, their pitching will be suspect this year, and they usually play a lot of games, what with their schedule of weekend tournaments, which will wear them down. Fourth, they aren't accustomed to the challenge of AAA competition; in the past they've had a core of kids who played for competitive teams like Thunder Baseball or the Knoxville Dodgers, but they don't have anybody with that kind of experience now. LC didn't schedule a lot of AAA teams before last year, preferring to schedule down (A) or level (other AA teams) outside of their district games. As I recall, last year they played four AAA teams: Maryville, Clinton (are they AAA?), Karns, and Halls (twice). They went 1-4. Given all that, I don't look for them to finish higher than 6th in 4AAA this year. Really, I think finishing 5 or 6 would be a pretty good year for them. However, they could sink as low as 8 if they don't get good performances.

It has bad spelling and bad grammar; and yet, it's the best post on the thread. Let's all look past the problems with expression and try to understand what's being expressed. Except for the trash-talkers. I think we should be free to make fun of their grammar and spelling.

LOL, I think it's the weather. It's been conducive to spring fever outbreaks.

I don't judge that way. I try to look past the grammatical failures (e.g., failures to punctuate or capitalize properly) and see the points made. Composition skills are not equivalent to intelligence. After all, there is no editor on this board.

I graduated from a Tennessee high school and I speak English well--and I don't forget to capitalize. I have a bachelor's degree from a Tennessee college. In addition, I have a doctorate from a Tennessee university. My Tennessee education makes me wonder what your last two sentences have to do with one another. You seem to be suggesting that if school boards had more money, kids would be more likely to go to school. My Tennessee education may be flawed, but it makes me wonder about the logic in that. Does your school system pay the kids to go to school? Are you saying that if the school board had more money, they could pay the kids more and, therefore, they'd be more likely to attend school? That's an unusual system. Also, shouldn't that be "people who live in a state," BTW? Also, shouldn't that be, "even the ones who graduate," BTW? Also, shouldn't that be, "people who cannot read or write," BTW? You did get "fine people" right, though.

You are a gentleman, Jeremy, and a sportsman. We get a lot of trash talk. Clearly, you aren't trash.

Yeah! Way ta go, Panthers! I wasn't there but I assume that nobody from LC was so rude as to shake their keys towards the end of that game. That would be very poor sportsmanship. I hope LC fans didn't do that, anyway.

It wasn't so much inexperience as lack of depth that killed LC vs. WV. When LC's point guard fouled out on a technical (which he deserved), they weren't able to cope with WV. Against McMinn, LC went goofy for a few minutes in the third, blew a lead, and couldn't catch back up. They made a lot of bad decisions in that goofy stretch, whether from inexperience or whatever. I think LC's coach did a good job keeping his team competitive against two more athletic teams. I'd be interested in seeing a game between WV and McMinn. From my limited time watching them, they both seem like athletic and fairly deep teams. It should be a good game. I saw both of them struggle with shooting from time-to-time and that game might come down to who is hot in the fourth. JMHO.

They sure looked like a team that was playing to avoid mistakes instead of playing to win. Whatever the reason. Anyway, good luck to you all.

I saw that McMinn-LC game. LC stayed real close--even had the lead in the 3rd--until they went brain-dead over about a 3-minute span. Now, I'm an LC guy, and I don't want to knock my kids, but I couldn't figure out why McMinn's offense didn't do better. Your kids looked like good players. But they seemed uncomfortable in their sets and didn't attack LC's weaknesses. When McMinn went on their run it was less because they pressed effectively than it was because LC made soft passes and didn't come to the ball. It looked to me like LC made a lot of turnovers after they had the McMinn press beaten. Also, I think McMinn only attempted one 3-pointer. What's up with that? It was available. No bomber on the squad?

This is off topic, but as someone who follows 4AAA maybe you can help me with a question. District 4AAA is an 8-team district; what's the format of the tournament going to be? I ask because LC is coming out of a 6-team district that gave the 2 teams with the best regular-season records a bye into a double-elimination round and required the other 4 to meet in a single-elimination play-in round. I don't know if an 8-team district will have something similar or not. As to the topic, LOL, I wouldn't put too much faith in what a coach says in a preview. But I expect that the district will be closer this year.

I think it's very easy to get to caught up in the local vs. outsider thing (and that thinking can apply to players as well as coaches, unfortunately). When you restrict your hiring of coaches to graduates of your HS, though, I think you are asking for trouble. First, you might not end up with the most talented available candidate. Second, should the local guy turn out to be less than what you'd hoped for it can be more difficult to discard him because of local politics. On the good side, I suppose you can be more confident that a local guy will hang around for a long time and not be looking to move on to something bigger and better. You see that in college sports sometimes, too. A lot of schools like to hire somebody with ties to the university and that doesn't always work out well. Of course, there's outsider and there's outsider; at least Wells has ties to Loudon County--it's not like he's from New Jersey or something. Naturally I'm rooting for LC over Loudon every time! Even with the rivalry, though, I'm pulling for Loudon (and Greenback) over everybody else--unless it affects LC's standings--when they're not playing LC. So I hope that coaching situation works out well for Loudon.

Well, as long as we're free to say what we don't like about bands, to debate the merits of the first versus second trumpet in our local band, to compare our trombone section to somebody else's trombone section, and to call for the director to be fired if he or she doesn't meet our expectations...sure, why not have a band forum? To get things started...a couple of years ago our band used "West Side Story" for their halftime show--what a bad choice! In the first place, the mix of instruments in the typical marching band is not very well adapted for that type of music. In the second place, it was dull and boring. In the third place, they did this program all year--why not do something different for each game? Also...many schools have a pep band performing at basketball games. Why in the world doesn't Lenoir City? What's that about? Is that the sort of comment you want to see, when you call for a band forum?

Interesting matchup. CAK may be new to 2A but LC is also new to 3A. Given that LC didn't have much success for the last several years in the 2A district that CAK just joined, it could be a good game. It could definitely be a measure of how well CAK will do in their new alignment.

I don't see how that speeds up the game. It seems more like an effort to prevent subsitutions. Sure, we don't want too many kids to participate. What genius at TSSAA decided the game needed to be speeded up, anyway? It's a goofy rule.

Some of this probably has to do with differences between the counties we live in and the cities which might annex us. I like the smell of burning leaves. At least one city I know of picks up leaves only within a short period on any particular street--what do you do if you miss the day? I'm not sure that city houses burn down less than county houses around here. It could be, but I haven't seen any data. I don't know if our sherrif's deputies are any worse than our police. No data. Someone else commented on property values. I'm pretty sure that in Loudon County the average value of a county home is way higher than the average for the county's municipalities. LOL, of course that's because so many doctors and bankers from Knox County build lakefront mansions here. Anyway, this is kind of off-topic. I shouldn't comment about annexation in a thread about Sullivan County and Kingsport--so I'll quit.

The lovely thing is that right after annexation you have to start paying city taxes--but it will take 5 years before most city services reach you.

Perhaps...but there's a perception that teachers are underpaid that I don't think is correct. Not that teachers in some school systems aren't underpaid, but according to statistics from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (www.bea.gov), the average annual income in TN is $29,806; and according to the National Education Association average TN teacher salary is $41,257. But that should be adjusted for educational attainment. If you use 2000 census numbers to calculate average pay for folks with a college education, the TN average is something like $40,773. So, teachers, on average (different school systems vary, of course), earn 102% of average pay for people with college educations. That's not too very far from the state-wide average. Then again, many people outside of teaching get 10 or 11 holidays per year and 10 vacation days. According to the TN Dept. of Ed., teachers must receive 10 vacation days and may receive as many as 60 holidays (counting summers), depending on how many days their school system is in session. And nobody outside of education gets tenure. So I don't believe teachers are underpaid. Also...the argument seems to be that kids would get better educations if teachers were paid more. That could only be true if (1) teachers are holding back but would perform better if they were paid more; or (2) teachers lack talent and higher pay would attract more talented people into teaching. Either way, the argument is an insult to current teachers. According to that, they're either slackers or incompetents. I don't believe it. Teachers are great people. I think school consolidation is a mistake, though. High schools should never be larger than about 1000 kids. Even that may be too large. Think about it: a high school with 1000 kids has one boys' basketball team of about 15 kids; so does a high school with 4000 kids. The same numbers game goes for football, track, baseball, band, chorus, drama club, whatever. Smaller schools just give more opportunities for kids to participate. OK--I'm now descending from my soapbox. Sorry to have ranted.

Well, first...you mean that TSSAA gets the proceeds from the concession stand? They get all the proceeds? Hmmmm...... Second, I don't really care one way or the other, but it would be better if TSSAA said the games count or they don't. They are scrimmages--"exhibitions"-- or they are games. Pick one! Coaches I've known have counted the wins but not the losses in HOF games. That's kinda tough on the kid who scores 20 in a 1-point loss and then scores 5 in a blowout victory when the starters are pulled after the first quarter. The whole thing isn't really very important; but why not just allow two more games on the schedule and say that the gate from the first two games goes to the HOF? What's the problem, is that too forthright for TSSAA?

Duh. He's a great kid. Great player. Great family. Great loss to LC. I wonder, how did that happen? That's "Jubal," BTW. I'm glad to hear he's doing well. He's a good kid. LC baseball had a run of really good talent from the classes of '01 to '05 but didn't achieve as much as they should have. Holy cow, they had all-state performers in '03 and '05 but even with them they only managed one district championship--and that team ('03) finished fourth in the regular season, forcing them into a play-in game in which they had to come from behind in extra innings to advance. I don't think the LC classes of '06 to '08 have as many studs as LC did from '01 to '05, and that would have been a problem for them in AA. It's much more of a problem for them now that they are in AAA. Still, I think LC baseball will win 20-25 games in '06. They just won't win many in their district (2 or 3, maybe?). Wins depend sooo much on who you schedule.

It's going to be a long year for LC fans, I'm afraid. Heck, football may be the easiest adjustment because it has 5 classes; for the other sports there are only 3, so those 3-class programs are suddenly going to be competing with the really big schools. I think you can expect all the LC sports teams to struggle. Look at recent history. Over the last few years the soccer and softball programs have been very successful (including state championships) but football, basketball (boys and girls) and baseball weren't all that competitive in their old classifications. I don't think any of those programs played much above .500 in their old district (although the baseball team managed some tournament surprises). I think those four programs together have only produced 1 district championship in the last 5 years. Spring may be even rougher on LC than fall and winter. It may be the baseball team that has the toughest change to cope with, going from a district dominated by Loudon to one that includes Farragut and Bearden. I mean no disrespect to Loudon but, as good as their program is, I don't think they are at the Farragut/Bearden level. It's going to be tough on boys' soccer, too. As good as their rival CAK has been, they probably aren't at the Farragut/Bearden level, either. All one can do is go out and root for the kids and hope for the best; they're still our teams even if they aren't champions.

I've heard a lot of negatives about Coach Sharp, although I have to admit they're mostly from disgruntled parents and players. And, there was reportedly an incident about him encouraging Karns fans to heckle an umpire, after the umpire had warned the fans to lay off...I dunno. I do know that all the Karns people I've talked to in the last year or so are very happy with the change there, so far. One parent I've known for years told me that after playing for Coach Sharp for four years that his kid is so down on baseball that he won't even play catch with his dad in the backyard. That seems kinda grim.

I've heard a rumor, but I can't call it more than that, that Jubal Duncan of Lenoir City will be going to MTSU.

Hey, I know it's tough to umpire. When my kids were kids...seems like years ago...they played in a Little League in which the coaches for the 5-6-year-old and 7-8-year old leagues were required to umpire on the nights their teams played. You coach the first game, you umpire the second game, and so forth. I have two strong memories from that. First was the time I was behind the plate and some kid's grandfather started ragging me because I called foul ball...the third baseman fielded the ball in foul territory, but grandpappy thought that because the third baseman's feet were in fair territory, the ball was therefore fair. His goof, and I told him so. The second was when I was in the infield and a baserunner completely missed second--turned left about 3 feet too early--and the shortstop went to second and second went to first. I called a double play. My bad, missing second should have been an appeal play. The offensive coach correctly chastised me, and after the game I apologized. However...and this is a big however...I wasn't getting paid. I wasn't the only professional on the field, I was just another one of the amateurs. I think that it is fair to hold high school umpires to higher standards. They need to get the rules right, and they need to get the calls right. In any given high school baseball game, only the coaches and the umpires are getting paid to be there. And pretty much only the coaches are subject to getting fired for screwing up.