ELA

Anyone who saw last night's JV game should be proud of the Pioneers. The BIG FB and the JV QB did a great job.

All I know is that he was the head coach when that program was turned around and I don't think a loss to an undefeated team in week one or the loss on Friday is worthy of such talk. We can agree to disagree but from one coach to another, he has a very young team with a lot of sophomores in starting roles. The Pioneers have some good young talent, if they stay together and work as a team, they will improve throughout the season.

Coach Madewell is the only coach in recent memory to turn the WC Pioneer program around. He has a young team and they are well coached! Trust me, there is nothing wrong with your football team that age and experience can't fix. Be patient, the last thing your program needs is a shake up at the top. Chris is a good man and a good coach. Also, there is nothing wrong with the VEER offense. The QB does a good job with it and it will improve with time.

Dustin, I hope you get healed up soon! I hate to see any HS athlete carried off the field. That was a long break in the action last night and our prayers are with you for a speedy recovery. On the same play we had a player with a knee injury. We are hopeful that his is not an ACL injury but we will have to wait until the MRI to know for sure. He just had his knee worked on this summer. Coach Madewell's team played with a lot of heart last night and never gave up. Their QB did a good job running the option. We will have our hands full this week with an undefeated Patriot team. They look very solid on both sides of the ball!

Congratulations to the Oakland Patriots... see you next week.

Thanks... Coach Madewell has a young Pioneer team with a good option QB and a solid defense. They are tough and never give up! Good luck to the Pioneers. I hope the young man who was taken off the field is okay... can someone from McMinnville give us an update on his condition?

An address change includes a copy of utility bills and a release from the old residence showing a disconnect order.

In the past, the TSSAA has not allowed transfers from schools whose programs have been shutdown. The only one I can think of is a few years back when Clarksville Academy ended their football season. My guess is there would have to be an address change and/or a hardship request...

Very good post! Every county has had teacher shortages... try to find quality teachers and coaches who want to work for free or less money. If they cut the coaching supplements, the coaches who can will move! Who would blame them??? I have no idea what coaches in Wilson County make but I promise you it isn't what they are worth based on the hours they work.

First of all, coaches are professionals and they deserve to get paid. No one in this profession wants to work for free... this is not volunteer work it is our profession! High school football is not youth league: These men work twice as many hours as their non-coaching counterparts and for less than minimum wage. The head football coaches put in about 400 to 500 extra hours a year and their assistant coaches put in almost as much time. The school board may decide to limit the number of coaches per team but I seriously doubt they will do away with their salaries because that would mean every "professional" coach would leave the system or attempt to find work next year doing something other than coaching HS football. It would also mean the end of hs sports in Wilson County for years to come because it would truly become recreational league football or baseball and basketball at some point down the road. The truth is none of this will happen! The school board and county commission will find a way to patch things together this season and will work with less for one year until a better arrangement can be made. Yes, it will affect some coaches, teachers, and others employed by the school system but NO COUNTY COMMISSIONER OR SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER WILL CUT SPORTS BECAUSE THEY WILL NEVER GET RE-ELECTED IF THEY MAKE THAT VOTE!

It looks like you are new to our website. I have been a moderator on this site for over 8 years and I have always posted on here using my name. There are many other coaches who use this site but folks don't know who they are. I don't really care what you think but in the digital age, coaches must learn to use every medium to stay in touch with not only their players but also the fans. As for the number of hours we spend coaching and teaching... try having this schedule: Monday-Thursday 7AM to 7 PM (Coaching/teaching) Friday 7AM to 2AM (Saturday Morning) Saturday Radio Show at 8:30-10 AM Breakdown film 11AM to 1PM Spend time with the wife watching college football for a few hours on Saturday afternoon Put in about four hours of work Saturday night All day Sunday from 9 AM to 6 PM coaches meetings and putting together a printed game plan for the next week. This is what most coaches do throughout the week. Checking out ESPN or YAHOO Sports or CoachT is the only leisure time most of us have... no golf, no fishing, no long hikes on the beach during football season... just coaching! BTW thanks for joining CoachT... maybe your should think about becoming a CoachT Plus member? The cost is cheap and you will enjoy the benefits of full membership.

That's good news, glad to hear it.

Nitro, will your big runningback be back this week or is he still on crutches?

I told you guys Blackman was good this year! They have the talent to go far! Good luck to both teams.

There are some great fans in Franklin County! I have met many of them since moving here in April. Yes, every community has a few of those who find fault with things, that is to be expected. I guess it is human nature? It has been several years since this school had a winning season. Coach Mantooth had rebuilt the program during his time here and we hope to reach back to some of those positive things he had accomplished as head football coach. Red had some good teams back in the 90's but it has been a while and I know the fans are restless for something to cheer about... This Rebel football team has some talent, however, they have to learn to play as a team for four quarters of football and learn to trust in each other. In the first quarter we saw what they are capable of and I believe we will see that again very soon! It was good to see them come out and start well... we just need to sustain the energy and enthusiam for four quarters. The Freshman Class won it's first home football game. They looked very impressive against a good Giles County freshman team. I choose to take the positive approach... I believe we can expect great things down the road at FCHS, but there will be growing pains and that is where we are at today. Fundamentals and consistency are what we need in every phase of the game. We appreciate the continued positive support of all the Franklin County faithful! We hope everyone will come out Friday night and support the Rebels! The boys would love to have another great crowd like the previous two outings! Come out and grill in the parking lot and enjoy a fun night of football in Winchester.

The headsets stopped working in the third quarter... of course, you could not have known that but you're reading too much into a situation isn't very productive. A much better first half, the Rebs will be just fine!

Great Job Warren County. Congrats to Coach Madewell. We will see all of the Pioneer fans next week in Winchester. Come early, tailgate, bring your family. We will have the grills fired up and a warm welcome for all of our friends from McMinnville!

I know coach Perry's staff worked hard to prepare their team for this game. Two great coaching staffs and two good football programs... Congrats to WCHS on another win. Good luck to both programs throughout the season!

My hat is off to the THS staff and team, they played very well and deserved the win. We played well in the first half but did not compete throughout the second half. John Olive always finds a way to win... Good luck down the road. Everyone is healthy on our side so we must re-group for Coach Madewell and his Pioneers who beat Shelbyville 14-0. Chris will have his team fired up and ready so we must work hard this week in practice and get ready. It will be a long weekend for me and my staff... but we have always known it would take time to rebuild this program. Thanks for all the FCHS fans who went on the road to Tullahoma. Two great schools and a wonderful rivalry.

Yes, we all understand that concept.... but it makes it very difficult for the officials. They have several things to look for other than just the numbers but the reason we have those numbers labeled as ineligible is to make calling the game much easier; otherwise, they would not call them eligible or ineligible. The formations do not bother me at all, William and Mary have ran various versions of this stuff for years but they have done it with five men numbered as lineman spread all over the field. Like I said this summer on the original thread... this just makes opponents waste practice time... that's the only reason I can see for a quality team like THS using it; to force others to spend an extra ten or twenty minutes of practice time preparing to defend it. AGAIN... the NFL and the NCAA does not have these problems because this scheme is not doable under their rules. If we take that approach we might as well allow all the arena league and Canadian stuff in too because those games are fun to watch but it is not football as we play it in the United States. I spoke to one of the guys who runs this stuff out west and he said no one out there thinks it will be legal next year.

The reason it needs to be changed is because it is not what the rule intended to do! Even the creators of the A-11 have said they don't expect it to last very long. It is not a new version of the spread offense! I would have no problem with that because we run a version of the spread. It is a full time fake PUNT formation. The intent of the rules of football are to have five ineligible football players (i.e. linemen) on the field on offense all the time. The only reason they made an adjustment for punt teams is to allow an "athlete" to long snap and to have more athletic players cover the punt after the snap at the O-line positions. It is taking advantage of the scrimmage kick exception in a way that was not intended by the rules of the game. The A-11 can't be used at the college or pro game; consequently, we should keep it out of the high school game. Again, it is taking advantage of a rule that was put in to help smaller schools with their punt team personnel. It was not designed to change the fundamental game of football. Someone asked why it is difficult for referees. If you have ever been a referee, you would understand. Referees can easily identify ineligble numbers down field (50-79) on pass plays but in this scheme, there are no lineman numbers and because of how quickly they shift, they will miss calls! Teams can run pole cat, and other such things (like William and Mary) without doing the A-11 stuff. It has been done for decades. The only real thing that bothers me about it is the fact that all 11 players have eligable numbers.

One of two ways: 1. Only allow the long snapper to have an ineligible number and require at least four ineligible numbers (i.e. offensive line numbers) on offense in the scrimmage kick or 2. allow the scrimmage kick only on 4th downs (i.e. punting situations). The real problem of the A-11 is with the referees. They are trained to look for certain things and this formation or scheme makes their job much more difficult. It is only legal in the NCAA if it is an "obvious kicking down." The NFHS does not have the last phrase added: "obvious that a kick may be attempted." The consideration is to change the wording to read "on 4th downs only," or something to that effect.

Not true. Sorry! There is an old thread on this message board about the A-11 from this summer. The NFHS is "reportedly" considering changing the scrimmage kick rule to eliminate this in the future but for now, it is legal. I hope everyone comes out to this game in Tullahoma. This is a huge rivalry between these two teams. It should be a good game.

Baby steps my friend... one foot in front of the other... Thanks...

DEL... thanks for coming to the game. The photos are very good. I hope players and parents from both schools will visit your site and buy some of the pictures! Again, great job! http://www.shutterfly.com/progal/album.jsp...498cf3c322a1502