ie3

Is Zack Potter at Elizabethton seeded?

We've had one sign with Tusculum, and one that will probably sign with Emory and Henry. Any word on that all star team?

Everyone asks about participation rates versus outcome of games. Numbers do count in football. North Greene was on the field at Knox Catholic this year (can't say it was really a game), they brought the biggest team they have had in years, 24. Knox Catholic dressed 66 (I counted), and every player played. By the time the second, and third, and fouth stringers made it into the game, NG's entire team had played and was exhausted facing countless fresh opponents. Yes, I know Knox Catholic is DII, but the schools are almost identical in population. I almost said size, but that brings alot more into it. The number of players on the field matter, period.

Tusculum signed Eric Collins 6-5 320 lb Offensive Lineman today. Eric is from North Greene in Greeneville. Nice to see a local guy getting a chance.

For those with access to an NPR station, The Radio Reader is featuring Bleachers by Grisham at this time. Locally for me, WETS has this on from 12:00 to 12:30, makes for a pleasant lunch!

For something alittle off the wall and fun, try Harry Turtledove. His speciality is alternative history with alittle scienceficiton thrown in. but he's a good read.

Red, Kids are kids, whether they are in GA or FL or TN. The difference is the coaching, support, and facilities. Not to mention perception. And before you ask, yes, I've seen them play in all 3 places as well as a few others.

I was looking at the roster and didn't see some names I fully expected. Then, following ELA's lead, I checked the full school list on the website. Hmm..... almost none of the 1A schools I expected to see, that might be why I didn't recognize any 1A players from my area on the team....

Pujo, I know things are in an uproar on the mountain, but man, what's going on with the landers? Any signees? Haven't been able to hear a thing down here in the flat land. That goes for the Rangers and Warriors too. All quiet here, need a football fix!

Man, I'm reduced to checking the local rags just to get a sniff of the ol pigskin..... isn't it spring practice time anywhere?!

I'll have to take you word on Lowe King, I didn't get to see him play in high school. Hopefully, I'll get to see him play at TC. I think TC's biggest need right now is at OL, but they are working to solve that one. Should see some "big" things in the next few days.

I think that Colclaugh getting the attention he has, and the demise of ETSU (yes I am ashamed to be a grad!) have alot to do with it. Frankie Debusk even said so in an interview last night. Of course, being nationally ranked, and a share of the SAC championship didn't hurt either!

Still waiting for the final word, it looks as if they have a total of 30 transfers, 21 signed, and 10 more to sign. Still looking for a few OL, DB, and specialty. Could be a sign of the future!

kingbrian Are all of these guys going to try to play QB? Unless I miss my count, that makes at least 7 on the roster, and I'm not sure what all the JC transfers are. Rumor has it that they have 22 JC players coming this year.

Hmmm... only 10 small publics? What if entire county systems left as would seem likely in the event such a thing would happen. An example: Greene County 4 small publics Carter County 3 small publics Washington County at least 2 small publics Cocke County 1 small public Well, there is 10 in only 4 neighboring counties. Less travel I think. How many other counties are in the same boat? Morgan, Roane, Scott, Hancock, etc., etc.... And that's just in my neck of the woods.

Of course I read my Bible, I also enjoy alot of Scifi stuff, but my all-time favorite is War edited by Earnest Hemingway. It's a great collection of short stories from ancient times to Viet Nam all on the subject of human experience in war.

Gentlemen, I will step in to answer one question only, I care not for political diatribes. In fact, in all real issues in this country I can find not a whit of difference in any politician. Am I disgusted with politics, yes, and as an American that's my right. The question I would like to answer is: "Would you like to live in a Christian Theocracy?". My answer is a resounding YES! Let me explain. It is my dearest hope that every person can come to know Christ and strive to live as He lived. My Theocracy would be by the choice of the population, and based on Christian ideals. You know, those little things like love, respect, honesty, kindness, and all the other things we Christians sometimes forget in our zealousness. ELA, you are correct, much evil has been perpetrated in the name of religion. But, walking under the banner of something does not mean that the person is truely following those principles. Folks, remember that Jesus taught us to hate the sin, but LOVE the sinner. Even as Christ was driving the money changers from the temple, He did not hate them, He was remorseful for their souls. What I'm getting at is that at no time (at least to my knowledge) did Christ tell us to condemn anyone for their beliefs, but to nurture them and guide them lovingly back to the path to God. While I'm here I want to share an experience with you for this past weekend. I attended Resurrection 2004 with my Youth Group from church and had something wonderful happen. One of the young folks with us (an adult) was having a very extreme crisis of faith. Though raised a Christian, he was on the verge of dedicating his life to Islam. Saturday night this young man turned his life over to Christ! Brought tears to the eyes of this old man.

Wow! That makes the second very good QB Frankie Debusk has signed in two years. Cody Baugh last year, and Cory this year. Things are certainly looking up at Tusculum!

CTS (Coach T Ship) Oz!

I am adding a post from a Gun board I also visit. This is a North Carolina teacher talking, and while I don't necessarily agree with everything he says, he does make the same convincing argument that several teachers here make. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a long one, and I personally get bored reading long post, but you finally got me on a topic that I get fired up about. I occasionally give my two cents worth, but this is more like a buck fifty At risk of offending someone, which is one of the few things that I have found myself good at, I will share some of my opinions. First, public education appears to be falling off these days, but if you see this as a parent, and are not trying to spend extra time with your children to teach some of the things that you see as important, then you have no room to talk. Nobody should ever care more about the success of your children than you do,and this means that nobody should work harder for your children than you also. I would hope that we are all concerned enough about our children to work with them in various ways to not only help educate them, but also to show them the importance of education. Get rid of the darn video games, and get them involved with reality and not just fantasy. Get them outdoors and active. (helps with the huge obesity problem too) Once they learn to appreciate the world, and are curious about more than the key to winning another video game, maybe they will take an interest in learning something new. I see a lot of kids in the school system, and the ones that spend time in nature, hunting and fishing, and appreciating the world, always seem to perform a little better, and be much more self sufficient than others. I am a veteran school teacher, and teach 7th and 8th grade, and I think our education system absolutely stinks if you are the parent of an average to above average child. I am personally sick and tired of these ###### test that supposedly test the education of children. Teachers have learned to teach a test and not the children. In NC, the test is about math and communications (English for anyone older than 25, but they really don't give a darn about true English any more, just reading and comprehension). Science is what got us where we are today, and history is a study of the past to help guide us into the future and realize cycles, and we are not teaching that very well either. If you are special ed student, then you get lots of extra attention, extra money spent on you, smaller classrooms, more resources. By the way, by federal law, special ed includes gifted students as well as challenged students. If you have an average kid, your child is the one most likely to be neglected. I often wonder why we don't find the lawyer that won the tobacco lawsuit and file a class action suit against the federal government for passing laws that discriminate against our children, and basically neglect them in comparison to special ed kids. As much as I hate to admit that there is any way that I criticize my commander in chief, Bush really screwed up the schools with this no child left behind act. Schools are now evaluated on getting ALL students performing to the same level. That means that we get a report, and we are suppose to have mentally handicapped kids, hispanic non-english speaking kids, ghetto kids from drug families, and about every other classification of kids, performing at exactly the same level. If the upper and middle class white kids from the nice areas of town have an 80% passing rate on these stupid tests, then we have to do whatever it takes to get all of the other kids to that exact same level. That means spend all our time on the low performers. Of course, any idiot should be able to see that we now will be spending less time with the high performers, which will make their scores go down. Eventually they will all meet in the middle and be equal. Now we get back to the importance of teaching history in our schools. Maybe we realize that everyone being equal is a big step toward socialism. But they do not test History in school any more, so it must not be that important. On the flip side, I was quite a math whiz in school, and some of the math that kids are doing now is beyond me. Hopefully it has just been too long since I have done it, but it is more difficult than I remember math being when I was in the same grade. SAT scores have also gone way up. When I was in school I made a 1250 on the SAT and was the highest score in our school, now scores like that are very common. Is the test getting easier or are the kids getting smarter? I don't know. I do have to add in however, that I have teachers in my school that should never have graduated high school. There is so much special consideration given to minorities today, that I actually have minorities in my school that are certified teachers, and they can not even form a grammatically correct sentence. Of course they have graduated from a 98% minority college, and are now back in the school system trying to teach. Now this is one heck of a cycle of education going down hill fast. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? I think all of you that want to make a positive difference should contact your congressional representatives and express to them your concerns, and get as many other people as you can to do this also. Teachers are only doing what we have to do to try to meet the standards that the government sets for us to meet. We are just following the rules. For some reason all of the government leaders think that another darn test is the answer, and all that teachers are doing is teaching a test. That is the problem with your geography lessons, or science lessons. I ask my 8th grade students today who Neill Armstrong is, and they had no darn clue because that is not on the test. If you do not think that America is in trouble because of education, then look around at all of the doctors, engineers, computer experts, and scientist, and figure out what percentage of them have Asian names. I think the best summary I can make is this: My wife and I are both public school teachers, and I work extra jobs, just so my children can go to private schools. I do not want my kids to be dumbed down to the level of every economically disadvantaged, non-english speaking minority that is dealing crack on the street corner and doesn't give a @#%$ about education or life. After talking to several educators in the last few months, I'm beginning to see the faults of this legislation. But, as a parent, and someone in industry I can't help but wonder why there is not a way to take legitimate data on the performance of schools. My training tells me there must be a way, it's just finding the methodology.

For anyone that hates their TV, don't worry, we'll build you another one right here in Tennessee!

The more I think about it the more I like the Asian system. Year round, 6 days a week. If you schedule it right, teachers are more like college profs, only work a regular week (whatever that is, about 90 hours right now), and the kids have enough activities scheduled in to take out the burn out factor.

I was reminded of this story by the joke in the humor section. I didn't want to hijack that thread so I thought I'd put one here. This is a true story about some very special friends of mine. Randy and Liz (not their names) have 3 daughters a couple of years apart each. The first two were born and were very healthy, but the third was born with Down's Syndrome. This youngest daught you should all know, she is really a special person. Randy and Liz have devoted their lives to doing everything possible for her, special schools, special training, etc. You might think the other girls would be jealous, but they are not. This is what they did. On Show and Tell day, (I don't remember for which one), they took their sister with them. They brought her to the front of the room and told all the kids about their sister. They explained her condition, they told about how hard she works to do the simplest of things, and especially how priviledged they felt to be her sisters. Now, they may not have changed any attitudes toward the disabled that day, but they sure made their sister understand just how much they loved her and respected her. That's been almost 15 years ago now, and she still has to tell everyone she meets about her special sisters. A little love shown openly goes a long way.

ELA, You and I are both in agreement on the block scheduling thing. I believe it is an outgrowth of the short attention spans of todays....... what was I talking about????