sportsphan

They have only won one game and they are going to the playoffs. There is no mystery there. They are a new school that is AA in basketball and baseball, A in volleyball and soccer, and AAA in football. They are located halfway betweeen BradleyHigh and McMinn High. There football teams is the old Charleston team. I heard there runningback might not be playing Friday night. Anything else you want to know.

Walker Valley is coming off a big region win. They may be able to pull and upset.

Let's see, Districe 5AAA has Bradley, Cleveland and McMinn all great girls traditions and all three with bright young players. Then you have McMinn Central who may be the best team in the state and Tellico with the Swanson girl and Walker Valley with Heidi Rominger back. I think this area of east Tennessee may be the best in East Tennessee. Maybe not in the whole state.

Unless McMinn and Bradley have to see each other before the region finals I see them both going to substate but i don't think neither one of them can win in the substate. Cleveland will not go very far in the end because they have too many people who want to be stars. They have two girls that moved from Polk to be stars and one that should be going to McMinn but it wasn't good enough for her. Two that should be going to Walker Valley. So in the end, it will be Bradley and McMinn.

Fallon Lee and Ashley Hardaway

McMinn Central and McMinn County are cross town rivals and will match up Central who went to the state in both girls and boys last year with McMinn County a triple A powerhouse in both girls and boys. People say that Central's girls are the best in the state this year and McMinn boys have Juan Smith one of the best guards in triple A. Interesting!!

Add to your list of good players, Juan Smith from McMinn. He should be a gimme. Then you need to have Hare and Pickel from Bradley and McGuire from Walker Valley.

I vote for Coach John Mullinax who wins every year with not as much talent as Bradley and Cleveland.

I think that McMinn will win the district regular season and Hardaway will be the MVP. Then I think that Cleveland will be second and Bradley third. Cumberland and Rhea will not place at all. In tournament Bradley will upset everybody like always and Holly Rogers will eb tourney MVP because Bradley will not have a standout. That is why I think they will win the tournament is because they will play as a team and Cleveland will not. McMinn always chokes at tourney time but I think they probably have the best players overall. Bradley probably has the weakest team but somehow will end up being good again.

When Bradley played McMinn it was Hare and Pickel that killed them last year, in one game I think Pickel had 30 points and in the other game it was Hare that killed us. In both games though Juan was the big player for McMinn and kept the Cherokees in the game. So you don't really wanna mess with any of them or Cooper from Cleveland. Any of these four can get hot and kill you. Watch out for another junior in the AA division, his name is Evan McGuire. Last year he transferred from bradley to Walker Valley and scored 6 or 7 threes against McMinn Central last year in one game.

I agree with you on this post, cept you gotta add Hare and Cooper to that list. Our district has four of the top fifteen players in my opinion, and Smith is a top five one. He is also one of the best football players in the state.

How many of these can actually make all state? Is it possible for two from the same teams to make all state like Wadley and Skogan or like Hare and Pickel? Do you have to play on a good team to make all state because that wouldn't be fair to Juan Smith or Ben Britt. I think all these guys are good players and maybe shold all be all state in regular season.

Juan has to do everything himself or McMinn would be good in basketball too. He does alot on the football field but the difference is that he has alot of good players around him and that is why the football team is good.

In district 5AAA, there are probably five of the top 25 players in the state that are juniors. I will rank them the way I think they are the best: Juan Smith Justin Hare Kellen Pickel Tim Cooper Cory Pugh

To Gomab: Just wondering how many of the players you have seen play high school ball or are the players put on your list because of aau. The ones I saw on your list are good. I don't know some of the players. Jujuan Smith is very very very talented. There is nobody else on his team so he has to do it all. Sometimes that makes him not look as good but sometimes it makes him look even better than he is in the stats because he has to do all the scoring. I think the same thing with Lee Humphreys. He is very good too but his stats are even better because nobody else does much. Wadley and Skogan have to share the points, assists, and rebounds. If you judge by stats, then that makes them not look as good. BUT they did direct their team to a state championship last year. Hare and Pickel-- same story. They got a lot of glory because they were surrounded by great players, but they did not have the impressive stats because they shared with other good players. Again, they directed their teams to a state tournament game. Will they be able to do that this year? When you look at how good a player is look and see how he performs agains the good teams. Not all players play aau. One junior at the AA level that you might want to check out is Evan McGuire. With some exposure, and a chance to prove himself, he can shoot as good as anyone you have on your list. I am not complaining about your list. Just been reading the messages about the top players and your top juniors. There really are alot of good juniors, there are alot of good freshmen too that you will hear about this year. I do like reading your lists. But I disagree that the talent is better in middle tennessee, not better, but maybe just as good. [Edited by sportsphan on 9-24-02 1:57P]

To Gomab: Just wondering how many of the players you have seen play high school ball or are the players put on your list because of aau. The ones I saw on your list are good. I don't know some of the players. Jujuan Smith is very very very talented. There is nobody else on his team so he has to do it all. Sometimes that makes him not look as good but sometimes it makes him look even better than he is in the stats because he has to do all the scoring. I think the same thing with Lee Humphreys. He is very good too but his stats are even better because nobody else does much. Wadley and Skogan have to share the points, assists, and rebounds. If you judge by stats, then that makes them not look as good. BUT they did direct their team to a state championship last year. Hare and Pickel-- same story. They got a lot of glory because they were surrounded by great players, but they did not have the impressive stats because they shared with other good players. Again, they directed their teams to a state tournament game. Will they be able to do that this year? When you look at how good a player is look and see how he performs agains the good teams. Not all players play aau.

Then you have Walker Valley another team in the same region that is 0-4. These teams can advance to the region with one simple win against the other one. How sad is that! Then you will have some teams in other regions staying at home with 5-5 records. I predict Sequoyah in overtime 6-0.

What about Jujuan Smith, Evan McGuire, and Justin Hare, three of the premiere players in the area. All three are as good as the ones that you have named.

Justin Hare, not Josh, he is his brother. Justin is good but not as good as Juuan Smith. Kellen Pickel, Justin Hare and the guy from Maryville are all good guards but I think Juuan Smith would be better than any of them if he was on a good team that made it to the playoffs like the other players.

Hare,Pickel, Cooper, and Smith all were major as sophmores on their high school teams last year. Look for a newcomer to this group.. Evan Mcguire from Walker Valley is the next big name to look for. [Edited by sportsphan on 9-10-02 1:11P]

Don't you have to be invited to go to this camp? Can anybody go? Can sophmores go or just seniors and juniors.

Coach High at Brainerd always has a good team.

I think McMinn County is going to win their region. Mullinax does a great job at McMinn. Does anyone else think he is one of the best around here?

I don't think that people don't respect Walker Valley. I just think that they know they don't play the kind of people that Cleveland and Bradley does and that is why they don't get looked at like those schools. It is just like Charleston used to be. They were great and were winners in there districts and divisions but they knew they couldn't be that successful in the AAA divisions. Everybody I know thinks Walker Valley did great in there size schools, Eventually they will earn respect when they play and beat teams like Cleveland and Bradley. If they beat Cleveland in football and basketball this year I bet they will earn the respect that you want them to have. In a few years they will be as good as Bradley, Cleveland and McMinn. People should just give them time. [Edited by sportsphan on 9-6-02 10:22A]