Seldon

If Vestavia is travelling up to Bearden and Farragut THIS week, they'll be pretty lonely...both of them are on Spring break.

It's Farragut vs Bearden.....it'll be big and loud. Turner will have his guys ready to play....but will that be enough?

Offsides on a corner with posts being covered, huh? That's interesting. Sometimes ya gotta wonder what refs are thinking or seeing.

Farragut didn't finish second though they were the second best team there. They were in the same bracket as CBHS who won that game 2-0. Don't worry, the Admirals will only get stronger as the injuries heal and the season goes on.

zaphod, I'll have to check my schedule...loser buys... You don't happen to have an affiliation with McMinn do ya?...and maybe Newberry?

McMinn proved one of two things: either they are pretty good, or Bearden is nowhere near as good as in the past....perhaps both. Is McMinn playing in a tourney in Dalton later this season? If so, we may find out just how good they are.

Shots on goal were 24-11. Two goals apiece for Jared Britcher and Aaron Doyle.

Good (and probably accurate) point.

TDJ85, it's the Beech HS Invitational at Drakes Creek Park. Farragut, BGA, CBHS, Beech, Cookeville, Franklin (I think)....not sure who else.

That side of the bracket is stacked with Farragut CBHS and BGA. BGA gave Farragut a tough game last year in the Beech tourney. Farragut is still getting two of their better players back into shape after injuries and I don't believe another of their starting defenders will be ready yet. Should be a good test for all three teams.

Gee, downtheadmirals, that shows great depth of thought; let's evaluate: last year FHS was undoubtedly the better team, but they lost their best defender, one of their two top midfielders and their third leading scorer. Bearden lost their best defender, all of their scoring power, most of their midfield, and the second best keeper in the KIL. FHS has the co-KIL player of the year and three All-KIL players coming back, including their top two scorers; BHS has NO All-KIL players returning. Yeah, I can see where you think Bearden will be better than Farragut. Now Oak Ridge??? THAT should be a good game.

Whatever albert. Its great for you to support your team. Personally, give me Aaron Doyle, not only in East TN, but the State in general. When you score against the big dogs, you're the leader of the pack.

Legolas give a good account of the game. The McCallie keeper in the first half made some GREAT saves. Farragut dominated play in the first half but McCallie packed the defense back and FHS couldn't finish. Doyle made a great play and follow-up for FHS's goal. McCallie played fairly even in the second half. Their goal was the result of a muff by FHS's back-up keeper an a cross and a heads up follow-up by McCallie. Looked like both teams need some work but should do fine during the season.

Guesswho, albert doesn't bother me. What I think is funny is that I never mentioned anyone in specific, much less anyone from McMinn. It was just a general statement. But BTW albert, if you're reading this, just how many goals did your boy score against Farragut last year? Shots on goal? 'Nuff said.

Well, albert, obviously reading comprehension is not your strong suit. Hoya has it right. I can go play against Green Valley Developmental Center and score 10 goals a half; that doesn't mean I can score against actual athletes. It's all relative. Scoring a hat trick against Meigs County isn't comparable to scoring even a single goal against Bearden or Farragut or Catholic or Baylor or Houston or any strong team. You need to get out more.

Well first of all, Guesswho, I don't know who is "on here" but I do know that for the past few years there have been some guys who have score a lot of goals but when they faced serious competition, they were no threat at all. There are teams in ET that simply don't play high-level competition on a consistent basis during the season and rack up big numbers against under-manned teams. All you have to do is watch these "finishers" against the really good teams and it becomes obvious. If you can't acknowledge that then there is really no sense discussing the matter. No knock against anybody, that's just the way it is. But for past history, just look at teams like Farragut and Bearden for example. They have gone out of their way to seek out the best competition both in and out of TN since ET doesn't offer an abundance of competitive teams. Herbstrit at Bearden and Doyle and Britcher at Farragut could finish against the best of 'em.

Some of you are missing a few points here...Some guys score a lot of goals, but against who? Does scoring a lot of goals against sub-par competition or scoring several goals in a blowout really mean a player is a "finisher"?

Would someone like to explain to me why Bearden is ranked #3? They lost the 5-6 best players on their team and there was a huge drop-off between them and the rest of the team. They lost most if not all of their midfield, ALL of their scoring punch and their keeper. I don't see them making it out of the region, much less #3 in the country.

Here's one for ya Class, four of the five worst performances Farragut had last year were against Bearden (the other was against Sevier Co.) FHS was clearly the better team last year. As for this year, what are y'all gonna do for offense without Victor and Herbie?

In many cases, the level of coverage is related to how well the school (or persons associated with the school) develop relations with the media outlet. If a team is successful AND boosters, coaches, etc. are persistent in contacting the TV stations and KNS, providing them with information, and requesting coverage, and basically "hounding" them, the level of coverage will increase. I am a supporter of a Knox County school's spring sport and I have every local TV sports anchor's email and phone number as well as the email and phone for the KNS sports department. I continually emailed and called every one of them prior to and after every contest (except Mark Packer, who only cares about UT sports and looking good on TV). The coverage increased drammatically.

Class, thanks for the response. Where do you get your information; an inside source perhaps?

class, do you have a source (e.g. link) for your info?

I agree about Matt Blair. He may be the best "all-around" player in the State right now.

rickk5561, A poster after my own heart. Great response.

From what I've seen, Farragut should be fairly strong and both Science Hill and Oak Ridge return the bulk of their teams. It will be interesting to see what Turner can do with Bearden. They still have some strong players returning but they lose a lot at all positions (forward, mid, defense) except keeper.