bigwes68

I'm very proud of Lake County. Even though I have not been able to see any games since early January, I knew this team had the potential to do great things and they are peaking right when they need to be. Good luck in the region Lady Falcons!

Beechum-- Don't do all your talking on the message boards--do it on the floor tonight. If you think you belong among the West Tenn. elite, show everyone tonight by beating Trenton and bringing home our first district title since 1997. Trenton is a very good team and y'all are going to have to want it more than they do. Good luck.

USJ's complex is nice, but the three times I played on the field down there, I didn't care for it at all. It was nowhere near the best surface I played on in high school. Obion Central, Bruceton, Union City, Dyersburg, Crockett County all have very nice facilities. Haven't been to Dyer County's new stadium yet, but their old one was horrible. Lake County doesn't have a lot of amenities (yet), but it serves its purpose and the playing surface is always in terrific shape. Dresden, South Fulton, and Fulton City, KY were the all-time worst. I always hated going to Dresden more than anywhere just because it smells like a cow pasture and the field is always muddy.

KS-- What in the WORLD does "coo coo right right" mean? I've never heard that phrase in my whole life. And good luck Friday night, I think you have a decent chance if you play your best game.

KSluvsRVT (and I know what that stands for): You should know as well as anyone that the Lady Falcons have played WAY under their potential this season. I would hesitate to call the team "awesome" yet. I'm proud of y'all for getting the #2 seed in the district tournament, and I know you're capable of beating Trenton. Except for Trenton and Dresden, the region is pretty weak this year and I think LC has a CHANCE to advance past the regionals IF they play their best. The few times I saw y'all play over Christmas break, you only played to your potential once, and that was in the win over Crockett County. You also beat Dyer County, Bradford and Dresden on their home floors (never an easy task) so I know you are capable of pulling the upset in the district, but only if the team plays together and everyone gets the job done. [Edited by bigwes68 on 2-17-03 11:50P]

Never count out Lake County. They might not quite be able to compete with the likes of USJ and JCS (who can?) but in district and region play, they are always right in the thick of things.

Step No. 1 for the survival of football in Lake County: build a fieldhouse. That in itself might convince some of the talent to come out and play. Step No. 2 will be keeping the best football talent out of the gym. The basketball coach is already trying to convince the most talented eighth graders that football is not for them and that he won't let them play basketball if they play football. Might have worked at Obion Central, but it ain't gonna work in Lake County. We just don't have enough kids.

Doggy- I played from 1998-2000. I graduated in 2001. So I've been around for the rotten years. Our last winning season was 1996 (region champs, lost in 3rd round at St. Benedict 21-6), the year before I got to high school (I did not play my freshman year). My senior year we lost close games to Crockett County (13-0 and they were one of the best teams in West TN, all classes), Obion Central (37-34 on a blocked punt returned for a TD with less than 1:00 to play), and South Fulton (8-6 and we had about 7 turnovers). Turn two of those into wins and we are region champs and have a winning record. As it was we dressed 14 players for a first-round playoff game at Bruceton for my last-ever high school game after roughly half the team quit following the Week 10 loss to West Carroll. I thought that was the low point in LC football history, but 2002 proved me wrong. Since I am not currently in Lake County (I am a student at UTK), I don't get the chance to talk to a lot of people. But I believe the committee will make the right choice, whoever it may be.

Doggy- You're right, that's exactly what they need. I've been saying that ever since I played. I hope the search committee realizes this. They have a good committee--I personally know everyone on it and they all seem to know what's best for the program. Step one is to hire a coach that can get the job done. We're not expecting instant results, but I think everyone expects at least a home playoff game or two some time in the next 2-3 years. And I hope the new coach knows that the first order of business when he takes over is to get a fieldhouse built.

Predator, That's exactly what I'm saying. He's got a lot bigger talent pool to draw from at Dyer County, a brand new high school, a brand new stadium, and 2-8 is the best he can do? What's to make anyone think he can some to Lake County, a school with an enrollment under 250 and virtually no extra amenities, and improve on 0-10? NWhoopaholic--I didn't expect you to name any of the "dark horses" on the message board. I was just wondering if there was someone that I hadn't heard about. I already knew about Gallagher and a few others. I don't have the "insider info" like I did a couple years ago, you know.

I never heard if Garner officially applied or not. But it wouldn't make much sense to me to hire a coach who went 2-8 this year at a school with the talent pool of Dyer County to try to take over a team at a much smaller school that just went 0-10. NWhoopaholic--Who might some of these "dark horse" candidates be?

Rumors were circulating about Bobby Sharp (even from some of his family) way back before the season ended. However, he's got too good a thing going in Lewis County. To my knowledge, he didn't even apply for the job. A lot of people in the county want Rick Rice from Perry County, who coached at Lake Co. from 1991-92. The search committee also seemed very interested in one of the Marion County assistants, whose name I forget.

I played "Hells Bells" by AC/DC for our boys to run out to for three years, and they won the district championship every year. After I graduated, the new coach came up with some crappy mix of music, they played that last year, and stunk it up pretty bad. He might be one of the best coaches in Tennessee high school history, but he doesn't know anything about music.

Obion Central people, over a year later, still haven't gotten over the fact that LC now has Coach Whitby and OC doesn't. Simple as that. It's not so much that LC is getting their heads handed to them in every sport - Obion Central is 3-4 times the size of Lake County and we shouldn't be playing them anyway. Heck we almost beat Central 2 years ago, really should have won that game except for that our coach was an idiot. The only reason LC was playing Central to begin with is b/c it was a money game for both schools. Since Central is finally starting to have a decent football team, they can now play decent opponents. Lake County needs to take a hint from Greenfield and make their team look a lot better than they really are by scheduling the likes of Middleton, Adamsville, and Elliston Baptist instead of Obion Central and the Jackson private schools.

Lake County is dropping Obion Central in football and is highly unlikely to schedule them in any sport anytime in the near future. Obion Central's fans, particularly the student section, was extremely rude and offensive to the Lake County players two weeks ago, using repeated racial slurs and flipping them the bird. Attempts by Lake County's administration to have the authorities take care of the problem were unsuccessful as there was only one on-duty officer at the game at Troy and he would not cooperate with LC's principal and superintendent. I understand that Ripley had the same problems the previous week and their principal wrote a letter to TSSAA.

The worst field I ever saw was at St. Benedict in the 3rd round of the '96 playoffs. It had not rained in two weeks, yet their field was nothing but a solid mud pit. Word began to travel that SBA had practiced on the wet field all week, trying to gain some kind of advantage. It also ruined our cheerleader's shoes. They beat us (Lake Co.) something like 21-6. I heard the next week they did the same thing to Moore Co., only worse, and won that game as well. Then they got to Vanderbilt on dry turf and lost something like 55-3.