futfan

No. It was a collision. If a card was warranted, it should have been yellow at best. Definitely nothing about the play warranted a red, and I think the players and the fans in the stands from both sides agree on that. Not even Coach Purcell felt the red card was warranted. Quoting from Sunday's Tennessean: "Purcell didn’t feel the action warranted a red card. 'I am not sure what happened,' Purcell said. 'It was just another hard play. Nothing blatant or intentional.'" As usual, the majority of those posting to Coach T don't play for the teams they're talking about, and in this case, weren't even at the game, which just stinks. This was not a red card offense and it created a lousy situation for both teams. Both are excellent teams and both deserved the chance to meet at state in a fair and well-officiated match. TSSAA failed miserably in its duty to provide the highest quality of officiating at the state tournament. The result was a blow to the players from both teams. Several Hendersonville & Brentwood players play club ball together. The teams look forward to their school matches because of their mutual respect for one another. These ARE the two best high school teams in the state and they know it. Both teams wanted to play a fair and even match and both were cheated by not being allowed to do so. These are the best players and they deserve the best officials. They didn't get them. The center ref should never decide the game. When another team - with only 10 men on the field - sends up a defender who scores on you to take the lead, and then manages to hold you to a tie through the remainder of regulation, two overtimes and two sudden deaths, and you can only win in PKs - it's certainly not the "victory" you were looking for. When a team plays you that hard with only 10 men to your 11, you respect them and you know that with good officiating, the outcome could have been a lot different, but we'll never know, will we? We were all cheated because TSSAA failed to provide the two best teams in the state with the best officiating, which is a sad and sorry thing. Congratulations to both of us - we BOTH deserved better at state.

The Leaf Chronicle covered the game and the story is online. Not sure why it wasn't listed in the CoachT soccer news listings, but go to: http://www.theleafchronicle.com/apps/pbcs....D=2004410130331

For Hendersonville, Andrea Stefek scored one in the first half. Second half, Sarah Brandt scored a PK, to go on and score another goal later in the half. Brentwood's goal was scored by Kate Hughes.

Rossview and whoever wins gets to host the loser of the Brentwood-Franklin game, and the loser must travel to the winners home.

Hendersonville won, 7-0. Regional finals will be Thursday, 8pm, Drakes Creek Park Field #3, in Hendersonville.

RedBaron had it correct the first time. Sunday afternoon (Sept 7) Hendersonville won 5-1 over St Benedict. (Franklin won by that same score over St. Benedict, but that was Sat night). Full results are posted on the HHS Soccer website: http://www.hendersonvillesoccer.com It was Meredith Brandt of Hendersonville who was named defensive MVP.

Perhaps it is true that the game would be much more fun for those who play it if fields were built without parking lots or stands....

Methinks somebody at the Tennessean must read CoachT.com boards. Sunday's (May 4) edition carried a decent story(pg 9C) featuring Hendersonville (with a picture of Coach Plummer) and also Brentwood - noting the two teams' national rankings. Also had a box asking coaches to send in district tournament schedules. Let's hope this is the start of some better *continued* attention to this sport. After all, baseball/softball fields aren't the only fields seeing spring play! If Tennessean staff is reading this - thanks for the coverage - please keep it up!

Mapercy, does the Review Appeal cover local games played locally - or do they cover the *sport*? Do they provide region or state scores or standings ? Do they cover the local team if the game isn't at home? I'm not knocking local, hometown newspaper coverage of events in the hometown. But local coverage is really all a local paper is equipped to handle. Larger dailies, especially those the size of the Tennessean, cover sports on a much broader scale. We should be seeing stories not only about high school soccer across the region (and preferably with a statewide perspecitive), but also coverage of college soccer. There are several excellent college soccer programs in this state. Even at the club level, TN has some nationally ranked teams. But the Tennessean just ignores soccer at all levels. Of course, the Tennessean's got Joe Biddle, who neither understands, nor likes, the sport. Still, you'd think the demographics - with that prospect of additional advertising revenue - might cause a change of heart.....

Time to drop subscriptions to the Tennessean. 'Tis a sad, sad thing when the state's capital city daily barely acknowledges a sport as popular as soccer. You'd think somebody would be looking at the demographics - like the number of households (and associated household income) involved with youth soccer. Geeze, talk about a "missed opportunity." And of course, there's that "news value" thing - that 2 high schools in the Tennessean's back yard - Brentwood & Hendersonvlile - are showing up in national rankings. Hmm.....and the household demographics of those two towns are among the most appealing you'll find to advertisers. Maybe the Tennessean folks should take a look at the demographics of readers of US Youth Soccer Magazine: http://www.tpgsports.com/soccer/reader_demo.htm The Illinois Youth Soccer Assn has its demographics online: http://www.iysa.org/web/advertisingdemographics.html The TN State Soccer Assn doesn't have its demos online, but it does say it currently has 105 local member associations involving 47,000 youth and amateur players, more than 1,500 referees, 750 local administrators and 2,500 coaches. And TSSAA reports 231 high schools across Tennessee have soccer programs. Yet pick up the Tennessean, and you'd be hard-pressed to discover that anyone plays soccer in this state. So don't even bother to pick up a copy at all.