firstbasetn

For me it began and ended with the late Tom Hamrick at Blankenship Field. He's the gold standard to me, having grown up listening to him announce ORHS games. When I began to do PA work myself, my style emulated from Tom and the late Marshall Mann, who was the PA announcer for Braves games at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Guy also does an outstanding job and I also enjoy the work of Greg Judkins over at "Merryville".

Congratulations to Coach Blade and his staff and the players for their semifinal appearance this year. This program has been through much adversity in the last few years so it's gratifying to see the kids see it through and work through the playoffs away from Blankenship. Also congratulations to Mike Mullins for his AD of the year award. This program has turned the corner and has a lot to build on thanks to the leadership on this team. Best wishes to Jose Valedon as he continues his football career at Vanderbilt.

Congratulations to the Pirates and their fans for a great game today and for winning another gold ball

Hi everyone, On behalf of Jennifer Basler, Cooper (Shawn's now two-month old son) and the rest of the Basler family, we want to take the time to thank you for all of the best wishes, the calls and the visits while Shawn has been in the hospital. The outpouring of support and love from coaches, players and fans has been overwhelming. Shawn is improving slowly each day, however please keep the family in your thoughts and prayers while he is on the road to recovery. Thanks again and please keep the Baslers in your prayers. Greg Addington

Excellent work Catback. To add to the information provided, along with Jack Armstrong Stadium, which was named for Coach Armstrong in the 90s, Blankenship Field was named in honor of Dr. Alden H Blankenship, the first superintendent of the Oak Ridge City Schools. As was the case of most of early Oak Ridge, he didn't have much time to get the school system running. He had exactly 90 days to recruit staff, secure buildings, school supplies and establish the curriculum.

Coach Young has always been a class act. Regardless of whether he was at Bearden, Oak Ridge or CAK. Good luck in your retirement Coach!

There is nothing specific that is mentioned in the NFHS rule book that I have from last year. It's completely at the discretion of the game officials as to whether the use of a noise maker is subject to a penalty.

According to NFHS rules....... - Signaling ready for play is completely at the discretion of the referee. More often than not since there was some confusion as to the ruling on the field by team B, the ref will give that team the benefit of the doubt and make sure they are aware that there was no turnover on the play. - The rulebook does give officials discretion on penalizing nonplayers for indicating objections to an official's decision and attempting to influence a decision by an official, however the intent of the rule appears to be only for coaches, substitutes, trainers or other team attendants. Sideline warnings and penalties are only for violations of team players and coaches outside of the team box. In that instance, the more appropriate penalty would have been an unsportsmanlike conduct instead of a warning in that situation. To footballisgreat, if I understand the question correctly, the spot at the end of the game for the team that trails is for statistical purposes so that the proper stats can be credited to the player on that final play.

I have last year's version of the NFHS rule book. The non-contact unsportsmanlike conduct by nonplayers rule (rule 9, section 8, article 1) does not specifically mention bands or when they may or may not play during the course of the game. Examples are listed within the rules (for example, profanity, disrespecting a game official, unauthorized conferences, use of tobacco, etc) however the rule specifically states that penalties are not limited to the examples listed, so it's up to the discretion of the game officials. There's nothing I can find at the TSSAA website that specifically addresses this either, so again, it appears that everything points back to the discretion of the game officials as to whether or not the band playing on would bring out the yellow hankies. Hope this helps.

I would also enjoy seeing some of the smaller schools get TV time, however many of the smaller school facilities don't have the lighting that a live TV broadcast would require and there would be some complexities in getting a satellite truck and all of the associated gear in some places. It's a shame. Many smaller schools simply don't have the money to install more lights and don't have the space. All of that aside, I've seen quite a few A games that would have been very entertaining to watch on the small screen.

Region 2-AA at Loudon High School Austin-East 85 Fulton 46 Austin-East plays Seymour @ 9 tomorrow night

Region 2-A at Oneida High School Oliver Springs 38 Oneida 37 Oliver Springs plays Greenback @ 8 tomorrow night

Region 1-AAA at Greeneville High School Daniel Boone 36 Morristown West 43 Morristown West plays Greeneville @ 8 tomorrow night Region 1-AA at Union County High School Pigeon Forge 51 Unicoi County 45 Pigeon Forge plays Gatlinburg-Pittman @ 8 tomorrow night For no extra charge, two NCAA men's scores.... Duke 72 Florida State 77 Final Kentucky 52 2nd half Tennessee 50 15:02

Region 1-AAA at Greeneville High School Greeneville 60 Tennessee High 42 The Lady Greene Devils will face the winner of Daniel Boone/Morristown West Region 2-AAA at Sevier County High School Karns 58 Farragut 64 Heritage 53 Powell 79 Farragut plays Powell @ 8 PM tomorrow night Region 1-AA at Union County High School Gatlinburg-Pittman 74 Elizabethton 71 The Lady Highlanders will face the winner of Unicoi County/Pigeon Forge Region 2-AA at Loudon High School Seymour 63 Loudon 44 The Lady Eagles will face the winner of Fulton/Austin East Region 3-AA at Sequatchie County High School Brainerd 65 McMinn Central 79 The Lady Chargers will face the winner of Chattanooga Christian/Tyner Academy Region 2-A at Oneida High School Coalfield 36 Greenback 39 The Lady Cherokees will face the winner of Oneida/Oliver Springs

According to the News Sentinel: Greenback 39 Coalfield 36 Tough luck come tourney time Lady Jackets. Congratulations for a good 2005-2006 season.

WB20 lists the games on their broadcast schedule for Friday and Saturday, including a 30 minute preview 'Road to the Blue Cross' which is scheduled to air at 4 PM on Friday.

My take is that any of the three were deserving of the award and I am sure there are many Ravenwood fans out there that believe that TC Jennings deserved it as much as Gaston or Spencer. I think these are the three best in the state. Spencer and Gaston's running styles are different, so comparing them together is like comparing apples to oranges. I think on any given night, any of the three could be the best in the state just depending on how everything shakes out. I want to add my congratulations to Gaston and to Riverdale. While I am disappointed that Spencer didn't win, I know to him that what happens with the team is more important than individual awards.

I have a couple of observations on the game I wanted to share.... Oak Ridge came out early and set the tone of the game. Connor Gulmire threw the ball very well early and was able to complete key passes downfield. Revel Coffey was a force on both sides of the ball. The poster that referred to Riverdale's DB falling down on the TD pass to Alonzo Douglas was correct, however I'm not sure that it would have made a difference had he kept his feet. That's one of those things we'll never know for sure. Riverdale did not want Spencer Gulmire to beat them, and early on, they kept him bottled up. Toward the end of the game, Spencer was able to get good yardage as it seemed the Wildcat offensive line was able to open up some running lanes for him. I think Oak Ridge's defensive front was able to get enough pressure on Thomas to make him tenative at times. Gaston Miller scared me to death early in the game. He was very quick to the hole, made great moves past the line of scrimmage to get past OR's linebackers a few times and definately showed to me why he is a Mr. Football finalist. Riverdale was a classy bunch. I saw several times where a Warrior player congratulated a Wildcat player after a play. As far as attendance goes, the home reserved stands were packed, I believe the lower stands were also (although I didn't leave my seat to see). The visitor side was full except for the first couple of rows where visibility isn't good at all. I would put the total at between 10,000 and 11,000. I have never seen folks lining up on the bank between the visitor stands and the scoreboard. That was nice to see. As far as who gets what from the gate. TSSAA gets 50% of the gross receipts and are responsible for the game officials, chain gang, tickets, awards and catastrophic insurance. The home team gets 25% and are responsible for all on-site expenses. The visitors get the remaining 25% and are responsible for their travel expenses. The home team gets all concession proceeds, and .50 cents for every program sold with the remaining $2.50 going to the TSSAA. Riverdale fans, your team has nothing to hang their heads about, and I don't see that happening. I know the Warriors will be back in 2006.

I stand corrected cavsmaniac. My apologies! Good luck to all four teams on Friday.

Very true... Both teams face two tough teams wanting payback for regular season setbacks. Both games should be good to watch.

As long as both teams keep winning, the game would be held in Oak Ridge this year.

Oak Ridge is close to 10K seating at Blankenship Field. The official capacity listed by both the school system and The Oak Ridger is 7,500. In the AAA state title game against Germantown in 1980, the TSSAA lists the paid attendance at 8,175 (verification can be done by going to the TSSAA records site at http://www.tssaa.org/schdir/records/GetRecords.cfm and search under 'Show me all the state champions for School Year 1980-1981 and sort by sport'. When looking at Blankenship, there is plenty of seating outside of the visitor bleachers and the home side on the bank south of the steps. There are fans that sit on the top of the hill adjacent to both sides of the pressbox. The bank and the surrounding terrain within the stadium grounds can easily accomodate 10K+. Granted, this is all semantics, however there are some high school facilities out there that can accomodate that size crowd. I imagine that catastrophic insurance for all of the playoff games across the state is incredibly expensive and I applaud them for providing it on a statewide level. I don't agree with all of the decisions that come out of their office, and I do think that they could make all of their financial records public and easily accessible on their website (I did a little searching there this morning, but didn't find anything, however if I am wrong and it is in there somewhere and someone knows, please point it out). I think financial disclosure is important for any non-profit organization and in that, the TSSAA is no different.

Just an observation from someone who saw their first Coalfield-Cloudland game... It was everything I thought it would be from what I have heard from the past games between the two schools. It was a hard fought, well played game by two teams that obviously respect each other. The Cloudland defense played hard and did a great job creating turnovers and had the Coalfield offense bottled up for much of the night, but just ran out of gas there at the end and didn't have any answers for that final Coalfield drive. I thought Winchester played well. He made good throws when he needed it up until that last gasp pass. Jordan Buck played well on both sides of the ball, created turnovers and had a few key catches. It's a shame that Horney had to go out so early (I believe I heard from some of the Cloudland folks that he injured the ankle a week or so ago?) One of those games that makes high school football great, but Cloudland, you should be proud of those kids. They definately have my respect.

I agree with Indian in that there's really no way to compare the scores of games across the state and project what will happen once the playoffs begin in a few weeks. Thankfully that's why they're played on the field. I also think that Trousdale's the team to beat on the eastern side of the bracket as far as punching a ticket to Murfreesboro.

rSquared, Looks like the 1st seed from Region 2-A will host 3 games this year and possibly a fourth. First two rounds are always by higher seed. Since this is an odd year, top bracket in quarters and semis host which would mean that should the Region 2-A champion continue to advance, they would travel to a Region 1 site and then be back home for the semi's, assuming they advance beyond the quarterfinals. There is a caviat to this (isn't there always?) Should a Region 2 team advance from the upper bracket to the quarterfinal round and face the Region 2 champion, the game would be hosted by the higher seeded team.