crazzyness

They probably couldn't have gotten this thing going again till at least after 10 right?? Then what? Folks don't get home till well after midnight. And that's only IF no more thunderstorms popped up behind it.. It's a Thursday, adults have to go to work and kids need to go to school tomorrow. There's more important things at play than finishing a non region football game. I mean, yeah it sucks they didn't get to finish, but let's have some perspective here.

Friend, with all respect, if you think the drop in officials isn't directly correlated with the increasingly brazen and disrespectful behavior displayed by fans (mostly parents,) you've been out of the vocation too long to give an accurate assessment on the matter. Nearly everyday, you can scrounge through regional newspapers and find fresh stories about officials being abused/assaulted/mugged/stabbed/shot. These aren't isolated incidents. This is a growing reality. Retention rates and want for better pay are factors too, but those are both directly tied to the disrespectful, all too often violent behavior being shown towards officials anymore. If fans weren't as bad, we could retain more officials. If pay was better, we'd have more officials willing to put up with it. Concerning retention rates, in my local association, I'd imagine our 3 year retention rate for new officials is around 15%, especially in basketball and baseball. If we could just get one in three new guys to stick around, we'd be bringing in more than are retiring every year, but folks don't see putting up with the abuse as worth it.

When in the history of interscholastic sporting events has some no-name vagabond, with no ties to either school, appeared out of thin air to pay admission into an event so they can make a scene and be ejected, just to disappear like a fart in the wind never to be seen or heard from again? Let's be realistic and leave the strawman arguments at home.

Sure, the TSSAA, as a whole, is completely inept, with poor leadership. That said, what does that have to do in particular with this matter? The TSSAA has no way of controlling spectators at any particular sporting events at any particular time. Game administration, on the other hand, does. Be it the AD, principal, or whoever is assigned the job that night, the game administrator's job is to make sure the event goes smoothly. That includes getting a handle on rude, disrespectful, and belligerent fans BEFORE it becomes an issue.

It's about darn time for something like this to be implemented. If the hosts school's game administration would act proactively instead of reactively, 95% of fan issues would be resolved before there was ever need for anyone to be removed from the game.

Agreed, they've done J Fred up to be an impressive place to watch football. But it has to be arguably the worst place in America to watch a baseball game. Every seat is a terrible seat.

You've normally got some pretty darn good takes sir, but imma have to absolutely disagree on this particular one. In a perfect world, IMO, baseball would begin alittle later, and the TSSAA would finally concede that trying to have everything wrapped up before June is just too compressed, and have baseball continue after traditional school ending dates. I'd really like to see the regular season start a week or two later, wrap up the regular season the Thursday or Friday prior to Memorial Day, then come back and crank up the post season after the holiday weekend. I mean, in Tennessee, we play regular season football for 11 weeks, regular season basketball for 13 weeks (and a post season that lasts over a month,) and regular season baseball for (checks notes) 7 weeks?!??!? That's absolutely ludicrous, trying to get in a 30-40 game regular season PLUS the entirety of the post season in only 10 1/2 weeks. All the while, basketball gets nearly 19 weeks for a 25-30 game regular season and postseason. Baseball in this state is just entirely far too compressed. *Edit* After rereading what I typed, I suppose we could also help things out if we didn't drag basketball out for 4 1/2 months in this state.

Agreed, the contact created by the runner was somewhat excessive. That said, the guy in 3rd was absolutely obstructing the runner's path. Directly on the bag, without the ball. IF the game continues (I'd honestly be surprised if it did,) if officiated correctly, that runner should be granted home by rule. Wether he had intent to advance to home is irrelevant in NFHS rules. Once the runner is obstructed, by rule, he is awarded the next base. (6-1-H.2 NFHS)

Oh, well just pardon the the heck out of me!!! Would it make you feel better if I went back and replaced "3B" with "the fielder standing on 3B?"

There was an extremely moderate collision (obstruction) with a runner rounding 3rd and 3B just standing on the bag with his teeth in his mouth on a shot down the right field line. There was no immediate play at 3rd, I believe the runner was being held up, but he was still rounding and there were bodies bumping. Now allegedly, the runner spat on the 3B, maybe said some words. I couldn't confirm that from where I was sitting. What is clear cut though, is 3B absolutely waylayed the runner after that. Like Manny Pacquiao would have been proud of how fast the kid was landing punches. He was able to land a solid 5 or 6 punches at least before anyone got to him. Erwin bench clears; somebody flies outta Erwin bench like a missile and tackles the puncher. Pitcher then gets involved, then someone tags the pitcher a few times. By that time most, if not all of Elizabethton's bench has cleared. That was all I could clearly make out before complete chaos ensued. I don't believe any coaches fought. The stands were about 3 seconds from being a melee before a couple level headed parents backed each side down, I didnt see any pounches thrown in the stands. Just some pushing before it was quelled. Within 30 seconds both schools had administrative personnel on the field clearing their guys off. Hermitage was called, game was suspended. I'd imagine neither team has enough players to continue due to ejections. I'd personally be surprised if they're not both disqualified from post season.

I hate to say it, but no. Sure, Ramsey is a good arm, but they can't hit, they are error prone, they're fundamentally unsound, and they're undisciplined. I mean they're somewhat better than than they were last year, but that was bar none the worst team Unaka has ever produced in it's 80+ year history. If they win more than 5 games this year, it'll be a good season. UH is young and just not really that sharp, I think they'll end up in Murfreesboro come May just by process of elimination. NG is down. Hampton isn't very good. In district 2, I think Hancock County might come out on top, and they couldn't play dead in a cowboy movie. Coalfield is obviously the best team in section 1, and I'm not even sold on them being THAT good. Only other region 2 teams I see doing anything are Oneida or Greenback, and I don't see either of them bussing up to Johnson City and winning two games in a 3 day period. It's just not a good year for 1A baseball over on the far eastern side of the state.

Yeah, the sooner folks realize that MOST the officials in the higher profile games are there because they are: 1) butt kissers 2) yes men 3) part of the good 'ol boy clique And not because of their actual ability, then everything would make much more sense to them. Rules knowledge and hustle are secondary to politics. And this culture is promoted from the very top down. Also, they'd get much better consistency in the State Tournament if they let officials familiar with one another work games together, instead of just throwing 3 random fellas from different ends of the state on the court.

WG is just as bad as Unaka/Cloudland. And HV is even worse. CD graduates alot of their talent. SG loses a decent chunk, I think. Now, Johnson County? They had arguably the best JV/Freshman team in the area, regardless of classification. Plus Atwood's kid will be a freshman next year. The '24-'25 & '25-'26 Johnson County teams could be special.

Well I was referencing district 1A boys and the 2012 Cloudland team. But the same could be said for girls too, piggybacking a bit off of SG's stay in 1A.

Well Hampton will have a different make up next year, so it's kinda apples to oranges. That said, this season, I believe they very well could have made it to state in 2A, and I certainly think in 3A. They were better than Volunteer and Unicoi County.

Very true. Most folks don't think about it, but we've sent 4 of our 5 teams to at least the semi finals over the last 20 seasons. And Cloudland was soooooo close to making it that one year.

Hampton has gone ice cold. They're gonna let it slip away.

Middleton is certainly the favorite, but Hampton has the horses to pull it off. UH shot the ball absolutely horrible (by their standards) and they were still only down 2 with about 30 seconds left in the 3rd. So they showed Middleton isn't in a completely different echelon like alot of folks thought.

UH is making Middleton work for it, that's for sure.

I don't think UH has the horsepower to keep up with Middleton, unfortunately. If they shoot it as hot as they did the other day, I think they can make it interesting though. Either way, Herman has done a fine job coaching them this year.

When's the last time a Hampton team didn't make a single 3 point basket, and WON?? Had to at least been when White was still at the helm.

I don't know any details. But from the outside looking in, it certainly looks like this "school" was conjured up so this cat could have his travel basketball team play school ball.

Let's hop in a time machine and talk about the small schools that won state before classifications. Linden '55-57? Hampton '60? Would they belong in this conversation?

They must play some pretty tough ball up there in District 1

Hampton came out hot, which is kinda their thing. Teams generally take 8-12 minutes to adjust to their defensive pressure, if they do at all. I expect the scoring to slow down some now.