KWoodroof

Drop me a line at kwoodr@bellsouth.net

You have a brilliant, well thought-out post here. Might have gone on a sentence too long.

There's not one now.

I'm not aware of any problems with crowds in Williamson, or at Nashville private schools. I've not heard of any outbreaks at those schools, and I've seen some decent crowds. It seems to me that Metro is trying to do everything they can to extend the pain of this mess.

Glad to see there are at least some 9th grade programs still in existence. Those are vital to a school's varsity success, and should be more of a priority than they are at most places. And P-C's freshmen are always fun to watch.

People have been really creative. Last Friday's McGavock at Goodpasture was arranged less than 24 hrs prior to kick-off. It was an interesting atmosphere, with everybody seeming to be genuinely thrilled just to be playing football on a Friday night. From the PA announcer to the players, people seemed to unbelievably happy just to be at a game. I've followed high school football for over 50 years, and have seen it evolve into a pre-professional activity that runs year-round. Friday night, it was just a game for the kids and the school communities. much more in tune with the late 60's-early 70's. In the midst of a very difficult time, it's nice to see people rediscover the simple joy of a Friday night football game.

Prayers

I've followed your posts for a number of years, and always found them solid in terms of both football insight and an understanding of "this is how things are" factor. Do you see any enhanced risk because the metro teams haven't hit anybody "in anger" in almost a year, and unless they play another metro team, they'll be playing teams that are literally in mid-season form?

I know the poster and he has a great respect for your program. Trust me, he wasn't slighting P-C in any way.

It's not necessarily fair, but football is the major revenue sport. Some areas, through well-off families and sponsorships will manage to field winter and spring teams. Many systems will simply not be able to finance spring sports without football revenue. I'm not minimizing the spring sports, but none of them generate enough revenue to cover their costs.

He signed it as the President of the Independent Schools of Nashville. I don't know which private schools in the area schools are members, but I would suspect that most are. I have no inside information about this, but my guess is that he wouldn't have signed it with the group's name if there wasn't at least a consensus of schools planning to go along with it.

Sweetwater vs Sugar Land, TX and let's make it a Doubleheader, in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans

I've only seen Maryville play a few times, and that on TV, so I'm not very familiar with their history (just the general outline: they're good). I'd love to see one of the great Maryville 6A champions play one of the MBA teams from '66-'68. Obviously over the 50 year span, the styles of football are very different. Still, based on what I've seen of Maryville (and again, I acknowledge having seen very little Maryville football), they strike me very similar. Not really loaded with top college prospects or overpowering size, both were incredibly well-coached, highly disciplined, and unbelievably opportunistic. While we're at it, let's play two.

Thanks for remembering Skip. He was a very special character to the MBA family, and a really great guy.

Assuming Fayetteville prevails in court, what do you foresee? (Genuine question, not being rude or sarcastic)

One of the things that strikes me is the fact that most of the teams cannot field a freshman team. A 9th grade team is a good barometer of the health of a program. If you don't have enough players to fill out a team, you will see problems down the line. There will be a lot of attrition, in both the long run and the short term. Small freshman who might have played on a 9th grade team will avoid JV football involving much bigger players. Once they miss a year, they're unlikely to come back. Even with a freshman team, you have attrition: injuries, kids losing interest or developing others. The bttom line is that of you can't interest at least 25 of your freshman to enter your program, you're likely to have issues in both numbers and leadership in three years.

A field goal attempt is a punt that can score. It belongs to the defending/receiving team where the ball is downed (or returned). If the ball breaks the plane of the endzone, it is a touchback.

Mt Juliet at Cumberland (Bordeaux section of North Nashville) on 8 Sep 1967. Quite likely the first time a Black athlete had ever been on the field at Cumberland. Rainy night, celebrating my 6th birthday.

I believe they play at the old TPS field.

Tell Andy I said hello. I centered to him when we were 8th and 9th graders. Great guy.

Florida also does not have the "Sit out" rule. You can play for Plantation one Friday, and St Thomas the next. It was the result of a lawsuit in the '70's. I'm a little surprised nobody has filed a similar suit here.

In my view, there are a handful of issues. First, let's look at the schools, especially in areas like Metro-Nashville. The schools have been consolidated into a few large "centers." They're not necessarily representative of the surrounding area. In my younger days, I lived in Goodlettesville, and we went to Cumberland games (my dad's school), Goodlettsville/Madison/Hendersonville (all nearby), or to the top game in the area. Every public school had a decent turnout from the area. People might not have kids at the school, but they knew local boys on the team. It was a form of community entertainment, and that community doesn't really exist anymore. If you close a community's high school, it guts the community. Games outside the Davidson County area seem to draw better, but their crowds are less than they were in the 70's, because... There are a lot more options for one's entertainment money. I think back to '75 when I played 9th grade football at MBA. On a Saturday night, we filled the stadium for a championship game against McMurray. In Gallatin, Ryan and Gallatin drew 8,000 (again, 9th graders). Likewise, Cameron and Apollo drew a decent crowd at Antioch, even though the game was meaningless. But consider the alternatives. Locally, there was no NFL team. ABC showed ONE college game, and that Saturday it kicked off at 1:00 PM. There were a limited number of theaters, and at most they had 2 screens. There were 3 television channels, because I'm not counting the educational channel or channel 17, which was an on again/off again thing. It's not really an exaggeration to say that in that time, you could get excited about football, or you could go shoot squirrels. I try to explain to kids now that in '71, I was one of more than 22,000 people at Vanderbilt to see MBA play Ryan, a game in which the combined enrollments of the 2 schools was below 1,000. It's unfortunate, and not just in an "I'm an old man and I think things were better when I was younger," although I am and they were. But even with the issues that have arisen in high school football, it remains a great game. It's still a lot of young men (and women, if we include very athletic cheerleaders and talented bandmembers) who've worked very hard and put on a great show.

Schedule contacts are typically a two year thing. I'm not sure if this is the second season of the contracts, or if everybody is setting schedules for the next two seasons. Either way, it will be much easier for teams on E-H's schedule to find a replacement now, as opposed to in Aug or Sep, which would be the result if E-H tried to play 11 man football, and came out of fall practice, or week 3, with 7 capable players, and had to forfeit at that point.

Result when you have it, please Oops, just saw your post above...sorry

There was a time when that game was good for a short write-up and a picture in the Tennessean.