VolunteerGeneral

I`d love to hear the explaination from some Bruin or Eagle fans as to the logic behind going D-II. Thanks

And well he should have been shown the door.

I`m not necessarily a fan of Gibson County. I don`t even know any of the players or coaches on the team. However, my company worked at Gibson County the year before last on their new gym and I can say without doubt that these girls probably work harder than any team in the state. Throw talent out of the equation, these girls simply work very hard. It`s just refreshing to be able to witness first hand a group of young girls who are willing to DEDICATE to something. I have no doubt they will all be successful in life because they know what it takes and have the desire and heart to work for what they want. Just want to congratulate the Lady Pioneers for presenting a fine example to both young and old on what good old fashioned hard work brings. VG.

Bolivar may have won the two on neutral courts, but notice they both went into overtime.

Madison wins 8-1. Oh yeah!!!!

That is just really sad news.

I`l just disagree with you on the first part. Yeah my kids were zoned for a certain public school and my son "CHOSE" to attend that school. (JCM) But that is just a zoned school set up in the public education system. In that same public education system he could have chosen to go to Liberty high school or Madison Academic Magnet school. He was not the property of JCM because JCM was merely one of his options. In fact here was his options just in our county... JCM (public) Liberty (public) Madison Academic (public) USJ (private) TCA (private) JCS (private) Home School (private) He had no fewer than 7 choices just in our county alone. He does not belong to JCM. That is the misconception among a lot of these coaches. They are of the mindset that these kids have to attend their publically zoned school and then get upset when they take another option. I do agree with you on your second point. I think the TSSAA needs to lighten up on their recruiting rules. There is no way the TSSAA can police it. They don`t have the manpower or financial resources. They need to allow each school system to enforce their own rules regarding transfers. Here is an example. I know a girl that plays soccer who was zoned to JCM but she did not want to go there. She applied to get into Madison Academic (another public option) . Her name didn`t get picked so she attended a private school. The next year an opening came up at Madison Academic (her first choice) but because of TSSAA transfer rules she had to turn it down because she would have to sit out a year. Let these kids go where they want without punishment.

You seem to have a bias against private schools. I`m not gonna deny that having extra funds is a benefit, but if you want to argue this point then why not be open minded about it? A few years ago Germantown`s baseball team raised around $90,000.00 for their baseball team. At the same time my son played at JCM and we worked our butts off to raise 15,000.00. The fact is that there are public schools that are located in very affluent neighborhoods. Williamson and Rutherford are very wealthy counties. That`s no reason though to call them out. Germantown is a rural county school in an affluent area of Shelby County. Melrose is in the same county yet they are located in an area that has economic problems to say the least. Yet you`d complain about it when it`s a private vs. public, but I don`t see you saying anything about the obvious disparagement when it comes to public vs public. The bottom line is that you can`t legislate monetary resources. It`s just something everyone has to cope with.

Have any of the D1 schools requested to play in D2? USJ and JCS requested to play in D2.

Well here is one of the misconceptions regarding this whole debate. Next time you talk to one of those coaches tell them that those kids never belonged to them in the first place so they were never theirs to lose in the first place. That IMO is the reason for most all the angst between public and private. Public school coaches like Rankin seem to think they own the rights to kids in their district. The truth is these kids have choices. They don`t BELONG to any school. Those Knox County coaches you referred to need to know that just because a kid lives within their schools zoning boundaries does not bind them to attending their school. Home school, private school, magnet school....these kids and their parents get to choose.

Woot! Take that Tomcats! JCM wins first game at Haywood 21-20 GO Cougars!!

I think we`ve finally taught everyone that there should be no split.

Here`s a story on the new coach from The Jackson Sun

I don`t know much about the new coach other than he is from Carver. Someone mentioned earlier that he use to be at Bolivar. I don`t know if he was a head coach there or an assistant.

Yep and I have a hard time not seeing that as a conflict of interest.

Okay here is probably the best and most accurate reason for the recent JCM fall in football. All these other folks can say what they THINK is true (and part of it has some truth ) but I`ve been pretty involved with the JCM program over the last few years. First back in the 2002-2003 school year there was nothing at all wrong with the program. Hardegree has the program going very strong and they were a 5A school at that point. JCM also has a freshman team that went undefeated that year (including a win over Christian Brothers) so the talent is there. The next year (2003-2004) (JCM moves to 4-A) was the year that a brand new school was built in Jackson (Liberty) and it was also a partial magnet school. There was already a design in place for Northside and JCM to have fewer students because Liberty`s new zone would capture some students from both of these schools. Also, in that same year Madison Academic opened up. Madison was a full magnet school so their students had no zones. The first problem was they let a lot of the perceived good teachers from JCM to transfer to the new spots opened up at Liberty (attractive because it was a brand new building) and Madison (attractive because it was more geared to collegiate preparation). Remember JCM regularly won the State High School Academic Decathlon and participated at the national competition until this point. When it was learned what teachers were leaving some parents (mostly white) became concerned that JCM wouldn`t have quality teachers anymore. This is when some students decided to attend one of the two new schools. The next domino that fell was that when other students found out that a friend or two may be transferring then they too decided to join them. Again...these are mostly white students. This brings on the third domino to fall and that is a sort of panic that JCM wouldn`t have any white lids left and many more tried to grab up the remaining spots at magnet schools or decided to go the private route. The school takes a big hit in the number of kids attending. This would also be Coach Hardegree`s last year. He leaves IMO because he just didn`t need all the stress that went with being head coach at JCM. (Coach had some heart problems during the season) He`s just a really detailed man and did everything he could to make the team successful. He was very organized and always worried about every organizational detail from off season workouts to keeping parents informed.. Bottom line here is that we have a county commission that is heavily conservative (and yes I`m a conservative too) and many of them have kids that attend private schools that they are willing to spend lots of their own money for great facilities but yet as commissioners they simply refuse to help the public schools out with county money for good facilities. For example...Coach Hardegree has to drive over to Rothrock several times a day to move sprinklers around the field if JCM was gonna have a decent field in the fall. He was also understaffed. They wouldn`t let him hire more coaches and at this time JCM had well over 100 kids out there playing. One of USJ`s athletic board members at that time was also a county commissioner. As a county commissioner you would think his first priority would be trying to keep a really good coach like Hardegree within the county system. But instead of fighting to improve county school facilities and hire more needed assitant coaches USJ lures Coach Hardegree away to the less stressful job of being an assistant coach. I`m sure his son got to attend USJ for free as part of the deal so that didn`t hurt things. (2004-2005) JCM must hire a new coach this year. The NCAACP decides that it is most prudent that the school hire a black coach. Much is made of this in the press and the wheels are in motion that the next coach at JCM will be African-American. And really...who cares what color the coach is as long as he can coach. I know the players could care less. But the problem was that they were more concerned about hiring a black coach than hiring a good coach. (I`LL GET BACK TO THIS POINT LATER)The prinicipal at the time at JCM had some ties to Cedric Hampton an assistant coach at Dyersburg at the time. Hampton played ball at Tennessee Tech and also received a Masters degree from there. Hampton comes in and everyone is very receptive to him and gives him some great support. On a personal note I thought it was a very good hire because JCM got a lot more support from the black community. Well one thing becomes apparent very quickly with those involved around the program. Coach Hampton was not very organized. I`m an optimist myself and I just shrugged it off to him never being a head coach and tried to help out any way I could. JCM had a good year record wise and made another good run in the playoffs and to the public it seemed like he was a good hire. But I held my breath because I knew that the entire varsity part of this team were kids that had been coached by Hardegree. The seniors had three years under him Plus the juniors on this team went undefeated for two years in middle school and also a third straight year playing on the freshman team at JCM two years earlier. Keep in mind the years the kids have under Hampton as I go along. To his credit he did hire some pretty good assistant coaches Including Coach Hookfin. JCM continues to lose more students. (2005-2006) JCM gets a new principal at the start of the year. Virginia Stackens-Crump came from an elementary school and the word was from parents there that she did a fine job. Well JCM isn`t an elementary and to me it seems like she tried to use tactics that might work well on 7 and 8 year olds but wouldn`t go over at all with 17 and 18 year olds. But she did bring a lot of energy and she was generally very visible around the school and at sport events. But one of the first things she did was run off or fire some of the male administrators there who also happened to be some of the best disciplinarians at the school who the kids had some respect for. Bad move IMO. At the graduation ceremonies in the spring attendees were shocked into disbelief as Crump takes the stage on this very important night for the seniors and gives a speech that was all about HER and not what the kids had achieved but what she had achieved. As far as football goes there was a lot of excitement. We had some really good talent on the team. That class that went undefeated in 7th, 8th, and 9th grades were now seniors. The bad news was Hampton was just as disorganized as ever. It was seriously bad. Plus he was losing discipline because the players could see that Hampton didn`t really seem to have a clue to being a head coach. One example was when and assistant coach asked the players to do something in the locker room and a few of them cursed back at him. Hampton saw this happen and did nothing to intervene on behalf of his coach. Those seniors turned out to be talented as they went on to win the region that year. (2006-2007) The football team hits losing ways. They fail to have a winning season. Coach Hookfin who IMO was the glue that had held JCM together during Hamptons first two years was hired away to be the head coach at Liberty. The players respected and listened to Hookfin. Please note that for the juniors, sophomores, and freshmen on this team the only head coach they had ever had in high school was Hampton. I think this is the year that JCM has finally been hit by No Child Left Behind. graduation rates lag and they are put on probation by the state.While I generally agree with NCLB here is an example of where it goes wrong. To know how this came about you must first know some background info. Like most all public schools there is the intent on marking out school zones so that there are comparable numbers of white and blacks at the schools. In JCM`s case the majority of black students come from probably the worst economic district of Madison County (East Jackson). The majority of the white kids are pulled from north Jackson which happens to be the most affluent area of Jackson and it also happens to be where the 3 major private schools are located. I`d say a good majority of the kids in these private schools are actually JCM zoned kids. Now I`m gonna keep race out of this from here on out. But typically better students come from families who give them support. Parents who have attained financial gain are typically college educated and honestly know what the value of an education means. And also typically low income families from inner cities just don`t have the passion nor financial support at least in respect from an economic standpoint. Again this is not a black/white thing but an economic thing. Since the opening of Liberty and Madison JCM lost a lot of good students. remember before this they were winning state academic decathlons. Every school has it share of top students and average students and students that are just gonna struggle or don`t care. And basically what has happened at JCM is that they have lost a huge portion of of their top students to private schools and Liberty and Madison. I can assure you that if everyone that was zoned to go to JCM actually went there then this would not even be an issue. It`s pretty obvious though that when your top students leave then graduation rates are gonna go down. It wasn`t really a reflection on JCM, but it was perceived by the public that JCM must not be a good academic school and that is far from the truth. This led to even more folks leaving. Plus by this time people are actually moving to a new zone or across county lines in order to assure they won`t have to go to JCM. (2007-2008) Hampton continues to run the program into the ground. They win one game the entire year. In defense of Hampton though JCM is playing 4A ball with barely a 3A enrollment. But it is clear that his team has no direction. And be sure to note that every kid on the team is the full product of being coached by Hampton. All of hardegree`s guys are gone. Thankfully even the mostly African-American booster club can see how bad it has gotten and Coach Hampton is let go. Oh and did I mention that Liberty improves under Hookfin. As for the school it can`t make any improvements in graduation rates. (2008-2009) A new coach isn`t hired until right before school starts so that can`t be too good but he seems to be a good coach and he is organized. The school enrollment has just about reached 2A level now. JCM doesn`t win a game but you can tell that the team is much more organized and disciplined. The coach was put in a tough situation. There were a lot of attitudes to be changed. But honestly it was much more enjoyable watching them play this last year. The team despite being outnumbered and out skilled in most every game never quit even through the last game. They had a lot to learn from the start of the season but genuinely seemed more organized. The new coach left after the season and no coach was hired until last week. There were at least 2 assistant coaches who held spring workouts and some former players also showed up some to volunteer free help. Since the graduation rates didn`t improve the year before it is learned over last summer that under NCLB that JCM students can now freely transfer to other schools. This is another reason the school was practically at a 2A enrollment level last year.This is one area that I disagree with NCLB. It isn`t that JCM is a bad academic school it`s the fact that their best students have left. There are kids there that still do very well on ACT scores even kids from East Jackson. It`s not a teaching problem!!! But under the NCLB rule this gives students who may not have been able to afford private school the chance to transfer out of the JCM zone. How this will help JCM graduation rates is beyond me. (2009- )I heard there were about 60 kids out this spring and for having no coach after a winless season I think this is a decent number especially considering the the new division they will be in. Crump has been transfered and a new principal is in place. A new coach might can make this team competitive again considering it`s no longer playing against 4A schools. But there are a lot of things that must change for JCM`s perception as a school can change and frankly it has nothing to do with JCM itself but our County Commissioners and school board. The County Commissioners are too conservative and have too many ties to private schools to ever spend money to make our schools great with great modern facilities. The school board is embattled in a racial mess. We have been under a court desegregation order for around 40 years. The NAACP is the defendant in the case. This past couple of years when we had the opportunity to finally get out from under it a newly elected African-American majority school board sided with the people (NAACP) who are suing the school board and it still goes on. How much sense does it make when you sit on a board that is under a lawsuit and had basically held this system hostage for 40 years and when it comes time to settle it you side with the folks that are suing you? Until African-American leaders can see the truth in what has happened and how their efforts have borne many thriving private schools in this county over 40 years and the destruction they`ve caused the public system by running off students and more importantly very supportive (both financially and physically) parents and are ready to "MOVE ON". then I`m not sure anything will get better. There`s just way too many politics. This gets back to the Hampton hire. These bureaucrats thought it would be the best thing if they hired a black head coach. And like I said before I didn`t care nor more importantly the kids nowadays don`t care. They just want to win football games. But when they hired Hampton they simply dis a bad job because they were more focused on the color of the skin rather than the quality of the coach. I can remember when he was hired and the first time I met him. He sure looked like a football coach. He`s a big man, former college lineman. He sure looked the part. He was even proud to profess that he was a Christian and I was impressed again. I also remember posters from Dyersburg getting on here and trashing him saying that was a horrible hire. At the time I just took it as folks acting like fans do when a rival team hires a coach from their team. And at that time D`burg and JCM had a pretty good rivalry going on. It didn`t take me long to figure out that they weren`t kidding and I had it confirmed by a person from the Dyersburg personnel a few years later. I won`t say if the person was a coach or an administrator. What I found out was that in JCM`s quest to find a "black" coach they failed to even call anyone in the Dyersburg athletic department nor did they call anyone in the administration to even get a recommendation. Had they even bothered to make a phone call then it was assured to me that NO ONE at Dyersburg would have ever given a head coach recommendation for Hampton especially at the 4A level and the quality of football JCM played. We both agreed that Hampton was a good man so it`s not about that. But he just was not the man that should have been hired. This was an NAACP social experiment. The principal was charged to hire a black coach and somewhere along the lines the focus of hiring a good coach was lost. Well I know this was long, but I`ve grown attached to JCM over the years. I`ve seen the transpiration over the last several years and for me it`s been sad. I`ve seen some bad decisions happen in the school. I`ve seen bad decisions from the school board. I`ve seen a neglect from the county commission. I`ve also seen bad decisions on the state and federal level. Ive seen and heard unfair portrayal of JCM in the paper and the radio. People want to talk down on the kids and for the most part they are all good kids. The teaching is great at JCM but they are unfairly portrayed by the level of students that remain at JCM. If all the students at schools like USJ or TCA, or JCS left and all of JCM`s current students enrolled at one of these schools then they too would be placed on the NCLB list if it applied to private schools.

Thanks for posting. Man that just sad to hear. He will be missed.

Good Luck to Gibson County. All those early morning runs and workouts last August will come to fruition on Saturday. It was a pain in the butt then, but it will be a memory for a lifetime tomorrow. Go get `em!

Nice to see you are still making predictions after you picked Hampton by double digits over Madison. /roflol.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":roflol:" border="0" alt="roflol.gif" />

LOL...good call on that one GC. /thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" />

GOOOO COUGARS!!!! /thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" />

Ding Ding Ding..We have a winner.

Baldcoach I`d have to disagree with you to some extent but maybe you can clarify for me. If a girl in your school became pregnant would she be allowed to attend?

Yeah Galilee...I too would like to know what reasoning was used by the school for the move up.