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No one is really crying foul on this. But since the main battle cry here on the public private board is trying to get that "level playing field" I brought it up for discussion. Clearly, most 8th graders will never contribute to a high school program. The advantage is not on the front end, but on the back end. While the 8th grader doesn`t contribute much on the front end, he/she does get their feet wet better competition and gets a feel for what it takes to be a high school athlete. They also get extra practice time in that their counterparts at schools who can`t have 8th graders play up don`t have. By the time he is ending his high school career, you basically have what colleges would call a "fifth year senior". But beyond all that, folks get on here and complain about wanting a level playing field so why on earth would you have a rule that would apply for some schools and not others? This one even crosses beyond the public and private debate. Clearly here if Greenfield`s opponents can`t do this then why should they be allowed to do so. It makes no sense if one is trying to somehow establish a level playing field.

I can resolve this question. The answer is COACHING. There is no doubt in my mind. I`m not totally dismissing talent, because that does help, But without direction and discipline talent loses its advantage. A good coach can make adjustments and make use of his advantages over a more talented team. Also, and this is important, a good coach is a motivator and recruiter. A good coach can recruit his hallways and persuade more kids to play. Every school has athletes that don`t play sports. It`s very important to be able to get those kids that can help your team out on the field. A good coach recognizes talent and can put a kid at a position that can best help the team. A good coach can teach the good fundamentals that are important to being a good player. Most importantly, a good coach can take a kid who has no interest in the sport and instill team pride and discipline. You don`t necessarily have to be a great athlete, but you do have to know what you are suppose to do on the field and the proper way to do it. Someone once said about Bear Bryant..."he can take his`n and beat your`n, and then he can take your`n and beat his`n". Take a look at what Maryville has been able to do over a long period of time under Quarles. You can`t tell me that the water in Maryville makes those kids grow up into better athletes than other 4-A schools. No, the key is to be able to motivate the kids at your school to get out on the field and them TEACH them how the game is played, make them self - motivated to train and want to be better athletes, and recognize opponents weaknesses and capitalize on that by making it your strength.

If you are heading east on I-40, get off on the Pringle`s Park exit (Christmasville Rd.) and take a right off the exit. Go down to the first light and take a left. Just follow that road past Pringle`s park and Liberty will be on your right. I`d imagine you`ll be seeing the stadium lights once you pass Pringles.

My apologies Stockerd. I thought you were implying something that you probably weren`t. No need to bring up the other in any further detail. However if you were to get a Plus Membership I`d be glad to send you a PM.

Oh please. TCA students don`t have the market on glorifying God. They have their problems too. I can name a recent incident involving the football team that wasn`t very God-like. There are plenty of kids at USJ and the public schools that glorify God. You don`t have to attend TCA to do that.

That`s the same type confidence GC had last week with Haywood and they barely escaped with an OT win over JCM. /wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" />

Yes. GO Cougars! Hopefully we`ll continue to improve each week.

Nice to hear from you adsmom. Good luck to your Choctaws this year.

okay.

I`m curious to see what JCM`s enrollment will be this fall. They have a real chance to be moved down to 2A next year if it gets any lower than last year. (Didn`t mean to be off topic)

No doubt Haywood won the game. But Haywood was lucky. Two gift punt return fumbles at the 10 yard line gave Haywood their only two scores. Haywood only managed 111 yards the entire game. Haywood was worn out by the 4th quarter. If I was a haywood fan I`d be very worried about the team conditioning and the fact they couldn`t move the ball against a team that didn`t have a spring practice and only had a head coach for three weeks. BTW....It`s Lane College`s field now.

DC had a great year last season, but I have no idea who they lost or what they return. I do expect Liberty to be improve this year. Coach Hookfin was a fav at JCM and got his feet wet as a head coach last year. I gotta believe he`ll get more out of them this year.

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Hey gohawks...honestly I don`t know how good Haywood is suppose to be, but I do know that JCM`s defense was pretty relentless. They were aggressive and hitting hard. I saw some kids make some very good open field tackles. I saw some pretty wicked hits and some good team pursuit. As a Cougar fan that was refreshing. Turnovers are what lost the Haywood game for JCM. But that`s something that can be worked on. I`m looking forward to seeing Will Masoud play as his dad and I are longtime friends. Also looking forward to see how the Cougars can progress from week to week. I admit that I too was surprised by JCM`s play Friday night. They lost a 6`5" Jeremy Akins who scored a TD in his first game with Bethel this past weekend. They lost the 6`3" Hawkins kid who is listed as 2nd team OLB for Murray State as a freshman. They lost a beast in Gavin Hardin who is now playing for the Miami Hurricanes. It`s hard to believe they only won one game last year (with a late FG over a 2-win Liberty) and got mercy-ruled about 5 times last year. I don`t know if the Cougars can beat SS or not, but as a JCM fan I`m pumped about Coach Glover and what he is doing. For him to have a team that had no spring practice and to have only a couple of weeks to get familiar with his players and install his offense ,the first week was a rousing success even though it ended in an OT loss.

I`ve never met the man, but have listened to him on the radio. No doubt many here in West TN thought of high school football when they heard the name Bill Haney. I had no idea until tonight that he was 78 years old. That shows his love for the game and for the kids. God be with him and his family and many, many friends.

Yep. It doesn`t necessarily surprise me as much as it pleases me. JCM has some great kids over there. I talked to some "folks" at the game and from what I heard and from what I saw there is reason for Cougar fans to be excited. I`m not even saying they will make the playoffs this year, but if Friday night was any indication, better days are ahead for the Cougars. Honestly Hampton was a very bad hire. It took him 4 years to take JCM from the best team in West TN to one of it`s lowest points in the history of the school. Glover is giving this team some direction. It`s not gonna happen overnight, but the Cougars are heading i the right direction.

Beat me to it. /dry.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=" Bo was a COOOOOOOOOUGAR!!!!! /thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" /> I think I saw one post in this thread discussing the line at TCA. I hear it wasn`t too deep to begin with and they have had some injury issues on the line. TCA has some really playmakers in Washington and Nelson. But two players don`t a team make. Those who seem to want to put down Washington because of the competition he plays needs to tone it down. The kid does indeed have several offers from D-1A schools including Georgia. You can bet your bottom dollar that one is gonna come from Knoxville as well. Personally I don`t like the trend of offering kids who haven`t even started their sophomore year a scholly. But the big boys are on this kid. There`s no need to get on here and try and tear him down. Frankly, everyone around here should be pretty excited that we have another player around here that has a chance to excel beyond high school. As a football fan from West TN I wish him the best of luck. Players like Trey Teague and Patrick Willis played against similar competition around these parts and did fairly well if you ask me. Washington is in an unfortunate situation because he is being asked to play a position in order to help his team that he`ll likely never play again after high school. But that`s not an unusual thing when you attend a small school. Heck I thought he did a very admirable job last year when he was forced to come in as a freshman and play QB when their starting QB got injured for several games. This should be a good game. I think USJ wins in a close one, but that`s just my gut feeling. I know Overbey is a good athlete, but I`ve never seen him play QB. He does have a couple of really good targets to throw to though. If USJ`s O-line can let him throw I think the Bruins will take it.

Looks like JCM surprised a few folks last week in their narrow loss to Haywood. I must say that IMO JCM was the better team out there. Wondering how folks think the SS/JCM game will go. JCM impressed me with a pretty stingy defense against Haywood. If it weren`t for 2 dropped punt returns inside the 10 yard line JCM would have won the game.

Looks like most folks on here didn`t give JCM enough credit or gave Haywood too much.

You were right about the turnovers. JCM fumbled 2 punt returns inside the 10 that led to Haywood`s only two scores. One of those was scored without the haywood offense having to get on the field. You were wrong though about Haywood being able to run the ball all over JCM. In fact Haywood had trouble moving the ball all night against JCM`s defense. And you were wrong about the better conditioned team winning the game. Haywood was flat worn out by the fourth quarter and JCM just kept on coming. I was pleasantly surprised at how well JCM handled Haywood. JCM lost this game, but looked to be the better team. Makes me wonder how good Haywood is this year. I don`t think anyone could expect great things from JCM this year after last years dismal performance, but WOW...Coach Glover has these guys headed in the right direction.

There`s no doubt that there are 8th graders around that can contribute to a high school team, especially at smaller schools. But my point was that this whole public/private debate has been pretty much centered around the complaint that playing field is not level. Yet here is a rule that just sits out there with very little attention. Yet if people were truthful about trying to level the playing field then this rule would never exist. Basically it allows kids from some schools to have five years of high school athletic experience. It allows their athletes to have an extra year in a structured weight lifting program. It allows football players an extra year of learning the system. But it doesn`t allow other schools to have the same luxury. People can argue all day about whether the public/private thing creates an unlevel playing field but with this rule there is no doubt that it creates an advantage for some. The TSSAA just ban 8th graders altogether from high school sports.

Can anyone give a reason as to why the kick-off rule was implemented?

Any football rules you`d like to see changed? Personally my fav is the rule that you can`t return any kick that reaches the end zone. I`m not too happy about the "mercy rule" either.

It`s ironic but this rule actually seems to benefit private schools more than public, but nonetheless in my quest of political correctness and a desired level playing field LOL!! /rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":rolleyes:" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" /> here is a rule that makes absolutely no sense at all regardless of which side of the fence you reside. It`s the rule that allows 8th graders to participate with the high school as long as the middle school/junior high of the school reside under the same roof. At least I think how it is worded. Please correct me if I have it wrong. But why on earth in our infinite quest for fairness and our everlasting search for that "level playing field" would we ever allow some high schools to bring up middle schoolers early to get high school experience or playing time?

Bighurt, I`d have to agree with you. If we are so concerned about "undue influence" that brought about the BA case then a high school coach from JCM (<-----used as an example) shouldn`t be allowed to go talk to kids from Tigrett Middle School because those kids from Tigrett have an option to go to Liberty Magnet. We aren`t living in the 70`s anymore. Many counties, even smaller, rural ones allow kids more than one viable option of schools to attend. So why do we have a rule against undue influence yet endorse a coach from ONE school to legally go talk to these kids in middle school but don`t allow the coach of another viable option from ANOTHER school to talk to them? I`ve never claimed to know what "undue influence" actually is, but it seems to me the TSSAA is endorsing it through archaic rules. It`s time the TSSAA addresses this IMO.