DS2001

I was able to sit up in the new stands the other day and it has a very good view of the field...There is a walkway between the track and the stands for people to walk from one end of the stadium to the other.....That walkway will completely encircle the field to enable the visiting "railbirds" the opportunity to stand behind their team on the visitors side.. .... The field has been lined for Football, Soccer as well as Lacrosse.........Season tickets went on sale this week as well as season parking passes.....Parking on campus will be $5.00 per game and tickets will be $7.00 per game....All home games start at 7:00pm..... Free Shuttles will run continuously from down Franklin Rd at the satellite parking area for those who don`t park on campus.... .Visiting schools will recieve a certain number of parking passes for their "entourage" to use....Children under 6 years old will always be admitted free......Come on out Sat. Aug. 8 for the Open House beginning with a 4:30pm dedication Mass and running until 9:00pm

I think Mufreesboro and MTSU just learned a hard lesson....Like the Republicans in the 2008 election cycle, they had grown fat and happy and had begun nitpicking the TSSAA on rental agreements...For a city the size of Murfreesboro, that bid was nothing short of embarrasing!! Kudos to the City of Cookeville and Tennessee Tech.... they will get the chance to truly showcase this premier high school event...( I do feel a bit sorry for the Memphis schools as they will have to travel about an hour farther east)

The same thing may be getting ready to happen to another little TSSAA event that occurs in May in Murfreesboro!!

just like Scott Blade at Hillsboro, Pemberton is no dummy.....Win a state championship and you gain leverage for a better position. Plus Pemberton knows Catholic is going into deep do-do having to move up to the top classification this fall and face the top teams in East Tennessee week in and week out. No more piling up wins so it`s adios!

Just some notes on the seating capacity of the new stadium ....It was determined by the City of Oak Hill and it`s rigid parking ordinance that the number of existing parking spaces on the Father Ryan campus would only support a maximum of 2,350 seat stadium..Father Ryan would have liked to have built it larger, but the Oak Hill ordinances would not permit it........ For many years, the city of Oak Hill effectively blocked any discussion of a new stadium by hiding behind a few vocal neighbors who railed against it.....Several of those neighbors were elderly and have passed on. As time has passed, Father Ryan agreed to several neighborhood concessions, including constructing an earthen berm along one side of the campus (The great wall of Oak Hill!) at an additional cost of around a half million dollars, along with heavy parking restrictions, Lighting restrictions ( no lights after 8pm on weeknights and 10pm on weekends), plus the majority of the stadium lighting has to be facing the interstate and have that special cowling around the bulbs so that no light "pollution" seeps into the adjoining neighborhood (more money!) Father Ryan also agreed to turn their softball field completely around to placate complaining neighbors .............. Eventually , all parties came to an agreement , most of the funds have been pledged and construction is underway....It will be a reality in August.

Congrats to the Irish on a great season of High school Hockey. Semifinals: Pope John Paul II 6 Hendersonville 1 Father Ryan 5 Knoxville Warriors 3 Finals : Father Ryan 4 Pope John Paul II 1

As Father Ryan Alum and longtime fan, I`m predicting an optimistic 4-6 and I don`t even know who their non-Region games are. It is for sure going to be a rebuilding year. But you know what? It is going to be one of the most exciting seasons because we are FINALLY, after 83 years, going to have our own 2,300 seat stadium, with an Alumni reception area and concession areas and restrooms! Not to mention a state of the art synthetic playing surface and brand new rubberized track. The Irish nation will finally have a gathering place to call their own, "Giacosa Stadium at the Carell Athletic Complex". That`s why I`m pumped about this coming season..........The dirt is being moved as I write!!!

Congrats to the Ensworth Tigers from a Father Ryan Fan....It was a convincing win in all aspects.....Great crowd on hand and a great atmosphere for the D-II championship game....The Ensworth defense really stifled the Irish early on and set the tone for the game....The Tigers surrounded big Brendan Connally and made it difficult for him to even get the ball...He only had 3 points at halftime...Meanwhile Tavarres Jefferson hit some big 3 pointers for Ensworth on his way to an MVP night and the Tigers maintained a 7-10 point lead through the 3rd period...The Irish managed to cut it to 4 late in the 3rd period, but Ensworth put it away with a big run in the final stanza and won going away.....Still I was very proud of the Irish for making it to the title game and having an outstanding season....Also let me mention a very nice moment in the game. With about a minute and a half to go in the game, Ryan Coach Bontrager substituted ALL of his starters and they were met by a thunderous ovation by the Irish AND Ensworth crowd. That was very classy on the part of the Ensworth faithful as they recognized some kids who really fought hard . That`s why I love high school sports.

I agree 100% cbg....I thought they were dead in the water after the duals....I think the stars lined up in several areas, not the least of which was that Coach Simpson convincing them that they could put forth a better effort than they did 2 weeks ago.

Thanks for the kind words from a Father Ryan Fan....I was not expecting this......5 State Champions is over the top even by Irish standards....Kudos to Coach Simpson and his band of Purple grapplers....Coach can just get amazing things out of his guys...Take Tagbo Obi for example...He had never wrestled before this year, and yes he was pinned a lot during the season. But he manages to place and gain valuable points for the team........For over 40 years, through Coaches Drennan, Garmon and Simpson, the expectations for wrestling at Ryan have never changed. This is another proud moment!

Rollredroll, I have an updated Decal for a Division II school....How can I get the decal to you? You can probably get a more accurate image with the actual Decal.

That was a great morale builder win for the Irish....After the drubbing they took at MBA last week, I thought tonight would get ugly too.....BA made way too many mistakes and didn`t look like a typically prepared BA team .........Coach Potter kept them in the postgame huddle for an extended period of time....Ryan`s season was a" close but no cigar " type of campaign with close losses to BGA(7-3) Webb(6-0) and Ensworth(38-25 but led with 2:00 to go)....Just couldn`t close the deal.....I predicted 6-4 this season and they ended up 5-5 so I wasn`t too far off....... Moving on campus to the new stadium next season will pump some adrenaline into the program and start a new tradition. Congrats Irish

Goat2000, I never played 1 single down of high school football a Father Ryan.....I witnessed my first Father Ryan football game in 1968....I have personally attended well over 250 Ryan games since then.....Maybe "pitiful" was too harsh a word to use to describe the "offensive" coaches at Ryan...."inept" is a better adjective to describe them. I made my observations after having attended 5 of the 7 games we have played so far, speaking to two assistant coaches of teams we have already played...speaking with parents of 3 offensive starters....I make no apologies for my original statement....It is what it is.......I would love nothing more than to be proven wrong going forward....On the flip side of things, Our defense has done a pretty good job for most of the season considering what position the offense has put them in time and time again and how long they have had to stay on the field....Kudos to the defensive coaching staff. P S Cbg....I was referring to Ryan`s version of the spread offense not working against DII top level teams....I know it can be effective with the right personnel, coached and executed correctly.

McCallie won the Region title on a beautiful day at Champions Run in Eagleville beating the Baylor Red Raiders by 2 strokes in the Team scoring.....BGA was third .....and JPII edged out Webb and Father Ryan by two and four shots respectively for 4th place....The top four teams move on to the state next week at Murfreesboro.....A McCallie golfer ,and I can`t recall his name, was the medalist firing a 65....Congratulations to all.

Back to the original point if I may......Webb was very well prepared for this game...nothing fancy, just some off balance and a little misdirection and Voila!....One score was all that was needed....I will say that Ryan shot themselves in the foot with costly penalties particularly right before halftime....Cbg is correct, The Irish are done for the season with murderers row awaiting them ....BGA and Webb were the swing games and we lost both....Our offense is in shambles and will probably not improve in the next 3 games...What we are trying to run (the spread) will simply not work against the DIV II top teams.........Plus we are not even trying to feature our best athletes........Our offensive coaches at Ryan are just pitiful.......Even worse than the Jemison years........

Cbg, in your post from Sept. 22 you asked several good questions about the state of Father Ryan football....It`s my opinion that Ryan`s best football days are behind them.....For no other reason but that the high school landscape has changed so much in the last 5-6 years.....As I have said before, the opening of JPII and Ensworth along with MBA`s stepped up efforts to attract more students to their school has greatly diluted the pool of Catholic students for Father Ryan to choose from.....There is a lot of competition for students among the privates and Ryan has not been able to keep up like they were able to do in the past...... The old guard you referred to has largely faded away, which in some cases is not such a bad thing....many of them simply wanted to badmouth everything that went on at Ryan. .......But I do think there has been a realization that has set in that, in the new Division II football world, Ryan for the most part is going to be looking up at several teams ahead of them.....JPII has the same problem.........The new Ryan football/track complex that will be in place for next season will be a shot in the arm for the program, but I not sure if it will solve some of the systemic problems that the school will continue to face in football.......I`m not saying that there won`t be some years that things will line up and we are competitive with the upper echelon of DII.....But to do it consistently year in and year out like MBA and BA are doing right now, I just don`t see it......Like I said earlier, this year I`m now looking at a 5-5 year for the Irish.......and if we lose to the Big Red again this year, 11 years in a row.......UGH!

McCallie is a quality team....Congratulations to them, but the Irish really never had a chance in this game as the offense is just a shell of it`s potential......It is sad to see the team so polarized and divided over this quarterback issue, although neither QB was effective against the Blue Tornadoes.....The coaching staff has really let this team get away from them...... Ryan has a "chance" to finish 5-5 if they can find a way to win these next two against CPA and Knox. Webb and those will be tough to win....The last 3 games against Ensworth, MBA and Brentwood Academy are going to be hard to watch.

The Popesters deserve many Kudos....It was a nerve racking game to watch.......Wesley Tate is a MAN....I now see why he has his pick of the big SEC schools...Both teams played hard and the cramps really started bothering JPII....Coach Brothers had to burn TWO timeouts in the 3rd and 4th quarters to go into the huddle and berate his offense for lining up in the wrong formations.........In the end that really hurt JPII because they couldn`t stop the clock on the final drive after Ryan had taken the 23-20 lead with 2 minutes to go .....Ryan is gonna have to get its QB situation straightened out.... Trey McPhail started and was ineffective.... Mitchell Stoffer finally came in midway through the 3rd quarter and got the offense moving and really saved the day for the Irish.......Coach Lussier needs to get better control of his team. they had 2 personal fouls and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty called on them for acting like idiots...There`s no excuse for that kind of undisciplined behavior....Another tremendous overflow crowd at Hillsboro stadium for the Battle for the Bishops Cup ...Ryan will keep it another year

The Sounds are winding up their home season at Greer this Thursday night thus the switch to Hillsboro for the JPII game....Many thanks to the Burros coaches and administration for letting Ryan use their stadium for this well attended game....Ryan will return to Greer for their final season this year against Overton, Knox Webb, Ensworth and BA........Next year it will be in the spanking new stadium on Norwood Drive....Can`t wait!!!

Looks like Nashville Cable Channel 30 is going to broadcast some select Thursday Night High school games which will be great exposure for the lucky teams. The first two are Ravenwood vs Goodpasture and Hendersonville vs Beech..........Kudos to My TV30 for undertaking this venture and supporting high school football in the mid state. With the CSS game on Friday night, fans can get a glimpse of several teams during the season.

Chris Sanders comes over to MBA from Christ Presbyterian Academy....I understand that CPA could not compete with the financial package that Sanders will be receiving from the storied elite boys only college prepratory academy on the western edge of the old Nashville city limits....After all, there are only 2-3 other secondary institutions in the state of Tennessee that can compete financially with THE MONTGOMERY BELL ACADEMY.... Chris is being well taken care of.....He will be a great asset to the Big Red Football program

From a Father Ryan perspective, there is no doubt that the football program has been on the bottom to mid-pack looking up for the past 10 years.....This has been dissected in many quarters for some time....It has been painful to observe and to be fair there were several "factors" that all came together within a couple of years to put us in the situation we find ourselves trying to rebuild from. The financial aid situation at Ryan is designed to assist ALL students regardless of whether they participate in sports. It is being looked at to see if more funds can be offered to a student who is truly deserving of more. Right now, as stated earlier the most you can receive is 50% of tuition costs. The former principal at Father Ryan Jack Langton, paid little more than lip service to the Athletic Dept. He and Former Coach Kurt Page locked horns on this very financial aid issue and Kurt wound up saying "Adios". About that time, Pope John Paul II was opening and enrollment at Ryan took a nosedive. Langton hired Robert Jemison off of the current staff. Robert was a good guy, but not qualified to be head coach . Things went from bad to worse as our DIV II bretheren were really improving their programs and we were heading in the opposite direction....... In the past couple of years things have improved with the hiring of Coach Lussier. Our current principal Jim Mcintyre at least understands the importance of having a competitive football program.....It looks as if we may finally be getting our own football stadium and improved weightroom facility as fundraising for that project seems to be going well....... Enrollment at the school has stabilized at around 850...... Our incoming Freshman class will be right around 250.....Still, it will always be a challenge for us to keep raising the financial resources needed to pay teachers competitively and keep tuition affordable for the diverse Catholic population we serve......In the long term, we compete in the toughest division of high school football in Tennessee. That in itself is is very different from our successful days of the past....Now, there are no Div. II games on our schedule that aren`t dogfights......We will have to work harder and continue to build on successes. It will always be a challenge for us to compete with the upper teams in our division...I`m proud of the fact that we do have a balanced athletic program and try to offer something for everyone... In the state of Tennessee, only Baylor fields more athletic teams than Father Ryan.....I`m optimistic our football program will continue to improve....Hopefully our dark period is behind us.

Father Ryan`s Charles Rodriguez Final penalty Kick sailed through the posts and the Purple Irish prevail in the marathon D-II State championship game...Congrats to Ryan on a great season....CBHS has nothing to be ashamed of ...Congrats to both teams

Still Tied 1-1 going to Penalty Kicks !!

Still Tied 1-1 in 3rd Overtime period.....Wow! could be looking at the dreaded SHOOTOUT!