AEtheridge

Yes, but as the coach of the girls team who were beaten "in dominating fashion," I have to say that I won't miss them at all! Seriously, they ran exactly the race we told our girls they would run: they got on the front and dared anyone else to go with them. We tried, but we couldn't do it. They were the most impressive girls team I've seen at State snce Houston's dominant team of 2001.

I'll take mad props when I can get them! Clabo was really tough and ran a super-intelligent race, letting first Chris and then Maclean do the work, then moving in that last mile when it was time to go. I don't know of another A-AA runner in the state of his caliber.

I watched that race yesterday, as some of my kids ran. Clabo's run out there was really impressive!

No doubt! That was brutal. The fact that KK and SK ran so fast on that course in those conditions--wow.

More importantly, that's the same day as Great American. Bridges used to be a great meet, many years ago.

http://www.alltraxtiming.homestead.com/SteepleCourseMap.html

I'm not sure how you arrived at that. OR won AAA State last year with a #1 in 29th place. Not too powerhouse. Very well-balanced team--but no superstar at all, not last year. I would argue that you've left off a few powerhouse schools from over the years: Knox Webb, Farragut, Kingsport D-B, Baylor, GPS, Knox West, Morristown West. Maybe someone should add up all of the state championships for each grand division of the state and see who comes out on top. Woops, I just did it. For the boys, East has 34, Middle has 24, and West has 14. I guess some of that depends on how you group schools geographically, but even if I messed up a couple, it's pretty clear that history has been kind to the East. http://www.tssaa.org/schdir/records/GetTheRecord.cfm By the way, for the girls, the East's power is even more pronounced...

Yeah, that's probably not the most accurate way to rank them, although I don't know how you'd do it better. I'll tell you right now that O'Donnell and Cole are flying, and they've got plenty of company every day during their workouts. I know that Stuart and Matt are doing well, too. Both schools (OR and West) are doing a version of Daniels' cross country plan, mixed with a few things from the 5k-15k plan--mixed with some of our own stuff.

Not sure whether Siegel track and cross country are coached by the same guy, but in Siegel's first year as a school as couple of years ago, they were State AAA Runners-up in cross country. That's not easy to do any time, much less your first year. Pretty tough.

Where are you coaching? Scot can't run any longer--his knees have packed it in. Now he walks around quietly, looking like a Renaissance version of Jesus. Now and again he volunteers at middle school track meets. Really nice guy.

In the "small world category": Scot is the librarian at Robertsville Middle School in Oak Ridge. I ran 15:53 in '82 and 15:05 in '83. Bobby beat me by a few seconds that year when he took 3rd. I still have a picture somewhere of us all lined up in the chute.

Then you probably remember Dale Carico, Bobby Parsely, and Scot Smith. Perhaps Walter Deneen, too.

Then I may have competed against you, too. (Allen Etheridge, Oak Ridge, 1981-1983) We were state champs in 1983 against TN High.

Everybody can use a little Oak Ridge Boost. Seriously, Matt is a good guy.

That's what I'm talkin' 'bout. Are you guys going to have Matt Gooch with you next year?

Dave's a pretty smart guy, but what's he going to do when I throw a flying tackle at him coming down the hill at McAlpine?

Mike O'Neil, from D-B in the early 1980s?

I loved running at the Steeplechase when I was a kid in the early 80s and we ran between the hedges: it was fast and pretty flat. I've never liked the course as it has been laid out since about 1987--it's much, much harder than it looks. In fact, if it were lined with trees like VAP or McAlpine, I think we would think it was a fairly hilly course. But since it's totally bare, it looks like it's flat, which it's not. There are also a few places where you have to slow down to make a turn, something you don't think about a lot. Bumbi's 14:14 there just makes me sick every time I think of it!

I had MLK in Chattanooga, when it's actually in Nashville. The numbers still favor East.

I agree that Boone's course is the hardest I've run or coached a team on. Unlike at VAP, there's no place to recover at Boone--it's just relentless. At least at Melton Hill Dam you have a long downhill to get your legs back, and at VAP you have the long downhill the beginning of both laps. The hardest course EVER is the old 3 mile course at Melton Hill Park, home of the Big Nasty. Notice the KIL boys don't run it the old way anymore.

Team-wise, it looks like this: In AAA Girls: 6 of the top 10 teams from East In AAA Boys: 5 of the top 10 teams from the East In A-AA Girls: 8 of the top 10 teams from the East In A-AA Boys: 6 of the top 10 teams from the East (and the next 2 as well. In DII Girls and Boys it's a little harder to compare because there are so few teams there, but 1st and 3rd in the boys and 2nd and 4th in the girls is pretty good. That's one way to measure it based solely on last year. If you look at the Big Dog individuals, well, they come from the Memphis area and the Nashville area. The Memphis mojo is fairly recent , except for those good CBHS and Frayser teams of long ago, but Nashville has long been good. On balance, I'd go for East. A good team always stays home out of Region II AAA, for example. Last year it was West who stayed home, even though they ended up with a 9:43 3200 runner, a 4:31 miler, and an 8:16 4x8 in track. Two years ago OR girls stayed home even though we'd been ranked in the top 10 all year.

We're East! I'd say for XC you'd have to go with East over Middle, since you had OR, MW, and McCallie win last year.

I can't remember now exactly how short they measured the "Bumbi" course, but I think it was in the neighborhood of 80m. This past year's course was not only longer by those 80m, but it finished on a much different configuration from the "Bumbi" course, much slower, in my estimation. It's funny how many people ran slower on that course than on Victor Ashe, even though VAP had all the mulch and the Hill of Death with half a mile to go. Obviously, our state times will be pretty slow-seeming this year. Rob's time from last year (15:22), for example, would only equate to about a 15:54 or so for 5K.

The boys from AllTrax, who laid out the course last year, measured it several different times and in two different ways, and they assured me that it was exactly 4827 meters, which equates to 3 miles. Looks like they'll be adding those 173 meters...

About 10 years ago, when I was an OR assistant coach, I was standing with Coach Coughenour at the Steeplechase just prior to the start of the girls AAA race. We were very good that year, and I remember telling him that the race for second should be interesting, thinking that we already had it won. He only smiled, as I recall. Well, that day, the D-B girls rocked, and the OR girls fell apart, and D-B won, beating a very, very good OR team. Never underestimate your competition, and never give an inch to the teams you think are better than you are! I'm guessing that Houston, Science Hill, Brentwood, and OR are bringing back the strongest teams. Knox West, Bearden, and Farragut from Region II also belong on the list of contenders. Last year's state meet was pretty heavy with seniors up front, so the younger teams who scored well last year should really rise.