AEtheridge

I would never discount a team coached by Tom Coughenour--ever. I think you guys will be pretty good.

I assume we're talking about the OR boys. We've got 13 of our top 15 back. From our varsity we've got Cole, Peacock, McGroom, O'Donnell, and Shassere back. Knocking on the door we've got O'Lear, Oswald, and some others. We also have a good freshman named John Sharpe.

I wonder whether the number of kids who pay tuition to come to a system like OR's, or Maryville's or D-B's is anywhere near the number of kids who get cross-boundary transfers in a zoned system. Seems to me as if things might even out. I know this will seem like a silly question, but I'll ask it anyway: is it possible for an out-of-county student to pay tuition to come to a city or county school system? For example, might a student who lives in Oak Ridge pay tuition to come to a Knox County high school like Farragut, Bearden, or West? People make changes for many reasons, and I wonder whether it would be possible to do that.

I am the cross country coach at ORHS and rarely even look at football discussion boards, but I stumbled on this thread and thought I would respond to the contention that OR is merely a football town. I graduated from ORHS in 1984 and ran on the 1983 state championship team as the #1. I coached the girls' 1996 state champion team and am head coach of two teams that will contend for the state championship next Saturday. As an athlete and a coach I have never felt anything other than complete community support for my sport, which is, I admit, rather a niche sport here in the South. I carry a large roster, though (between 70-80 athletes) and experience nothing but fantastic support from the community and the school system. Maybe that's one reason that we are having such success this year so far (football, girls soccer, cross country boys and girl Region titles so far): the school and the community do value the sports that have less marquee value than the football program. I don't have to fight other coaches for athletes; in fact, we just don't do that here. Coaches in other sports constantly offer our teams and athletes encouragement and congratulations. Our Athletic Director treats my sport and other sports with respect and attention. In fact, he's the only AD I know of who goes to every sport's championship games/meets/tournaments. All of that is to suggest that one advantage ORHS sports have over some schools' sports involves the community's support of every facet of the athletic and academic programs at the school. I would bet that other schools with traditions in many sports, such as Houston, Farragut, Dobyns-Bennett, and Science Hill, have the same sort of program-wide support. By the way, I taught at Farragut for one year as an intern in the 1990s, and it seemed to me then that Farragut had as much interest and support for their sports as any school I'd seen. They have a long and impressive history in cross country and track, soccer, baseball, and football, especially, and the school has long supported that.

Well, the other reason is that some coaches do not want to have to reconfigure or remeasure courses and TSSAA doesn't want the headache of requiring Region Meet directors to eventually do that. Like Chief says, just playing Devil's Advocate.

Knoxville-area meets hosted by the Metro Knoxville Cross Country Association: 9/3 Tennessee Sports Medicine Cross Country Classic (at Victor Ashe Park) 9/8 TSM All-Comers at Melton Hill Dam 9/15 TSM All-Comers at VAP 9/22 TSM All-Comers at Melton Hill Park (new course profile without the Nasty) 10/6 TSM All-Comers at VAP 10/13 TSM/MKCCA Metro Championship at Cherokee Boulevard Tennessee Sports Medicine has come up big in sponsoring our series of meets. Also: 9/24 is Bristol 9/7 should be Kingsport Invitational 10/1 is Vol Classic Invite at VAP--http://www.ktc.org/youthath_files/VCCI%20webpage%2005.htm This meet will include middle school and collegiate/open races.

This was in today's Tennessean: The TSSAA is considering a proposal that would double the size of the Class AAA track meet, sending 16 qualifiers to state in each event instead of eight. It will be discussed at administrators’ and regional meetings before the board revisits it for a possible vote in November. If approved, the new format could be implemented as early as next year. Looks as if they are really taking the track proposal seriously. Now I want to know about our 5K proposal!! AE

The only result I know is the AAA girls' 3200, won by VanWynn from Collierville in 10:56. That comes from Knox West coach Sam Roberts.

TO me, he looked really, really good. My impression from the bullpen was that he had gas left in the tank.

Excellent work, Chris. I imagine the 3200 m runner from MBA is Brock Baker.

We used to have a qualifying meet for Sectionals. It was called the District meet. The top 2 in each event made the Sectional.

Wow. I can't believe you are the only one from SH's very good XC team running track!! Weather looks great for OR's meet. Usually some good relays there. Don't know about entries in the open mile, but the 4x8 races look very good.

I would add Kendall Ernst (OR), Chris Kane (Karns), and the two from Bearden (Kodra and Shankles) to the mix. There's not really anyone separated from the pack, so it could be a huge mix.

It was in VA, wasn't it? I've had runners on the line take them off at every meet where I've beent he starter this year, since it is a rule. Of course, that's how I broke mine--taking it on and off.

For such a small person, she has the loudest voice...

I should add Sarah Damen to that list, at 10:59/5:04.

Actually I saw Christy get 3rd in the Sectional 3200 to Sarah Damen (when she was a freshman) and Gina Recher. One of the great Sectional races ever. At OR I would argue that Karol Davidson inthe early 1980s was our best ever. She went 2:07/5:03 and later was an NCAA indoor 800 champion. I could also vote for Nic Crider, who went 4:14/15:06 and was an NCAA Region CC champion, or David Montgomery, who went 14:55/9:25. Or it could be Sammie Ford (1:54). Possibly Jason McAddley--I never saw anything out f his range--6'8" high jumper, excellent triple jumper, even ran a 5:14 mile for football.

Actually, I got a good laugh out of that one.

Well, I'll tell you this much: Diego Luna is not encompassed by our Region.

Those of you in the Knoxville area are probably familiar with the N-S's PrepXtra coverage of high school football, basketball, soccer, and baseball. Now we can add cross country to the list of sports the News-Sentinel will cover in depth. Imagine that! If you read this morning's sports section, you may have seen a short blurb on what the N-S coverage will look like. Every Friday as part of the PrepXtra section of the Sports page, the News-Sentinel will include the following: 1) Sam Roberts(Knox West) will administer and release to the N-S and to coaches a coaches poll involving the cross country teams in the PrepXtra zone, which includes all TSSAA schools in the counties contiguous to Knox County, as well as several to the north (Campbell Co. and Hamblem Co., for example). 2)Sam Roberts and I will compile a cumulative top-30 times list on a weekly basis. We will include verifiable results from all meets that PrepXtra schools compete in, including major invitationals in Bristol, Lexington, Nashville, and at Furman, as well as more local meets like Panther Creek, Cove Lake, the KIL Coaches Meets, the Comcast/KTC Grand Prix Series, the KIL Championships, the Blount County Championships, Vol Classic, and any other meet with verifiable results. The list will begin with the August 24 meet at Melton Hill Dam and end with the Tennessee State Meet on November 6. We will use cut-off times of 18:00 for boys and 22:00 for girls. The top times list will have the following format: Date Name School Course Time (I would like to include class in that, as well.) 3) We will release to PrepXtra team results from major invitationals that many of us attend, as well as releasing top teams and individuals who participate in local meets. 4) Sam and I will coordinate a 2004 season preview involving top returning runners and teams. 5) The PrepXtra Cross Country Team will be chosen this year using a formula in order to gain the most objective criteria possible for selection: 30% Final Place in KTC/Comcast Grand Prix Series Standings 30% Final Place on end of year top-30 times list 40% Place in combined A/AA, AAA, and DII Region results. (Since the DII race is at VAP this year, as with A/AA and AAA, we will add the DII times of PrepXtra schools to the times of A/AA and AAA in order to create a combined Region results list.) I'm sure that they will have some space limitations, but we want to get quality coverage for as many individuals and teams as possible, from among all of the TSSAA divisions in the PrepXtra zone. I hope that you are as excited about this as we are. The Knoxville New-Sentinel is willing to substantially increase its reporting of high school cross country in our area and are willing to devote substantial space to our teams. As far as I can see, this agreement with the News-Sentinel far exceeds any cross country coverage in any other region of Tennessee. The email address for PrepXtra info is PrepXCC@aol.com. Coaches in the PrepXtra zone should email that address ASAP in order to get on the PrepXtra listserv. Allen Etheridge ORHS Cross Country

Mr. Rang: Far be it from me to give JDub props for anything related to running. Way to go Zach Gulmire, Jon Chung, Sean Hagstrom, and Matt Hudson. You have to admit, 3 or 4 months ago, not even JDub would've predicted that those guys would win State. (It is too bad that Ed Aramayo didn't get to run it.) It's good to see Eddie win a guys 4x8.

This is from BartlettRunner on DyeStat: 3200 winners bumbi- 9:10 alan knox- 9:31 Daniel jones- ??? (i think he won)

Mr. Rang: I'm glad you said that, since, if I had been able to get my new account working, I would've said the same thing a few days ago. That really is a pretty straight group of guys who don't particularly like to talk smack to other teams. It's pretty sweet to replace a 2:02 runner with a sophomore 2:02 runner--or maybe better on Friday. And you're right: I'd have Hudson anchor my 4x8 any day. He's about ripe for something big. He may need it, as there seem to be several teams capable of cracking 8:00 in AAA.