Manzikert

Mose Osemwegie--MBA & Vanderbilt signed with the Bears as an undrafted free agent

Maplewood wins by 10 or 11. It was a hard fought, well played game. Two good teams, but Maplewood was much bigger and deeper. They got lots of 2d and 3d shots. Ensworth had some key guys (Pope and Jefferson) in foul trouble most of the game. They also didn't shoot very well--- although Maplewood's defense had something to do with that. Maplewood is really good---at least 4 guys 6'4" or taller, not skinny, and athletic. They played good defense, rebounded and blocked out. I see them winning lots of games over the next three years

How did the games tonight turn out? Who's in the finals and where and when is the game? Anybody know? Thanks.

It's a fair question--- I have a couple of reasons for my observation. First, BA's starters played a good bit --- more than I thought they would and certainly more than was required to be sure of winning handily. I figured they were just treating like a scrimmage, which was fine. It was a privilege for the Ensworth kids to get to play against such a great team, and the experience can only help them. Second-- the reason the game was so lop sided was that Ensworth had no answer of any kind for BA's inside strength-- starting with Brandan Wright, but including a bunch of other guys too. No shame there-- not many other folks have an answer to that either. Brandan Wright scored 16, but he could've scored 50 if they'd run every play for him. On the other hand, while its hard to isolate just guard play, I thought that Jefferson was able to get good shots against whoever guarded him, showed very good quickness on defense-- enough to bother BA's guards at times, and made good passes when his teammates got open (which admittedly wasn't very often). He's a 9th grader going against very good to great juniors and seniors for BA and I thought he held his own very well, and that if he'd been at BA he'd have been seeing a good bit of playing time as a 9th grader. Just my opinion, I could be wrong.

I thought it was a well played game on both sides. Alvin Ingle for JP2 was very impressive. Ensworth battled back from a 6 or 7 point half time deficit, took the lead in the 4th quarter and kept battling, added to the lead and won by 9. The Tigers have great quickness and their man to man press bothered JP2. Tavarres Jefferson, in particular was impressive. A couple of his steals looked like Bobby Joe Hill in the movie "Glory Road". He scored 28 and is averaging 18.4 as a 9th grader playing a varsity schedule. He scored 14 against BA and looked like the 2d best guard on the court to me. A name to watch in the future. Gary Pope and Miles Asafo Adjie also scored in duble figures, and the two 10th graders who played a lot, Kerry Oakley and KP McDermott really battled inside. A fine team effort.

HOW BOUT THEM DORES!!! 28-24 in Neyland, drive 63 yards in 4 plays with less than 2 minutes to go and no time outs to score the winning TD. Stop Tennessee on 4th and 1 inside the 5 earlier in the 2d half. Just a gutsy, tough performance. I wouldn't trade Jay Cutler, Moses Osemwegie or Earl Bennett for any other 3 players in the SEC---- and if Cutler went to USC, Matt Leinert would be 2d string. It a good day in Nashville.

I wasn't counting the war years-- really different schedule in those years--- I was thinking of the 1941 team which went 5-0 before losing to Tulane and which finished 8-2--- the other loss was to Tennessee. One of the Asst Coaches was Paul "Bear" Bryant. Red Sanders was the Head Coach-- he returned in 1946 and had a pretty good run through 1948 before going to UCLA and building a national power. After 1941 Vanderbilt next played an SEC schedule in 1945 with a freshman heavy team that went 3-6. I was at the Tulane game in 1984 and don't recall anything odd about who played--- I do recall 2 or 3 drive killing delay of game penalties when they were slow calling plays from the bench. Vandy dominated the game, they were 4-0, ranked #20, coming off a big win at Alabama--- and after that loss, as you say, the air just went out of them--- Cub and Red Sox fans know nothing of frustration and disappointment compared to Vandy football fans.

The thread did get hijacked, and I apologize for helping that happen. I would need to get 35 points to bet on Ensworth in this game-- and the margin of victory will be largely in Coach Flatt's control-- I'd say 14 points of margin at least for every quarter BA's 1st --or even 2d stringers play. The Ensworth kids will be well coached and will try hard, but there's only so much 180 pound sophomores and freshmen can do against fast, talented 240 lb seniors. Someday maybe, but not tonight. As to the other points--- I find Inovo's post hard to believe, but very disappointing if true-- not consistent with anything I've heard about admissions practices or policy at Ensworth---and not anything I've heard from anybody else. I've been to dozens of MBA contests in lots of sports as an MBA supporter over a period of more than 20 years, and I've never observed anything that I thought was outside the bounds of being enthusiastic fans--- even when the MBA crowd chanted "overrated" at Brandon Wright during the BA-MBA basketball game (he wasn't playing very hard), they immediately bowed (as in "I'm not worthy") when he threw down a monster reverse dunk--- it was really a nice/funny moment All these schools are class acts, doing a great job of educating kids, competing hard, with good sportsmanship on the athletic field. There are differences-- coed vs single sex is an obvious one, CPA , Ryan and , to an extent BA have an overtly religious aspect ot their mission, there are differences in curriculum, educational philosophy etc. All those things provide the basis for a good range choice for Nashville families and the competition between them makes them all better--- Turning back to the subject of the thread--- if Ensworth scores twice, I think that's a moral victory-- even if its 3d stringers they score on. 3 or 4 years from now, I'd hope that Ensworth can be competitive against the Super 7 (or 8) schools--- it will take at least that long, I'd think.

This really isn't the topic of this thread, but I think its fair to note that, while the two dozen guys you know mwy be rock solid in the MBA camp as you say--- 1st , as you say , things can change, and 2d-- more importantly-- those guys may find, especially where the HS decision is concerned, that the kids have as much or more influence than the parents---- Ensworth has kept more than 80% of its 8th graders both of the last two years--- and more than a few of those kids chose EHS over objections from their parents---- I also don't think the facts support Redtwin's comment that MBA's entrance requirements are higher than Ensworth's I know of several kids admitted to MBA for 7th or 9th grade who were wait listed at Ensworth, and I'm not aware of any cases where the reverse is true. Of course-- the real point is that there are plenty of great kids for all these schools, and competition and choice will make everybody better-- great for Nashville.

I know I'll probably jinx them by posting this--- but-- if they can get by Ole Miss, they'll have to be pretty solid favorites to beat MTSU and Richmand at home--- and if they can stay focused and do that-- then they'll be 5-0! (With a hellacious set of games coming up, but hey, 5-0 is 5-0--- my trivia question is this--- when was the last time Vandy was 5-0? I'm pretty sure I know. Extra credit, what was unusual about the coaching staff of the last 5-0 Vandy team?

I think a comment made by MBA"s headmaster around the time of the split is the best response to this snide remark--- he said (as best I can recall) "our school was founded in 1867 and we've offered financial aid to qualified students who couldn't otherwise afford to attend MBA from the time we were founded. It doesn't have anything to do with athletics, its part of our educational mission and we have no intention of changing our practices in this area". I think it also bears noting that if a student receives a 65% scholarship to MBA (roughly the average size of financial aid grants at private schools nationwide) his family will have to pay more than $5,000 out of pocket for him to attend MBA---- and those are after tax dollars-- his parents will have to earn roughly $7,000 to meet that obligation. Meanwhile, Hillsboro, Hillwood, Glencliff Brentwood etc etc are FREE---- so who's offering the great best financial deal here? Not sure, but FREE looks hard to beat to me. I get tired of the whining.

Who was the tall, left handed kid who played QB for MBA for the last 4 or 5 series of the scrimmage? Somebody told me he's a sophomore--- he looked about 6'3" and had a strong arm. Showed good poise and made some nice throws. Obviously, he was going against 2d and 3d stringers on defense, but they were still big, fast kids. He also had the advantage that whoever the MBA 2d string center was did a lot better job of not snapping the ball over the QBs head. Anyway, just curious--- looked like a future talent maybe.

Is the Riverdale-MBA scrimmage tomorrow (Friday August 5)? If not, does anybody know when its scheduled? Is it at Riverdale? What time? Thanks.

Don't know if this is unique, but it has to be unusual--- Riverdale's defense in 1994 scored more points (60) than it gave up (58). The team went 15-0 and outscored its opponents 623-58.

You're right , my bad--- I wrongly remembered the New England game in 2003 as the AFC Championship, but you're right , it was the 2d round. The 2000 loss to Baltimore was actually the 2d round, I think-- the had a bye the 1st round that year-- I think that was actually the best team they've had and they dominated the game against Baltimore on the stat sheet, but gave up some big plays-- mainly Ray Lewis taking the ball away from Eddie and running it back for a TD-- Eddie was never the same after that

I think you're exactly right about the factors that will make it tough for Ensworth to be anything like the dominant force that BA was in the 80's--- I also agree with your comments about the competition those BA teams faced-- I've often wondered whether we'd have the split today if BA had played up to the highest classification, which was clearly justified by the number of SEC prospects most of those teams had--- we'll never know, but I do know that they poisoned the minds of a lot of rural coaches (a key constituency in the TSSAA) by going into places like Milan with long proud traditions and beating them 40-0 with a team that then had 6 guys sign SEC scholarships--- then when they had those really great teams in the mid 90's and stuck it to Riverdale, there was no good will for them anywhere, and I think HS sports, esp sports other than football, have really suffered as a result. Water over the dam now, but its too bad, in my opinion. Turning back to Ensworth for a minute, I can also say with absolute confidence that nobody associated with the school at a decision making level has the slightest interest in becoming what BA was in the 80's---- there's a lot more emphasis on having an academic program that will enable kids to get into top colleges than anything else---- and as far as admissions standards are concerned, in both of the last two years Ensworth has turned down some kids who were accepted at MBA, USN or Harpeth Hall for the 7th and for the 9th grades, and I don't believe they've taken any kids that those schools turned down-- so-- yeah, "seemingly higher admissions standards" is an accurate statement, but its MBA, HH and USN that they"seemingly" exceed---they leave BA's admissions standards, in the 80's or now, in the dust. That will make it tough to compete in athletics, but they do have great coaches and great facilities (and btw, they've had a regulation football field, WITH goal posts on the middle school campus, for 15 years-- although your memories of the early 80's are accurate)---- but the goal, just like at MBA, HH or USN is to aspire to excellence in everything you undertake, to have the best teachers and the best coaches you can get and give the kids the chance to be the best they can be--- if that's a 9-1 team, great--- if its a 4-6 team, then be sure you compete hard to the final whistle, behave like gentlemen (or ladies) , shake hands and leave the field as friends--- that's what all of this ought to be about anyway. Sorry for the long post.

Fair enough as far as last year goes, but the Titans have a pretty strong record for most of the time they've been here--- 3trips to the AFC title game and 1 to the Super Bowl is in the NFL's elite. We'll keep our fingers crossed for this year-- lots of cap casulties. As far a HS ball goes-- I went to the MHS Football web site linked on your post-- its outstanding , by the way,-- & noticed the discussion about a bunch of MHS players going to football camp at Furman, how good it was, etc--- don't know if he was there, but Furman's starting QB this year and next, Ingle Martin, is a good Nashville guy--- & as good as Maryville was in 1999 & 2000, I wouldn't have bet on them against the MBA teams that Ingle quarterbacked in those years-- esp the "99 team team, which was ungodly-- the only even remotely close game they played was against Bolles from Jacksonville FL--- so we do play a little football in this part of the state--- & I guess its worth noting that Riverdale is in the Nashville area-- haven't noticed anybody from East Tennessee scrambling to schedule them either. All in good fun- & seriously, the web site is great

I think their schedule this year is a mixture of varsity and JV games. I know, for example, that they're playing Harding Academy from Memphis in a varsity game, but they've got some games againt JV teams as well (Ryan, for example). So I don't think they'll be eligible for the playoffs this year,but that's no big deal, becuase with just 9th & 10th graders they wouldn't have had much chance of making the playoffs anyway. I think the objective for this year will be to gain experience and build character-- if they beat somebody, great,but I wouldn't expect any sort of power house.

Dear Coach T--- I posted to a thread on the Football board about a recent ban on rebel flags etc at Maryville games earlier today. I checked back to see if there had been any responses , and got a message saying the thread had been "moved" with no indication where it had been moved. Can you help me find it? I thought it was interesting and would like to keep up with it. Thanks

This is a long thread and I haven't read all the posts, so somebody else may have mentioned this & if so I apologize for being redundant. This is a very controversial topic, and my point is a small one, that really isn't involved in the current controversy at all----- still its always bothered me so I thought I mention it here--- That is, accepting the "heritage" point for purposes of argument only, I question whether anybody in Maryville is entitled to claim the "Rebel" heritage-- Why? Well, for one thing, Blount County voted against secession in 1861(perhaps showing good judgement and forsight ), for another, East Tennessee was a stronghold of Union sympathizers during the war--- witness the fact that Lincoln's 1864 runnig mate and successor, Andrew Johnson, was an East Tennessean. I haven't researched this in detail, but I'd be willing to bet that as many Blount Countians served in the Union army as in the Confederate army--- and that both were probably outnumbered by folks who just sat the war out. So---- its one thing for Ole Miss to get wrapped up in the Rebel flag (and they've gotten over it pretty nicely, by the way)--- Barksdale's Mississippi brigade probably suffered as many casualties in 2 hours in the Wheat Field and the Peach Orchard at Gettysburg as were suffered by Blount County residents fighting for the Confederacy in the whole war. Not a big deal, people can name teams whatever they want (what in world do Titans have to do with Nashville?)--- but when you start claiming something as your "heritage" you're invoking history-- in which case you probably ought to be sure what the history is--- and the fact is that if Maryville wants to be true to its real heritage from the Civil War era, they might want to consider renaming their teams the Yankees, or perhaps less controversially , the Americans, and waving the Stars & Stripes at games--- not that some people wouldn't get bent out shape at that too--- This was mostly just for fun, so please don't get hot at me--- but I'm right about the history.

MBA & Ryan played for the first time in 1927 and have played virtually every year since then-- one or two years right before the spilt they were in different districts and didn't play-- and since the split they've played twice in some years (regular season and playoffs). MBA leads the series by a pretty solid margin--- bigreddog or somebody would know exactly. Been some great games-- in 1971 both were 9-0 when they played at Dudley Field in front of 25,000. MBA won that night.

MBA was founded in 1867, I think. Ryan dates back to the early 20th century as well--- MBA & Ryan first palyed football against each other in 1927. Ryan, as a Catholic school was also integrated before any of the public shcools in Nashville. Also-- inresponse to another post in this series-- BGA was founded in 1888.

I know this thread is mostly about boys times, but a girl to watch out for in the future is Chela Green, a freshman at Ensworth--- she's run a 58.6 this year and has been 59.5 or better in every meet. She's also run a 12.4 100 and a 25.3 200. All pretty good times for a 9th grader. Lots of potential.

Impressive showing by BA. Ensworth's 2d place finish is also worth noting, since they only have 38 or 39 boys in their 9th grade class. Also of note, in the 's Freshman CIty Meet at Harpeth Hall, with pretty much the same group of schools in the competition, Ensworth took 1st place, led by several wins by sprinter Chela Green, a real star of the future.