PowerSweep

What about #2? He was a very tough runner last year against Webb. I was very impressed with him and would have imagined that a healthy #40 along with #2 this year would make a very tough tandem to defend against.

Have to wonder why Bearden coaches didn't put the ball in Young's hands on either of the final two plays from Farragut's 6 yard line. Very surprising.

Bishop - QB and Eskridge - RB both came from Webb.

Just a point of clarification, Webb does not board any students, never have. Perhaps you are thinking of Webb at Bell Buckle who I believe does. All of the buildings you see when you visit the campus are for the Lower School, Middle School and High School which are all located on the same property.

You're right, which is why I don't post things about other schools as if they are facts. You're also right that you started this thread and conveniently forgot to mention that you included the following little dig directed at Webb. Why? "Side note, Webb is bigger then BGA, Brentwood Academy and Ensworth..all of whom choose to play up. Wonder if they would be 18-1 over the last 2 years playing with those guys?"

What happened to Baylor's #22 from last year's roster? I haven't heard him mentioned this season, is he still on the team?

D2A... there is no question. Webb has a beautiful campus. The classroom and specialized buildings on campus are very, very nice inside and out. The administration is always making improvements to the campus but what you don't realize is they have consistently ignored their athletic facilities for the most part over the years. Oh, they'll throw a bone or two toward making improvements to athletic facilities but it is certainly not their focus. Do you have any idea what their operational budget is? No. Do you have any idea that the football bleachers are the exact same bleachers they had back in the 80s. No. Did you know that the recent press box renovation was done largely because the existing press box was literally about to collapse. No. Did you know the baseball field did not have lights until 2 years ago. No. I could go on and on how Webb does not "pour" their money into athletics. This is all getting tired and old so I'm done trying to explain to you that you have no basis in fact to make ANY comments about how Webb School runs it's campus and athletic programs. My bottom line is that you recently joined this message board because you are now personally invested in a DII-A school and are obsessed with Webb's success and how unfair it is to you and your school because Webb is going to win all the State Championships. I have been around Webb for a long time, through many different athletic classifications, and have never complained about how unfair it was that some other school in our division had this or that while they beat us on their way to State Championships. I hope Webb wins every game they play in every sport but I realize that's not going to happen. My satisfaction comes from watching them compete and enjoying the relationships I have built over a long time with several of their outstanding coaches. That's just me...

+1... couldn't agree more with your points. As a graduate of BGA I will say that I totally understand why they chose to play up given the competitive private school market in the Nashville area. I understand the history and other intangibles that went along with their decision. I will tell you it was not a popular decision for some at the time and upon reflection some of those who supported "playing up" have come to regret it. I only hope the administration fully understands the commitment, in my opinion, they abandoned they athletic programs for the most part less than 10 years ago and were trying to focus the school in a different direction. I have heard that things are getting better recently which is a good thing. BGA would be a great addition to DII-A!

Actually Webb travels to the Nashville are 4 times this season... if they were DII-AA travel would be slightly less as you pointed out. So from a travel standpoint DII-AA would be better. From a competition standpoint it would be a huge upgrade. 2007-2008 Webb was... 1-1 vs Baylor 1-1 vs McCallie DNP BA 0-1 vs MBA 1-1 vs Ryan 0-2 vs Ensworth 1-1 vs JPII 1-1 vs BGA

It's clear you have no idea of the student body makeup at Webb so with that said, I don't expect you to understand the facts. Let me know when venting to a message board got anything done. If you want to get something done then you need to talk to who's in charge. Last I checked the TSSAA decides the classifications, not this message board. I already said, if you had actually read my entire post, that I would have preferred Webb stay in DII-AA.

As I said previously, Webb has always played in the division they are classified in. The TSSAA makes the rules and Webb plays by them. If Webb wins the state championship again this year and the TSSAA decides to move them up, then so be it. In fact, I actually preferred it when Webb played in the current DII-AA. I really enjoyed watching them compete against the likes of Baylor, McCallie, MBA, BGA etc. Webb didn't win all of those games but they competed against the very best. I'm trying to understand exactly what facts you provided to make a relevant point... however I did hear your opinion which I took issue with. You never did answer my question about where you would draw the cutoff line between the two divisions. I'll answer your question though... Is it fair? My answer is yes, it is what it is, the TSSAA decided how to divide the DII schools, not Webb. Webb no doubt benefitted from where the cutoff was made since it meant they wouldn't have to play against DII-AA schools. Even with the largest pool of boys to work with in DII-A, I still maintain their major sport participation percentage is less than the other DII-A schools. Facts are facts and Webb's student body has a very high percentage of non-athletes who go to school there for the drama, music, arts etc. programs. Webb's administration is committed to keeping Webb at the very top in providing a college prep education... that is by far the most important reason why the majority of families choose to send their children to Webb... not sports. This isn't Upward football so we still keep score... somebody wins and somebody loses while the TSSAA is in charge. If that's not fair then you need to vent to the TSSAA.

Webb has always played in the division they are classified for and I would expect they will continue to do so. This is the second year they have played in this classification so it remains to be seen if they dominate for years to come. As for last year, I'm just stating the facts, they did dominate the teams they played in the playoffs and championship game.

Webb is a lot of things... coward is not one of them. Over the years Webb has scheduled many schools that have double and triple their enrollment. Go check their schedule for the past 10 years and you will find out of region public schools that range from 3A power Alcoa to 6A Bearden. By the way they have a 16-game winning streak against Knox County area public schools that includes Bearden, Powell, West, Austin-East, Halls and Central. So tell me D2A, you're the czar of DII... where do you draw the cutoff line between the two divisions?

Thanks silverpie...

I understand your point but would anybody be 18-1 against those guys? I think most people would probably say no. At any rate, since your talking about Webb, in 2007 and 2008 they were classified with the current DII-AA and had a combined 5-7 record against them. It's hard to say how they would have fared the past two years but I would be willing to say that last year's team could have competed with any of them. I'm certainly not saying they would beat them all, but they would win their fair share. Last year's team had 18 seniors plus some very good underclassmen who make the nucleus of this year's team. There's really no way to know for sure, but last year's team was considerably better than the 2008 team and equal to or slightly better than the 2007 team that went 4-2 against current DII-AA competition. This year's team is very good. They have demonstrated that by soundly beating everyone (except FRA who gave them one heck of a game) including the #1 ranked 5A school in the state at the time they played in Knoxville Catholic (33-7). It will come down to the last two games of the regular season and playoffs to see if they can repeat the dominate performance they showed last year at the end of the year. One thing about the enrollment numbers... Webb dresses around 35-40 players each week depending on injuries etc. Many of their athletes play multiple sports and I can easily say that the majority of the boys in their student body (9th-12th grades) do not play any of the 3 major sports so you're looking at a pool of about 55-60 boys who make up the entire rosters for all 3 sports. That's just over a 20% participation rate, which is probably in line with the other DII-A schools.

I would certainly agree with this statement. In following Webb the past two seasons, since the reclassification, I have seen most all of the Middle/East teams and a few from the West and there is a huge competitive difference from top to bottom in the Middle/East teams. The 3 teams I saw from the West last year, St. George's, ECS and USJ were all pretty similar so I'm not sure how the rest of the West teams compare. There are a few Middle/East teams that are very weak and as far as Webb's concerned they really don't offer much in the way of competition but instead provide valuable game experience and development for the JV players. Until which time the weaker teams get better I really don't see it changing very much. By the way, isn't the next reclassification after this season? If so, it will be interesting to see how things may change in DII with new schools moving in/out and possible changes within the current DII A/AA enrollment cutoff.

LetsRumble... I'm not sure I would consider last year's game a "whupping" as you stated above. A 2-point margin of victory is far from it actually. Hopefully you'll be able to make the trip over to Knoxville in a few weeks for the game. It should be a great game to watch and I'm really looking forward to it.

bigreese82... hope you make the trip over to Knoxville in a few weeks. It should be a great game between DA and Webb. I'm really looking forward to this one.

Using Webb is a good indicator of what kind of team you have. With that in mind, I'll predict that Maryville will beat The University of Knoxville Catholic by 3-4 TDs. Webb beat Catholic by 26 at Catholic and played subs almost the entire 4th quarter. During the last week of pre-season Webb (without their starting QB) scrimmaged Maryville and Webb was slightly better that day. Certainly doesn't mean Webb would beat them now, but it is a decent indicator of the two teams relative strength. A lot has changed for Maryville since then, as they have improved on both sides of the ball with their line play, improved their overall speed on defense and have had a RB emerge who is very talented. So I really don't see why Maryville doesn't take this one easily. Catholic is not a very fast team, particularly on defense and I believe Maryville's skill position players will have a big night.

Just funnin' with ya dad since you said you were going to add more later about the game that but players and coaches were going to take a couple of days off. Us parents get tired and banged up too...

Excellent first post ensworthdad! I don't even know the kid but I agree 100% long hair most assuredly doesn't make a young man a thug and based on what you said about him, he sounds like a kid that is doing the right thing and going above and beyond what most kids in HS do with the precious little spare time they have... especially an athlete.

Congrats on the win... Scott County is a tough place to play especially late in the season as it gets downright frigid up there. So "Dad"... are you a player or a coach?

Good luck to you as well... the next couple of months should be interesting! Also, does the Haggard kid play football? He was very impressive as a baseball player and could really run.

Gocart, what kind of offense does JCS run? This past spring when Webb played them in the state final in baseball I was impressed with the amount of athletes they had on the baseball team. If that was any indication of athletes in the school then I can imagine the football team is well stocked too.

I offer this just to say that I believe Halls had the personnel last season to be successful running the wing-t. I would have gone with Gresham and Gibson at WB. FB would have been Alley. Fitzpatrick and O'Laughlin would have seen some carries as well at either WB or FB as very good backups. Bright would have been your starter at WR. QB Dowdy/Coffman both would be very capable as long as they were able to sell ball fakes and throw mid-range passes occassionally. I'm not as familiar with your personnel in the o-line last season but Long and Burton would have been my guards. Burton would have been a very, very good wing-t guard. Long was strong and played tough, good shape there. I'm not sure about who played center last season but someone who is laterally quick in the 225 lb. range would be ideal. At tackle, biggest kids you had BUT they have to be able to move.