kickgrass

My daughter plays for Cobra 90. Been some good contests between the 2 teams over the years.

I think that someone can be an excellent coach without being able to do a good "stepover" or "scissors" or show a goalkeeper the proper way to do a collapsed dive. However, I do agree with the statement that someone should. Bring in trainers that can teach these things well. Someone who hasn't played the game is not going to learn to do the actual moves as well as most of their players. A good coach will be a student of the game, in tactics, and strategy and teach these without being an excellent player. As a student of the game they must be constantly updating their knowledge. In my opinion a good coach will teach the players about the game, be an excellent motivator, read his players and the game that is going on and be able to make adjustements to referees and the other team. There are numerous resources avaialble in books, videos, clinics, and conventions where people who are serious about being a good coach can learn tactics, etc. However, being a motivator and being able to read players and adapt to them is probably something that they have or don't.

Clinics would be a big improvement, but I also think the USYSA licenseing process is flawed in that you must be able to actually play and perform the movements to get the license. You don't have to be able to play the game to be a good coach. You have to be a student of the game and have the skills to get players to perform at their best.

The current way of getting to the state is the best way that they have under the current districting/regional set-up. We all know there are strong districts/regions and weak districts/regions across the state. The current set-up takes the top 2 teams from each district to the region and weeds out the weak region, then the sectional in many cases further weeds out the weaker areas. If 2 teams from the same district advance through all of that then they both deserve to be at the state quarterfinals. As we all said many times the team that can put together the big run and peak at the right time will prevail. Seems to me that CAK and Beardon both showed how that theory is correct. Not many folks picked either of those to win it prior to the start of the tournament. Congrats to both for their success. The most successful High School coaches are the ones that have the good players delivered to them. Very few develop players. Not very many teams in Chattanooga had players that did not play club ball. These players were developed elsewhere. Now having said that, the coaches in Chatt. were very good at managing games and motivating their players to succeed, which is also good coaching. I personally don't think that under TSSAA restrictions, High School coaches have the time to develop players. So the newly proposed rule regarding club participation will continue to keep the weak teams down. I don't think you can judge high school coaches on the 8 at the state tournament, or discredit the rest. Does the TSSAA offer any clinics for high school soccer coaches? I think that we are just coming in to a generation of men and women at the coaching/teaching level that have actually played and love the game and I would not be surprised to see it iomprove over the next few years.

Colleges can contact High School juniors, by mail (regular or e-mail) Sept 1 of their junior year. They can not contact directly, either by phone or in person til July 1 following their junior year. Our club team plays the Arsenal team a couple of times a year.

But it is good for discussion. Seems all 6 of these teams are finishing pretty well.

True, but a GK that does not have talent in front of them will have problems. They can direct the defense, as they should and set the walls, but players still have to execute and it takes talent to do that. In many cases, for teams that play with a sweeper, that player is doing much of the direction. I guess a correlation would be football where the quarterback runs the team, but if they don't have a good offensive line they still won't get much done. Yet, the quarterback gets most of the credit for success and blame for failure, while the offensive line rarely gets mentioned.

I am not a statistician (not even sure I know how to spell it), but I would certainly think there is a difference between a shot and a shot on goal. A shot on goal would result in a save or a goal, where a shot may be off frame or blocked by a defender? Should the person keeping the stats make a determination if a "shot" was legitimate. Because I have seen some players that seem to get to a point with the ball and don't seem to know what to do with it anyumore and just bfire it in the general direction of the goal. Usually resulting in nothing more than change of possesion.

Not to detract from the GK play on the teams you mentioned, but perhaps you should be looking more closely at the defenders in front of them. If you looked at the number of shots those keepers faced you would probably also see very low numbers there as well.

Who won Collierville:Farragut?

1st AAA game is Wednesday at 11:30 EST

Gotcha Mjhub, I thought you were talking about regular season, when you mentioned middle tennessee. My bad.

Interesting soccer67 that even the opposing coach questioned the call. Also, interesting that the writer actually seemed to know something about soccer, that's very unusual, of course there was some bias. Sounds like Greeneville was trying to play an offside trap, which is a very risky tactic at best, especially with most of the refs that I has seen calling TSSAA games. That's the way it goes sometimes. There are a number of teams no longer playing that can look back at something to complain about during their elimination game that changed things, but the result remains. Congratulations to Greenville on an outstnding season to make it that far.

I just realized a few days ago that the AAA games have been moved from Finley. I think that is a great move. I the past I've felt that putting these girls on turf (most for the first time in their life, without the proper footwear) affected the play. Everything being on grass is much better (unless monsoon rains come).

That's incorrect Mjuhb. The official clock is kept on the field by the center ref in Middle Tenn. The clock operator is supposed to stop the clock with 2 min. remaining so there won't be that discrepency between the center ref (for stoppage time) and the clock.

That Katie Hunter game was 2 months ago. Lot's of things have changed since then. But, I certainly don't think anyone is disrespecting Siegel or any of the other AAA teams that are still playing. They all have a chance to win (at least better than those that have been eliminated). They are just predictions, you have to pick someone to win it. Anyway it will be much more fun for you to tell us "told you so" if they win this way. My only uncertainty with both Siegel and Hendersonville is the weak schedules they have been playing for the past 2-3 weeks. In that area I think Franklin, Beardon and Farragut have had more must win (elimination) games that were real challanges.

Quarters: Siegel over Franklin Collierville over Farragut Hendersonville over Riverdale Beardon over Houston Semis: Collierville over Siegel Hendersonville over Beardon Final: Hendersonville over Collierville

After watching Hendersonville beat Ravenwood tonight I haven't changed my about about them. Ravenwood scored about 5 min. into the game and then it was all Hendersonville after that. Sanchez had a hatrick in the 26th min and Ravenwood was never able to generate any kind of efficient attack on the Hendersonville defense. Talking to some Hendersonville people, they haven't played a tough team since the Franklin game till tonight. That could come back to haunt them next week, but they sure did look sharp tonight.

Hendersonville - 3 Ravenwood - 1

In club soccer the TSSA keeps up with yellow and red cards (soft or hard) and any player who receives a red card must sit out the next game. After 5 yellow cards they must sit out a game, after 8 (I think) yellow cards they are out for the season. You tell a coach that he/she may lose a top player for the next game w/ a red and they may be encouraged to calm the player down a bit.

I don't know who will take her place w/ Stones River. Honestly I don't think you can replace Arielle, just her position. I've had the pleasure of watching this girl play since she was 10 years old (no I'm not her dad or related) and she is a phenom. She earned it through hard work. She played club ball w/ us for years prior to going over to the Strikers. One of the only players I've seen that can take over any game. She will probably be able to name her own ticket with the college she selects. She has it all: great size, deceptive speed, incredible foot skills, accurate rocket shot, she sees the entire field, makes the right pass on target and she's a fabulous kid. Yes I also have heard that the Strikers are looking for a GK. I think Alley Marlow was their keeper in the past and she may not be playing there next year. I'm sure they will reload.

Sure Flash thugish play should not be allowed at any position (I know 1 particular thugish striker comes to your mind as she does with many). Refs just need to call the game properly. If it's a foul in the mid-field it's a foul in the box. My daughter is small and as a striker she takes a beating every single game. Both she and I know that's just the way it goes. It's a physical game. Does anyone know if the TSSAA keeps up with red cards (both soft and hard) and are there any consequences for multiple send offs or cumulative yellow cards?

I agree that Arielle Cohen is one of the best players in TN, but she didn't play High School this year. She left Hume Fogg and I understand is in the process of moving to Miami, FL.

What grade is she in?

I would love to see this St. Agnes team play. I've been told they are nothing short of phenomenal. Amazing that they have allowed 2 goals the entire season. That has to be some kind of record. And while they had to play some lessor teams in league play, they have played some good competition as well and just hammered them. IS everyone else's hope just that "any given day" scenario?