taydizzle

The Legend is right. The new additions come from an outstanding CSLA team last year (CSLA is the feeder school for CSAS) and from students who have been on the waiting list for years and just got in. Probably 75 percent of the team this year will be either 9th or 10th graders.....young but very talented. They will probably start slower than in years past but once they get going they will be tough!

I agree that "depth" could be a serious issue for Temple....they are one injury away from being not that good. I have heard others say that Grace will be better without Carter but I don't buy that.....they will miss him especially when Shaunassy gets in foul trouble as he is prone to do. Silverdale.......what do the "recruits" look like? Will their coaches stay on the bench and within a mile of the coaching box this year? The rest I really don't know about or care about.

I would probably agree with you on most of this, but time will tell. I heard that at tryouts yesterday CSAS had a couple of "surprises" with new guys trying out. They had a huge number at tryouts. What about other schools in 6-A and even 5-A. What were tryouts like? Has anyone heard anything?

Tomorrow will mark a new era in CSAS basketball. They lost two 1,000 point scorers from last year's team (Dontay Hampton/UTC and Hasaan Cobb) as well as Brian Ball/Lee, Curtis Mc Koy, Michael Johnson, Luke Ziegler, and Warren Foster. They do however have some strong returning players in Terrell Townsend, Aaron Cousin, Tyler Johnson, and Nick Jackson. Take those four with a couple of juniors and a very talented sophomore and freshman class and this team will only get better and better every day!

The only team that South Pitt would surprise would be CSAS since they have beaten every other team over the past several years. Beating Grace or Temple would be the "surprise"! Speaking of surprises, I heard yesterday that Silverdale has a new 6'8" kid playing for them this year who wasn't there last year. It is always a "surprise" to see how the Seahawks attract kids to their "academic" program who also happen to play football and basketball and can afford a private school education!

The district and region final four will both be at South Pitt's new gym so that should be an advantage to them. I agree with you Ice Cold, the Patriots are very young but very talented.

South Pittsburg has a new gym and "rumored" new players, Signal Mountain has gotten a lot of new players since the new school year started, and CSAS lost seven seniors. What will this year look like? Facts? Opinions?

If he tried out for basketball in the spring, where there was a five day spring practice this year, then if he practiced he is probably ineligible for twelve months from his last participation which would be the spring practice.

I will say it again. Clay County is welcome to pick up the phone and call CSAS. Both boys and girls teams would be glad to play I am sure. It is not what they lost but what they will have that should concern you.

I did not bring us into the discussion, one of your people did. Tell Clay County to call CSAS. I hear they had somebody cancel and have an opening for a home game.

Take any one starter out of the lineup for Jackson Co. that night and they lose. I am saying that Jackson Co. won but they did not beat a healthy team with all their players (including their leading scorer Terrell Townsend). Take any one starter out of the lineup for Jackson Co. that night and they lose. I am saying that Jackson Co. won but they did not beat a healthy team with all their players (including their leading scorer Terrell Townsend).

CSAS lost at Jackson Co. because JC played a perfect game and CSAS played without their leading scorer Terrell Townsend who was injured and averaged 20+ a game. Grace should have beat CSAS on talent the last two years but didn't, so go ahead and talk about next year without the Patriots and you might get surprised (again)!

That sounds good on paper, but then you have the situation like Temple where if asked kids would say "My first contact was at Spring Football Practice"...the school gets their wrist slapped, drops the program and really nothing substantial happens.

You seemed to be saying that what you were saying was something new. I would think that all your sarcasm is a little overstated!

I posted this on April 18th on the Public-Private board. It is a done deal, no sources needed. Rector will be a Grace Golden Eagle. What other players are leaving? Anyone know?

I heard a rumor this week that Greg Bibb was leaving Pickett County. Any truth to this?

Good facility, good people, sad situation at present.

The freshman quarterback is transferring to Grace. He will be ineligible in football and basketball for 12 months.

A couple of the players you mentioned (and I will not name names) were at least rumored to have had some off the court issues that would have caused UTC to back away if they were interested.

MVM, multiplier? No multiplier? Just like it is now D-I, D-II?

MVM, if the urban-rural split is not going to happen, what do you think will happen?

Actually I can. One of the reasons that coaches have a pretty good idea of the type of player that he will get from CSAS is the consistency of coaches. The CSAS coaching staff is made up of people who have been involved since the very beginning (counting assistant coach Carlos Pride who started playing there in 1986) and Coach Dragoo just finished his nineteenth year as head coach. Second, students at CSAS have a rigorous academic requirements/schedule that each has to take, no choice. Third, because it is not a zoned school, kids who don't work hard are usually encouraged to leave. This is not to say that they are better than other schools, it just is what has worked for CSAS. I think that Howard under Coach Mc Gary is doing some great things at Howard and Ricks, etc. are great players and I am sure very good students. From what you are saying we have a lot of kids in Chattanooga to be proud of!

Go back and read posts under Temple and there are enough to keep you busy until the weather warms up! They had kids practicing, playing, etc. that were not even students in their school. They have/are having boosters pay tuition for athletes. They have lied repeatedly about and during the investigation.

When a kid plays and graduates from CSAS a college coach pretty much knows that he is getting a player who is a true student athlete and has been taught team play and is fundamentally sound. There probably have been a few that have not fallen into this description, but overall a Patriot is going to get to play, stay eligible, and graduate if given the chance. Dontay Hampton can and will be a good player at the D-I level. It is unfortunate that kids from Howard, Brainerd, etc. are so talented in basketball but never get to play at a comparable level due to their lack of academic preparation.

Not that anybody really cares at this point, but they CHEATED and really got away with it. When they saw that they could not win without cheating they threw in the towel!