WCBalla

No, and they never can be.

Again, all I seem to be feeling from you is jealousy and bitterness (plus a numb butt from sitting in these seats at Murphy Center for the last few days, but then you wouldn't know about that, would you?) Recruiting? Tomato, Tomoto.... Just because none of our starters are actually zoned to go there doesn't mean we recruited them. They just figured out where the grass is greener.

I'm not feeling the love from you. I don't understand how a fellow Wilson Countian could pull against a cross county team. I gather from your post on the 'Wilson Central-Oak Ridge' thread that you are fom Mt. Juliet. As I said on my response to that post, you are obviously suffering from 'Bud Envy'.

It sounds like you are pretty knowledgeable about Wilson Central. AND, the fact you say, 'Go Oak Ridge' tells me you must be from Mt. Juliet. That being said, I can understand your feelings. Since you are sitting home with nothing to do, you might as well hate on your county rival. I would hope you would have pulled for us last night. We are only a few miles apart and many of our students have gone to school with Mt. Juliet kids for years. We certainly always pull for Mt. Juliet, except when we are playing them. Wilson Central has no conditioning issues. Bud chooses to slow it down. We have the best post (Jasmine Hassell) in the state so why wouldn't we slow it down and pound it inside. That's what got them here and that's what will get them by a 37-1 Millington team (who's only loss was to Bartlett, a team we beat by 11 in the state quarterfinals!) Admit it, you have 'Bud Envy'.

...........and I must admit, I got a chuckle out of your reply. Why? Because you seem to know the exact circumstance I refer to when I talk about parent recruiting. Except you left out the phone calls, free meals at local restaurants, visits to the school, etc., etc., etc. You obviously support private schools. Fine. I do not. Ridiculous. Poor black kids getting calls over rich white kids? Grow up.

I believe that private schools playing Division I should play at a higher classification than their attendance dictates. Using Friendship in Lebanon as an example, they play a single 'A' schedule. Yet they go out and try to recruit the best players from Lebanon, Mt. Juliet and even Watertown. Head coach Matt Bradshaw does not participate in this but a few parents at the middle school level are very active in the recruiting process. If you get an athlete to enter in middle school, they will certainly be there at the high school level. This means that a higher percentage of students in each grade level are capable of playing at a high athletic level. Schools Friendship competes against, such as Watertown and Gordonsville, have to take what their student body has to offer while playing hand-picked, often superior athletes. In my mind, that is a distinct advantage for the private school. I think Friendship should have to compete at the 'AA' level or maybe even the 'AAA' level. Am I wrong? Should classification be based on the percentage of students participating in athletics? I know that doesn't work but the system as it is does not work either. I don't think it is a coincidence that private schools dominate their poorer brothers and sisters. Somebody set me straight and tell me I'm wrong. Please.

Tough game last night. I really expected the Lady Wildcats to win even without Jenkins. I think Fryer did a great job of preparing for us. He played a smaller lineup and just ran our girls to death. He continually subbed to keep fresh girls and we could just not keep up. The fourth quarter seemed to be turnover after turnover. We were obviously gassed. If not for Hassell, who is not even zoned to go to Central, it probably would not have even been a game at all. Where is our depth? Do we have any depth? I don't understand why we don't use our bench more. If teams are gonna use Fryer's strategy against us, we need to be able to play more people. I know Martin, #3 I think, stepped up big time last night. Where has she been? She knocked down 4 or 5 big freethrows late.

Well good for you "Cous'. Of course you feel that way. Your team is benefitting from the 'theft' of other's players. You will not drag me into the 'Name Calling' but I stand by what I said. I know for a fact that 2 players live out of zone and I am pretty sure a third does also. Everybody cannot be a star, no matter how hard they work. But they can put in their time, work their tail off and have reasonable expectations to reap the rewards of all their hard work. I hate to see this happen to my friend and the others. Taking a bogus class to attend a school is not a 'legitimate' reason to go to another school. ......................and I did not criticize our coaches! I know they are good.

One of my best friends is not happy. She thought she would see playing time this year and these new girls came in and she was out. As far as those other schools go (Riverdale, Shelbyville and Brentwood Academy), they are not in Wilson County. We have to go where we are zoned. At least, we are supposed to.

When they do not go to the school they are zoned to go, you are right. I am complaining. That is unfair. Take the people you have and make them better.....if your any kind of coach at all. Are you saying the girl mentioned is zoned to goto Central?

I absolutely can. I can name 3 right now off the top of my head. I am in classes with two of them. All the girls on the team know what is going on. Some are upset because coach keeps on bringing in other girls that play ahead of girls living in the correct zone. I believe there are more than 3 but these are the only ones I am 100% sure of. I won't begin naming names, but the one you mentioned is plenty, wouldn't you say?

Should Wilson Central be ranked in 7AAA as well, since most of their team is zoned to go to Lebanon High School?

You may use big words but you don't understand simple statements. For the umpteenth time, it has nothing to do with a fiery approach or demeanor. Coaches have different styles, that's what makes them different. My only problem with my own Wilson Central coach is that he does not seem to respect the other teams. I guess you don't have to respect them, but at least pretend you do! It only makes you look bigger (and Lord knows, it wouldn't hurt Bud to look a little bigger!)

As you can see by my quote above, I never intended to "Bud Bash", I was complimenting Coach Fryer. I have never said that Coach Brandon lacked "Class". I simply referred to his habit of not giving the other team credit when they win. I agree wholeheartedly that Coach Brandon is a great coach. He has won wherever he's been. That is not in question. When they lose is when Coach Brandon makes his comments that I personally, even as a Wilson Central fan, find offensive. Coach Fryer is, I'm told, a very intense, fundamental, perfectionist when it comes to practice. Watching his girls play, it is not hard to believe that. Getting technical fouls and being loud in practice is not at all what I was referring to. First of all, there is nothing wrong with getting technicals or hollering at your players. Secondly, my original post was about his respect he always seems to have for his opponent.

After our big regional championship victory over Mt. Juliet last Thursday night, I just couldn't wait to get up the next morning, run out to get the local paper, and sit back and read all about it. As I was reading, something Mt. Juliet's Coach Chris Fryer said caught my eye. HE GAVE WILSON CENTRAL ALL THE CREDIT! I couldn't believe it. Here was the coach of the 33-0, #1 ranked team in the state, #2 ranked team in the NATION giving all the credit to the team that won. He said, "it was a matchup of 2 great teams" and "it was a great high school game." He also went on to say what "a great job Central did shutting us down." He said the better team won. On CoachT, we see the word 'Class' passed around as if it was nothing more than shaker of salt. Because of that, I regret having to use the word. But, CLASS is the only word I can think of to describe Coach Fryer. An emotional and heartbreaking loss to probably your most heated rival, and he has nothing but complimentary things to say about his opponent. Did Mt. Juliet play poorly? Probably. Did Coach Fryer use this as an excuse? He never mentioned it. Again, all the credit went to the Wilson Central Lady Wildcats. In the 3 previous Wilson Central- Mt. Juliet games (all Mt. Juliet wins), Coach Bud Brandon has yet to give any credit to the Lady Bears. It's always about how "we shot terrible," or "we turned it over too much." I have the newspapers to prove it. It's always about what we did wrong, not what Mt. Juliet did right. I would hope that Coach Brandon, after this huge win, would read the quotes by Coach Fryer and learn how to handle adveristy. I think it would serve him well. Good luck to both teams in the state tournmament. Two teams from Wilson County in the final 8. That is exciting. I'm pullng for Central, but Mt. Juliet has a new fan.