Metroman

Mills is really special. She is probably one of the top five guards to come out of Metro in the last ten years. She reminds me a bit of Tiana Burns (Pearl-Cohn/Mississippi State). The others that would be in the same class as her would have to be: Jessica Mooney-Hillsboro/Vanderbilt Monica League-Overton/UNC-Charlotte Hollie Davis-Overton/Belmont Chantelle Blakely-Antioch/Auburn Shakeya Johns-Antioch/Prarie View A&M

Went to Brentwood and played under Coach King. Played college ball in East TN (Millington I think). Has coached AAU teams for years and was an assistant at Brentwood for a long time. Coached at Ravenwood when the school was opened. Was let go unexpectedly (Don't know the story there). Coach Boucher did a good job at Ravenwood and built them into a respectable program. He works hard and will improve Centennial's team. Centennial has always been a tough place to win in all sports. I don't really get it.

John Boucher is the coach at Centennial now. He is the former coach at Ravenwood. They are a ways away from being competitive with most good teams, but he will have them ready over the next couple of years.

Thanks for the name givbakr2. Also, I believe that CeCe Sims is only a junior at Brentwood.

Antioch High School has a good one. She's little, but she can play. Glencliff High School has Carolyn Mills, who is outstanding.

Glencliff made the state finals, Overton made the quarters a couple of times, Whites Creek made the state finals, Stratford made a good run a couple of years ago. Definitely not as bad as you seem to think.

The more I am around the high school game, the more I am amazed at the lengths people go to in order to get a scholarship. People will spend thousands of dollars on private lessons, new equipment, travel expenses, etc. so that their child/player can get one of those elusive scholarships. That makes me want to ask the question, Why? One reason I have heard parents give is because they can't afford college, so their child needs a scholarship. Does anyone else see the irony? Instead of spending thousands of dollars to make your child a better player, invest that money and you would have enough for college. Here another thing for all of you players, college athletics is hard. The coaches OWN you. They know you need the scholarship and they will hold it in front of you. They will work you to the bone. If you think you are going to have a great social life, you are wrong. You will work out year around and they will know where you are and what you are doing all of the time. Please don't hear me wrong. Athletic scholarships can be great things. They can give you great opportunities. But, it's not the only way to success.

Let me first say, I have no dog in this hunt. Let me also say congratulations to Omar. Making a decision about college is big for anyone. Now let me say this, I am amazed at how personally we take the decisions of an eighteen year old. We say bad things about him and say he'll sit the bench. Why? So he wants to go to Georgetown. Georgetown is one of the best institutions in this country. Nothing against UNC-Wilimington, but it doesn't come close. Omar is going to have a chance to go to a great school in an amazing city and he might play some basketball. Congratulations to a young man who is obviously a good student and good basketball player.

I think you might be surprised how many coaches are on here, even top level coaches However, I will say that most try to stay out of anything that might become "bulletin board" material.

First of all, Jefferson can play. Secondly, they don't have much after her. Mt. Juliet and WC will handle LaVergne. Beech and Smyrna might be them as well. LaVergne will upset some people and be upset by others. Hopefully for them, the upsets come in February, not December.

1. Franklin-They are so well prepared and they play so hard. 2. Hillsboro-Too many athletes not to be good. Horrible attitudes last year. Hope that changes. 3. Independence-Good size, solid gaurd play 4. Overton-Fast, but small 5. Centennial-Should be solid, Kelly's a nice player 6. Ravenwood-Lost there best player, still have some talent 7. Brentwood-Another down year 8. Hickman County-Eager for the move back to AA 9. Hillwood-Unless the new coach finds some more talent. Franklin will lose a game in the district this year, but they won't blow any games against the lower teams. You can count on Hillsboro to lose at least one or two to a team they should beat because they are so young and have a new coach. Indy, Overton, Centennial, and Ravewood will all beat up on each other for the next few slots. I think it may end up with Centennial and Indy flip-flopped, but Overton always seems to end up fourth so I will keep them there. The big question will be how does 11AAA do in the region. My guess is no 11AAA team makes the region final again. Whites Creek and Antioch should make it out.

That's my point. There is none. But the posters who support Gallatin seem to think there is. There tone implies disrespect for their team, which hasn't happened. Yes, I know you subtitled your post that way. What relevance does it have? Only to insight people from Metro to come in and talk about their team so the Gallatin fans have someone to argue with. Let me say what you all want to hear. Gallatin is good and will win the Region. But who cares how they'd do against Metro. Compare them to the other suburb schools. That's comparing apples to apples. My guess is Gallatin will not make it to the state finals because of the tough road they will have. They will have to play 3 Williamson County schools in a row to get to the semis. That's a tall order for any team in the state, even if they are the best.

Does anyone else find it interesting that every week Gallatin fans/players get on here and talk about how they will trounce the opponent and then create a conflict that doesn't exist. For example, in this particular thread, the question is about who will win this weeks game against Overton. Since no Overton fans have been on here, the thread has turned into a thread about how much better Gallatin is than Metro so that the Gallatin have something to debate. In fact, I have noticed this same pattern every week. There is no controversy people. Gallatin is good. Most of the Metro teams are down. These things ebb and flow. Overton is an average football team who is capable of beating Gallatin, but probably won't. In fact, Gallatin will probably win convincingly. But please don't act like there is some sort of controversy.

The man you are referring to Paul Guidry. He played with the Buffalo Bills back when O.J. Simpson was on the team. He is a super nice guy and was part of the big shake up when they brought in a new principal (Mr. Lang). He was moved from Overton to Hillwood basically to make a space for the outgoing Hillwood principal (Mr. Johnson). I am sure that Mr. Guidry was involved in the process, but he isn't the kind of guy to take charge of that type situation. He is new to adminstration (3-4 years) and is this is probably his first interview process he has gone through.

I think a lot of people went into the inservice looking for something to complain about and were bound and determined to call it a waste. I have found it very useful in both my classroom and when I coach.

I wrote this post several months ago and I think it is appropriate here. This is about basketball and I don't want to go through and change it to football. It can also be applied to the classroom. It is our responsiblity as educators to learn about these problems and try and find ways to fix them. Some children will be "left behind", but maybe we can have a few catch up. This is not an issue of race, but of poverty. When the kids from North Nashville were rezoned to Hillwood, kids from impoverished backgrounds changed the school. They just happened to be black. Here's a book everyone should read, "A Framework for Understanding Poverty" by Rudi Payne. Many of the issues you spoke of are true in Metro-Nashville. Here are some of the issues that go with poverty that have an effect on sports. 1. Emotional immaturity. Kids do what is easy and don't see a need for changing something that used to work. They want success now and if they don't get it they quit. For example, we might get an athlete who has poor shooting mechanics but can't dominate at the middle school because of their athleticism. Before you can correct the mechanics, you have to convince the player that they have to think of the big picture, not just how they are shooting in practice that day. The same goes for ball handling. Why use the left hand when I have had success using only the right. 2. Not looking bad in front of peers. The most humilating thing that can happen to a young player is to look bad on the court. If they get beat, it is a personal. They will lash out and blame everone in order to save face. Think about a girl getting a big shot block. The crowd goes crazy and a kid in Metro is humiliated. Even though it is still our ball, they are taken out of the game mentally. A different type of kid would understand "Hey, it's still our ball, who cares?". 3. They don't understand discipline. Discipline is not a cuss word, but many of these kids think it is. Why do we discipline? To correct a behavior or action. If Jane continuously runs the wrong direction on a play, she needs to be taken out and dealt with. She needs to be taught the proper way to do things. However, at home discipline often equals only punishment. There is no correction. These kids see you upset at them and they think you hate them. You have to explain that its not personal, I just want you to do it differently. 4. Noise level. Kids from poverty are loud. I can't figure it out, but go to their homes and the radio and TV are loud. Everyone shouts instead of talks. It's just loud. We, as coaches, have to teach them how to be quiet and speak to each other softly and with respect. This is what must be overcome in order to have a great program in Memphis or any city like it. It sounds easy, but it isn't. These kids are as good as kids from Germantown, Oak Ridge, and Brentwood, they just need to be trained. Unfortunately, by the time you train them, they are wonderful young women who have moved on to college and you have to start over.

Ultimitely, the choice is made by the Principal, in this case, Mr. Lawson. There will be a committee of assistant principals from Hillsboro, Scott Brunette, maybe a parent or two, and maybe someone from another Metro school. But those people don't make the final decision. If Lawson has one person in mind, he can hire that one person. Now, he is restricted in that he will only hire someone who can teach in the building, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem with several months until the start of the year. That was part of the issue with the basketball team last fall. They didn't have any openings for anyone outside of the system.

I am not sure that he meant that the focus should be on athletics. Hillwood, over recent years, has had to deal with a lot of things outside of athletics and academics. To be honest, there were some safety concerns about two years ago because of some rampant gang violence. Of the people I know in the new administration, they are good people who would love to put a focus on academics and athletics, but school safety has been the number one priority. I think that bigchief would at least agree that safety has been the primary focus over the last year or so.

Who was the one person?

I think there are a couple, but Stephanie Hall from Ravenwood will make an impact. Not a great player, but a really solid player who can score. She will be one of Brentwood's top two players next year along with Erica Shumacher.

I know that Region 6 has never been a big player at the state tournament, but I think the strongest teams to come out of Metro/Williamson County will be Brentwood, Hillsboro, McGavock, Antioch, and Glencliff. Of those, I think Brentwood has the best chance to make it to state. They have a good young nucleus and will get a couple of solid players next year who were ineligble this year. McGavock may have the best player in the state, but I don't know who they have back or if they will be healthy.

I saw that Independence is looking for another head coach. That means that in its three years of existence, it will have three different coaches. I know the first guy took another job (at Science Hill, I think). What happened to this coach? Also interesting that Ravenwood, Franklin, and Independence have had so much turnover (and Centennial to a certain extent). Is there something wrong with Williamson County? Just wondering.

I know of two juniors and one freshman who have been asked to play.

Back to the top just to keep people aware

I think TSSAA is just learning about all this.