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Royce

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  1. I agree with some of the things you are saying rockytop. I just think middle school football is a stepping stone to high school. There is a difference when a school such as Jefferson or Oneida playing middle school versus a team like catholic or Fulton or Powell. The difference is Oneida has to play with kids in school and those kids have to make good grades etc, and they cannot turn 15 before Aug.1st because they are sanctioned by TSSAA, you guys in Knoxville can get a kid from across town who is 15 and have him play on your team, basically you guys are like AAU, or a really good youth program. As far your kids competing with Georgia teams, that's great. After my eligibility was up I was a graduate assistant in college, I watched a lot of films on high school kids and traveled with coaches on recruiting trips to Georgia, Alabama, and Florida and I can tell you from experience that it is different. A 3 star athlete in Florida would be a 5 star in Tennessee. I mean even Tennessee don't sign many kids from here, there is talent here just not as much as other states. Your right it is about the numbers, when is the last time a team from Knoxville had 7 D-1 guys sign off one team. Better yet when is the last time any team in Knoxville had 7 D-1 players sign in a 5 year span, teams like pahokee and Miami northwest average 5 to 7 players a year that sign D-1, I mean Florida and Miami's roster are filled with Florida kids. Your right about freshman playing on good high school programs, take Fulton for example they had some freshman 2 years ago that played and contributed but Fulton wasn't very good. If your high school team has a few freshman and sophomores playing your team is probably not gonna be very good, most of the time. Any way I'm done talking about it, again I think it was a great idea to have this all-star game and I hope Tennessee kicks that behind. I may even make the trip to watch it, so good luck to the guys playing in it.
  2. Im not pouring water on anything. As I said before I think it was great for the kids. Your right this state is not being heavily recruited and it never has been. Tennessee football does not compare to other states such as Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi. Why cant you pick kids like you do in high school? I was saying that each region could nominate the best players from that region, you said middle school is not that organized well it is in the east Tennessee area, there are at least 3 associations that play organized ball, I mean they play in regions. The way it was setup any 7th or 8th grader can tryout, well what if they never played organized ball or they don't show up for school. The main problem is I have is you could possibly get a kid that dont even play football or quit during the season make the team because it was open tryouts. Maybe I'm just old fashion. I know we have some stud athletes in this state but I have seen a lot of stud players in middle school that never get any better or bigger, I just dont want to make middle something that it is not. I saw on another site that said Todd Kelly's son was an all American and a top rated safety in the nation, who picks that stuff, what website is that on because I have never heard of a all American middle school team. I just dont want kids to get the big head because they are good middle school players because the reality is most wont contribute until they are juniors in high school for the most part, you may have some sophomores that play or start but rarely do freshman play. Again I think it was a great idea and experience for the kids and I hope it continues to improve I just wish the selection process was different.
  3. Thanks for feedback coach, when putting together we thought long and hard about what direction to go in. THe high school games have sponsors, we don't. They have four years of film, stats, newspaper articles, all-state teams, etc to choose from - we don't. But #1 reason we wanted to have the tryout was for the kids to see for themselves where there at on a state level at this age; some may have felt very well with where they are right now but left thinking I need to work harder. The atmosphere was GREAT; watch the highlight video below. When we decided to charge $25 we knew we wanted to make it far more worth $25, we wanted some really good coaches to work the drills, have a combine done by a sports pro (not a dad w/ a K-Mart Stopwatch). All the kids got to go thru a variety of position specific drills, then even got in some 1-on-1's. They even got a t-shirt for the $25. We had two former 1st Round Draft picks work the camp; those kids got some good instruction! I bet I was told by ten plus coaches who was just there to watch there players, "man, this is great I've learned several new drills to take back to my team now" so it served as a coaches refresher for some of the middle school coaches who were there. As far as kids taking a risk on getting hurt, we hope that doesn't happen but u can get hurt playing hoops in driveway, touch football in backyard, driving to McDonalds, etc. For the most part the risk is no different than spring practice, its months since they have put the equipment on. The 7th Graders had much less kids trying out, we hope to get more schools on board to where it balances itself out where only 1, 2, 3 from a certain school make the team. But we wanted the best players, we didn't want to cut a kid b/c we had too many from his school, we wanted the best! Good luck this season coach.... Highlight video: http://borntocompete.com/tennesseeallstar.html I agree with you, kids can get hurt from playing hoops or playing backyard football but that's different from lining up and playing a whole football game, The point is to get these kids prepared for high school football which is what matters in the big picture anyway, I want my kids to get out of that middle school football mode as soon as school is out because that is when their high school careers start. Thats why they play the high school all star game as soon as the season is over. Again I think it was a great experience for these kids and I think it was a good idea, I just wish the selection process would have been different. Your right the high schools do have stats, film and articles to go off of, and thats what makes it unique. They are selected off of the entire body of work instead of one year or based on whether you can go through agility stations better than the other kid, that's why I said coaches should have been more involved with the selection process because they have seen these kids play an entire season and some when they were 7th graders. I know that politics are involved in a lot of things but this was very obvious to me. It was filled with mostly local teams or city leagues teams because as far as I know Knoxville does not have any sanctioned middle school football teams except for Webb and CAK; what I mean is they don't represent that school. I also noticed Powell had two QB's made it, how wonderful would that be to have two guys that play the same position make an all star game, I noticed that the coaches that helped out, their kids made the team also. I'm not saying that they shouldn't have made it just saying the process should have been different. I would trust coaches input more so than one day agility drills. Your right it has been months before spring practice that they have played but spring practice is getting those players prepared to play a season not one game, my school we practice 4 days in pads before our first scrimmage which is a lot different from a game, scrimmages are controlled by coaches not by refs. I just think it means more to let coaches select the players instead of having them tryout because I want a kid to play for me that does what he is suppose to do at school and have a good attitude and represent their school in a positive way and when you select them the way that you did I think none of those things are important because your basing the selection off of a one day performance in shorts and t-shirts, nevermind what they did the whole season. I think this was a great idea and a way to motivate kids to work harder but it was also an opportunity for someone to make a little money; which is fine by me but don't try to say it was all about the kids because it was about both. Thanks for wishing us luck this season we will need in the region we play in. Your right the kid does not become officially part of that that team until the 3 days practice; what i was saying is no matter what school they go to they are officially high school students when school is out whether its the 21st or June 1st.
  4. I think this event was a great experience for the kids that participated in this event. The problems I have is I don't think it was necessary to charge $25. I played in the Tennessee vs, Kentucky all star game when i was in school and I didn't try out or pay one dime to play in that game. We had a kid from the team that I coach selected to play in the East /West game a couple of years ago and it didn't cost him a dime to play in it and he definitely did not have to try out. The selection process should have been the same as it is in high school or the coaches in that particular region should have got to pick or vote players from that region to represent in the game. A lot of teams represented don't even play middle school ball; what I mean by that is that they are not recognized as a representative of that school. At the high school level you rarely see more than two players selected from one team, this team had 5 from Maryville and I think 3 on the 7th grade team. I understand paying for expenses but i know for sure that the guys that came up with this did not do it out of the kindness of their heart. Basically all of the other 200 plus kids that didn't make it are footing the bill for the ones who did make it. A team should have been selected like it is at every other all star game at every other level and the players who made it should have been charged a fee if things like uniforms and transportation could not be provided.Finally I understand a kid going into the 8th grade playing in this game but not a kid who starts summer training with their high school teams in 3 weeks. Middle school football is a stepping stone to get to the high school level, their season has been over with for almost 7 months. I know in the district that I teach in those kids are officially high school kids after may 21st. I coach high school ball and I can tell you right now if I had a promising 8th grade kid coming in that could possibly help or contribute and they go up there and play in a game and get hurt I would not be to happy about it. I mean they hadnt put on pads or hit in 7 months, and they only get 3 days to prepare.
  5. The reason why CAK is successful against most teams is because teams cannot get a pass rush which forces them to blitz which opens up the hook and slant routes. Alcoa can get pressure from there front 4 which means they can play 2-man because of there athletes, those safeties can play over the top of everything. Plus CAK has no running game so Alcoa don't have to respect that. Alcoa 35 CAK 7
  6. I agree Kingston Football is not what it use to be but thats is not all the coaches fault, its easy to judge outside looking in. As far as I know they still have some of the coaches there as they did when u played. As far as talent I can count maybe 7 or 8 kids that have gotten offers from D-1 schools or DII-AA in the last 15 years and that is county wide, as far as hiring scott meadows maybe they didnt want a coach to quit after a few years like meadows does, he is not a program builder more like a talent chaser. I am a kingston alumni and a fan but when i played there from 88-92 we were 40-0 regular season and we had a lot of talent, not that kind of talent there these days, there are no kevin mays, brian pankeys, aaron roberts, ryan kings or carl witherspoons there right now. And as far as weight room they had 8 guys that could bench 300pds or more last year not to bad for a program that dont work out much.
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