VolleysoccerDad

I agree with you. By the third foul, even just run of the mill, the cards need to start coming. Greeneville is an advanced team capable of playing both sides of that coin. It doesn't surprise me that they rolled through state.

Greeneville is a quality team that deserves to be where they are. It is incumbent upon the referee to reward the right type of play and punish the wrong type of play. You can't blame the player for flopping if they continue to get rewarded for it. i understand that a Dobyns Bennett attacker was red-carded for simulation in a Sectional final. Was he required to sit the first State match? Very few high school refs have the confidence or guts to make that call. Too often, any contact or simulation of contact results in a foul being called. Greeneville is very good at using this to their advantage. Credit to them!

Be cautious of the Greeneville attack. Simulation (ie. Flopping) is an integral and practiced part of their approach. Hopefully, the refs will be experienced and focused enough to keep the match "above board".

If Notre Dame beat Signal Mountain, they should have a pretty good chance to make it to state. There could be two representatives from the same district. Last year, Red Bank made it to state with a losing record from Region 3. How does Region 3 look this year? Depth is an issue for most AA schools so luck will probably play a part.

CAK, Catholic and Sullivan South are three of the best eight teams in AA. However, under the rules, only two will punch a ticket to the state tournament. It will all depend on who is playing the best during the regional and sectional contests. Signal Mountain and Page will be there is well.

Whoever HardAngle may be, he has used this forum to engage in a smear campaign against KCHS generally and the volleyball program, athletic department, athletic director and school administration specifically. It looks like outside parties have noticed. I hope he decides to move on with life.

HardAngle, this seems personal. I apologize if I offended you in some way.

Catholic has had two great coaches. Coach Jones coached for nine years and retired and Coach Garland coached for five and resigned. Your right, players do leave for all kinds of reasons including playing time, and coaches leave for all kinds of reasons as well. Catholic is a top-notch school with a top-notch athletic department to be envied so I'm sure they'll find another quality coach. Thanks for your feedback.

K2r, I'll respond to your question, but let me state that I do not have any input or inside knowledge into the decision. Having said that, Mike has always shown a deep commitment to KCHS and the volleyball program so it would not surprise me if he were involved in some capacity. I think that many commenters on this website fail to appreciate the investment Coach Jones made to assure that his successor was successful. Perhaps that's because he never toots his own horn, giving others credit for success and taking the blame when things don't work out. Coach Jones spent two or three (I forget) years grooming Coach Garland and left at a time when the team was moving down to Class AA from Class AAA and the roster was loaded with experienced talent. The 2013 senior class had only three players but all three played varsity as freshman including a MB and OH who were All-State. The 2014 senior class had 9 very experienced players of which 2 did not play their senior year. Once Coach Jones passed the reins to Coach Garland, he was very careful never to steal the spotlight. However, he still supported the team behind the scenes and could be seen sitting in the stands during matches taking notes. I am sure that he is as disappointed as anyone that things didn't work out with Coach Garland. I am sure that Catholic will be competitive next year. However, the new coach, whoever that may be, will not have the same benefits as Coach Garland did his first year. There are only five players returning from the State Tournament varsity roster. The JV had a good year so some of them should contribute. The strength of the roster will somewhat depend on how many of the three experienced upperclassman who left the team under Coach Garland decide to return (not blaming Coach Garland for this but just stating the facts). I also don't know how reclassification will effect volleyball next year and how that could impact a team's chances at making the post-season. In any case, patience will be in order. I just wanted to provide some perspective so that others will not jump to conclusions if next years' team doesn't have the same success as this years' team.

K2r, Mike is an excellent mentor and coach but there will need to be patience as the squad from state has five returning players and only one returning senior. The squad lost seven talented seniors including four who saw varsity playing time as freshman.

I didn't answer the question because a 2007 college football game has nothing to do with the talent level of Catholic's 2014 volleyball team. Catholic competed in Tennessee Class AA and finished 3rd in the state. Within their class, I have asserted that Catholic was among the six most talented teams in the state class AA. The only team from AA that anyone has cited as having had more talent than Catholic is CAK. I agree. Catholic was 1-5 in matches against CAK this season. I also agree that front line play was not the team's strength, but passing was the best in the state this year tied with CAK and serving was the best in AA. Catholic beat plenty of teams because of more talented passers and servers. Once Catholic made it past Sectionals, it was one of six teams to have the talent to make it to the finals with CAK being the most talented. The most talented team not to make the tournament was Sullivan South. Many seem intent of pushing a narrative to criticize certain coaches, creating hypotheticals to do so and denigrating Catholic's talent level in the process. I am stating, without a doubt, that relative to their classification, Catholic's talent was among the best in the state. Irrelevant comparisons to football games or teams from othe classifications do not change the fact.

Name the teams in AA that had more talent?

They had a talent level that put them among the top six most talented teams in AA. Unfortunately, two of the other six were CAK and Sullivan South. Maybe you didn't watch the state tournament or maybe you confuse physical stature with talent. Do you even know which teams were in the district? Back to my first point, you are making a lot of assumptions.

Your prior post said Coach Garland had "almost no talent." You were wrong. Now you are wrong again.