BigShow1

Its not worth arguing over but again to be a middle school coach you do not have to be a teacher. I know of no less than two head middle school coaches (on paper and in action and every way you can think) who are not teachers. I take that back I know of three and one of them does nothing but coach and is the AD and works outside the school. The other two are substitute teachers. In high school its different. From my understanding you have to teach or have no less than 5 years of experience. I have heard from from multiple sources and read it just last week in the rule book..

Virtually anyone who can pass a backgroud check can be a middle school coach. TO be a high school coach you have to have either 5 years of coaching assistance or be a teacher.

I could very well be wrong on this but I believe it has to do with paper work. The rule is a legit rule (if I had traveled to Cloudland and gotten there and the fire marshall said it was full sorry. I would be looking to get 30 bucks of gas money from there one way or the other... But for this Sub-State it should not matter because the game is so far away that the visiting team probably would not travel enough to overcrowd it that badly. To punish a group because of false or forgotten paper work is simply punishing the playes, coaches, and fans. I do not understand all the rules but I believe you are allowed to get it approved to host sub-state games even with a gym smaller than what is "required". You just have to get it pre-approved. Remember Oliver Springs hosted a Sub-State back in 1998 I believe it was. This was before the gym was re-done with new seating. It was also when Oliver Springs was AA and seating was even a bigger issue because while OS has a lot of fan support now, it was crazy back then. We were not punished then.

Its unfortunate how the game ended last night. I never want a call to determine the game especially 80 feet away from the bucket. Maybe Christopher fouled I could not see it clearly. I know she grabbed the rebound and had it taken away I can not imagine her fouling in that situation... I don't think anyone would ever foul in that situation. Although it did happen on the other end just before. The only difference is that the oliver springs player was knocked to the ground... Its either a walk or foul the official had no choice but to call something. But on the other end of the court that situation was not presented and nothing was going to happen. I would love to see a replay of it. I just wish we could have seen overtime no excuses here.

The most obvious thing we can do to help children in schools is to allow school choice which will increase competition and thus performance of schools. This is my opinion and has been tried and is successful in most countries that have tried it. But I'm curious as to everyone's opinion of its impact on sports. In the topic about Grace and recent allegations of recruiting and so forth this subject has been brought back to my attention. With school choice student's parents can choose where to send their child and thus a "voucher" system would form that would send the money to the school for each child that decides to attend there. This from an athletic point of view would allow athletes to play for the coach they would most want to play for and school they would most want to attend. Of course their parents would have to make this decision for them. My point is this. The amount of competition to get students to come to schools would drive schools to hire good teachers and make standards high on them but would do the same with coaches when schools want to attract athletes to their schools as colleges do now. This is beneficial for all students who would have the oppurtunity to play for the coach they feel would best help their careers. How many great athletes are stuck at schools that have what most would believe to be bad coaching and thus can not get the teaching and coaching that would help their careers flourish the most? I would argue many are. If the state of tennessee adopted a voucher system that allowed students to transfer to such schools the level of competition would increase significantly causing good coaches to be in higher demand and thus more pay for them. The same would happen for good teachers as opposed to bad coaches and teachers. I'm posting this so that I can see the responses of what people think about this idea. American colleges are ranked as the best in the world. Compeition is abundant in trying to get students to go there. Why not do this in our high schools to improve their status in the world as well?

What would the TSSAA do if the state of tennesse finally did what every state in the country needs to do and approve a voucher program that allows parents to choose where to send their kids? I think that would be great. For academic purposes mosly but also in terms of athletics it would be awesome. Nothing improves individuals like competition. Coaching would improve because kids could choose where they want to go to school just like teaching would improve. I think basketball would get a lot more competitive. bad coaches getting fired good ones being paid more than bad ones. Coaches work harder now to improve themselves, players work harder to play for the coach they want to. Think about all the benefits to athletes and students. Of course under the current system if Grace has done this than they should be ashamed.

Why do you think girls play has decreased so much in the past couple decades? I don't know what to think about that. Do you believe it is talent or coaching? I know this... today's coaches can not be like they were a decade ago much less before that because of the complaints about being so tough and intense on players. I wonder if some good coaches do not get into the profession due to the political aspect of parents having so much more power and in some school districts the principal not making decisions at the end of the season but central office administrations. I know of a couple coaches that don't coach now because of these reasons and they are good coaches. Also Knox area officials are not good but its not a job that has much oversight and referees have very little accountability because so few people want to do it in this area. But seriously athens association officials make knox area officials look like SEC or Big East officials. They are much worse down there.

District 4 is better overall probably but Tellico Plains is probably the favorite to win the substate and be the top sead out of this region.

I want to make sure that everyone understands that I am not anti-(coaches name). I was simply trying to defend the girls players at Oliver Springs (who I felt like were being thrown under the bus). I was not trying to say the former Middle School coach was perfect although he was very successful even before Kayla Christopher was there. Not to mention the other players got alot better there too. I just believe the girls have more quality players than most believe. As someone else said their point, Guard, and Forward could start on most if not every other district team. Don't act winning with these girls is like Moses delivering the Children of Israel from almighty Egypt. I believe that team should have won the regular season and post season tournament and to be honest should not have been a close game anytime. I truly think they have more talent than Coalfield although Coalfield has the best player and some other good players. To the point of coaches have more responsibilities at this level than the higher levels. That is humorous. Why do you think college coaches read every book in the world? Because they need to be updated on every new technique and philosophy that is available to be successful. At the AAA level you also play against AAA defenses and thus have to have strategy to score. It is at A that one player can dominate and have success. Your backwards on the argument. I know there are more athletes but it is also people ignorant of basketball that believe that John Calipari just lets Kentucky to whatever. There is tons of skill developement to be done with these players. There is also learning to play with each other learning how to set proper screens and use screens and develope a shot, etc.. Most importantly those guys never had to learn Defense so Kentucky's staff has to teach them that too. My point is that strategy and different systems is not the issue. John Wooden did mostly the same thing every year every game. Its developing players that I'm talking about. That is the coaches most important duty. That is what allows teams to achieve beyond expectations. Focus on the technique of player personnel.

Yes I do realize that I thought you would pick up on my talent quote. Usually the team that finishes last or next to last does not get anyone on the first team all district. My only point is that from a talent standpoint they have what I said. For years Oliver Springs got a ton (For a small school) of talent from their middle school program under their former really successful middle school coach. If he had been there for the Juniors and Seniors 7th and 8th grade years they would have probably won almost every game just as they had been doing for the years he was there. Thus they would have beaten all the players that they are currenty matched up with in high school competition. That would have proven my talent argument to some extent although you can't completely translate middle school success into high school but you usually can at this level of playing when most schools only have one or two feeder schools. Unfortunately he stepped aside and did not see what those girls would have done. But to watch the players play and to have years of experience of evaluating talent in my opinion not taking into account any developement at all... from a athletic and ability standpoint they have the most of any team I have seen. Not by far but I do think they have no less than three players that would start on every other team if they attended those schools.

Congrats to the players of Oliver Springs on their victory last night. It is though apparent to me that a lot of people on here do not understand the game of basketball. Having said that some of you obviously do know some. I'm not trying to insult anyone in this post only defending people. In reality from a pure talent and athletic standpoint Oliver Springs has more talent than any other team in this district. Some people are talking about the amazing job coach Christopher has done as if she did not have a team of players this year. Her team has the most talent top to bottom of any other team. They have the best defensive player in the district who is also one of the best ipassers in the district. They have one of the strongest players in the district who can shoot and play inside/out in their only senior and they have a point guard who has a better left hand than any left handed player I have seen in the district not to mention she can get to the basket with ease. Their first guard sub is one of the quickest players in the district. Lets stop trying to defend the coach by throwing the players under the bus as if this was such a tough job to get this team to win. Sure they had a lack of experience but Oak Ridge only dressed 9 players under Ricky Norris and each year they had like 6-7 seniors. The knew guys each year did not use that as an excuse and they played AAA ball. Its not like its ACC or Big East basketball and experience is a must have. This is Single A basketball. The coaching is not great in this district but its not suppose to be either. This level is considered a starting point for most career motivated coaches or a place where a local former player might want to coach and stay around the community. Its not like their getting evaluated and fired for lack of production at this level like Oak Ridge runs things. I'm not trying to insult the coaches. I just wish people would stop trying to defend a coach by making it look as if the players of that team suck. Minus Kayla Christopher from last year they are nearly just as good at every position with returning two starters and never having a strong post game in the past even when they were unquestionably the best team in the district. Lets not talk as if these players are so bad. I see three who could play small college ball in the near future.

I rarely get on Coacht Message board but I would like to give a little imput on part of this post that deals with coaches. 95% of the time the more talented team wins is true in the NBA and in College D1. One of the main reasons is that coaches at that level study all the time and read each others books and for the most part their practices are designed the same way. The difference is usually the motivation of the coaches, attitute of the team (which can reflect the coach) and recruiting (management NBA) is the most important other factor. Offensive system can mean a lot too. In high school recruting and front office player management does not come into play. Nor have players reached their potential because most have not been trained and worked properly because many high school coaches set up multiple defenses and offenses and forget to spend enough time on learning how to shoot and then shoot a ton in practice, learn ball handling and rebounding and defensive skills. The thing that impresses me most about McMinn Central is not their size and talent. They usually have one D1 player and a few small college players. But how many of those small college players would never have become that good if their coach did not drill them and only went over plays in practice and never taught them to get into a stance and play defense or learn footwork properly, and shoot a ton in practice? A lot of coaches teach that stuff but then spend 80% of practice running over their different systems and they run each player through the plays equally even if that player never plays in a varsity game etc. Coaching means a lot although talent is also important in high school.