JD29

Girls 9AAA Standings

1. WCntrl 9-1 Gal, MJ, Port, SC left

2. SCamp 7-2 WC, Leb 2x, Gal, MJ left

3. Beech 6-4 MJ, Port, Leb, HHS left

4. MJ 6-4 Beech, HHS, SC, WC left

5. HHS 5-5 MJ, Beech, Gal, Port left

6. Leb. 4-5 SC 2x, Beech, Gal, Port left

7/8. Gal-Port 1-9

Wilson Central is way down compared to last  year but still have the ability to score enough consistently to win in 9AAA. To me Station Camp is 2nd best team. Beech, MJ, Lebanon and Hville are all close together depending on what night they are playing anyone of them could beat the other - Portland is just a step behind and Gallatin has a ways to go to compete nightly. Beech has been a surprise so far with two big wins over Lebanon, who definitely outsized the Bucs, and MJ -

MJ seems to want to run their offense thru the #52 in the post and if she is guarded well they don't really have an idea what they want to do - not a great outside shooting team - especially compared to the last few years.

Our date this year will be Saturday April 9 2016

We will again host this one day tourney - you'll get at least 4 games

If interested email me at: john.decker@sumnerschools.org

2015 participating schools included - Mt. Juliet, West Wilson, Greenbrier, Springfield, Blackman, Stewarts Creek, Heritage (Williamson Co.), Spring Station

We hope to have 12 teams - we have had 8-10 the last couple of years

Format will be determined by number of teams entered, minimum 4 games

@ Richland Park, Portland TN = great fields, great grounds crew in case of weather

Entry fee - $165, hit your own ball

can't get the players they once got in and personally i think the location of the school is now a problem - thoughts?

February 22, 2014
16 team maximum (4 teams per field)
Will split teams for maximum competition as much as possible
$85 entry fee
65 min drop dead/ 3 games
9am/10:15/11:30/12:45/2:00/3:15
$5 admission


3rd Annual Mid TN Championship Tourney
April 12-13, 2014
Split Divisions - Sanctioned and Non Sanctioned
8 teams for each division preferably / 16 team max
$7 daily/$10 Weekend Passes
$125 entry fee

If interested in playing in one or both of these events please let me know asap!!
We will make contact again as a reminder after the new year begins!
Thanks to all of you who played with us last year!

John Decker/Beech High School
STEM Science Teacher
615-480-5043

It seems like a good idea when you're thinking about what you want to do in college and you're almost removed or just barely removed from your own playing days. Then you get a teaching/coaching job, get married, start a family and grow up. Some of these guys are running a high school program including maintaining the field, running the summer program and fall conditioning. Add those hours up, including the time on the mower, versus the time you're getting to spend with your own boys teaching them baseball. I wouldn't do it. It's basically a minimum wage job at a lot of places for a guy that's putting in the time. Schools need to know when they hire them where they are at with their families and how stable their situation is.

If your the head coach you determine the amount of time, when, where, schedule, etc - Before we had kids I didn't really care and was at the park all the time - I can remember being at the field at midnight moving a travelling sprinkler with my wife and newbord coming home from a night out after picking up the child at parents house. I look back now and there's no way I'd ever do that again. The problem is everyone's worried about other teams(schools) some of whom practice illegally during off season and worry what parents would think, etc. As long as you got the backing of your principal a coach is crazy to spend 11 months out of the year coaching while making $1000 or so.... The coaching profession has created a monster all in the name of improving the game and we have coaches getting out of coaching out of 10 years. Something is wrong with that picture. There is more to HS athletics than winning or getting scholarships - Too much importance on stuff that don't last.

Agree 100%. Some of that comes with the expectations of parents wearing rose colored glasses and some of it kind of comes with the territory unfortunately. The kids usually know. If a parent needs to have a conversation about P.T., they might not like the answer. Pull out the book and show them in black and white. Also, it's back to parents pushing for athletic scholarships instead of just letting their kid enjoy the high school experience. Shame on them. The only regret my older son has is not playing 3 sports all 4 years of high school. Some of that is on coaches. They don't share even fair to middlin athletes the way they should. Shame on them too. My best coach anecdote was a time when we had 3 district games in a week and trying to save pitching he bunted a couple of runs in with an 8 run lead. Probably a good move. I told him if I had been pitching it would have been easy because I'd have ear holed every batter that squared until the 10th run crossed the plate if you played small ball up 8 in the 5th.

Great points - coaches and atheltics in general today are about moms/dads wanting kids to get scholarships - I always said play to have fun and enjoy HS - PERIOD... I have 2 daughters, one plays Soccer only and the other is playing basketball and soccer.... I was hoping to have a softball player but thats the way it goes - to me I want my kids to have fun, enjoy playing the game(s) and if they are good enough and want to play at the next level then thats great. If not they go to college, get jobs and live life. We put so much effort and money into about 8 years of a kids life at best - most of the time they just play HS though... if we put that effort and financial backing into stuff that really mattered we be much better off as a society.

RESULTS, BOXES, ETC over at my site: http://www.tnbaseballreport.com - scroll down to the "news" section to see links - enjoy!

then he has not heard of R.A Dickey or David Price, or Rex Brothers .... all played high level travel ball

Dickey played after his freshman season in the local college league - they didn't travel much - then he played for Jeff Forehand in the local 17-18 league I believe they were called the "Sox" if memory served me correct. That was early 90's when the travel ball started to explode (everyone played it - which means teams weren't that good) you still had Shoetiques, Twitty City which were better teams and there were some Worth teams as well.

You are absolutely right. People who say recruiters only come to travel games are sadly mistaken. This season alone I saw coaches from Maryville to Memphis, from UAB to Western Kentucky, Belmont to Trevecca, Austin Peay to MTSU, Alabama to Tennessee Tech. Not to mention our state's great Juco programs. Our annual Warrior Spring Classic has college coaches come from near and far. I know this because they come up to me to say hi!

 

What most parents do not understand is that it isn't what a coach sees on the field that does the most work. It is the 'network' of 'bird dogs' and high school coaches that help the recruiting process the most. A kid may run a ground ball out if he sees a certain shirt in the crowd. It is what he does when that shirt isn't there that counts the most. College coaches watch a game for the little things, like how a player handles some adversity. How he interacts with his teammates and coaches and the other team. Does he run out popups? Does he take a 2-strike approach? Does he take a pitch if his team is down late in the game?

 

College coaches talk with each other. An SEC school may not have a spot for a kid but may mention him to another D-1 school. A D-1 coach may mention someone to a D-2, NAIA or Juco coach. A parent may not see all of this taking place, but trust me, it does. On almost a daily basis.....

David Limbaugh has his finger on the pulse - another thing, kids feel pressure to play one sport - some as early as 6th or 7th grade for "fear" they will get behind others... its hogwash - sure kids get better playing one - but how much improvement can they make when they graduate if its all they've ever done - college coaches will tell you its hard to tell - they like guys who play more than one sport - I've seen it first hand in softball and baseball - every kid needs a break, even if they don't think they want one - they need to have other things to do - its not healthy to spend your time doing one thing - overuse injuries are exploding due to one sport specialization... if we placed as much emphasis on academics as we did athletics every kids would get enough academic scholarships they would make money going to school... in the mid to late 90's all these training places opened up... then you have the people running the tournemants all year round - why??? $$$$$$ and now everyone is brainwashed into training and playing year round.... just not healthy - there are 10 yr old kids playing more games than MLB players do in a year.... travel ball can be done right - but if everyone stayed in their park they could have the same competition and save a lot of money - I think travelling should start around 14 or 15 - when you start to get a little serious about playing - HS coaches are to blame for this stuff too however - It started with FB coaches telling kids to just play football (of course they used sneakier tactices like "you know, if you stayed in the weight room this offseason you could probably start as a sophomore next year" I can't tell you how many kids I've had want to come back to baseball as a senior tell me that... people get mad at TSSAA for the deads periods ,etc - what they ought to do is outlaw all offseason stuff - then if a kid wanted to train they could do it on their own time wherever they wanted -

Complete list of TN draftee's on my site - http://www.tnbaseballreport.com/MLBdraft2010-19.htm

Serrano can be beat - he has had a few rough outings here lately

Sheffield seems to me at this point is pitching better.

Of course as someone stated earlier - defense will play a big role - the freshman 3b has already tossed one in the cheap seats to allow 3 runs - so D will play a role

Look for a low score 2-1, 3-2, 4-2 something like that, unless defensive miscues and walks allow more.

Riverside 4 Summertown 2, Final

 

I expect a Riverside/Summertown rematch sometime this week, and boy it will be a doozy!! It is still my belief this first roundmatch are the 2 best teams in the state and it is a shame only one will make it out of the bracket.

I'd Say #1 is Friendship #1A Silverdale, #2 Summertown and #3 Riverside (lack of pitching depth)

IMHO

Scotts Hill won't be a little puppy for long. Britt will have that program rolling in about 2 more years. The players this year have done an outstanding job learning how to compete at a high level. They will only get better. If your one of the 8 teams that made it to Murfreesboro, then your good. Anything can happen now.

Being one of the 8 teams to make it applies more to AAA than to A and AA... reason being - and you can go back and look at scores from the past - most years if you get 4 good A teams out of 8 your lucky. At the AA level Region 8 basically is non existent - so no competition - to get here -

What does the schedule look like for tomorrow? Will you get everything finished up late Sat. night?

Is this tourney running as scheduled? scores? anyone see games?

We ended up a couple short of what we needed due to high volume of tourney's going on in our area. We are playing the tourney at Richland Park in Portland, TN - It is a middle school tourney with 7 unsanctioned teams for a fundraiser for our travel team. IF interested and qualified contact John Decker at 615-480-5043. I teach at Beech, but coach the middle school team.

Saturday we start at 10am - 5 games 65 min drop dead 27.50 per game

Sunday 1pm/2:30pm/4pm - 3 games 27.50 per game

We ended up a couple short of what we needed due to high volume of tourney's going on in our area. We are playing the tourney at Richland Park in Portland, TN - It is a middle school tourney with 7 unsanctioned teams for a fundraiser for our travel team. IF interested and qualified contact John Decker at 615-480-5043. I teach at Beech, but coach the middle school team.

Saturday we start at 10am - 5 games 65 min drop dead 27.50 per game

Sunday 1pm/2:30pm/4pm - 3 games 27.50 per game

add Portland Middle

add Nashville Catholic

We've got Hunter, Ellis, Charlotte and West Wilson right now - would like to have 2 more pools of 4 - This will be the second year for this tourney and the complex at Portland is second to none - great diamonds to play on!! Call John Decker at 615-480-5043 or email at john.decker@sumnerschools.org

Bumping this one - LIke to field 16 teams, we had 12 last year!!

Hunter MIddle School is hosting the 2nd annual Mid TN Middle School Championship the weekend of April 12-14, 2013. Last year we had 12 teams compete as Dickson MS defeated Hunter 5-3 for the title.

Contact John Decker at john.decker@sumnerschools.org for more information on this tournament. We can take 16 teams max and would like to fill up those spots as soon as possible.

Entry fee will be $150 per team - hit your own softballs -

gate fee will be $10 for the entire weekend

Format will be 4 pools of 4 with a single elimination bracket for each finish (#1's play #1's in the gold bracket, #2's play #2's in the silver bracket, etc)

So we are willing to exchange the health of an athlete (potentially career ending, or life changing) for the extra costs of a set of cleats, interesting. I am not saying metal cleats are the Devil, but why would we expose athletes to a greater risk? I agree female athletes are more prone to injuries to the joints, why increase that potential?

Brother - you can end your career getting out of your car to walk in the house. My point exposed the myth you seem to want to propagate. Life changing?? RE diculous... hahahaha

Same here.No place for metal in high school,"bad"field conditions are same for everyone,and too many scnerios for injuries with planted feet that don't "slip" even when pressures on knees,ankles,ect...dictate that it's necessary.Sliding baserunners have indeed learned the "high cleat" method is best for avoiding sprains and ligament damage,but increase danger to defensive players hands,arms,and lower legs.The female body is graphicaly different than males,and is more injury prone due to angles of hip to knee joints(proven fact).In all other aspects of life the current trend is to gravitate more toward safety,especially in underage kids,yet the T.S.S.A.A. condones using equiptment with little real advantages over the safer synthetic option.

Metal cleats are hands down better than plastic or rubber cleats - first of all - at the end of the season they aren't worn out - you can get a spring summer and fall out of a pair of cleats and if your foot isn't growing you can probably get two full seasons out of the shoes. Growing up from the age of 13 that's all we wore. From playing summer, HS and college ball the only injury I had was I got stepped on while sliding to break up a double play - tore my toe nail up pretty good but didn't miss any time. Girls are prone to knee injuries due to factors a little more complex than steel cleats - it could happen in tennis shoes and does quite frequently on the basketball court. Try digging into a batters box when its hard as a brick with rubber cleats... Try leveling a high spot around the mound or homeplate with rubber cleats - won't work... just because all most people know is rubber/plastic doesn't make that the best option - IMHO