GREENWAVE84EG

White House at Gallatin May 3rd Clarksville at Gallatin May 10th

Spring practice starts April 29th, scrimmages vs White House on May 3rd and Clarksville on May 10th. The Green and Gold game is May 14th. In my opinion these 2 weeks are really important in improving from last year. With several positions to fill and some new coaches on the staff, hopefully this time will help start the coming together process, so to speak. I honestly believe this will be a better year, but only time will tell, as the old saying goes.

As a lifelong Commodore fan, it sure would have been nice to see him in the Black and Gold, but as it turns out he will play for a rival in college just as he did in high school, at least from my point of view. No doubt he has a bright future ahead.

I have heard from several that next year's seniors are very determined to have a different season than this past year. While there are definitely some skill position holes to fill, hopefully they will work hard this offseason, develop some discipline and leadership characteristics, and step up to fill the holes. I have no doubt this coaching staff will work extremely hard towards these ends. I'm excited about playing the two new schools on the schedule. Gallatin last played Trousdale County in 1969, three years after I was born, and actually played in Hartsville in the 1981 Tobacco Bowl. I have visited the creek bank several times in the playoffs, but this will be my first trip to sit on the visiting side. Next year will be Stewarts Creek first year to play football, and for me personally there is always a different level of excitement when playing a team we've never played before.

Here is the Wave's 2013 schedule the way it's been told to me: 0 Portland 1 Springfield 2 at Beech 3 at Stewarts Creek 4 Hendersonville 5 at Trousdale Co 6 Lebanon 7 at Station Camp 8 Off 9 Mt Juliet 10 at Wilson Central From what I understand, the Portland game could be moved to week 8 if fall break falls differently.

There are actually three other districts with 2, 8-A with Gordonsville and Friendship, 13-A with Dresden and Huntingdon, 13-AA with Covington and Milan. It says a lot about the strength of a district that gets a semifinal team in 2 different playoff classes.

It's all but certain that 9-AAA will go unchanged when the TSSAA redistricts next month, so Portland will be playing at least five 6A schools. I don't know what they do with their non-district schedule, but there will be five 6A schools in the district.

Portland will be in 5A for the next four years.

I couldn't see any school choosing to play in 6A rather than 5A, or 4A from 3A and 2A from 1A for that matter. The regular season would be the same either way, because your district wouldn't change. The only difference would be in the playoffs. Schools do choose to move up when it involves a change in their initial class (1, 2 or 3), to maybe get in a district that has schools closer to them, county or city rivals, etc.

Congrats to Portland and good luck in the playoffs, I hope you do well. As I have said before, your improvement from last year to this year has to be the most in the state. Gallatin's defense played well enough to win the game, but the offense struggled again for most of the game. The turnover at the Portland 30 and getting zero yards really hurt, then on the last drive from the 13, I thought the Wave got a little too excited and tried to force too much with still over a minute left on the clock. Unfortunately this has been the year for untimely penalties and mistakes, and it happened again last night. One game left, maybe they can come out and play hard, get a little better, and leave it all on the field against Beech in two weeks. Randy, great to see you too, it has been a lot of years. Good luck again to you guys.

Definitely a huge game for both teams. In a nice win at Hendersonville, Gallatin found their offense and put together four complete quarters, something they hadn't done all year with the exception maybe being Lebanon. Portland obviously is much improved. In fact, this district has two of the most improved teams in the state from last year in Portland and Wilson Central. It should be an exciting game that could go down to the wire. Gallatin leads the series between the two, 20-12-3. The first game was played in 1942, and they played every year but two between then and 1975. This will be their fourth game since being put in the same district in 2009. Gallatin should have a big homecoming crowd, and I expect Portland to bring a bunch. It should be a great night for high school football.

Has anyone else realized since the 14-0 lead halfway through the 1st quarter of the Oakland game Sept. 7th, Gallatin's 1st string offense has not scored a point? No more scores that game, a late TD the next week with mostly subs, a defensive TD last week, and no points this past Friday. That's 15 1/2 quarters of being outscored 168-13 with no 1st string offense points. Chew on that for a while.

Coach Short's record at Gallatin was 205-30 from 1976 to 1993, including a regular season record of 164-16. His teams won 3 state championships, were runner-up 3 times, and were in the semifinals 5 other times. They won 16 district championships and had 8 undefeated regular seasons in his 18 years. The football field at Gallatin now bears his name.

Right, the top 3rd enrollments will be grouped as 3A, middle 3rd will be 2A, and bottom 3rd will be 1A. Then each of those classes will be divided down the middle for the playoff classes. To give you an idea of numbers, here is the range back in 2009: 3A (5A and 6A playoffs) was 2817-1066 2A (3A and 4A playoffs) was 1065-531 1A (1A and 2A playoffs) was 530 and under The numbers will be different this year, depending on the schools that grew some and the schools that shrunk some.

There are no set cutoffs, after all the school's enrollment numbers are in, the TSSAA divides them up so that there are an equal number in each class. The cutoffs this year will be different that they were four years ago, and eight years ago, etc..

There aren't any enrollment minimums. After the enrollments are in from all the schools, they basically divide them out to where there are an equal number of schools in each class. Not only will the enrollment of Anderson County matter, but also playing a factor will be how much other schools have grown or shrunk.

Current playoff quads and seeding are now on the TSSAA website.

I feel like this game will be closer than most people think. Even in a lopsided final outcome last Friday, I saw some positives that I didn't see the Friday before. Although the Wave defense got wore down in the second half, hopefully some confidence was gained in the good first half performance. I posted that I hoped they would get a little better last week, and I honestly believe they did that, so maybe we can give the Bears a run for their money this week. The first game in this rivalry was a wild 24-21 Gallatin win in 1977, and no matter which team has been better or by how much, crazy things have happened in these games ever since. Maybe something crazy will happen this week!

My suggestion to parents that are trying to avoid "thugs/gangs" in high school, don't send them somewhere else, keep them at the house and home school them. Unfortunately, they are in every school to some extent, not just Gallatin. I would also like to hear some names of past Wave players who did not live here. I have followed Gallatin football since the late 70's, and I can't think of anybody off the top of my head.

No fight, just a lack of discipline in several ways.

TSSAA bylaws state that any player ejected from a contest gets an automatic one game suspension, so both will be sitting Friday night. No offense to the other 5 opponents, but Brentwood could very well be the best team by far the Wave will have played thus far. Common sense tells me to find something else to do Friday night, but I have missed very few Gallatin games over the years, and my heart tells me to go and not just be a fair weather fan. I would have to agree with several others that last Friday was probably the low point in my lifetime of Gallatin football, for a number of reasons that I won't take time to list, because those that were there know what they are. All that is over though, and the rest of the season starts this week. Hopefully the Wave can go to Brentwood, play with some pride, and work on getting better.

Predictions won't matter in about 12 hours from now. It should be a close one, the weather looks to be great, and hopefully there will be a great crowd. Looking forward to a fun night. Go Wave!

Not a whole lot to argue about in my opinion, Gallatin is 3-0 to date against Station Camp, with a combined score of 78-16. Until they actually beat the Wave on the field, there is simply no debate between the programs. Moving on to the important issues, I haven't heard anything since the Saturday coaches' show on how QB Campbell is after his injury Friday night. He took a vicious hit in the 2nd quarter and never returned. This is definitely a huge game for Gallatin, trying to stay afloat in the district standings. Hopefully it will be a fun night for the Wave and they can keep their unbeaten string alive against their city rival.

Looks like this may not be the Oakland team with all the preseason hype, but they are still a very good and dangerous team, and it will take a complete effort to beat them. The last 6 quarters have no doubt instilled a spark and a lot of confidence from Gallatin's standpoint. Hopefully good things will happen early in this game to keep that momentum going. It should be a great game! I got word last night that Banks and Brown collided and were shaken up pretty good on a pass coverage play in practice yesterday. Hopefully they are both okay.

I want to tell Coach Williams congrats on his first win as Gallatin's head coach. I can't ever remember a time when there was so much difference in a team from one half to the next. The first half, very little went right, and the second half, very little went wrong. I'll have to admit I was pretty down and out at haftime, but I am really proud of the coaches and players for hanging in there and coming out with such a second half force. There was also a group of painted up students sitting next to us that never gave up on their team, staying fired up from kickoff to the final horn. This win can definitely be a jump start and something to build on as the season continues on. On another good note, the Catfish House was everything I had heard it was, with wonderful food and a lot of it. Several Wave fans made the stop, and we all give it two big thumbs up.