IanMackaye

1 hour ago, WildcatRealist said:

The city is old. Lots of the facilities (home side stands, horrible dressing rooms, press  box) are old. Your coach is old. Oak Ridge's football achievements are old. Their loyal fans are old and stuck in past glory. Oak Ridge football is irrelevant...

The city is working at being young. I can see that when I drive through town a couple of times per week. You’re right about the other things, though. Oak Ridge was good at sports when other schools hadn’t quite caught up to it. Now the good large schools in the area has caught up or passed OR.

On 9/3/2019 at 6:08 PM, SweetScience said:

Sorry, Nut. I didn’t mean to direct all of that towards you. You are right in a lot of ways that the makeup of the city has changed, there’s no denying that. The school was much bigger when I was going there, not even 25 years ago yet. All I’m saying is we still have plenty of talent to go around and we are still very much in the running most every year. Yeah, that talent may not be as dominant as it once was, but there’s still aplenty to be a really good team most years.

Congratulations on your boys (Powell) having a really good season so far this year. They have a really nice looking team who has the ability to go pretty far. I just hope we can improve a lot by the time we play y’all so we can at least be competitive. Have a good day brother.

Are you sure? TSSAA lists the school at about 1400 students. That’s an average of 350 kids per grade. I can’t remember OR ever being bigger than that.

7 hours ago, bounder said:

oridgecat I saw this same attitude during the HV game. The HV players and standing students were going crazy all night and the Oak Ridge team and students were just standing around. And I know 100 of the students got in free so you would they could have said "RAH" now and then. Sort of reminds me of a certain  "BigOrange" team that embarrassed us all yesterday!!  They seem to have the same attitude!

Where was the WILDCAT PRIDE?

That sounds like overall school culture. If you can’t get excited for your team what can you get excited about. 

7 hours ago, Opie Shaggnasty said:

Willie i am just keeping it real.O.r. is slipping.

 

Slipped.

Tradition doesn’t seem to be getting kids to play sports at OR.

On 8/11/2019 at 10:29 AM, catswild said:

I don't totally disagree with you on everything you say, but as I've said before, it's about linemen. Basketball and cross country don't require them, but football does. Basketball relies on athletes and OR usually has some good ones and they can usually compete with anyone. Those same athletes in football DEPEND on the linemen to create opportunities to showcase their talents. Have you ever watched line play or are you like most fans and just watch the ball? The OR linemen are good kids I'm sure but the teams that have been winning titles are way bigger than OR's linemen, plus they have great athletes. OR just doesn't have enough good, big linemen. Rhea County and Catholic were VASTLY superior to OR up front. When I watched Central on TV in the title game last year, they were HUGE and athletic up front. OR just hasn't had that in years. When they do have maybe one big guy, he can't move. I focus on line play in every game (I was a lineman). I'm surprised that your brilliant Elite buddy hasn't noticed this.

It's easier to compete statewide in basketball because it's athletes vs athletes...no linemen, but in football it's athletes/linemen vs athletes vs linemen.....totally different story.

As far as the OR tradition is concerned, it's great but why is it even being talked about? What's the point? If you don't like the OR tradition, then don't speak of it...that's easy. If you appreciate it, then mention it. What's it got to do with anything?

 

I got busy this week and never got back here. I talked about “tradition” because someone mentioned it earlier. Might of been Willie. My point is that OR is now relying on trophies they got years ago and wins that happened years ago, not on anything going on now. Eventually that’s going to rot because kids require some now winning to know what it feels like and to crave it. That goes for all sports. 
 

8 hours ago, WillieTheWildcats said:

Not sure what "sniffed" means to you but both the Boys and Girls Basketball teams have handled themselves well in the Boro. Both Cross Country teams still live up to their proud traditions. State Championships are not easy to win nor should they be. I can tell you all that when I wear my Oak Ridge swag down here in Chattanooga I still get compliments on our Sports Programs, individual athletes who have impressed their opponents with the class they showed in the heat of competition and of course my Big Ed's shirt is a conversation starter.

Once again, my opinion is over and who has got next?

Sniffed means that the teams at least played for a championship.

Girls basketball was runner up in 2016 but last won in 1997, according to TSSAA. 

Boys were runner up in 2014 but last won in 1963.

Boys cross country were runner up in 2015 but last won in 2007.

Girls cross country last won in 2010. In fact, that was the last state title in any sport from OR, according to TSSAA.

Football was last runner up in 2005 and last won in 1991.

No other sports have anything recently.

Zero wins in the last nine years. That looks like a tradition that relies on long ago excellence not on today. To me that’s not a tradition any more and some other schools in the area have caught up and passed OR.

OR hasn’t even sniffed a second place trophy in any sport in a while, let alone win one, so I don’t know what “tradition” means there any more. Years ago it was a different story.

On 6/22/2019 at 1:08 PM, CardinalGrey said:

Mitchell Gibbons and Cameron Malone are at a Maryville College prospect camp at Rocky Top Sports Complex in Gatlinburg today.  Maryville is undergoing grounds maintenance.

I've never seen Malone play football, but he progressed remarkably last spring as a track and field athlete, improving so much in the triple jump that he went to State and made the All-PrepXtra team in the jumps. He improved his 400 down to the 52-53 range, which is getting there. With long legs, long speed, jumping ability, and the coordination to triple jump, he may surprise a few people on the football field. I watched the triple jump at the Sectional meet and thought he had potential.

For that matter, does OR even have soccer, baseball, softball, tennis, or track teams? Do spring sports and spring football even happen at Oak Ridge?

13 hours ago, bonkers said:

Get out of your car up on the hill and walk on it. I walked the track over the weekend and did just that. It looks better than it did last year (any cow pasture would) but it still looks like crap.

Practice fields and track are garbage. 

6 hours ago, catswild said:

I'm not sure how or where you got all that info, but thanks.

I was looking for the last OR championship at TSSAA and happened upon that page. I'd never seen it before.

3 hours ago, bonkers said:

I'm not even sure what state championship OR won 10 years ago. It's been closer to 30 years since OR won one in football and I guess around 60 years in boys basketball (I guess around 20 years in girls basketball). Since you mentioned 10 years, my research shows that in the last 10 years football has won 75% of its games, boys basketball has won 81% of its games, and girls basketball has won 70% of its games. Unfortunately no state championships though in what seems like an eternity. But I would say OR definitely has "winning" programs but definitely isn't the top program in the area. And I think all of the OR fans are more than ready for a championship!

Here is that information. Over the course of many decades, it is impressive.

11 hours ago, bonkers said:

If you're talking about state championships, then I agree with you 100%. If you're talking about "winning", then I would have to say that the OR football team, boys basketball team, and girls basketball teams have won quite a few games in recent years. But OR is definitely not THE dominant sports program in the state any more.

Set the bar where you want to, but if you’re actually talking “winning” then it has to be state championships. The last one for Oak Ridge was about ten years ago.

On 3/20/2019 at 12:07 PM, bounder said:

That's completely different money. But I'm glad this coach got vindicated. Sorry state of affairs in sports in Oak Ridge. Too many coaches quitting.    

Oak Ridge used to be the dominant sports program in the area and one of the pre-eminent programs in the state, but not any more. It’s been a while since OR won anything. 

Except for track. Maryville, Catholic, Webb, HVA, OR, West, Fulton, AE, and others are still doing well combining football and track.

OR speed is too much for CC, this looks like the most athletic and speedy overall team at OR in a while.

I watched the first half on WVLT. Boy, OR is speedy, and it's not just Graham.

Why is it a problem to get butts in seats for OR games?

Turf fields are overrated I’m surprised that Oak Ridge is resorting to keeping up with the Jones’s. I saw the meet results and that 4x100 lineup was Thompson, Goskowitz, Coleman,Graham. Thompson must have been the one I was talking about coming out of blocks.

I don't think it was Jackson, who I have seen run before. This kid had long hair and was the clear winner of the first leg and then handed off to a tall, skinny kid who was blistering fast.

Jordan Graham was the anchor on Oak Ridge's 1st place  4x100 relay at the sectional track meet yesterday. He's much bigger than he was last year but looked very fast. Some of the others on that relay looked like they might play football, particularly the first runner.

By “track” you mean the paved walking track, correct? Or will this be an actual track?

In some ways this does seem like a forward thinking project since the goal is a multi-use stadium that would be used for more than just a few home football games per year. The area has quite a few restaurants and can be very pleasant, since it’s undergone a cleanup in recent years. I ate at Deans not long ago and was impressed and surprised at how nice the area is. I like the project except for a few things:

Its a long way from the school. The team will practice on grass but then play home games on turf. I’m no expert but that seems like a disadvantage for OR.

Parking is limited to a few small lots plus a lot of places a walk from the field. There’s no way to fix that.

That big hill is always going to be a problem for OR’s aging population.

Does OR even care about football or other sports like it used to? Except for caring about Higgins I’m not so sure. I’ve been to an empty basketball game or two while OR basketball is riding high. The school has a nice soccer stadium but the track and football practice field on campus look kind of old. It’s the same with baseball and softball fields over behind the bowling alley.

It seems like a pipe dream to me. I could be wrong, though. The shopping area that replaced that old mall is coming along well and took quite a while to get going.

8 hours ago, OR nole said:

Did  you see the attendance for the play-off games? As much as I'd like a vastly improved stadium, I think the dream is too much. Imagine what this would look like with the crowds we had this year.

Where were the crowds?