SummaryJudgment

Summit?  Are y'all thinking about the same team I am? Hit hard by graduation, I am not sure how effective they will be on the field this coming season.  Time will tell.  Coaches and kids have some work to do.

Summit only lost ten seniors. Granted, all 10 were very important players. But they return their stud bookend OT's as well as Tai Carter. The QB who will be taking over is a big strong sophomore with a live and accurate arm. There is also a sophomore RB with a ton of ability who will help make the offense even more dangerous. And Spring Station Middle has been consistently sending a lot of talent to Summit. Don't sleep on the Spartans.

Didn't think about him but would be a good hire..imo. I was referring to Coleman. Again just a rumor but heard he at least interested. He lost a ton off this years team so wouldn't surprise me.

Not saying your wrong, but I'd be surprised. Coleman has his stamp on the program finally and there is a lot to look forward to. Not just Carter and the bookend tackles. Spring Station is doing a great job of stocking the shelves. The rising 8th grade class is the most talented in their short history with the Twins leading the way. Coleman has an extremely supportive AD and Principal. Rezoning next year is likely to bring some former neighborhoods that are currently Indy's back to Summit. And I do think Nolensville is going to hurt Ravenwood's talent base. That's where the players are up there....why the coach left in the first place. Like I say, I'd be surprised.  

I agree that switching coaches like ravenwood did (3 coaches in 3 years) is never easy. I also think that the district as a whole is pretty competitive now and all the teams are capable of beating the others. Probably the biggest problem facing many of these teams now is the middle school feeders. When I first moved here about 7 or 8 years ago many of the middle school teams had 40 plus wrestlers and they were all pretty good and competitive with each other. Now many of those schools cant even field a full team at the middle school level which obviously hurts the high school. Too many club sports and other options now and just not enough interest at middle school. I hope it changes.

That's very true. And if the current state of the feeders is any indication of success for the high schools then Summit and Nolensville look to be in great shape. Pete Miller also coaches Spring Station MS, the feeder for Summit, and they won their second straight WMAA title last month.

The results and their HS in ()

Spring Station- 231.5 (Summit)

Mill Creek- 173.5  (Nolensville)

Page- 146  (Page/ Some Centennial)

Heritage- 140   (Independence)

Brentwood- 53  (Brentwood)

Grassland- 28  (Franklin)

Woodland- 25   (Ravenwood)

Freedom- 0   (Centennial)

Sunset- 0   (Was Ravenwood, will be all Nolensville in a few years)

I was at the K2 Elite Invitational this past weekend and watched K2 and Alliance play each other in the 13 and 14 y/o bracket.  The 14's dominated 25-11, 25-19.  The 13's won the championship game against K2 25-17, 25-20.  These were the only two teams Alliance sent and they both won Championships.  Based off these two early season games, Alliance has put some space between them and K2 in regards to talent in these two age groups (rising freshman and 8th graders).  I would say 80+% of these girls are Williamson county with Brentwood having the majority represented.

Those were two nice feathers in the cap. The 15s age group at Alliance is crazy talented as well. Seven of the ten girls on that 14s team will be moving on to Williamson County HS's next year. Two will be at Brentwood. Brentwood has one payer on the 151s and one player on the 152s. The talent in middle TN is starting to spread out.

Summit wins a thriller! 63-61.

if you look back at the last 20 years of AAA champions coming out of 11 AAA.  Have they ever been the 2 seed of the district?    The one time it might have happened was Indy's championship when they beat Bwood in the finals.  All of Ravenwoods and prob all of Bwoods championships came as the district champion.    But I get what you are saying.  I am convinced that most years 3 of the 4 final four teams would have came out of 11 AAA.     It seems whatever team wins 11 AAA is completely dominant and the 2,3 seeds are fairly close.  If we could ever get Memphis AAA healthy again, it would help our sport so much.  Germantown used to be so good. 

I missed this great post. I think you're right. The state champ from AAA has almost exclusively been the district champ. It's crazy looking back. Since 2008 the only teams to even play for a AAA state title have been the Woods, Indy, DB, and Farragut.

Here is what I am thinking after having watched every state title match and almost all the top teams in all classes this past season....combined with the K2 and Alliance rosters for this travel season.

Knoxville was better than Nashville and Memphis last year...overall. But the senior class in Knoxville was much more talented than their junior class. This is reflected in the K2 teams. Most if not all the really talented juniors are playing on one of the two 18s teams. Essentially a 181a and 181b. But there are only seven of them. Their sole 17 team seems to be more developmental. The K2 161s are loaded. Of those juniors/ rising seniors playing in the 18s, two are Webb girls, two Hardin Valley, one Heritage, one AC, and one Berean Christian. The 161s have three Farragut girls and a smattering of players spread out across a lot of schools. I didn't look at the 15s but I am sure they are talented too like the 16s. Point being, there isn't going to be as much senior talent next year as in the past. The school that looks to take the biggest hit is Farragut followed by Maryville. Catholic is in trouble regardless of where they have to play. Cieslek and Gardner were the entire team. They're gone.

Memphis is not completely dead. Briarcrest and St.Georges will be forces next year. I don't know much about their club scene except that Metro and the Memphis Juniors seem to split the talent. Houston does have some players but outside of that the public schools are DOA come post season.

Nashville has a very strong group of high school juniors. The rising senior class is talented and tall but doesn't have the depth of the junior or sophomore class for that matter. In terms of club, what is interesting is that Alliance has a 6' plus setter on each of their ones teams from 15s thru 18s. The talent is spread out among the Wilco schools but some of the neighboring counties are getting girls on top teams. Not just Siegal girls either. Brentwood is well represented of course. So is Ravenwood. And so is Page.

Here's how I see next season going based on the returning talent:

AAA: Brentwood over Hardin Valley

  -keep an eye on Heritage

AA: Signal Mountain over Hume Fogg

  - keep an eye on Camden Central

A: South Greene over everyone else

D2AA: Briarcrest over Brentwood Academy

   keep an eye on Baylor. But losing GG is huge

D2A: Webb over St. George's

I disagree. Teams get hot and peak at different times. You may have a player out in a competitive district game that drops you a seed. You may have a rival that really plays out of their mind to upset you. Volleyball isn't football. We play a lot of games, and we are a tournament sport. Sometimes it's just not your night, or emotion gets in the way. Brentwood should not lose a game on paper, but they will drop some matches next year, but come the tourney they will be locked in,

 

What about the other classifications?

Just like Ravenwood last year. You're making my point despite thinking you're disagreeing. Yes, the regular season is for upsets and off nights. But come district tourney time, the best teams are locked in as you say. A look at returning Wilco talent shows there are three teams at the front of the pack. The others are strong in areas, but lack critical pieces to do anything other than maybe pull a surprise once or twice in the regular season. Injuries and coaching can always play a factor of course. But compared to what the rest of the state has to offer at the AAA level, one of those three teams will be getting hosed. Farragut's district is the only that might have the same issue. (I expect Hardin Valley to make a lot of noise this year) AAA volleyball in Chattanooga and the Tri Cities seem to be in a huge rut. And Memphis is a mess. The private schools have taken most of the top talent. Houston and Bartlett will probably make it back to state. But they will also probably be early exits for the second year in a row. 

How will 3 wilco teams get of out district?  Are they changing the tournament to be more like basketball where 4 teams make it?

That's the problem, there won't be three Wilco teams making it out of district. Just two like the past. Based on returning talent, either Page or Ravenwood is going to be on the outside looking in even though they both will be two of the top 16 teams in the state, if not top 8. Kinda reminds me of a half decade or so ago when Centennial was easily one of the top teams in the state but Brentwood and Ravenwood had the district locked down.

i forget the kid at independence thats signed to belmont

Grayson Murphy

Summit has a 6'9" Sophomore (I think) who has a ton of potential. He'll be a name folks recognize in the next couple of years.

His brother is a 6'5" eighth grader.

The new alignment did no favors to anybody in AAA except for Williamson county schools.  The way I see it, this realignment has opened the door to a 3rd WilCo team to be in Murfreesboro come State time.  Brentwood was going to win the district for the next 4-5 years and probably state too.  This will now allow 2 more teams in from WilCo; Franklin, Ravenwood, Centennial, and others have to be excited about this.  WilCo easily has the deepest talent in the state year in and year out.

Brentwood was not amused by the plan and appealed to the TSSAA to be moved back. They won and were put back in with the rest of the Willco schools. Dickson County was flipped and they are now with the Davidson Co. schools. The addition of Page makes this district even more brutal now.

Where is Knox Catholic slated to play for volleyball.  I read in the paper where they placed the football team, but do not know who the vb team will be with.  Are they with Farragut, HV and that district?

They are still AA at the moment. Here is their new region and district...for now:

Region 2

District 3

Alcoa High School (Alcoa, TN)

Austin-East High School (Knoxville, TN)

Carter High School (Strawberry Plains, TN)

Fulton High School (Knoxville, TN)

Knoxville Catholic High School (Knoxville, TN)

Knoxville Central High School (Knoxville, TN)

District 4

Anderson Co. High School (Clinton, TN)

Clinton High School (Clinton, TN)

Gibbs High School (Corryton, TN)

Grainger High School (Rutledge, TN)

Union Co. High School (Maynardville, TN)

I believe you are asking about MaKinde London. He did spend his senior year at Monteverde. Signed with Xavier. Transferred to UTC this year on a hardship waiver.

Thanks for putting that together.

Rossview was at 1611. Not 1497 but great work

Indian qualified the numbers when he did this by saying that if there was no date by the number then it was the old figure.

What's everyone thinking midsession now? Any other names coming up to challenge these picks?

South Greene in A

Page in AA

Harpeth Hall looks good but Baylor and Briarcrest are just so dominant.

As I thought, Hardin Valley is playing well. But they might not make it out of district. Then there's Farragut and Brentwood in the way. Brentwood gets their sophomore star hitter back from the US Team so they should be hitting another level soon.

Anybody, anybody?  Buehler....Buehler.....Buehler.....

LOL! Maybe the fast season is keeping people from posting on here! It is rushing by tho isn't it.

I don't know all the teams that were there. I saw on another site that Catholic beat:

Elizabethton in pool and bracket play, Karns, Heritage, and Signal Mountain in what I guess was bracket play. Based of the time of the match it appears that Catholic lost to Hardin Valley in the Championship 2-1.

The TSSAA has started posting enrollments. Though not yet on the TSSAA page, here are the Williamson County numbers as of 8-23-16:

Franklin- 1777

Brentwood- 1764

Ravenwood- 1753

Centennial- 1673

Independence- 1673

Summit- 1420

Page- 1140

Fairview- 721

Nolensville- 472 (should be around 1050 when all four grades are in the building)

Tennessean Volleyball Primer:

http://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/high-school/2016/08/14/middle-tennessee-high-volleyball-primer-2016/88604486/

With the misinformation being cleared up what are everyone's predictions for the 2016 season?

These are mine.

 

DI

 

AAA

Farragut vs. Brentwood

 

AA

Knox Catholic vs. Sullivan South

 

A

Concord Christian vs. Goodpasture

 

DII

 

AA

Baylor vs. Briarcrest

 

A

Webb vs. Really doesn't matter they're gonna lose

Hard to argue with those predictions and thus I think the reason for the lack of responses. I've seen Baylor and Briarcrest this pre-season. They will be very difficult to beat. Brentwood Academy has a strong junior class so keep and eye on them.

Webb is Webb again.

As for D1, I think you will see 5 of the 8 AAA teams from last year returning to State. I think Hardin Valley takes Bearden's spot. I don't know what's going to come out of Memphis. Houston lost a lot. Wondering what Collierville, Bartlett, Germantown, and Arlington have. In middle TN Blackman appears to be a bit stronger. Ravenwood has a lot of talent and should push Franklin. Beech and Station Camp will be good this year too.

As for AA I think you could easily predict that all 8 teams from last year will return. Camden Central and Harpeth could make some noise though.

Single A....I'll go with your prediction for the title match.

K2 dominates the volleyball scene in Knoxville, but what has happened to everyone else? KVA's website was just updated with a note about the club being sold, Phoenix Rising's website is completely empty, and CBFO's website is just gone!

Looks like KVA is morphing into Club Unite.

There is a club in Morristown that I believe is an off-shoot of Tri Cities Extreme and it's my understanding that they pull some Knoxville area girls to play there. The website:

http://www.goextremevolleyball.com/

Should be interesting to see if he fits the program as his predecessor did

 

 

http://usatodayhss.com/2016/independence-adds-kentucky-running-back-transfer

And they have a sophomore WR committed to UT who didn't see any varsity PT last year. Unreal.

That sounds more reasonable. Appreciate you sharing the information.

Absolutely. I went back and looked at the TSSAA minutes. It goes like this. After two years into the four year cycle, any school that has a 20% rise or reduction in numbers will be examined and re-classified if the enrollment numbers would put them in a higher or lower class.

 Thanks for the info. if the four year cycle is taken from 2016 fall enrollment, it looks like they could be playing teams in the playoffs in 2018 that have around half of enrollment of their own school. Does TSSAA allow this?

If I remember right, the TSSAA is going to re-examine enrollment numbers after two years and re-classify if a school's numbers drop or rise by more than 20%.