1925Kee

Unbelievable!

Small school soccer seems to be in trouble in Tennessee. Just this season (boys), I know of three East TN teams that have been forced to shut down due to lack of numbers. Similar problems seem to be plaguing other schools that are still managing to field teams. I have not seen it this bad for five years. Perhaps this is not wide spread, but I'm curious to know if others are seeing the same thing.

I rechecked my email. No attempt to reach me.

Prayers from Greenback. Hard to believe.

If I had a to guess, that's due in large part to poor communication. I have paid twice to be a "member" of this organization and have never received any acknowledgement, never mind any requests for participation. The second time I attempted to be a member, I followed up with a complaint that I was not listed as a member despite my paying to do so. I never received a response from that either. The only reason I knew about this most recent nomination process was due to your post in this thread.

Seems to be a problem in Knoxville Region. Anyone know what's going on? Is it an issue outside of Knoxville area?

Not sure I understand what is being proposed. Today we have: Division I Class A Class AA Class AAA Division II Class A Class AA What is the proposed change? if the existing structure is defined as "5 classifications," and we now drop to 4 classifications, where is that done? The devil is in the detail.

S Pitt had a great punt last night. Don't know if he's always that good, but that was a quality punt.

Currently, it might be faster to go to LC by way of Bucksnort. LOL

I think he was talking about LC. There's only one answer to that, but I don't want to spread it around. Heck, LC might try to widen the road and take 5 years to do it.

All hanging in there, OnB! Hope all is well with you and yours. Will see you at Midway game if not before.

Don't say Panthers Just say Wampler's They're the best team In the land

Nice ego.

Completely agree with this. Tough to collect funds, plan fundraisers, and figure out who's on the roster all within 30 days. Add to that the difficulty of boys in basketball and wrestling who cannot attend soccer early in the year and you have problems to overcome, right out of the gate.

According to TSSAA, you can't start practice before some time in, I think, July. I don't know if they consider "workouts" different from practice, and I don't know if they enforce their own rule consistently. I did see one team fined last year for practicing before July--forget who it was. I would guess that if workouts are limited to training, fitness, weights, cardio, etc, that it is not considered practice and could then start earlier. Don't know if that's a fact or not.

He didn't play all of them their freshman year. He played some of them. That's pretty standard throughout college soccer. Over the past several years, upperclassmen have played a key role in UTC's seasons. They've done pretty well, even did reasonably well in his first season, when the majority of players were not "his." Many of the girls graduating this year have been huge contributors to the program. That's my only point.

Plenty of very good players have passed through that system EVERY year. You just dissed all of them. I don't agree with the idea that a new coach "simply needs to get 'his' kids into the system." Turning a program around has a lot more nuance than just that. It's way too easy to say the new coach "just got better players." There are a host of issues at any school that is struggling on the win/loss column: institutional commitment is certainly among them. Funding. Scholarships. Facilities. Recruiting. Coaching. I agree with Elmer above on at least one thing: it's impressive to see these girls last all four years. Look at any college roster and look at how many upperclassmen are there. MANY programs are loaded with freshmen and sophomores. Why don't they "make" it?

That may all be true. But making predictions about how club players will translate to college players is difficult, at best. The work load is much higher. The expectations are much higher. The personal stress is much higher. The way these kids handle those changes is the real question. Unfortunately for coaches, that's darn near impossible to predict.

Agree we had a strong shot at the Silver ball in 2014. Ambassador has it right we would have played Monterrey had we held out against Coalfield. If you remember, we were up with 80 seconds to go and our defensive gave up a touchdown with something like 17 seconds left on the clock. Had we held on, I think we'd have rolled Monterrey and gotten to Cookeville. Oh well. It's not like I've been dwelling on that for three years... LOL.

Haven't read this whole thread, so maybe this has already been covered, but I have to say SP put themselves in a big hole with their kick coverage. GB had outstanding field position on at least three kickoffs, and one went the distance. Overall I was impressed with SP's physical capability but a little surprised by their kick coverage. #9 was a beast. He runs low and that actually cost him a couple times. He sells out to get through the first level but he's so low, he can't recover. Basically tackles himself. If he's returning, he'll be even better next year. I know SP fans were pissed off, but their team played their butts off. I look forward to the rematch next year. Here's to hoping!

Congrats, Alcoa! Great season!

Agree completely. Good post. I can explain that 5-1 outcome to a degree, but it doesn't change your point. The tournament was competitive and best of all, it helped sow a seed of interest in soccer from smaller, rural communities. In the long run, it can only help develop soccer in the state.

Exactly.

Question: Does anyone in the Knoxville area host a preseason Play Day that might be suitable for a Class A team?

Well said. Agree 100%.