JSamson7

Speaking of Artis,I want to see if I can get you down here for a MS Dual opportunity at Maryville 12/2.

I've been trying to tell folks this, if they don't finish in the top 6 this year at AAA duals I will be surprised. They have the line up to do it this year.

I agree and believe Fulton has the type of kids to be really good in wrestling soon enough. If ever there was a school though that should have wrestling it is Oak Ridge, seems like they've won a state title in every sport known to man except wrestling! Boys and Girls!! Oak Ridge has everything a new coach could mold into a super tough wrestling school so fast you'd wonder why they hadn't done 10-20 years ago.

Even though we (Maryville) don't deserve to be in this Top 10 conversation, we have recently made more of an effort to partner with our prestigious football program to help build better athletes for both teams. Our current varsity coaches have recognized that wrestling helps develop better football players (especially lineman) and although we only have a few wrestlers on the varsity football team this year, over 95% of our middle school kids came from our highly successful youth and middle school programs. Getting those kids to come out for wrestling has definitely raised the overall athleticism of our teams and maybe (just maybe) it will translate into the kind of success our football teams have experienced over the last 40+ years.

Oh I know.... Even as a Freshman when getting beat down on our practice squad he kept coming back for more.

Great player? Not sure I'd agree with that, but he is a former Rebel so he wasn't bad.

Hayden Bodo is in there I feel if he's a Freshman this year.

I don't know about that. I was told the same thing from someone we both know, but I never heard it then and never hear it now. However, I did see a few Blue Raiders throwing up Crip signs and wearing blue rags under their helmets during that game.

That's because you're stuck in one county. The 98 Maryville team would have beat Cleveland by 10+ points. If you want to start comparing talent, check out how many kids on the Cleveland '93 team played college ball compared to that Maryville group. Better yet, just add up the number of players each team sent to Power 5 conferences. Maryville's team had a better QB, WR's,OL, & DL. The only OL Cleveland had in '93 that would have started on Maryville's OL in 98 was Jeff Thompson. Everyone else would have sat the bench. Maryville darn near set the state scoring record that year playing against teams with future NFLers on the other side. Don't let RW's lack of faith fool ya though.

I played those years but our 93 and 94 teams were not nearly as good as the 95 version by a country mile. I've already said the 96 team was awful, but they at least set the stage for next 2 decades when they started running GQ's offense instead of the Wing T mid year. You referring to the 25-13 Smyrna game #1 score is misleading. If not for a score on our 2nd team defense late in the 4th, that game would have been 25-6. The 18-0 loss was a tough one but without all of our studs, multiple TO's in their redzone, and they didn't score anything until late. All 3 of their scores came off of said TO's with the last TD being a 95 interception return by Larry Daniels (stud) with a minute left. We can play coulda-shoulda-woulda all night long and no one will ever know, but none of the "close wins" that year were against mediocre teams except Knox West. Anderson County was definitely not mediocre (you should know) and neither was Halls who made the title game in 96.

Our team (Maryville '95) would have beaten the Cleveland '95 team were it not for every offensive skill starter (one being a current MHS coach) getting hurt super early in the playoffs. I will say the only team I think could have beat the Cleveland '93 team would be the Maryville '98 team which is probably Maryville's most complete team ever. That O line will never be seen again at 825 Lawrence quite the likes of that group I'll agree the previous 2 Cleveland teams were historic, but they weren't the same team in '95. They barely squeaked by a tough Smyrna team we trounced in the regular season when we were relatively healthy. The bad part was that we had no depth past the starters that year (especially not like we do now) and it showed the next year when Maryville's '96 team went 5-5. That said, Benny knew himself and said we were the toughest team in 4A they'd potentially face but unfortunately it never happened. So much so he even "borrowed" our defensive scheme we used to shut down Smyrna the first go around and used it against Haywood in the title game. The only other team in '95 who shut Smyrna down like that was the Eric Locke -Gerald Griffin led Riverdale squad (which we know how great that team was).

We are hosting an elementary & middle school dual on December 2nd, but this dual event on the 15th will not include elementary schools (unless something changes). The dual event on December 2nd already fields Heritage, Maryville, Pigeon Forge, and William Blount. We would like to have 8 teams a piece for both the elementary and middle school divisions.

We are hosting a dual event at MHS on Friday December 15th the night before the Top 100 tournament in Pigeon Forge. So far we have six teams representing the TNAAU/middle school programs of Alcoa, Cleveland, Gibbs, Heritage, Maryville, and William Blount committed to participate. We are looking for 2 more teams to add to the field to make it an even 8 teams. Also, this location will serve as one of the satellite weigh in spots for the Top 100 tournament that weekend if your team/wrestlers plan to attend. If you have any questions, contact me here or shoot me an email to jason.hughes@totaltalentsg.com. Jason Hughes Head Coach - Maryville MS

I was matched up against Luke Powell all night both games that season and remember chasing Larry Daniels all over the field. The second game in the playoffs we were decimated by injuries though. The Maryville teams these days have more depth than we had on that team, but IF (and a big IF) we had any one of our 3 big playmakers on offense that were out there's no doubt in my mind we would have won that game. We couldn't score in the red zone multiple trips and you guys had too much of a dangerous team to let hang around. Our defense was only able to shut you guys out for so long and unfortunately our backups on offense weren't good enough to score. One of the current MHS coaches (Jason Hicks) still hold the Maryville single game rushing record from the 1st game that year. He was county player of the year in '95 and I'm not even sure he was our best player that season, but he was still super good and when those 3 big playmakers were all healthy we never lost.

Alcoa would say otherwise.

How did my big #77 on the Freshman team look? He's the tallest one they got and he's hard to miss... lol

Everybody and their brother repeating these days. Not sure what I think about that....

It really is kinda silly season. Multiple top notch kids bouncing around, a few potential Fresmen reclassifying again as 8th graders, and coaching changes galore. The only things you can be sure of these days are death, taxes, and Bradley or Cleveland contending for a title.

We're not, the kid's dad has openly spoke about putting his kid in Maryville before on CoachT but for whatever reason he initially decided he would succeed more at WB. In regards to the Cleveland teams, I played against the best 2 and in particular the team with the Cobb twins stands out. However, I would bet there are a few of our teams at Maryville would have beat them. Just in the late 90's I'd take the 95, 97, and especially the 98 team at Maryville but we unfortunately we'll never know.

Seems as though most of you are sleeping on Heritage. Don't be surprised when I come back towards the end of the year and say I told you so. They have 2 potential state champs on that team with some young kids that will surprise a few.

love it!

Dear lord, I can't believe I'm actually agreeing with you again.... What is the world coming to???

No Bradley? TN High? Heritage?

But you spell and act like an elementary schooler. Regardless of how much you dislike the program, I'm highly confident that YOU are not really confident in said predictions (6-4,7-3) which are probably along the lines of wishful thinking on your part. I'm not a betting man but I'd put your prediction odds to be around 10% for a 6-4 season and 30% for a 7-3 season. In my opinion, an 8-2 regular season (60% chance) or better is much more likely given our schedule. If I WAS a betting man though, I would wager that 8-2 (with one of those L's to Maryville) would represent the pinnacle of your team's success given the amount of angst you've shown.

I agree on the 2 new comers, McGill is super good and I've been telling CoachT about Carroll for awhile now. I'm not sure if McGill played on the Future Stars team (he may very likely have), but I heard Carroll really showed out in that event.