JSamson7

You're exactly right. It's not like Ensworth can't pull a Knox Catholic & decide to play in D1 for a change. CAK moved took the multiplier & move on to D1 too, but schools like Brentwood Academy & McCallie are the reasons why TSSAA split the whole system up in the 1st place. You could go on & on about this public vs private BS. I hear it all the time with private school friends who went to schools like Father Ryan, Baylor, CBHS in Memphis, all over. Comparitively speaking, the only school with a lengthy tradition like a Maryville & or Alcoa would be Brentwood Academy. Baylor's rarely won it, Ensworth hasn't been around long enough to be considered, & MBA's run seemed to fizzle out now that Ensworth's the big dog in D2. Regardless, even though the claim can be made that Brentwood Academy has been to more championship games than everyone, they've lost more than everyone too & still haven't won as many as Maryville or Alcoa. The records they currently have against each other (Maryville vs Private Schools & Alcoa vs Private Schools) is in Maryville & Alcoa's favor. I think it would come out that way now given they played every year. With all of that being said, there's still no way Bowers is as good a coach as Quarles. Bowers will always have the easier path to a state title & still won't win near as many as GQ will win when all is said & done.

Big props to my former UTC teammate, Coach Eslinger! To steal a line from Coach Leen, Heath is actually "turning the corner" as opposed to just talking about it... lol

I've been working behind the scenes with Karla & David Douglas on establishing a scholarship fund for students of Maryville High School in Aaron's name. Aaron was a friend of mine & after attending his funeral I approached Karla about the idea & they were all for it! The family has been speaking with the current administration & the initial feedback is there will be 2 scholarships set up in his name. One will be for athletics of course, but the other will be for drama/art students as Aaron was very involved in the arts himself. That being the case, I'm working with Karla on raising funds for these awards & the plan is to have them in place for this year's Senior class to be awarded at May's graduation ceremony. The criteria for the recipients will be established in the coming weeks & these grants will go to both athletic & non athletic students at Maryville looking to continue their education in college. Any feedback on helping establish guidelines for the awards & donations towards this fund is greatly appreciated.

Trousdale County has had some impressive years, but mentioning them amongst the best teams ever is a farce. They would get squashed by a number of other great teams if they weren't playing in the lowest classification in the state. For that matter, Any teams in 1A or 2A shouldn't even be mentioned. Does that take away from their success, no... However, lumping them in with "best teams" all time is ridiculous.

Any measureables on him? Size, speed, etc...

I didn't get to see him play against Maryville this year, but I assume a number of you guys did. Is this a good pick up for UT?? Hopefully he turns out better than a former LC great (Travis Cozart) & the guy from Loudon Fulmer signed a few years ago...

Seriously... to MLREB

We'll see. Maybe he'll turn out better than that other kid from HC whom a lot of other coaches thought was good too... Teague anyone?

Quarles would win hands down. If he had Alcoa's talent, it would really be sick what he could do. As far as your point on Rankin beating Quarles more than any other coach, you're partially right. Rankin would be tied at 2 wins with the coach from Knox Central (Helton) & the coach from Morristown West (not sure of his name).

Now that's the type of feedback I'm talking about. I knew there were tournaments like the one you mentioned, but I didn't know anyting else about them. Before the Frank Mir-Roy Nelson fight in UFC a few months ago, they showed footage of the 2 squaring off in a grappling match with Nelson coming out on top. Obviously it was different in the UFC bout.

I'm saying he's not better that Guillermo. Who won the AAA Mr. Football Lineman award again?? Oh yeah, Guillermo did thank you. And don't act like I'm the only one who offers up opinions on here & come up with something original...

AMEN on Sharp! I also think they missed the boat on Tyson & Warren out of Alcoa last year. Tyson especially, he is a blocking machine at FB.

Good points.. I'll always chose wrestling over MMA b/c it was/has been my 1st love so to speak. It does offer the best base from which to work with in MMA, but I think all kids should try to learn as many disciplines as they can. Like a lot kids I took karate (Isshin-ryū to be exact) early & didn't get into wrestling until later in school. Wrestling taught me better body control & how to use it in other sports (football, soccer). Striking is a different animal, but learning how to strike & having wrestling skills is much easier that knowing how to strike & learning wrestling skills. No question

It would be very cool. I didn't think about the breaking limbs part, but I did factor in if a head gear would affect chokes at all. I know there are different grappling tournaments out there that are run like a wrestling tournament. I've never been to one, but I would be interested to see what kind of rules they have in place. It would be interesting to see a dual meet too if MMA was a part of high school sports. There was one fight federation that had actual team competitions like dual meets, but I can't remember the name of the league...

With the success of wrestlers in the world of MMA, I've often day dreamed if there would be any chance of amateur MMA making it in high school athletics one day?? I think it could be "do-able" given the fact that my parents' high school had amateur boxers back in the day (early 70's to be exact). I'll have to go back in their year book to make sure boxing was sanctioned by the school as an official sport, but they were 2 boxers featured in their annual none the less. That said, I think that it could possibly be done if A: headgears were used just like they are in amateur boxing, B: the MMA season didn't take away from the existing high school wrestling season, & C: all 50 states officially sanctioned MMA as a legitimate sport. I was lucky enough to be wrestling in high school when a future MMA great out of Memphis (Quinton Jackson) wrestled for Raleigh-Egypt. A future teammate of mine at UTC (Brian Provezano) beat "Rampage" in the 2nd round at the state tournament that year, but imagine what kind of following MMA would have if you could follow fighters like you do other athletes in different sports...

Being a former D1 wrestler myself, I remember Scott Wells back in his high school days putting the hurt to some heavywieghts during his career. STRONG AS heck!! Two of the strongest wrestlers to come through TN that I can remember both played football at UT too. Will Bartholomew(sp?) was a beast on the mat & another football Vol great. I didn't get to watch his brother Ben wrestle any at all when he was at MBA, but if he's anything like Will then I won't be surprised to see him get a chance to bust some heads as a blocking FB in the NFL after next season. I don't know if Jay has that kind of strength coming out of high school like those guys, but as far as him being a top flight center I will agree with you there.

I'm not desperate about anything, but maybe I should have clarified that Jay could have played HS ball on any spot on the O line he wanted.

6.9 yards a carry against an average defense of Powell's is no great accomplishment. Jelks would have had his #### handed to him if he had played against a D Line the likes of Maryville, Whitehaven, or even Riverdale. Furthermore, if you could make more sense in your sentence "Jelks and Humphries are right now both undersized but, their measureables make them better long term prospects.", maybe people could understand you better. I'm thinking you meant "both Jelks & Humphries are undersized right now, but their measureables..." You get the picture, Mr. Thesis. That said, Guillermo can play any spot on the line he wants to. If it wasn't for Brandon Guy lining up at tackle, I'm sure Guillermo would have been slotted over there. So to prove my point, I've SEEN enough to know that Guillermo would have been successful there too.

I'm not questioning you on Humphries, so I have no clue why you brought him into the equation. I'm just repeating what you said that Jelks was better than Guillermo... Isn't that what you posted?? From what I seen of him in the title game agaist Powell he wasn't all that. And no I didn't "already know that"...

Ok, after reading the story on Yahoo about the top high school teams in the country, I noticed that Maryville finished #15 according to Rivals & Ensworth finished #39. However, Rivals quoted this "Ensworth may have the best coach in the entire state with Ricky Bowers." In the words of The Miz from WWE fame... REALLY?!?!?! REALLY?!?!?!? I would bet my house that Bowers would not even be able to carry GQ's jock strap in a coaching comparison. I know the DII idiots are going to have something to say about this one, but there's no comparison... Period! Let the games begin!!!

I can see Humphries being better, but Jelks?!?!? If you believe that he's better that Guillermo then I want some of what you've been smoking on..

Not trying to down play it at all, just curious how you sign for an opportunity that is open to every one?

Rudy!! I haven't seen you since your good ole TKE days at Chatt. I have a few of my old UTC teammates you might be interested in talking to. Send me a private message & we can talk...