WarEagle44

So if it happened to your team when they were at bat and they struggle then you have no problem with it in the least, that's pretty cool.

Thats like saying Tiger Woods shouldn't play golf because if the noise of a camera clicking distracts him he shouldn't be at the tee (and we've all seen how he treats that when it happens). And he's trying to hit a ball that's sitting still on a tee with basically the same swing a batter takes except for the angle. Anyway that kinda thing goes both ways.

An air horn at a football field as opposed to behind the plate as a batter prepares to swing is a bit different although I don't remember any air horns, I don't do either. Tell ya what put some rocks in a plastic bottle and shake them by your ear and then take a cow bell and shake it by your ear and see which is worse. I'm all for yelling and clapping and all that but I don't much care for a bell ringing in my ear whether its my team's fans or the opponents fans. It won't stop me from going to the games either way. It's kind of apples and oranges in my opinion when at a game and the fans are cheering or ringing, waving and jumping around and its a continious, constant noise that players adjust to as opposed to just at the moment a batter starts to swing a bunch of cow bells start clanging. It's like watching a Nascar race and seeing a big crash that's very common and then sitting in traffic and have someone rear end the car next to you with a loud crash. Which is gonna be more distracting. Either way whatever works for ya I guess.

So what you're saying is they're not good enough to win it on their own according to your philosophy, they have to have a distraction. I realize that in college their are a couple of schools that have the cowbells and at basketball games the fans sometimes have boom sticks, don't see, or at least I haven't seen that kind of thing a lot in HS sports. In all honesty it's probably more of a nuisance to the fans as it gets old quick when you're just trying to watch a game and don't want a cowbell ringing in your ear. I suppose if the other team's fans know that FC does that, then they can return the favor with their own bells but if I'm at that game I'm wearing ear plugs.

Uh huh, so what you're saying is that you admit to scouting and/or recruiting even that far away.... He didn't punch that ticket, he just said he'd like for our district to have 2 teams in State, not that we would have. For all we know Forrest could be there if Cascade and Eagleville don't play to their potential.

Eagleville's number 2 will either be McDougal who is being scouted by Columbia State and a couple other colleges or Hammonds who I believe tied a State tournament record as a sophomore with 17 strikeouts in one game in 2010. I was also at a couple of tournament games this past summer and one of their boys that would be number 4 or 5 on the depth chart held the 19 year old Diamondbacks which are heavy with college signees to 1 hit over 3 innings after coming in the second half of the game and then saw him again go 6 innings against the 18 year old Diamondbacks and he gave up 1 run in that one. Both those teams are usually heavy with boys from Riverdale, Blackman, Oakland and siegel. Year in and year out I would agree that they might not be competitive but this year's team from my understanding is loaded with 12 seniors and a handful of juniors, again this is per a parent friend I have there. Like you were saying though, its not really a big deal but I think it would be interesting to see how they'd matchup a couple of games varsity wise. On the Oakland issue, I think all schools no matter what level have some drama here and there, to what level not sure, I do know about the young man that went from Blackman to Smyrna over a pretty serious issue. I think a lot of it does stem from what parents/fans you talk to and I always take those things with a grain of salt.

Right...., if the cowbells aren't a distraction then why have them. I heard from the crew working State at MTCS last year about how classless they thought FC was with all that and they had no dogs in the fight. FCS has a really good team, why do they need that and to say a kid is mentally weak because they have cowbells ringing in their ears when they're trying to focus...I don't know. Do FC fans clang those bells when their boys are at the plate? Just asking..., if not why not, does it distract them? 1A compete with private money schools that can recruit out of state if they want....there are some pretty good 1A teams out there though and who knows maybe they'll have cowbells too.

Whew, not sure about all the back and forth about the Oakland program, have some friends over there but there is always a little drama in 7AAA. Riverdale has the bats and decent pitching, not sure about their defense, Smyrna and Blackman I think will battle for 2nd and Oakland and siegel 3rd thru 5th, just my opinion. As for what BigBob said about Eagleville competing with the AAA boys, he might not be far off. You seemed to think his statement about Eagleville was pretty hilarious even though that team has made two consecutive trips to State and is loaded with senior talent and in talking to a good friend/parent there all of them have played with the boys at Riverdale and Blackman etc on travel and select teams since they were little all the way thru this past summer so don't disregard them as not being worthy which is the gist of your response on BigBob's "statement". None of the big schools save Blackman seem to want to play them, they will only schedule their jv teams against them from what I know and I know a lot of coaches, parents and kids on the various programs. Eagleville is loaded with seniors and 3 very good pitchers, 1 having committed and 2 being scouted. They, like Riverdale have a solid batting lineup from top to bottom. I don't have any dogs in the fight but I think it would be interesting to see them matchup with some of the 7AAA schools. Sorry, this is 7AAA board but just had to comment on this since it was brought up. Hope to see all the Rutherford County schools show well this year.