CAH09

Two good wins for GB. Looks like they are clearly the 2nd team behind GCA and will have a good shot at them in the tourney. Looks like the first 3rd of the season has GCA, GB, Meigs and then maybe RW. The others look like they will fight it out for the cellar.

Just from early appearances it looks like several teams are going to be in the hunt for the 4-A title.  OS has played the most conference games and at 5-1 they seem to be sitting pretty, but they could slip if they got most of those wins from Jellico and Sunbright?  Not sure who they have played so far.  Oneida is still pretty good and Oakdale seems to have one of the strongest pitchers.  Not sure how Coalfield's staff is on the hill.....that will determine where they will finish.  I think that is the top four, but don't know how it will shake out. 

 

Kaz

Word is that CF gave one away to OS...apparently couldn't throw a strike in one inning. They have one of the better 2 or 3 pitchers in district...so, they'll be tough to sweep. Saw them with the Morgan kid on the mound... they look really tough when he's there. Similiar to Oakdale... After that CF must be a tad sketchier on the mound if they lost OS, who is very average. WB, Oneida and OD together will probably win 5 out of the 6 games vs them. Yea, sounds like Jellico and Sunbright are really, really bad. I heard WB stole one from Oneida when they had pitching issues similiar to CF vs OS.

I understand their district, but they have lost to 3 teams lower in classification and William Blount was not very good! So that was at least 3 games already they should have won. The district they are in can't be an excuse forever.

yea, i hear you...but as I said rough district AND not enough talent to be competitive in AAA. To be honest, they weren't very good when my school played them when they were AA. That's been 20+ years ago and they were OK at best then. Others have said admin, parents are an issue... I'm sure that's true as well. Some schools never seem to get it together...LC is maybe one of them.

I'd say the D4 teams would be happy with 2nd in region... figuring they'd have a good shot at state tourney vs region 1. Much like Oneida last year... albeit with a bit of help of an early game ejection of the NG player.

Umps have opinions? isn't that illegal? lol seriously though, I had been told before McKinney ever got to high school baseball was probably what he was best at. Could this be the year D4 steals one from D3 in the region semis? Early to start talking about but it seems like it's going to be fairly even

Not sure on that, but you might be right....baseball might be where he could possibly have an advantage athletically and in size... and project to a higher level in college. Haven't seen him in couple of years... not sure he had had the best fundamental coaching on the baseball diamond up to that time, (MS & before). Good athletic skills, just raw. I'm sure the baseball team up there would like to find out.

Kind of opposite the other two sports, where he is more polished.

He's a good athlete in the other two, excellent skills but maybe not elite athletically (D1) in those two sports... I'm guessing a bit there.

  Very good player for sure though... really, really good all around to watch in hoops...

Well a week into season and the board seems quiet. What has everyone seen so far? Summertown and Forrest split a series. Summertown also defeated a loaded Spring Hill team in the Loretto St Patrick's day tournament to advance into the Championship game vrs Wilson (Al).

How do teams look to the East and West? Rockwood and Jackson Christian, Decatur Co Riverside, Peabody and Grace?

In the east, Rockwood is not very good, .500 would be an accomplishment for them. Grace is good for 1A, but not as good as last year.

This years team will be the first team in school history to go winless on the season. This does not even begin to describe the talent level at Lenoir city but the incompetence that the school Ad and coaching staff has! It is embarrassing to watch them coach. I feel bad for a great group of kids!

That's just the wrong district to be playing in for their talent level. That's not to say they don't have some good players....but not enough to compete in AAA baseball, especially in that district. Most teams in the state would drop a bunch of games vs their district.

you could very well be right. Completely overlooked CF. Maybe bc they weren't eligible. Is Parker playing?

Mckinney not playing I heard..too bad, he could help them. Looks like CF blanked OS last night 8-0, if coach t is correct. Talked to a couple umps who've had GCA...they said, yes they're still the top team in 3a, but certainly beatable this year...down a bit overall.

I wasn't necessarily giving Greenback the definite 2 spot, but there is a ton of potential there for them. I think it's a battle between GB Meigs Harriman and TP for the rest, midway is less than impressive this year. Region 4 I like Oakdale, Oneida, maybe OS with an upset of either team to give one of them the 1 seed.

Makes sense to me... Meigs is off to a good start. In 4a, a couple different people told that by the end of the year last year CF was the 2nd best team in the district, but not eligible for postseason. They only had one senior on that team... I know they return one of the two best pitchers in the district in the Morgan kid as well.

So...early returns:

#1 Grace

#2 looks like GB gets the early nod for 2nd

who's third?

 

What about 4a? Who's the favorite?

To GCApride - unless an upset occurs, GCA will go to the state tournament again. GCA is a 4-time state tourney participant and the defending champions. Rockwood is coming off an 8 win season. RHS could improve a lot and it would not be noticeable to GCA.

 

To the other posters, while I agree with you, let's keep on topic. The public/private debate has been discussed ad nauseam, and it was not the purpose of this thread. Let's talk on the field District 3 baseball here.

I wasn't really shooting for the public/private debate.. just stating the obvious that GCA is in a position where most years, most teams they play in 3a/4a (region)

just can't compete with them right now on most days. GCA is just usually that far ahead of them,particularly  in baseball . A really good team might get them at the state tourney, but very doubtful before that.

Watch out for Greenback! They had one of the best 8th grade classes last year in middle school ball. They could have competed with some high school teams last year. I expect Grace to roll, but the fact of the matter is if your guys aren't/haven't been playing a little more than just school ball then they will struggle as the game is in a heavy shift to the travel ball game. I hate to say it but there seem to be several schools on board with the travel ball and some of the schools are being left behind.

yep, agreed on the travel ball. Most of the smaller rurals have very few, if any travel kids, and it shows come game time. They really have trouble competing on the baseball field when they play a team with 5 or 6 players with good travel experience.

I saw harriman... they're ok at best.  My guess they'll be about .500 in district. GBack did have a good group of 8th graders, but most 9th graders don't stack up against a team of 1tth and 12 graders... so it may take them a year or two to challenge in 3a. Did they have enough upper classmen returning to keep most of the freshmen off the field? Rockwood was bad last year...they return most everyone, I think....not sure if that's good or bad for them. Maybe bad...?!

Grace is always gonna have the edge vs these small publics... it's a significant demographic/$$ advantage. The harrimans, rockwoods, etc typically don't have the players most years. Doesn't mean GCA can never be beaten out for the district...but usually they're just a tough out for these small publics. Everything usually has to go the publics way to have a chance to overcome GCA's advantages.

Similarly, GCA facilities just dwarf what the others have to play on... the  roster(s) disparity looks a lot like the facility disparity.

Grace can roll out  4 or 5 pitchers better than most teams #2 guy and many teams #1 guy. The last couple of years Oneida (4a)has had some of the best teams they've EVER had...Grace just wore them out in region play.

To me that sounds like a small stab at Oakdale. Sure they graduate some really good seniors but Oakdales chances to be in the region semis or finals are the same as it was this year. On another note grace and meigs have the same teams coming back next year so once again we all will be trying to knock them off the top.

??? no...no stab....just more of a captain obvious. Losing three major contributors from this year. Middle school team was bad last year....REALLY bad this year...

decent soph group...One pretty good freshman as well, so maybe a couple will grow into a role next year.

No matter what Oakdale threw at Grace, the Rams were able to withstand it. Oakdale relies on the three ball, and it just didn't fall tonight. Grace, if you're going to put us out, you might as well go all the way now. Haha

im sure the OD folks are disappointed, this year was their best shot in a while at getting at least to a region final/+sectional. Certainly, they return a couple of their better players next year... But likely wont be as good. Small windows at the smaller schools... OD probably missed theirs this year.

Cannot wait for Tuesday. Oakdale handled Rockwood without Steinmetz playing a minute, and Grace put out a very good Coalfield team. Oakdale/Grace will be intense. Grace has the better 1-3, but I believe Oakdale's team as a whole is better. Grace won't be able to outrun Oakdale and vice versa. This game will be decided by rebounding and foul trouble/free throws. Each team can run and shoot just as good as each other. If Oakdale doesn't fix their transition D, Grace could win big though. I expect a game in the 80's or 90's.

 

I think the Eagles will come out on top in a close one.

the OD team I've seen or 4or 5 times would beat the GCA team I saw last night. But I'm sure the grace folks would say they could play better... So it should be a good game. In hoops, if you have the best player, as GCA will, you've got a good shot.

Saw one of the best ball games of the year tonight get marred by the ending. Grace up by 2 with 14 seconds left and a ref calls an intentional foul on the inbounds. Coalfield kid gets a T and GCA ends up winning by 6. 12thmanGCA I was really impressed with your son. He had to have around 40 tonight. Difference in the ballgame was at the FT line. CF probably didn't shoot 50% at the stripe while Grace knocked them down.[/quote

 

Thank you. I was proud of him and the whole team. CJ put in like 9 straight Ft in second half. Everybody stepped up. As far as the technical well the refs hands were tied. By rule if you hold a player before the ball is thrown in then it has to be intentional foul. No other call to make.

 

 

i dont wont to start any nonsense on coacht but the game was seprated by like 3 fouls. So good bad ugly it was consistent. And I could see Coalfield fans steaming and yelling over the back but Connor is pretty good at using his 6-8 and 32in vertical to reach over 5-10 250lb kids who don't jump. And thats not a knock it is what it is. You want over the back then box out and jump not just box.

 

Coalfied played well but again I would bet GCA had 20 turnovers. And most were not due to suffocating coalfield defense. So coalfield is too good to do that and expect in to be a blowout. 21 can play good year for yellow jackets!

 

We have to fix turnovers to make the boro and all kids everywhere need to play better D

 

5'10, 250?? Really...? Better check those glasses. Anyway...yea, foul line was big. GCA made theirs, CF missed too many.

I thought the two killers were the GCA kid running under CF's #2 scorer and the call being a charge which wiped out a basket and a possible 3pt play...u can't run under someone already in the air....more importantly he had to sit for 10 mins in first half. The second was same kid getting fouled on a layup...no call. Then he and a GCA kid scramble for loose ball...the call was intential foul on the CF kid.. Really? Intentional? If he fouled on loose ball, fine...but intentional? That was brutal. Then he had to sit again. 18 pts agame sitting on two terrible calls... Not mention the pts off the calls. Don't have the book...but at least 5 or 6 right there...plus sitting a key player. Losing team can always find 4 or 5 they don't like...but those two really hurt... And we're really, really tough ones.

Oneida/Grace: Oneida by 12

Coalfield/Harriman: Coalfield by 8

Wartburg/Meigs: Meigs by 18

Oakdale/Midway: Midway by 10

I'd say oakdale and wartburg get beat by 30. CF has a chance, but a slim one.... I might pick them at home, but not on the road. Oneida game is 50/50.

coalfield loses by 20+ and I've seen both teams. No disrespect to coalfield just my opinion on the teams.

Yea, harriman won by 18 the first time. CF kept it close 1st half... but struggled after that. I'd take harriman at home by 15 or so.

I would think the 3a teams would be favored in 3 of the 4 games. Certainly coalfield and WB (especially at home) have chance though if they play well. I'm just not sure CF can shoot well enough to win at GCA. Plus, whIle they play 8 or so...they really only play 6 or 7 real mins. GCA likely wears them down or they get in foul trouble. WB may well beat Harriman at WB...granted they lost twice to them during the season.

Has anyone ever thought that the clock might not have started on time? I've seen that happen several times late in games when the clock keeper turns into a spectator.

 

no...that wasn't it....it was so far off, it was obvious regardless of what the clock would have said. The kid was in a semi trot with the ball... That doesn't take ten secs. He could slow walk it in ten secs.

With all this whining about referees some things to think about:

 

1) Are the refs human?  YES

2) Do humans make mistakes? YES

3) Did all of the players finish the game perfectly with no mistakes (turnovers, missed shots, fouls, missed defensive assignments, etc)? 99.9% NO

 

So if we are not going to crucify the players for making a turnover, or missing a "good" shot, then why should we do the same to a human ref?  It all evens out in the end.  I'm sure there were calls that were questionable/judgement calls that went both teams ways earlier in the game.  Get over it and just applaud the young men for giving their all, and if you want to jump on the refs, talk to the TSSAA, buy a whistle, put on the stripes, and go out and do it better.  Otherwise, pay your money, buy some popcorn, and hope your team makes just enough plays to play another game.

yea, I hear you...and generally agree. In this case, the refs came up because in a one pt game in the final possession a 7.8 "ten" sec call was made costing jellico a chance to win. So yea...that will get some comments as it should. It was a terrible screwup...that kind of mess up simply cannot happen without anyone commenting.

CAH09, I wasn't trying to take a jab at you personally. I hope it didn't seem that way, and if it did I apologize. Take a look through this page, Facebook, Twitter, wherever when a team loses. You will see mention of terrible officiating or a terrible call costing a team the game almost every time. Just tired of seeing people pass the blame on the officials every game.

no, I know..... No need to apologize, sometimes I need a jab or two. If it was just a block/charge disagreement....that's just part of a night in the gym. Gripe for a few mins and move on. This was a little tougher to swallow for the jellico fans, I sure.

You know what I find interesting is after just looking, GCA nor Meigs either one played a single team from the other District in the Regular season. Not one. I will probably stir up some stuff but I don't think anyone in that District will get by Meigs or GCA. 

 

Harriman has a shot against GCA tonight the last game should have been Harrimans but they couldn't close out and GCA hit a buzzer beater. But.....we had 15 point lead in the first half. That is GCA's fault!  It will be interesting tonight, sucks that I have to be in Wash DC..... But I think that Harriman is one of the few teams that can athletically match GCA well enough. Meigs of course can - but can anyone in the other District?  

 

No matter what GCA has qualified for the Region and so has Harriman but I'd like to get on the early and then let them play catch up. The longer you let Harriman hang around the more likely you are to pay for it.

 

yea, IMO, they don't want to play either until they have to. For obvious reasons, meigs is much larger than the MC schools especially and plus... I think it's an hour and 20 mins for 3 or 4 of them. GCA isn't that far, but GCA typically would have pretty good upper hand most years on each team just because of student demographics. The 4a teams are a couple players down to what those two schools have most years. Why schedule a loss to a team you might see in the postseason. Harriman, rockwood, etc are closer and likely to be more competitive games. CF played GCA tough last year, maybe it happens again.

Can we rename this forum to "How the refs cost *Insert team here* the game!!"?

 

Every time a team loses, somebody brings up officiating. It's aalllwwaayyss the refs' fault. It's getting old lol.

 

look, I was for OD... But you gotta admit, if you were there, the ref called a backcourt violation when there was none... The clock showed it had been 7.8 secs....not 9.8....7.8. Again, I'm glad OD won, but hated to see a high school team have that happen to them. Who knows, maybe they woulda thrown it out of bounds five seconds later... But that call was horrific and it took away the chance they had earned to have a game winning try. Ironically, In a game that was otherwise very well officiated.