BIGANTUT74

If Every athlete were a straight a student and near perfect score on the sat then Vanderbilt would be one of the schools competing for a national title every year. They have a good basketball team because they just need to recruit 6 or 7 kids who can handle the coursework. There may be a handful of schools in America who compete for the same type of athletes. There are alot of smart athletes but there are also alot of good schools who have good football teams. I dont know how many of alabama's football team would qualify for vanderbilt but i would imagine not so many. I dont think anyone here in Nashville has grand illusions that Vanderbilt will win a national championship, but to put a competitive team on the field is possible for sure. Vanderbilt is also one of the original members of the sec dating back to 1932. It's like Alabama trying to become a vanderbilt in education... Not going to happen but I am sure alabama works hard at academics and looks to improve there just like Vanderbilt looks to Improve its football program.

Thankfully Maryville beat them this year to stop the dynasty.. Those rings were starting to add up. Most high school athletes like to emulate college or professional players, and Alcoa has taken care of those desires by signing an endorsement contract with Under Armour to provide workout gear, uniforms and accessories. All players also receive gold championship rings each season the team wins a title. Head coach Gary Rankin estimates the jewelry cost during the seven-year championship stretch to be around $180,000. He said the money for the rings comes from donations from local businesses, parents and boosters as well as the city school system. The team’s latest championship ring simply had the word “Dynasty†inscribed.

I think you are right to a certain degree even though you paint such a rosy picture of the kid who cuts his drive time by 30 min in Greeneville due to open zoning. Open enrollroment Absolutely has helped certain schools become athletic powerhouses. I have no problem with that and this issue has also been hashed out over and over again. I just lose a bit of my head when someone from an open enrollment school starts to take shots at the d2 privates for what they call "recruiting". I live in Davidson County and I am exactly 3.2 miles from Brentwood High School and 12 miles from Hillsboro where my kids are zoned. If all of a sudden Williamson county opened up zoning to my neighborhood , my kids would more than likely go to Brentwood High School. I would be more than happy to write the $500 check. I am sure 99% of the parents near me who have kids at Hillsboro would write the check for 5 times that....If maryville and Alcoa win the next 10 state championships you can bet that somewhere down the road tssaa will change the rules for separate open enrollment schools from the traditional zoned schools. I certainly dont blame Maryville as they are now playing in the highest division possible and still winning. From a selfish football fan standpoint it makes sense to combine privates with open enrollment schools but this will never happen in my lifetime but would make for better football. You want to know what helped killed Hillsboro as a state football powerhouse ... Anyone who lives here knows it was redistricting ....kids were grandfathered in but no new exceptions to the zoning rules. Try to gain an exception in Nashville for ELEMENTARY or MIDDLE SCHOOL to go to school outside of your zone and see how easy it is! My only reason for writing the post on the asterisk was to say don't be a hypocrit, not to somehow diminish the accomplishments of Maryville or Alcoa. Maryville and Alcoa are good schools and parents send there kids there for academics, environment and athletics. I know many of you have read the article below about teams not wanting to schedule Alcoa. I bet Alcoa looks a lot like Brentwood Academy when you compare the schools enrollment and the number of kids playing football. There are less than 500 students in 9-12 at Brentwood Academy half of which are boys. 90% of the kids who attend school there live within a 15 minute drive of the school with traffic. The stats below from the article could very well be ......replace Alcoa with BA or Ensworth. We have a football league here for the privates that starts in 6th grade, so boys begin playing for their schools in the Southwest Nashville football league. Brentwood academy's 6th grade team was undefeated during the regular season and lost to Ensworth in the championship game. BA won the 7th grade league championship and I believe 8th grade too. The school that feeds into Hillsboro plays as well, the 6th grade team won 1 game. Most of the good athletes from their feeder school go on to private. In my mind there is not much difference. I drive 10 minutes and pay more money for my kid to attend private school. My choice , your choice... Maryville and Alcoa have dominated football in the divisions they play because they have had superior athletes and good coaching , but you can't win year end and year out without the best athletes. The funnel to both schools has been wide open there for quite some time now. As the article says winning breeds winning. $500 and a 20 min car ride is a small price to pay to win a state championship and have a shot if you are good enough to be noticed by a college and a full ride. I dont blame the parents just like I dont blame the few parents in Murfreesboro who decide to drive an hour every morning to Ensworth. “Losing to them the last two seasons made us change some things we do in our off-season workouts,†Maryville coach George Quarles said. “They were just tougher and in better shape than us. We don’t typically see a better team all year than Alcoa, and that includes some of the teams that are about three times bigger. I’m not sure I want to see the team from their classification that can play with them.†Students who live outside Alcoa’s zone can pay $500 to attend. The football program’s success has drawn talented athletes from other zones willing to pay the tuition in exchange for a better chance of winning a championship or being noticed by college recruiters. With 96 players currently going through summer workouts, 40 percent of Alcoa’s male student population is on the football roster. “Kids want to go where they know they’re going to win, so as long as you’re willing to drive a little further to school, $500 is a small price to pay for what’s a pretty safe bet on a state championship,†said Polk County coach Derrick Davis, whose team competes in Class 3A. “They’re not doing anything illegal. Winning breeds winning, so they’re just taking the kids who come to them. “You think their run will end at some point but when? Everything we hear is that their middle school guys coming up are more talented than any bunch they’ve had.â€

Yep not a great time for athletics at MBA, but its a good school with great academics and I am sure they will take their pill and move on. You nor I will ever know all that goes on at any school so nothing surprises me anymore. I did not go to MBA nor do I have kids there so not really a concern of mine. Still have to pad up....Stars

I remember those games versus Henry County and they were always good games. I think you guys were 1-6 against MBA during that stretch but the games mostly were close hard fought battles.

This discussion just shifts from one thread to the next hashed over and over again. If you look at history the Rutherford county 7aaa teams ( Riverdale, Oakland, Smyrna, Mt. Juliet ) have a 4-20 record versus Brentwood Academy, Montgomery Bell Academy and Ensworth over the past 20 years. Germantown, Melrose, Whitehaven and Whitestation have an even more dismal record versus MUS and Christian Brothers in Memphis. They are 5-26 over the last 20 years. Now Maryville just moved into 6A so that could change the dynamic of these matchups but historically the big 6a schools have a terrible record versus the privates. So what happens is you see post about how the private schools recruit because there are no historical facts to prove the current matchups would hold a different result. So when you can't beat them might as well bash them or make the matchup seem to be one that is unfair. Even Maryville and Alcoa have not played the privates since the 70's and last Alcoa played BA in 1989. Very few people who comment from the public side know much about the private schools or their teams and very few people on the private side know much about the public schools and their teams. I am sure Maryville fans can tell you 5 things about Alcoa's team this year but know very little about Brentwood Academy or Ensworth. I have said this over and over again. Every kid in America is zoned for a certain public school, yet not one of those schools has rights to that kid as a student athlete. But as a parent I have the right to send my child where ever I wish. I grew up in a community like Maryville where all the the kids go to school together for 12 years. I get that but its not that way in Nashville or the larger cities. You see public schools playing private schools all the time. Just watched a basketball game ....public school in Georgia versus Oak Ridge Academy. You think those kids rode home on the bus complaining about the players on Oak Ridge and how they are from all over. Excuses are cancer on a team. All of my kids are athletes and I was cornered on a few occasions by parents and the administration from the public school where I am zoned to continue on. It was my choice to go the other route. No one recruited me or my child and my kid played 2 varsity sports as a freshman. Even if the private school approached me and expressed an interest in my children, It is still my choice to where I send my kids. People in Nashville do one of three things for schools. They either stay in the zoned school, move to Williamson County or Rutherford County for better schools, or they go private. There are a lot of choices here. Regardless of this fact I just do not like the excuse many people use about recruiting and some of the outlandish post I read on here about kids moving from California and Colorado to play football in Nashville make me laugh. I dont know how all the kids get to the schools and I dont really sit around and think about that. You still have to lace up your shoes and play. Or pad up and play and I dont think any of the Maryville FOOTBALL PLAYERS if they made a road trip over to Nashville to play one of the privates would be talking about how the kids made it on the BA football team. Win or lose I dont think they would. They would pad up and play. But the fans in the seats sure do, and the coach t quarterbacks on here sure do.... and what it says to me when people do that is WE can't compete. So I just wish those people would learn a little more about the two football teams they are trying to pair up and comment about the matchups etc...instead of always mentioning something that many people have no experience with.

Congratulations...first time ever being ranked by rivals....Alcoa has been ranked more and MBA, BA, Ensworth and MUS have been ranked 12 times. You guys did get ranked once by USA today though. Congrats on that.

did not say I am from MBA...was in the gym for other reason. I like the shcool though. I dont think the people at MBA give a rip about what you think bro. Nor Ensworth, or BA. thats why none of them every comment on here. Better things to do. This tread was started by comparing Ricky and George and 99% of the posters are from Maryville. I am not, so I have my two cents worth.

I'll run my mouth if I want to run my mouth. This is a free forum and I am not afraid to speak my mind. Once again the only facts you got are the recruiting....blah blah blah...line the boys up ...man to man and all I am saying is Maryville nor Alcoa would run through D2 and WOULD NOT have won all those gold balls since 1997. Never happen in your lifetime or mine. I played D1 football, my father was an all American Tackle at a major D1 school. Been around the game for longer than you can imagine, so I put my 300 pound rump where my mouth is on many friday and saturday.

I understand your points but you did not mine. What I was saying is that when all the teams played together from 1976 to 1997 a private school was in the state championship game 17 of the 21 times. Which means a public school played a public school 4 times. I only looked at the division Maryville was in at the time and only two private schools played in the state title over those years....Brentwood Academy and MUS. The private school team won 10 of the 21 state championships. So lets take your analogy of 17 teams versus the two ( Maryville and Alcoa) If 17 private schools are fighting for the state championship along with how many hundred public schools, what does that say about the strength of both sides. I am not debating that if Maryville would have won another one or two state championships after 1997 had those scant number of private schools remained in the mix. I just do not believe Maryville or Alcoa would have had more than 2 added to their record since 1929. Its not your fault that you built your football prowess over the past 14 years against less than the best talent in the state of Tennessee.

Carlton Flatts and Brentwood Academy win loss record versus public schools in the state of TN was 317-21. Starting in 1973 and including the years he coached the teams.

Yeah done because you have no facts ...none at all and you have no clue about what goes on at the private schools. Here is what I am clued in enough to know. You dont live in Nashville and have no idea how things work in private school. The recruitment issue is just an excuse I hear over an over when people have no fact. Do you think private schools go out and hand pick athletes and give them full rides..? Do you think this is college? Most of the parents who CHOOSE to send their kids to any of the private schools and receive some form of aid.....most are making huge sacrifices to send their kids there. Most want a better environment for their kids. Its not free and most athletes on any type of aid package which is determined by an outside company, pay. A $5,000 to $6,000 dollar commitment to a single mom or a family that is barely making it is a huge sacrifice. You also have to maintain grades A-B or else you dont stay. They also need to apply and be accepted into the school. So all of this really eliminates a huge mass of athletes. Corn Elder lives in Murfreesboro which is an 45 miles from Ensworth. School starts at 7:30, which means he is up at 4am. He plays Football and Basketball. He arrives back home at 9:30. He is zoned for Oakland. His dad was a star football player at Oakland. Why on earth would a kid sacrifice and put up with a schedule like that if there was no value in it for him. Just go to Oakland. Riverdale hated and that is putting it mildly , Carlton Flatts and Brentwood Academy because they could not beat the privates. Maryville, Alcoa, Riverdale, the Memphis schools would not beat them either on a regular basis. All of my facts are facts that I pulled from the database on Tennessee football. They are facts. It is easy to look and say Alcoa and Maryville started to rack up state titles because of Rankin and Quarles. There is some truth in that, but I could make the arguement that Brentwood Academy would have 16 or 17 state titles if the divisions had remained the same. Matter of Fact I believe the privates would have won 80% of the state titles in the highest division 4A -5A or 6A had they stayed in there. Why do you think TSSAA decided to create D2. If the public schools were beating up on the privates, do you think they would have made that change. I gave you the facts plain and simple for anyone to see. Maryville has not played a private in Nashville since the 70's. I am sure any of the schools would welcome a visit.

. Ok make corn elder run the ball with one arm behind his back for being from murfreesboro since the privates recruit. It's all you got when you don't have facts and you have this wrong too... The private schools do not recruit kids to play... Parents search out a good school for their kids just like they do in maryville because you guys have one of the best public schools on the state education wise. People move to maryville for the town, jobs the education, football ... People look at the private schools for the same reason. This has been hashed over and over and over again on here. My kids are zoned for Hillsboro. It's not a bad school but there is problems there. All of my kids are athletes and go to private schools and my wife and I made that sacrifice. I grew up 100 percent public my whole life ... So I get it alright. No one from Brentwood academy, Ensworth or MBA never knocked on my door and asked me to consider their schools. Not once have I ever been approached by anyone. People move to Williamson county for the schools too ... I don't get your point. This post was started GQ or Ricky bowers and 99 percent of the responders are maryville biased. So I thought I would stick up for Ricky and throw down some facts that people forget. Maryville and Alcoa are good teams but don't tell me GQ or Rankin would have won 8 or 9 state championships if the privates were in 6a or 5a or 4 a or wherever you play.

Oh one more fact. From 1976 until the privates split off in 1997 a team in the current D2 lineup played in 17 of the 21 state championships. Maryville played in 4. Alcoa played in 5 mostly in 1A.

Here are a few more facts since I have my pocket knife out...more FACTS to chew on. From 1969 until 1974 Brentwood Academy was 1A. In 1975 BA moved up and had an enrollment of 102 students in the entire school. They won the 1A state championship in 1974, five short years after the school was founded. In 1976 with less than 200 students they were thumped by Maryville in the 2A state championship. 27-0. Maryville played in 4 straight state championships from 1976-1979. Winning 2 losing 2. Both Brentwood Academy and Maryville played in the same 2A state division up until 1992. From 1976 until 1992 Brentwood Academy played in 11 State Championships, winning 6 losing 5. In 1993 Brentwood Academy was moved up to 4A. They played in the 4A State Championship game in 93. In 1995 they moved up to 5A the top division in the state and won the State Championship in 1995, and 1996. Maryville stayed in 4A. The private schools split in 1997 and what a shocker, Maryville played in the state championship game that year 1997 for the first time in almost 20 years. For the record Alcoa beat BA for the state championship once in 1989 when BA was a legitimate established school. I am not knocking Maryville. Good team but when you guys start to throw out your most state championships ....perfect records...I just say ******* asterick