LoveForTheGame

I think the Z Plan was great because in addition to that, overall record mattered. Nobody wants to say this but non-region games are as meaningful as scrimmages when it comes to playoff seeding. Yes, the Z Plan published teams with tougher schedules, but that's life. All games should matter. Brentwood was left with a nasty taste in their mouth by that format when they were drawn against that really good Smyrna team in the first round 2010 even after winning the Wilco region, but that's football.

They'll need every win they can get. That team is likely to resemble those LaVergne teams early last decade that had to play those 7-AAA teams every year when RuCo was so dominant.

Shuman last I heard a few years ago went back to West Virginia to retire. Rietveld isn’t in coaching anymore either I don’t think. What Rector did at Centennial regardless of talent before/during/after his tenure was incredible. It’s amazing how we all forgot about Centennial pre-2011 during the Rector years there. He seems to be doing a decent job at Father Ryan now.

After Rector, Ravenwood fell off the map for four years under Tom Shuman and Joe Rietveld. Both were very nice individuals but couldn’t get it done on the field, going a combined 13-27 between 09-12. No playoffs during those four seasons. 0-4 against Brentwood including a game without a completed pass and two consecutive seasons with a combined score of 78-0. Rietveld also started his sophomore son at QB when he was likely the third best guy at best for the position. That is what Hester inherited. Anything established by Rector was gone by then. However, I will say that Daniels did an incredible job too and will not be overlooked.

You’re going to have to elaborate unless you were talking about his physical transformation, which was remarkable.

Couldn’t be better said. Hopefully Daniels gets the credit he deserves. He certainly exceeded a lot of people’s expectations from when he took over.

Lost in the noise as well is the Daniels did a great job in the four years at the helm. Took over a program people thought was past its best days after Hester went to Nolensville. He guided Ravenwood to a district title and a number of deep playoff runs. He’ll be missed and his time with the Raptors won’t be forgotten.

The year after Hester left (2016), the energy was just completely sapped from the program. You could tell they missed him. Daniels in ‘17 brought the juice back when he took over after Wessman. But having Hester back in huge in too many ways to explain.

This is gigantic and amazing news for the Ravenwood program. However, this is a much different scenario than when Hester took over in 2013 for the first time. Here’s why. 1. He’s now in charge of keeping the program at the elite level it’s been on since he was at the helm the first time. During his first Ravenwood tenure, the initial goal was just putting the program back on the map after the 8-22 previous several years. Beating Brentwood and winning a single district title seemed like monumental tasks, but Hester did both in year one. That defied anyone’s expectations outside the zip code RHS is in. He had his team in the state title game the next year and won the 6A championship the year after that. 2. Williamson County is no longer the red headed stepchild of Rutherford County. Back in 2013-15, Brentwood was down, Summit was still brand new, and Indy/Franklin/Centennial were decent. Now, Brentwood is rolling again, Summit just won state in 5A, Franklin and Indy will always be a threat, and Page and Nolensville are playing at high levels (albeit outside 6A). This will be the strongest county/region in the state in 2021. That being said, Hester will have all the support of us here in Raptor nation. He’ll have the resources he needs to make trips to Cookeville. Expectations will be high, but there is no doubt he can have this program back to what it was in 14-15.

Half RHS leads 21-7

Raptors lead 14-7 9:37 2Q Ravenwood drives stalled by horrible call on a clean block.

The TSSAA announced today that no rule violations occurred. Hopefully this paved the way for this fake controversy to end and the coaches to resume their activities as soon as possible.

Maybe the TSSAA has allowed Wilco transfers to play immediately more often than not, but the county’s zoning own policies have largely prevented anarchic free agentcy. There are a few major exceptions, such as “open zone” schools to alleviate certain situations of overcrowding. Years ago (long before Nolensville opened), Ravenwood was hit HARD by this rule as it allowed RHS-zoned kids to openly transfer for any reason including athletics. Brentwood and Centennial feasted off Ravenwood’s zone in the pre-Hester years. Of course, when the Raptors on-field performance drastically improved and Ravenwood became a place kids wanted to transfer into and play, only then conveniently the county had a zoning policy and that “rules are rules.” Heck, when a Ravenwood-zoned Centennial player transfered back to Ravenwood a handful of years ago, he had to sit out a year for transferring despite being at his ZONED school.

When Hester was getting kids from Metro Nashville and Rutherford County to enroll at Nolensville while pretending they were legitimate WilCo students, everyone ignored it. Now a few players openly and transparently decide to go to Ravenwood and everyone has a problem. It wasn't even that long ago (2011-12) when Ravenwood-zoned athletes were abusing Williamson County "open zone" rules to transfer to rival schools only to have success AGAINST the motherland. Even today, Ravenwood doesn't have the advantage of being in a county (South of Knoxville, *cough cough*) where anyone can attend schools out of zone, albeit for a fee. And unlike a certain school in Murfreesboro, Ravenwood doesn't have a former principal hand-drawing the county's school zone boundaries in a gerrymandering-like scheme to ensure the neighborhoods with the best athletes end up at the right school. But at the end of the day, it won't matter, because the Raptors will be getting better each day, and taking care of business when the lights go on each Friday night. Ravenwood still ought to be getting to work, because I heard the trophy case needs a little more room for another Gold Ball.

Matt Daniels is not messing around. All the people who throught the Raptors would cease to exist as a powerhouse when Hester left have some explaining to do. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjjyKii0b_iAhXjnuAKHWMmAD0QzPwBegQIARAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tennessean.com%2Fstory%2Fsports%2Fhigh-school%2F2019%2F05%2F28%2Fcollege-football-recruiting-reggie-grimes-transfers-ravenwood-tennessee-vols-alabama-crimson-tide%2F1258117001%2F&psig=AOvVaw12R04blsLmFN-C7qe3-_Ub&ust=1559181343698051

Franklin doesn’t have a title.

If history serves me right last time Oakland played Whitehaven the Patriots went full wing-t until late in the game when they fell behind and panicked. Did not look anywhere close to the same team execution-wise while running their famous “other stuff besides the wing-t.”

While I believe the hit indeed was helmet to helmet, the rule that an ejection also translates into an automatic one game suspension is archaic. Even if you do something that warrants an ejection, I don’t understand why sitting out the rest of said game (the definition of an ejection) isn’t enough in the eyes of the rules.

What he meant is that what WH is doing this half is unstoppable schematically. Saulsberry can coach, but even if Ravenwood’s coach was Nick Saban, there’s nothing he could be doing do shut down WH at the line of scrimmage.

Unfortunately for Ravenwood, this is true tonight.

30-24 WH. Tigers just out-athleting Ravenwood. Raptors have good coaches but no adjustment can change what’s going on. Hope some sort of spark changes this game.

Haven now within two. Gotta be honest even when Ravenwood was scoring and taking a big lead I felt it was more to do with good situational football (big plays, turnovers, field position) than anything else. WH has really controled line of scrimmage the whole time, especially when they are on offense. Hope to hold on here.

I think the penalty yards were given from the previous spot, making 2&25ish to 2&15.

It looked like helmet to helmet from my angle. Whitehaven fans not happy, neither would I be if that would be called against my team. Oh well. We took the yards and scored the next play. Haven is good at the line of scrimmage so I’ll take any points. Game far from over.

Little rain today, but a little rain never killed nobody. Ravenwood fans were everywhere in the Wolfchase Mall. On our way to the Haven now, looking forward to a good game. I’ll take the Raptors by a score but whatever happens, we thank Whitehaven for having us at the annual-ish Black Friday showdown.