xBraves10x

I understand what you are saying about them not taking responsibility for their actions. It was hard to watch some of the interviews and hear the explanations of why things happened, when I think all that we and other people wanted to hear was; yea we did it, sorry, it won't happen again. I'm not getting my degree in public relations but I'm pretty sure that would be a better move. As for the kid that came from FL, he didn't live with a coach. He lived with a family that was led to believe that they were just housing him until his parents could move to TN. I'm not sure who all knew about this, but people did lose jobs over it. Regarding the "transfers" you mentioned, Adrian didn't play sports at AE and was adopted by the pastor's brother. (They had known him his entire life and helped him when he needed it. They didn't just adopt him to come play sports as I'm sure some wise guy would have said.) Of course when he began to live with them, they wanted him at Grace and he wanted to be there. It wasn't until then that he decided to play sports. David Amos went to KCS, a school that averages graduating under 10 students a year if I'm not mistaken. Grace and KCS had a co-op program when they were both small schools allowing the KCS students that wanted to play sports to come and play at Graces. There would usually be 2 or 3 students that would play and TSSAA had approved this. The co-op ended his senior year so him and another kid transferred to Grace bc they had both played for Grace since they were in 8th grade. They wanted to graduate from KCS, where Amos' grandfather was the headmaster and they had been their whole lives. This was all fine, according to TSSAA. Pridemore's dad accepted a coaching job at Grace from FLORIDA. If you count him as a transfer bc he moved hundreds of miles with his family, that's pretty dumb. The QB now came in as a Freshman. That is not a transfer. If that's at transfer, then 75% of the students at Grace, athletes or not, are transfers. It's not a zoned school so technically everyone at Grace is a transfer I guess...

AS an ex-GCA player, it really upsets me to see people try to discredit all the hard work my friends and I put in to bulding up the sports at Grace. You say we were horrible before people started transferring and we have only gotten better because of them, however, you forget to mention the fact that GCA Baseball, Football and Basketball didn't even exist 10 years ago. I can remember being in middle school going to Grace football games when they had 4 people on the bench and a few 8th graders starting varsity. As the school grows, more people are going to come and obviously play sports. All of those sports got better bc people started working and the team and school started growing. In fact, all of the people that have gone on to play in college have been there since middle school or their freshman year. I can only think of one transfer in my 4 years there from any sport that went on to play in college. We went to state last year and only one of our players (Until Helton became eligible for 3 games) was a transfer. The rest had come into Grace just like myself. I understand that people do just come for sports, but they sit out their time as they are supposed too just like if they had transferred to any other school. If you really think that 1 transfer on a baseball team or 2 on a football team could win you a ring, youre kidding yourself. Also, everyone that is talking about the score being run up by them is completely ridiculous. I can promise that Coach Hoch is the last guy that would want to run it up on anyone. I wasnt there, but I guarantee he did not leave the starters in long and played station to station baseball, bc we did that every time we got a big lead when I was there. Tellico is in a stuation that Grace was in not to long ago where they are trying to build their program and Hoch (and the players for that matter) know that. As for football, Grace sometimes runs it up on those schools due to past experiences. I can remember my freshman year in football, getting absolutely hammered by certain schools who would leave their starters in the entire time and be laughing at us and taking cheap shots. I also remember after the game when the coaches would shake hands and coach Mckamey saying, "dont worry, we'll see you again". Getting a little taste of their own medicine is what makes sports fun and Im sure everyone would agree.