RedRobin1

Melrose is about to be back on Hard

You got that right!!!  Wow - this was a real surprise to me and should be fun to watch.  Good luck to Coach White and the Golden Wildcats!

Playing White Station, in theory, is an EASIER GAME and you don't have to deal with the Demographic that you're afraid of... In theory, the game could be played at MUS. It will likely be at the Fairgrounds which is in Orange Mound, imho, but the powers that be call it Midtown...

I am looking forward to the trip to Memphis regardless of where the game is.  I don't think you know me, or anything about me, so please tell me how you pretend to know what "Demographic" I am afraid of. 

Tell you what - I won't make assumptions about you and you don't make assumptions about me.  That sound fair?

As for football, you are entitled to your opinion, but I don't see that you have set forth any objective criteria to support your proposition that MBA, BA or Ensworth is "afraid" of playing anybody.  Ensworth used to regularly play Oakland and Smyrna (when they were really really good) in home and home and has no shame in their record against those teams.  Those series fell apart when the AAA schools decided that they had enough on their plates and chose not to renew.  Actually left Ensworth with a 9-game schedule for a year or two there.  Was very happy to see Whitehaven win it all last year - awesome team; sorry that some of their fans can't display the same class as the players and coaching staff.   

White Station DOESN'T have a home stadium and the neighborhood that the school is located IS NOT the Same as Whitehaven... But the MAIN thing is they don't have an On-campus stadium so please share where will your game be?

Well since White Station is the home team, I guess it will be wherever they put it - likely the same venue that they play their other home games.  Probably the same place you play them when it is their home game. 

BA would come but MBA WILL NOT lol. They don't want to come to us and we are 8-10 mins down the street. Makes you look at life different lol

Well.......since you are looking at life differently based upon incomplete information (perhaps hand-picked to advance a particular agenda?), I feel compelled to add that MBA played at PC in 2013.  I don't know why you are spreading an unfounded rumor that MBA won't play at PC - maybe you should ask Coach Brunetti about their arrangement with MBA before you start spewing the hate speech. 

By the way, I know this doesn't fit your narrative, so feel free to ignore it, but MBA is playing at White Station on September 28 this year. 

"Top shooter" can mean different things in different contexts, but if my team needed someone to hit a shot, from anywhere on the court, to make or break our season, I would want Oatsvall from BA to take it.

Trinity 11, I have an old friend at Trinity that indicated that you guys may be looking to go to OhIo or Alabama to replace the series. He said that other than one hiccup against Ensworth, it has been business as usual against Tennessee teams. You know any thing on this ? 

I don't know how you define "hiccup",  or "business as usual", but Ensworth is 2-2 against Trinity in their home-and-home series, which has been played the last 4 seasons.  Ensworth looks to have a better, more experienced team next season than the one which lost to the Shamrocks 14-7 this year. Hope they continue this budding rivalry.  

Sorry if I was unclear. I didn't say "easy". I wasn't saying it will be an easy game.

I said easier, as in playing the #6 ranked team is theoretically 'easier' than playing the #2 ranked team.

 

On paper, Baylor has an easier route to the next round than McCallie, but the great news is that they don't play it on paper.

Good luck to all.

Understood, and no offense meant.  I wasn't trying to pick on you, was just expressing my thought that D2-AA has a lot of very good teams.  I appreciate those who do these polls, but they really don't mean much when you are talking about putting a bunch of 15-18 year-olds on a bus and having to drive 300 miles to play a very good team at their house.  Moreover, with very little cross-play, we in the middle of the state never really know what to expect from the west until we see them in the playoffs.  

There really is no "easier" - imo, you either win the game and move on or you don't.  Sooner or later, you will have to play the other teams that keep winning; getting to the next round doesn't really mean much unless the next round is the final. Since McCallie and Baylor are on the same side of the bracket, they will get a chance at a rematch if they both win tonight.

Hope for no injuries and close games!

Odd bracket pairing that McCallie has to play highflying ranked BA, but Baylor plays MUS.

 

You would think McCallie should have an easier game than Baylor does, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

There are no easy games in D2-AA at this point in the season.  MUS, especially at home, is no joke and would not be an "easy" game for any team in the state.  That's also a long. long commute for Baylor.  Hope it's a good game! 

I dont think that will happen this year, last year was all Bone with a steady dose of cambridge. None of the CBHS kids played well besides Douglas and i think that was the game that he grew up and realized that he has to score for this team to win the big games. The seniors have basically lost the state games for him the past two years so maybe the tables will turn since he is the senior now. Wiseman will be good but he isnt good enough to beat CBHS by himself right now. Garland may be the best prospect overall but Douglas is the more electric player in D2-AA now that bone is gone. Itll come down to BA CBHS imo. Bone was a SEC guard its hard to replace that with backups. If you haven't seen much of Douglas itll be scary this year. He's put on around 10 lbs, looks stronger more explosive and the shots are falling alot more than they arent. He had a long summer against much stiffer competition so the DII guards without a high major future will be easy money. Expect their big Lyons to have a great year too. 

You may be right, but I wouldn't count my chickens before they are hatched.  Ricky always seems to come up with something.  Ensworth has won 5 gold balls and 1 silver ball in basketball in 10 years of varsity competition, so you write Ensworth off preseason at your own peril. 

What's all the hype about Brentwood Academy???? Saw them yesterday 3 times. Sure Garland and #5 can play with anybody but they looked just ok. Nothing special there.

You need to wait until BA gets it's football players on the court before you judge how good they will be this year.  This statement holds true for many of the D2 schools.

CBHS imo is an extremely close 3. They just cant figure out how to beat BA except for the holiday tournament last year in fort walton. 

CBHS also needs to figure out a way to beat Ensworth, who has beaten them in 2 out of the last 3 state semi-final games.

Hey. Since you've now used comparative games if you feel inclined you can see how those up for the award did? Right?

 

Walker had 394 agaist FRA plus 175 Rec/return yards. Thats a good reference point for ya using your criteria.

 

Not sure I understand this point.  FRA finished their year 1-10.  Harding Academy beat them 48-16  on Friday, so I imagine that Harding's nominee for Mr. Football watched much of the game from the bench after having helped his team to an insurmountable lead.  DCA, on the other hand, beat FRA 48-34, so it stands to reason that Walker was involved from the first to the final whistle.  He apparently had quite an impressive night and that was no doubt a good win for DCA.  However, simply comparing yards under these circumstances is not really indicative of much of anything.  No other nominee's team got to run up their stats against FRA this year, so I am not really sure what you are trying to say.

I comprehend the concept of "mutual exclusivity" just fine - that concept does not come into play when you say Player A should have been nominated in lieu of Player B,C,D or E.  There are a lot of excellent players out there - some get nominated for awards while some do not.

Good luck to DCA this week - hope it's a good game with no injuries on either side. 

What is the criteria you are referring to? Less than 2000 rushing yards? Less than approximately 3000 all purpose yards? You do realize there is NO SET criteria don't you? Its purely subjective.

 

Multiple times I congratulated the nominees. My criticism of Walker not being nominated is mutually exclusive with the kids that were nominated. They are selected not part of the process so you are mistaken to believe I was being critical of them.

 

Post the criteria when you have a moment. Thank you for the help.

No doubt there is some subjectivity involved; would you have them just award it to the back with the most yards?  If so, how should we distinguish between passing yards and rushing yards?  Should we include return yards?  Since I am not on the panel that picks the finalists, I cannot tell you what criteria they used.  I can tell you that perhaps one such criteria may have been the level of competition.  It looks like 3 of the 4 nominees for Mr. Football in the D1-A back category come from the west.  Based upon the first round of the playoffs, the west seems to be the far superior to the division in which DCA plays. In fact, it appears that the only team that DCA played that is still alive in the D2-A playoffs was Webb, which administered a 41-17 beatdown in that game.  The other nominee is from Webb, which also played first round winner BGA, Alcoa and Oak Ridge.  No offense meant to DCA, 'cause they played the teams in front of them and have had a great year (and again, Walker is an excellent back), but it just might be a wee bit tougher to put up those kind of stats against some legitimate competition.  You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but I will accept the opinion of those handing out the trophies over that of some anonymous homer on a message board.

And yeah, despite your protestations to the contrary, you are clearly implying that your candidate is more deserving than at least one of the semi-finalists, so you are showing disrespect to those nominated.  

Congrats to all of the nominees.

Remember Ensworth before Bowers came in?, 

Well, no, not really, unless you are referring to the middle school.  Bowers has been at Ensworth since they opened the high school.  2007 was the first year that they had freshmen through seniors at the school and was their first full year of varsity football.  4 gold balls and 1 silver ball in 9 years, playing in the large school D2 division.  Not too shabby, imho.  

You mistake my statement as being an invitation to debate, which I am not interested in. It makes no difference to me if someone else has or hasn't been nominated nor have I said it's never happened. Using Walker was all I used because those I actually gave a rip about knew who I was talking about. If I said the "mountains are pretty" would you have to know which ones and the state?

 

This board is full of sensitive little fellas who have a very real difficulty understanding exactly how this works? Getting critiqued over not using a first name and school is just odd to me? BTW I've never heard of Scotts Hill and don't care to even look it up. I sure as heck won't request you to tell me what division they are in or where it's located. See how that works?

For someone who is "not interested" in debating, you sure have posted much attempted debate with owlbooster, who was simply trying to decipher your initial post.  I agree that Walker of DCA is an excellent back, but I cannot say that he was "jobbed",since I have not seen all of the backs who were nominated.  It seems to me that you show a tad of disrespect to the actual nominees by implying that they are somehow the beneficiaries of some nebulous unfair system.  I guess you can feel free to give out your own awards if you don't like the criteria utilized by the existing award structure.     

Congrats to all of the nominees! 

I doubt ensworth it BA would stop playing MBA in all sports if they decide to stay where they are classified:

 

It would not carry the weight it does now - -and btw I think ensworth has the best shot at beating MBA this year -

Wouldn't be the same though if it didn't count.  I am not a student (unfortunately), so I don't know how the vote will turn out, but as I said before, I will be absolutely shocked if the Tigers don't play up next year.  As for this year, I am hoping for a good game.  It should be, as always, an awesome atmosphere and a lot of fun, regardless of the outcome.

What's most likely to y'all?

 

1. BA and Ensworth Stay DII-AA

2. 1 Goes and 1 Stays

3. Both Go DII-AAA

Don't know who makes the ultimate decision at BA, but at Ensworth, the decision is wholly dependent on a vote by the students.  Since they consider MBA to be their main rival (and, to a lesser extent, BA, Baylor and McCallie) in all sports, I can't see the students voting any way other than to move up.  Ensworth has played against the large D2 schools since its inception (as the result of a prior student vote when the high school was brand new) , so they really have not had the opportunity to build up any other meaningful multi-sport rivalries. 

Webb was allowed to move down?.......u mean that was was against the rules for Webb to b playin in the present D2-A 

 

thats just aweful and very unfair

 

Booger just sayin 

Didn't say it was against the rules, Booger - that's why I used quotation marks when I said they "moved down".  They were certainly within their rights to do so, but any objective observer would agree that it created a very unbalanced situation in D2-A football.  

I just don't see anyway this doesn't suck... BA and Ensworth are excellent programs, always in the national eye and exciting to watch every year. I like that they are good, but I don't think CPA's football coaching staff has any interest in recruiting. Given that, it'll be the rare year, like last that we'll be competitive...

Soooooo........a CPA fan is outright accusing Ensworth and BA of recruiting?????      You do know that the TSSAA rules prohibit recruiting, even in the wild world of D2???  My guess is that certainly Ensworth and most likely BA will move up, so you will likely need to turn your evil eye towards Webb in Knoxville.

I'm a delicate soul. Please handle with care. Your Top 10 for DII A next year? I content this division will be horrible once you get past 1-3.

Absent NCS, my top four are DCA, Friendship, Davidson and Middle Tennessee Christian.  The drop off after that appears to be pretty steep, but at least those four should all have a fair shot at bringing home a trophy in any particular year.  As I said previously, that's a whole lot more interesting, in my opinion, than betting on whether Webb will win the championship game by more or less than 3 touchdowns.  Hopefully, without a bully like Webb in the division, some of the other small schools will be able to get their programs moving forward and become competitive as well.  Part of my point is that the schools which will be left in D2-A are all much more similar to each other than any of them is to Webb, especially if NCS moves up.  Much better situation for all involved at that level.  I don't see that as a bad thing, regardless of whether you want to call it a "rec league".

NCS is supposedly playing up in AA. Funds is not the issue for BA or Ensworth. What I hear is all about scheduling. We shall see. Easy with the tone there RedRobin1. These are merely opinions for most of us based on what we hear. Not many of us are sitting in meeting rooms with AD's and coaches. Please give me your top 10 pre-season poll for DII A next year. DII A will be the equivalent of a glorified rec league moving forward.

D2-A as comprised in the past several years not been very interesting, with Webb (a school which has much more in common with the larger schools than with the smaller schools) totally dominating football since they were allowed to "move down"..  If, as you seem to think will happen, NCS moves up, at least there will be several teams left in the small school division that will be capable of winning the championship every year. To me, that is much more interesting than seeing the same school dominate, even in "down" years.

NCS is supposedly playing up in AA. Funds is not the issue for BA or Ensworth. What I hear is all about scheduling. We shall see. Easy with the tone there RedRobin1. These are merely opinions for most of us based on what we hear. Not many of us are sitting in meeting rooms with AD's and coaches. Please give me your top 10 pre-season poll for DII A next year. DII A will be the equivalent of a glorified rec league moving forward.

Had not heard that NCS is thinking about playing in D2-AA next year, but would be surprised if they do. Sorry if you don't like my tone - didn't realize that this was a safe space where posters expect to be coddled.  just type what I think - no offense intended.

The current proposal is really bad. 9 teams in AAA will provide for a brutal scheduling and travel situation. BA & Ensworth in AA means everyone is playing for 3rd place. I dont blame BA or Ensworth for playing AA one bit though due to said scheduling and travel issues. That A division is brutally bad and will be very non-competitive IMO. Davidson, Friendship, MTCS and possibly DCA (hearing they will be way down starting next year) will dominate that group. Scheduling could be a potential issue for those in A as well as teams will have nothing to gain/everything to lose mentality by playing those small teams. TSSAA has really screwed TN high school football.

First, neither Ensworth nor BA has yet announced what it is doing.  I would be surprised if BA "plays down", shocked if Ensworth does.  Travel funds aren't much of a factor to those two - having been around both programs, I can assure you that competition is much more important to them than are travel considerations.  More importantly, you have not been paying much attention to small private schools if you don't think that Nashville Christian should dominate D2-A next year, and possibly for the near future.  I personally think that next year's D2-A division will be much more entertaining that this years D2-A. Next years D2-AA and D2-AAA also stack up nicely, imo, if Ensworth and BA move up.

That's not my logic at all...was only talking about the privates...publics are totally different and obviously classifications have to be based on enrollment...for the privates, my opinion is that amount of aid is the best way to classify. You can disagree obviously....but at least keep the conversation civil. No one is attacking you....just trying to understand why you think Lipscomb should play in the highest level of competition for football when in your words they will have their lunch handed to them....doesn't seem like much fun for the athletes.

Was not my intention to be anything other than civil - sorry if I wasn't.  The thing about competition is that most programs seem to live up or down to their competition.  In my opinion, D2 was kind of stuck in a rut until Ensworth came along and won several championships (I think 4) in a row.  Most of the other programs stepped up their game - new coaches, new facilities, new attitude.  No reason that can't or won't happen at Lipscomb; based on their history and what they bring to the table, I think they will become competitive in their division no matter who is in it.  Trying to stack the deck so that they avoid someone. anyone, is not, IMHO, the best way to go about anything in life.  I understand what you are saying, but your solution requires subjective placement of schools in the "right" class - no one (other than perhaps the school which goes home with the trophy) is ever satisfied when subjectivity is incorporated into a competitive situation.  I respect your opinion in this regard and wish it could be so, but, like communism and socialism, though it sounds good in theory, I just believe that it would not work in the real world. We  thus disagree - no offense meant.

Still don't understand why open-zone publics (which can accept students, who pay minimal tuition, from out-of-county) are totally different and why for them you believe that classifications must be based on enrollment.  Seems to me that they operate by the same rules as privates, except (1) the "out-of-zoners" are subsidized by the state and county and (2) the tuition is a lot less.