RedRobin1

Why?

Don't get too excited there, Starz - Endswerth only haz about 200 boyz in the hole durn skool, so lotz of ther yungunz wuz achulie on tha feeld wit de older kids.

You are likely correct if this year is a miror image of last year for Blackman. Sorry - did not check that before I posted.

Murfreesboro kids are already well aware of Ensworth - success (and I am not talking about athletics here) breeds success. In fact, several Murfreesboro kids are willing to sacrifice (including substantial academic work and travel) every day and are fortunate enough to have families willing to pay tuition (whine all you want, but no one attends Ensworth totally for free) so that they can benefit from an Ensworth education. Surely you don't have a problem with families trying to provide the best opportunity for their kids to succed in all aspects of life. You can go back to whining about Bowling Green now and ignore my suggestion offering a feasible alternative to a 9-game season. Clearly some would rather spend their energy complaining about their lot in life than trying to improve it. Sorry for butting in.

Why don't you try to make lemonade out of lemons and have your AD call Ricky Bowers at Ensworth to see if you can substitute the Tigers for this Bowling Green team if you need another game this season. As far as I know, Ensworth has only nine games at this point and has September 5 and October 17 open. They have had some great games against the Rutherford County teams in the recent past and I am sure they would welcome the competition if it can be worked out. The players are the ones that wear the team colors, not the administration - I doubt that the Bowling Green kids had anything to do with this decision, so they are still the "Purples" as far as I am concerned. Good luck this season - hope you can work something out with Ensworth!

You are absolutely correct - it does go both ways, but the D2 school that I support does not claim a Christian mission and I sincerely hope that I have never launched personal attacks against anyone on a high school sports message board. If I have, I was wrong to do so and I apologize. Seems to me that Coach Brooks gave quite a few years of his life to CPA and I believe that he has earned his right to state his opinion, whether any of us agree with it or not. CPA has an awesome team and I have enjoyed watching them a couple of times this year. I would be shocked if they have any problems whatsoever bringing home another gold ball. Good luck to them!!

I think the "eye for an eye" method of dispute resolution was in the Old Testament. Seems to me that the Gospel says something about turning the other cheek.

Give Ricky Bowers a call. I guarantee that Ensworth would love it if some of y'all would play them again. BA would probably love to make room on their schedule as well.

Both McCallie and Baylor are disqualified from the state duals as well as from the state individual tournament.

Hope you have a great day as well. Ensworth's pace heretofore has been much different than it was last year - takes a talented, experienced triggerman to run like they did last year (lost to CPA by, I think, 5 at CPA). The young point guards are getting there, but not yet ready to be let loose like Corn was.

Kinda like Bear Bryant and Alabama getting crushed by Nebraska 38-6 in the Orange Bowl on January 1, 1972, huh? Guess the Bear wasn't much of a coach either.

Y'all seem to delight in giving kbrks a hard way to go, but he knows the game better than most of the yahoos on these boards. Bowers knows better than to try to reconfigure his entire team overnight - the win against JP2 the night before meant much more to Ensworth than the CPA game. Bowers has configured what he has to work with in the manner that he believes gives his team the best shot against their D2 competition - don't see why he would try to change that to play a meaningless game against a very very good CPA team. With 3 State Championships in a row, it has worked well for him. I love how some come out of the woodwork every time a Bowers-coached team loses - it looked to me that CPA's girls lost by more than Ensworth's boys did - yet the CPA supporters seem to want to debate Bower's strategy rather than that of the CPA girl's coach. Interesting, to say the least.

At 6'4", Fleming is by far Bower's tallest player. Ferby is listed at 6'2", but that is a bit of a stretch. Lack of height forces Bowers to play many of his kids out of their natural position. Will be good for the kids in the long run, but sometimes makes for some ugly basketball when they have to play a half-court game against more traditionally-sized opponents. Last year, they were small as well, but Corn was very very good at organizing the full-court offense. Point guards this year have skills, but they are a freshman and a sophomore, so it will take a while to develop into the playmaker that Corn was.

You are of course entitled to your opinion. I was referring to the supposedly objective national rankings (US News, Money, Princeton Review, etc.). Under their criteria, D2 and NAIA are basically unrepresented as "good schools" in an academic sense, though I do agree that given the right fit, virtually any school can be "the best" for any particular student.

D2 and NAIA schools are not comparable academically to most D1 schools - they aren't even close. If a kid wants to play sports and get a great education, they play D3 - no athletic scholarships, but plenty of merit money for kids that excel in the classroom and on the field/court. In many sports and in most cases, the quality of play at D3 is comparable or better than D2 and far better than NAIA.

What is the point of all of this? In my opinion, both players had stellar high school careers and both have received accolades. I doubt either of them are worried about any of this, so I wonder why this thread continues. Any type of all-star recognition in football necessarily involves opinion and everyone is entitled to their own without brickbats being thrown. As I watch this thread dissolve, I am more convinced than ever that Ensworth does it right by not awarding any individual athletic awards (i.e. no MVP, most improved, etc.). Football is the quintessential team game and both MBA and Ensworth had noteworthy seasons. Best wishes to both of these guys as they continue their academic and athletic careers and as they grow into their roles as men and productive members of society.

Nothing wrong. Tough schedule since they got their football boys back (3 of the 5 starters and Ricky uses everyone on the bench): losses against St. Charles from Missouri (currently 7-1), an incredibly good and tall Hamilton Heights team (13-1) and BGA (11-1). They will get it together and be ready once they start their D2-AA schedule as they try for four-in-a-row. They still lack height (Fleming, a natural point guard, is their tallest player at 6'4"; other than that, their rebounders are Bryson Hopkins at about 6'2" and Ferby at about 6'), but it looks like Ricky will be back to using the hockey-like mass substitutions of a couple years ago and they should be competitive once they start flowing. I think as always they will be a fun team to watch as the season ripens. btw; Jordan's last name is Bone, not Boone.

I understand that they are not a TSSAA school, but the current lineup at Hamilton Heights could pretty much name their score not only against any team in Chattanooga, but against any high school team in the State (and that includes CPA).

This has nothing to do with public or private. The Science Hill basketball programs (both men's and women's teams) are notorious for running up the score against hapless opponents, with stirring victories last year and this which included nail-biters such as 104-10, 105-30, 103-32, 101-48, etc. etc. etc. Science Hill is a public school. Don't matter whether public or private - lack of class is lack of class.

Actually, both BA and MBA are close - very close - too close for my taste!

Apologies to you Thunderbolts - you appear to have been misdirected to the wrong forum on CoachT. This is the tackle football forum - stuff happens in football that you probably would not want to see. I am sure if you keep searching, you will find the bowling forum and you can post there to your heart's content. Please make sure that everyone who participates receives their trophy during the snack period after the match.

Since you seem such an expert on D2 football, I guess you understand that the Ensworth qb was a 15-year old sophomore starting his 3rd game ever due to injury? And that he was injured all last year so that this was effectively his first full year of hs football? What I saw was Ensworth managing the game to give itself the best chance to win against an excellent defense - it appears to have worked. You may be more interested in style points, but Ensworth is more interested in playing the best it can regardless of the circumstances. That it did and I could not be more proud of them. btw, imo, that sophomore qb is Ensworth's qb of the future - great kid and a great athlete.

The top teams in D2 actually need to win 3 playoff games to be State Champ. Funny - that is exactly the same number of playoff games that the top seeded NFL teams need to win the Super Bowl. The lower seeded D2 teams need to win 4 - just like the wildcard teams in the NFL. Sooooo.... the way we see it is that while all of your D1 teams are playing for a State Championship, we are playing for the Tennessee Super Bowl.

At least we are all playing by the same rules, unlike D1 which is dominated by the "open-zoned" schools (Maryville, Alcoa, Greeneville, Beech, etc., etc., etc.) If you want to whine about a 40-mile radius, why don't you go whine at them?

Well said, Owl. Here's hoping for a close and injury-free championship game next Thursday in Cookeville. Happy Thanksgiving to all.