TryNotToSuck

Peabody appears to be as good as advertised. McKenzie is a sleeper team, which is an odd thing to say.

Not as many players, not as many fans, and there are baseball/softball games every night. Your SGC Hornets are good at baseball

To me, it's more of a "Haywood" issue than it is a "Smith" issue.

Agreed, thank you @sportsfan53rayfor doing this!

You clearly don't watch film on teams and it's showing. If you want TCA to run the veer option, then do it! It doesn't guarantee then wins. And if they don't have any success running it, then they're wasting a talent out at wide receiver.

You just pulled this out of your hat (or something else that's below your waist) hoping I will agree with you? Do you think we're just as stupid as you are on a daily basis?

I can see a lot similarity with the Gibson County comparison, especially in football. The problem with Gibson County is Peabody. There's not really another private school close to Somerville that will take kids away from FA. I don't know what to expect from GC on the field, but their weight room numbers have been impressive from last offseason (again, their coach was hired late in the offseason, too). I don't know if TCA can catch up to JCS because of style of play, coaching staff, and relatability. I do believe JCS has the most underrated coaching staff in West Tennessee. I do believe their style of play on offense is fun for the players, and can get everybody involved. It really should be similar to the 2018/19 Memphis Tigers if JCS can utilized that effectively. Defenses can't sell out to one player, because another player on JCS can burn you. That's going to be the question for TCA. If they run that veer option/heavy run, then teams will sell out to that. One problem I noticed watching TCA on film (thanks to Reitz) was that they struggled running the ball downhill. They had to run on the outside to get some yards. I don't know if they have the line to run the ball effectively. I like the hiring of Bowling, but it's more of a "wait and see" because I don't know if Bowling's offense matches what TCA has from a player standpoint. Thompkins is great, but TCA doesn't really have the supporting cast like JCS. That's going to be the main difference between the two.

Hodum left a little late in the offseason. He didn't leave in late December/early January when Fayette Academy could've looked at whose available and receive a good number/quality of applicants. I'm not surprised by Hodum leaving FA. I'm really disappointed in Fayette Academy and their facilities. It's very "minimumish" for a private school. I don't know how much is their enrollment, and I don't know how much FA has in the piggy bank (none of my business anyway). However, if they want to "reap some of the rewards" then they need to do something big in Somerville whether if it's to build a new school closer to I-40, or go through a huge renovation for all their sports, especially football. If they don't, then they won't "reap some of the rewards." Personally, I do believe Fayette Academy could be the school that receives the biggest benefit from the Ford plant, and I think Somerville could receive some big benefit as well. But they won't if they stand pat. If they stand pat, then JCS will continue to roll in this region. They have to do something, because they have absolutely no visitor bleachers, and they're going to play Adamsville in the first game, and there's not enough space for Adamsville fans to sit, and there's not enough space if Adamsville wants to bring their band (those band students won't have any area to sit down). How great does Fayette Academy want to be? Because in my opinion, it's more of a "country/public school" than it is as a true "private" school.

I absolutely agree to this. JMCSS showed (and will continue to do so) a lot of favoritism towards JCM during that stretch. However, I was disappointed in JCM's development in football for the 2022 season, and I think JMCSS has backed off on it. They will show favoritism towards South Side on social media because their girls basketball program. McNeal has earned every right to win a state title for his program, but (in my opinion) JMCSS cares more about one program winning a state title, then the county as a whole. While one program is doing well, the other four programs are program that are currently a dumpster fire. As long as South Side keeps winning, why should JMCSS care about the other four programs? They don't, and that what bugs me a little.

Seems like schools are still willing to hire coaches with somewhat of an impressive resume over young/energetic coaches who has an opportunity to take the school to different heights and prove themselves. Nothing wrong with hiring Rudesill, but I'm not going to sit here and act like he'll take the Cavaliers to a higher level than their previous coach, Adam Simpson, did in Alamo. I thought Crockett County actually had a good year in boys basketball. What happened to the Cavs' coach?

The real question is why did JMCSS allow that to happen at JCM and not the other schools?

Dang, we went from "culture" to principal/AD, to beer, to cops, and then bribing. None of that other than "culture" related to football at Halls.

This is perfectly stated. Do you think the TSSAA would be "scared" or afraid of what players looked like if they were not to have this "rule" in place? They're baseball players, and as we all know, the players are going to wear what they want to wear to feel confident in the game. And, confidence is a huge a part of the game. None of your SH players are going to be Evan Russell or Ethan Small if they were the eye black to a certain point. It's not a secret sauce, or a competitive advantage. If that were to be the case, then all the players would wear it.

Why Halls? Curious...

I 100% agree with this. The High School basketball mechanics are very robotic and has way too much "pausing" when an official gives a signal. I love it when the NBA referees gives their signals because it basically demonstrates what happened during a play. The football mechanics are just as bad. They don't want this or that to happen with fingers/hand signals, and they don't want to adopt the college mechanics. It's frustrating to see.

Yeah, but let's not sit there and say it was "illegal" last year when players were wearing it across the state

He's fine. It's just the TSSAA being the TSSAA

I know this will never happen, but I think it'll be smart if there's a week where there will be 0 games for fall break, and school systems across Tennessee can adjust to making sure that fall break is on that week. Sort of a joint agreement where nobody in Tennessee plays on that week.

I'm in favor of going back to three classifications, but there are also some teams that would love to stay with 4 classifications because it gives them a greater chance to reach state (ex: Peabody) in their olympic sports. Milan was able to used politics and appealed to a new region in volleyball to increase their chances to reach state (I cannot think of another reason why else they would). In volleyball, Region 6 District 12, you'll have Peabody and Humboldt traveling east towards Clarksburg and Huntingdon to play volleyball. However, in Region 7 District 13, you'll have Milan traveling west to play Lake County and Union City. Peabody and Milan will cross paths in Volleyball. However, Humboldt's appealed to move from Region 7 to Region 6 in 1A football got denied. I'm assuming the reason it got denied is due to Dresden being to Region 7.

Well, seeing Humboldt getting denied to go Region 6-1A puts everything into a bind here. There's going to be a decent team that will miss the playoffs. I'll lean with 1) Union City 2) Dresden 3) Lake County 4) Humboldt If Humboldt doesn't make the playoffs, then there is something bad going on in the Strawberry City. Honestly, they should be ahead of Dresden on this list, battling with Union City for the top spot. Halls was the most surprised team last year, but the October schedule put them back to reality. In addition, they're in the process of making a coaching change (if it's not finalized). The only question is how good is South Fulton? At least they won't be boarding a plane to play Fayetteville in the playoffs this year.

West Tennessee needs more depth of teams to do good. We can really have a good season out of Lexington, Hardin County, Camden, Crockett County, Adamsville, North Side, and McNairy Central. Lexington, Munford, and Hardin County are good regular season teams, but they fizzled out in the playoffs. So far, Haywood, Covington, and Peabody have been real threat teams to reach Chattanooga because they have consistently done that in the past. I want to put McKenzie in that category but I'm curious to see how good they'll be next year. There will be bad apples in West Tennessee (just like there will be in East and Middle TN), but honestly, everybody in West Tennessee (other than the top dogs) need to turn the notch up in performance in 2023.

Respectively, I don't know if that's the case. A few years ago, Westview was playing Cheatham County in their championship game, and the officials had 3 huge blunders in their game. #1: (score was 42-40 CC with 25-30 seconds remaining) an offensive foul against Westview while the defender on CC was already falling down prior to the contact being made. #2 (same 42-40 score) CC was shooting 2 free throws and Westview (and the clock operator) got confused thinking it was a 1-and-1. While Westview went and grabbed the rebound after the first free throw, half a second went off the clock on TV (I don't know if it went off the clock inside the Murphy Center or not), and the officials didn't correct it back to the actual time. #3 (same 42-40 score) Cheatham County missed the second free throw as well and there was a CC player who gave Westview an extended arm bar to the Westview's players back. It's pretty obvious if you find a way to look at it on film. No loose ball foul was called on CC. It's always a topic, I'm sure not letting things get too "physical" was a point of emphasis during the state tournament. Calling over 100 fouls during the 16 quarterfinal games than last year is a point of concern and it's something that has got to be addressed immediately. This year, was that a foul on York against Westview? No way. However, when High School officials see an arm swipe going down on an offensive player, they're going to call in 8-9 times out of 10, regardless if the defensive player got "all ball" which see did. To me, it's not a foul in any level, and I think college/NBA officials would likely let that play go. In that play, it was tied at 42 all with 6 seconds to go. If the officials didn't call a foul, York would've got the rebound on that same play. So yes, I do think it cost York a chance to win the game. Again, a few years ago, I thought the officials cost Westview a chance to win the game. This year, I thought they helped Westview and ended up costing York a chance to make a game winning shot in regulation in a tied game. What happened with South Side should be more of a concern because (In my opinion) the officials were calling the game a certain way, and then there was a technical foul against South Side, and then the game was called a different way. The box score doesn't take much to see what happened and how that game was officiated between halves. I do believe the officials just caved in to South Side in that half, and gave them a lot of whistles and free throws, way more than Elizabethton. It was more of "let's just please South Side than officiate the game." Feelings are real, my friend. If I told you, if the officials didn't give South Side that technical foul on (I think) McNeal, does South Side still win the game? And you answered yes, I would told you that you're crazier than a Huntingdon football fan having optimism in November...

As I stated earlier this week, it's going to be tough to win a game when one team has a +19 free throw attempt advantage....in the second half. That formula worked again as both teams (South Side/Livingston Academy) shot 10 free throw attempts in the first half, but South Side had a +15 free throw attempt advantage in the second. Y'all can do the math and combined both games. Congratulations to South Side, and McNeal! The technical foul played to their advantage. He has earned every right to add a state title to his resume. If they do a Game MVP, it should be Albany Collins who wins the award.

Did the officials call a foul on Gibson County that should've gone to another player, but gave it to Hart? Which ended up fouling her out.. Tom Kreager tweeted out there has been over 100 more fouls in the quarterfinal rounds than there last year.

Giving a technical foul to a special needs student has got to be the low point. I don't know what the special needs student did to warrant him/her a technical foul, but if I was officiating that game, and let's just say that special needs student were to say something personal to me (like cuss at me), then I would pull the assistant coach to the side to calm that student down. They call it "preventive officiating" for a reason. No reason to penalized Cleveland's team for what a special needs did or say. The coaches out of the box is a head scratcher, too. Just tell the coach to back up, and keep telling him to back up. The winner goes to state and one team has two technical fouls that are probably unnecessary reasons (not basketball reasons is what I'm trying to say). I can understand why Cleveland would be upset in that regard.