TryNotToSuck

You said something about giving Haywood a compliment for scheduling Olive Branch and kind of threw a shot (when I know you weren't trying to) at everyone else for scheduling cupcake teams. However, Haywood plays Liberty this week, which is a cupcake team, with a lot of icing on it.

Lol, I'm chuckled right now

I know a lot of football teams want to use the “next man up” as a cliche for their team, but you can’t necessarily say the “next man up” as a reference when a lot of people have Holt down for consideration as a finalist for Mr. Football. Luckily for Holt, UTM offered him, but it does suck for him as well because several FBS schools will be highly interested in the kid if he had another big season. In terms of the game, I was going to go with Haywood in the 35-24 area, but with Holt out, I doubt the Indians will score 20. As weird as this sounds, North Side can still finish top-2 in their district, depending on if they can beat Hardin County or not for the championship game.

“Haven’t seen the sped Haywood has” .... we have only played 1 game??

Thank you guys for scheduling us for the 2019-2020 seasons. Appreciate it, and we are not scared of playing teams that are in higher classifications than what we are currently in. I do think we will get wore down at times during the season, but it'll worry me a lot in November. Thanks for the improvements to our stadium as well. We haven't had any improvements in more than 15 years, and obviously it was much needed.

Jackson Sun only covers 13 counties throughout West Tennessee. The only county that is up north that they cover is Weakley County. I believe they exclude Dyer and Obion Counties as well. That’s the reason why they don’t cover Lake County

It's okay broski, these two extra practices is not going to increase Milan's favorites to win state.

I agree with you in terms of steaming games, especially in rainy weather. But I don’t agree with you in terms of what’s on TV for that night. I looked at the Friday nights college football schedule, and the only marquee matchup that’s worth staying in is UCF @ Cincinnati. I don’t think anybody will skip a high school football game just to watch Tulsa @ Michigan State in the first week of the season. Everybody now has the luxury of recording games/shows now. I am somewhat confused when we are talking about attendance going down. Is it the average of the attendance in a football, or the total attendance (from all schools in Tennessee) going down? If it’s average, I can see it because there are more schools now than there was 10 years ago. I can’t buy into the “total attendance” because I would figure there are now 9 classifications in Tennessee, and everyone seems like they’re a playoff team, so it doesn’t make sense to me that the total attendance will be going down.

Yes and I agree, but I think if this time is developed well, they should be in the mix for the playoffs. They can take care of their easy schedule and beat teams that they should beat or be in those games. The Scott’s Hill game will prove to me (probably all of us) of how much improvement they have. Making the playoffs is a win for this team and the community.

I looked at Humboldt's schedule and it is fairly easy, but I have no problem for them having an easy schedule based on the current status of where the Vikings are at. Their first three games is Memphis East, Halls, and West Carroll. They should win 2 of 3 if all goes well. They should win at least two of the four between Lake County, Fulton County, Greenfield, and Gleason. If they beat South Fulton, then they should have the confidence to stay in the game with Scotts Hill. Needless to say, I won't be surprised if Humboldt goes .500 if all goes well. And if they make the playoffs, then that should at least bring somewhat excitement back into the program.

Yes, that was going to be my next game. I think it's more intriguing for South Side because they will be the "underdog" in that game that could potentially win it if their players developed well this offseason.

Is it because Crockett is 4A?

I pretty much took a quick glanced at everyone's schedule for the 2019 season, and there are some interesting non-region games. Yes, there are some games that you expect (Milan/Peabody and Haywood/Henry County) that really aren't intriguing anymore other than rivalries or the fact they have played almost every year for the past 4-6 seasons. So here's my games that are interesting. Hardin County @ McNairy Central. Could McNairy Central take the "next step" in 2019 and can Hardin County finally win their region? Union City @ Lake County. Lake County fans are excited to play Union City, and they are confident they can beat them. However, will Union City be the Union City we usually know or will they go back to being a .500 team like they were in 2018? Middleton and South Fulton. One school is less than a mile away from Kentucky, and the other is less than 5 miles away from Mississippi. It's an interesting game based off traveling. Scotts Hill @ Humboldt. Why Humboldt? If Humboldt just improves week by week in 2019, they have a chance to beat Scotts Hill. This is a game in late October and could potentially determine the growth of the Vikings. Gibson County @ Westview. It's a matchup that I think is interesting because Gibson County is probably the better team, but Westview's Quarterback will probably be the best player on the field. Also, this is a game in August that fans will tell how good their team is when they leave this game. If there are anymore, feel free to share. Let's have fun with this!

We are talking about attendance issues here, not classification issues. Here's my two cents on what I believe is what's going on, especially in West Tennessee (I don't know if this will relate to y'all Middle/East TN folks). Our teams that were powerhouse teams, aren't currently powerhouse teams anymore. Example number one is Camden. I haven't been to a Camden game in a few years, but they haven't been to the second round of the playoffs since 2015. In addition, they had a 2 win season sandwiched between 6 win seasons. It wasn't too long that we can guarantee Camden as a 8-10 win regular season team, with an opportunity to play on Black Friday. Second is Lexington, they are down and down bad. Lexington's stadium is big, but I would hate to see the revenue money they have brought in compared to years past. Humboldt is bad. There's no excitement in McKenzie. Westview is not a good football team. Ripley has been bad for years now. South Gibson is, ehh. And these schools are "one-city schools" like they're not competing with other schools just to get every penny they can get. Truth is, there are programs that were really good a decade ago, they aren't good anymore. And fans aren't going to spend money watching bad product, just like fans aren't going to spend money watching a bad money or go to a bad concert, they just aren't. I don't think this has to do with classification issues, we are talking about attendance, not money.

We get it, it's not the first time that you've said this.

Number 2 team in 3A? What are you smoking? In a matter of fact, I’ll take Riverside/Lewis County over Peabody/Milan. Don’t fall in love with this “county rivalry” bull crap

Here's what I believe. The Northwest officials association service Haywood baseball. If this umpire claims that there was a hybrid stance, but Dusty said that he's been doing it all year, then it puts the Northwest association a bad look. It also puts the Southwest (Jackson) association a bad look because I would assume Haywood plays a lot of baseball games in the Jackson area and a lot of umpires that are in the "Jackson" association had Haywood at some point this year. So, a pitcher isn't going to change his pitching delivery in the postseason, not going to happen. In addition, he definitely isn't going to do it during the game. Why was this called in the 6th inning and not innings 1-3? The only person that can answer the question is the umpire that called it. To me, this was the umpire taking control of his authority and made Haywood baseball look bad and made the Northwest officials association look bad as well.

Interesting but there’s also real information that’s hidden, just like there is in any information protaining to sports. There’s a story and then there’s the real story as to why this occur. Don’t put all the blame on TSSAA.

Umpire don’t half to give out warnings.

Just because a team led 14-0 against a "good team" in Dyersburg, doesn't give the team that was winning, an automatic pass to be a "good team." And if Crockett County was winning 14-0, they should've won that game. Because "good teams" don't let a 2 touchdown lead slip away. Addition, Dyersburg went on a 41-13 run after that 14-0 lead. Freedom Prep was overall, not a good football team. Everyone knew they were a good team in a terrible district, and when they traveled outside of Memphis in November, we all knew they were going to lose. Let's be real. Congratulations on having the bragging rights of beating one team, which beat another team that was the state champions. It's football, it's sports. Nobody cares.

Hey chief, let's not get too carried away here. Union City went .500 last year in the regular season, and 7-6 overall. Their regular season wins (Oakhaven, TCA, Gibson County, Adamsville, Halls) only one of them finished above .500 in the regular season and got pounced in round one. No quality wins to show for. Meanwhile, five of their six losses were by 14+ points. Crockett County started 4-0 but finished 6-6. They finished 3rd last year in their district and will finish 3rd this year. And Crockett County didn't have any good quality wins either. Westview is a bad football and over 80% of West Tennessee football teams can beat Ripley. "When you bury cupcakes" did y'all not play Halls and Freedom Prep last year? I get it, y'all are 1A, but let's not "brag" about playing teams that are in a higher classification than Lake County. When you're 1A, you pretty much have to do that.

Has to be more to this story. Shocked that he would go to Haywood.

"Because if they transfer to a different school, then we are not teaching them valuable lessons in life. We would rather force them to stay at a school and be miserable than transferring somewhere else and be happy."

"cutting and running to a "better" situation when the going gets tough? Go ask Michael Stroup that. Point is, there's no more loyalty in sports. Now, it's starting to tricker down to the high school level. Stroup, McConnell, Marty Wheeler, Tyler Turner, Rick Rice are all high school football coaches that have to pursue a different job within the last 5 years. Turner and Wheeler's teams went to Cookeville and bounced, Stroup and McConnell had program-best (or near program best success) and left. Rice's team was always a deep playoff team. And that's just high school football coaches I can think of on the top of my head. I see a lot of time that a lot of parents (especially old schoolers) that criticize the heck out of high school athletes for transferring to a new school. But coaches do the same exact thing, right? Why are we giving kids heck for doing what's best for them? Kids are only in high school for four years. Imagine being the kid that grew up being successful and loving the sport that he/she grew up playing and then hate the sport when he/she gets to high school? Because, now I am noticing a trend of that. In addition, there are kids that don't talk to their high school coaches when they turn the tassel. So if a kid graduates high school, do we give the high school coach credit? When a kid graduates college, do we give the high school credit? When an adult gets a job promotion, do we give the high school coach credit? Am I saying that coaches that focuses purely on winning are jerks to the players? No. I do believe that y’all kind of went out of proportion going back to my post on this thread. Times have changed, these kids want to win. They didn’t sign up to play high school sports to be better individuals. I know there are a lot of athletes that believe they have the potential to play in college at what sport they’re playing at. If they transfer in order to see there’s a better chance at obtaining that goal, then why criticize them? I never bought into the hold “play out your high school career at the school you started. Don’t leave when you’re not getting what you want” talk. It’s better to let go and start fresh somewhere else then to hold on and hurt yourself more. Teenagers these days are not as bad when it comes to "quitting when times get rough" as the old-school people perceive them to be. The "everybody gets an award" quote that I see a lot. It's the parents that gives the kids the award, not the kid.

Anything can happen in May! I do believe we are all shocked by the upset that Chester County poured onto Lexington. 2-1 is an upset, but this was an 8-1 score. If I’m North Side, this is a golden opportunity to take advantage of what’s in front of you. I don’t know what Chester County has remaining in left of pitchers. However, if North Side wins tomorrow, then they have the opportunity to redeem themselves with a off day on Saturday if they win tomorrow.