ViewFromCheapSeats

It WAS a dominating team performance from Signal Mtn. Congrats on the win.

The top-3 of Signal Mtn, CAK and Central Magnet appear set for a three year showdown. It will certainly be fun to watch.

You guys crack me up.

Yes. The fields were wet yesterday. That often happens when it rains >1.35 inches the 18 hours before a game. You might have wanted better drainage, but Murfreesboro has experienced 2.5x the average rainfall for the month of October. Would a high school field have been any drier?

The advantage of having all the games at one location is that fans can actually see multiple games, across the divisions, at one time. Back at the Chattanooga venues, you could catch two games, basically in their entirety. In Murfreesboro, you can watch two games in their entirety and 30 minutes of two other games. Or you can walk around and catch portions of all 8 games and pick the most compelling matchups as determined by the scores/times.

Oakland wins 7-AAA championship with 2-1 win over Siegel.

The national silver standard for "elite" runners is 19:45. Fifteen girls broke 19:45 last week at the Midstate Championship. Six girls ran sub-19, led by Taylor Cuneo out of Murfreesboro's Central Magnet who clocked in at 18:05.

Cuneo ran 17:27 at the Jesse Owens Invitational the first weekend of October to record the fastest freshman time in the nation this season. THAT is a fast time for a HS girl.

District 6-AAA

Semifinals

Cookeville 1

Rhea County 0

Stone Memorial 3

Warren County 2

Final

Cookeville 4

Stone Memorial 0

**TribeFan can find peace now knowing the 6-AAA scores.**

District 9 A/AA Semifinal

White House 3

Forrest 2

District 9-AAA Final

Hendersonville 1

Beech 0

District 8 A/AA Semis

Merrol Hyde 5

Smith County 3

Central Magnet 3

Goodpasture 0

Central Magnet vs Merrol Hyde at 6:00 Friday night for the championship

8-AAA Final in OT

Shelbyville 3

Tullahoma 2

Tullahoma scored with 3-4 minutes left in regulation to tie.

Shelbyville scored first in OT before Tullahoma scored with :15 seconds left in first OT. Shelbyville then scored :15 into second OT before Tullahoma missed a PK with 5:00 left to play.

7-AAA semis got moved to Friday night.

6:00 Oakland vs Stewarts Creek

8:00 Blackman vs Siegel

District 7-AAA

Stewarts Creek 2-1 over Smyrna (played Monday)

Siegel 3-0 over Riverdale (Wednesday night)

Blackman 3-1 over LaVergne (Wednesday night)

Semis Thursday night

Oakland vs Stewarts Creek

Siegel vs Blackman

I am disgusted by the conditions of fields 2, 3, 4 and 11. When I posted last week about the conditions, I had no idea just how bad those fields had gotten. I spent most of my spring season on fields 6 & 7 as well as the upper fields. There is a marked difference in the conditions of the fields on opposite sides of the stadium field. It was just embarassing. It's as if they made things WORSE with the work they've done the past couple of weeks.

That having all been said, "S..t happens." No one can be happy about things. But it's all equal. If things aren't corrected for 2014-15, then we have a "problem."

Fun game between Central Magnet and Signal Mountain. There were more combined corner kicks in that game than in any other game I ever remember seeing.

Both teams played a high pressure attack. Signal Mtn was a bit more direct in their attacks looking to play long to their strikers while Central preferred to try to build through their star midfielder. Give Signal Mtn all the credit for capitalizing on three Central mistakes for their three goals. Central wasn't able to convert on several quality scoring chances including one shot from inside the six that went over the crossbar.

Depends. What was the reason for the send off? My understanding is that red cards for a second yellow do not lead to suspension from the next game.

DNJ story about the decision to remain at Siegel Park.

http://www.dnj.com/article/20140515/SPORTS08/305150017/TSSAA-state-soccer-tournament-remain-Siegel-complex

Page HS's field is gorgeous right now.  We played a regular season match there about a month ago.  Yes, the winter was worse than usual on bermuda, but if a field was seeded with rye and properly taken care of (watered and not overused) it would be fantastic right now.  Our baseball and softball fields are so green they look like bermuda does in August and September.

 

All this to say, if the fields are bad, the matches should be moved.  In the fall for the girls state championship, they were average.  What was an embarrassing disgrace is that the goal mouths on each field were 6 yards x 3 yards of kitty litter.  There is no excuse for that, period.  You use your brain and shorten the field at each end by 3 yards and it's 114 x 75 instead of 120.  Apparently nobody making decisions last November was able to think this up.

 

Discouraged that the fields are in crap condition, but encouraged that they are considering moving the matches...

Yeah. Nice to highlight a field that only hosts one team as opposed to a complex that hosts recreational games & practices, select games & practices, tournaments and high school games. And overseeding with rye creates its own set of problems in later years.

Nobody here is arguing that the fields in Murfreesboro are what one would hope or expect. It was a cascading litany of issues that culminated in the excessive winter kill this year. And it looks like the resulting "crisis" has caused a top-down reevaluation of the entire complex. Siegel Park is conservatively responsible for $3-4 million dollars of annual economic impact to the city. I imagine the city will dedicate significant resources in correcting the controlable issues that led to the field conditions.

As to those calling for the games to be moved, I guess I would ask where you would suggest? Nearly every field within 20-25 miles of Murfreesboro is in the same shape. Do you really want to play some games at Webb, others at Smyrna, some at Page and some who knows where else just to have green grass?

Interesting to note that approximately 75% of teams at Region playoff level are public schools.

If the fields are in bad shape, I hope the TSSAA makes the right call and move the games to suitable fields.  You don't have to have 4 fields together.

For clarification: What makes a field "UN"suitable?

Per Tom @Kreager with the Daily News Journal, TSSAA is looking at options of moving the games.

^{Those fields look horrible.  That'll be a shame  if those boys bust their butts all year to get to their goal and have to play on such a horrible pitch.  Again, there are plenty of fields in the Middle TN that are green and very playable.}

 

The fields LOOK far worse than they play. It isn't dirt; it is dead bermuda. So the footing is still firm. And as you can see in the pictures, passes can be delivered with laser-like precision because the surface is smooth and free of any clumping.

I'm not sure where you would have the games played. While some fields may be "greener", it is unlikely they would be a better surface. And where would you find FOUR fields in close proximity?

Again, the main "problem" is that the fields LOOK bad. I seriously doubt any of the players who busted their butts all year will really even care.

Anyone who has watched Merrol Hyde play care to give some insight as to how they play?  They'll be at Signal Tues. night.  

#13 in the middle is a beast. A man among boys.

Defensively, the team isn't particularly strong. They can be attacked down the flanks. And they lost their starting keeper a couple of games/weeks ago.

Offensively, they don't build the attack. Instead, they want to attack 1 v 1. They are dangerous on set pieces though.

Check out @kreager on Twitter for his May 8 picture of the stadium field.

Yeah. Winter kill struck nearly all of the bermuda surfaces in Murfreesboro. Football, baseball, softball, soccer, golf: If the surface was bermuda grass, it's mostly dead now. After Spring Fling and TSSA State Cup, the city is going to spend a LOT of money sprigging the fields for next season. They will also probably look at a different variety of bermuda since this one clearly didn't tolerate the cold as well as other varieties.

As to moving the games somewhere else, where would you suggest? All of the local HS stadiums suffered the same fate. The MSC pitch itself isn't too bad. It is consistent: smooth & fast. It actually favors quality passing attacks. It just looks ugly.