sx1234

There are numerous head coaches in Knox county of smaller sports (soccer, cross country, tennis, wrestling etc.) that do not work in the school. Although thats normally not the case for sports like football, there is not a rule in place that only applies to football in terms of hiring a head coach.

So roughly 5 years before this year's seniors were born?

When was the last time they didn't make the semi finals? 1998? or was there a year they got upset in round 2 or round 3 that I'm forgetting about?

Seems to be popular opinion for most when they first see them. They seem to be okay with that though.

I'm a former coach myself- Coached high school football and high school wrestling for over 20 years across 5 different states- babysitting a few jr. high and high school track and soccer teams as well. I promise you that it takes place at almost every school, in every sport, across every state! lol

If there is any speculation of wrong doing, I believe TSSAA would look through the Powell program with a fine-toothed comb (I would imagine a much deeper investigation now that a gold ball is involved). Hopefully Powell can prove innocent, and hush all the naysayers for good. You know better than I would, and you can correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the only thing a Powell coach is guilty of is having a conversation that may be considered a gray area to some advocates., but does not technically violate any rules.

I may rustle some feathers of Henry Co and Knoxville West fans, or people that were claiming Page didn't deserve to be in the state finals, but I believe the two best teams in 5A met Friday night and they put on an exciting game for everybody watching. Congrats to Powell on their first state title!!! (I was shocked to learn that was their first), and hats off to Page for a hard fought game.

..... Didn't you try to say he wasn't your son awhile back ?

Since when does it work like that? Does the kid live in Powell/ zoned for Powell and the parents are considering sending him to a private school? That's perfectly acceptable and legal. But to use the "R" word and the phrase "has his list down to" insinuates that conversations that aren't allowed to happen are happening in an area that's had a history of those similar rumors.

A lot of that stuff will work itself out after a couple of tournaments. The first set of rankings are mostly speculation (especially the lower weight classes). He's one guy covering two new divisions across the entire state that he does on top of work and coaching- cut the guy some slack!

Its a rule similar to pass interference in the way that there are numerous acts that are illegal that all fall under the same penalty name. There are a few other specifications too dealing with angles. For example, The endman on a line of scrimmage can't cut down at an angle to set an edge, and you have to cut "between 10 and 2 o'clock". The blocker has to be in a 3-point stance (that may have changed) you can't be down field or open field (that one may only be youth football- can't remember). Point being that just because a ref calls illegal chop block, doesn't always mean a high-low or it wasn't off the snap of the ball, there are several illegal blocks that all fall under the same umbrella.

441 carries and 19 catches in 12 games.... that's an average of over 38 touches a game!!! Can someone say workhorse?

Being that Rhea County is a Wing-T team, and extremely well-coached Wing-T team, I would imagine that they will execute all cut blocks legally. They may add a few to their scheme to factor for Nolan, but cut blocks are most likely already a fundamental of their offense; a technique their coaches have been teaching how to do legally for years. I could be wrong, but I don't believe that will be an issue Friday night. Also, most people use the terms cut blocks and chop blocks interchangeably, but the actual rule book does define them differently. A chop block is what most people call a "high-low" block- where one blocker cuts a defensive player that is already engaged with another blocker.

First set of rankings should be out in a couple of weeks. The coaches poll, what I think you are talking about usually comes out a bit after that.

Odd combo of teams to compare to.... I wouldn't say Powell is as good as Alcoa or Maryville (shown earlier in the year). But I would say Powell beats betsy by 21+

Ouch... I hate to see that happen twice so fast. Maybe it can be eye opening for the young man though. The sky is the limit for him, he just needs to get out of his own way at times it appears. Also I just looked at Mcminn's schedule and I think some of us may have been sleeping on them (I was at least). They've won 7 in a row, Rhea County and Bradley Central are not bad losses at all, some may point to the Cleveland game- but that was week 2 and they are 6A... so I don't know if I would really call it a bad loss.

I know Collins had the injury, which is a big enough hit to Powell... But what happened to Redmond? Was there another injury or was it something at school? If the latter you don't have to go into specifics, I know the rumor mill on that one has been off an on for most of the season.

There's a lot of experienced coaches that won't take a classified position for any longer than a year (or even a semester). This has turned into Knox County's solution to not helping coaches enroll in whatever program to acquire their teaching certification, and its really hurting a lot of coaching staffs. Years ago (and many school systems still do this) coaches could get hired to teach with a transitional or temporary licence and would have 2 or 3 years to get whatever endorsement they needed, or a position would open in that 2 or 3 year time period and they would be moved in the school. Either way, they are in the same building teaching, coaching, and actually making a real paycheck. Now Knox County says, "We can't hire you to teach, but we can give you a teaching assistants position". That means their salary is around 17,000 a year, add that their assistant coach's pay in Knox County only adds another thousand or two to that a year, you see what people were meaning when we said Knox County doesn't help their coaches. Yeah its a pay check, but when you do the math of hours at the school and hours involved in coaching, those coaches make well under what is minimum wage for their time spent at work.

This is spot on, and something that is taking its toll in Knox County. I don't think school admin "undervalue" athletics in Knox County, they are just given a much shorter leash than other counties. Yes you have to have licenses to teach, but there is a little bit of wiggle room around that. As long as the coach has a degree, there are types of job-embedded programs that essentially lets the coach go ahead and start teaching and he has a couple of years to get his licenses- usually by taking an online class somewhere and passing a praxis. It's a bit of a process to apply for these types of licenses, but schools used to do it all the time to get their coaches in the building. From what I understand, the people downtown still allow this to some degree, but its become much more difficult in Knox county over the last few years. For the most part, the communities in Knoxville are very supportive of athletics and so are the teachers/ principals inside the building. However, when you consider that coaches in Knox County get paid less (on average), they don't have a last period Advanced P.E. to go ahead and start workouts, film, practice etc, and that the school board isn't as willing to help get jobs for your assistant coaches, it really makes head coaching jobs in the area less appealing.

That was the rumor a couple of years ago, but he may be more likely to stay in Halls since he's got his system planted. I am pretty sure the Halls youth program is running his offense so its only a matter of time before he starts to really see's the results of that.

If Cummings would have got the job the year after Overton, they would probably be on the same level as Knoxville's best programs. Overton took over 0-10 and 1-9 teams and took them to the second round three years in a row, two of those three they were extremely close to making it to the quarters. I moved to Knoxville in 2000 and have always been amazed at how the teams in the area Roller-Coaster up and down. Since I've lived here Central, Powell, Fulton, Austin East, Halls, South Doyle and even Carter have all had years were they looked like teams you'd see deep in the playoffs and then just a couple of years later they're struggling to break 500.

You coach there? Had a kid that was a senior or something? Impressive to note details of duals from 15 years ago

I haven't see them play in person this year but their performance has been up and down all year I believe. Their head coach is a veer-offense guy that likes to run it down your throat, and will mix in a little RPO stuff when he can. Their defense must be pretty solid because they have held some high-power offenses in the area to low scoring games (low-scoring compared to those teams' other games).

Most "Dominating" .... 9 different kids in the state finals of the largest division, and only 4th on the list....

Well with mommy's approval I'm sure they are! I regret that I didn't check in earlier in the week to call you out on that money bet of Powell by at least 14. For curiosity's sake, how high would you have gone on that bet? I never have bet more than a dollar on here, but I think I could have added a few quarters to my maximum for that type of confidence.