OldIndian18

Thanks for the logic lesson. Not sure that you are drawing the right inferences, though. I have seen a lot of wins by DB over the years and it is a nice place to be a winner. It is a pitiful and ornery place to have a losing record. There is no patience for it. I do not think that any of the current or former coaches at DB went about their jobs trying to lose games. Now, that would be illogical. There does seem to be a quickness to let the players off the hook, whether the players "quit" their teammates or just did not apply themselves in the offseason to improve their own skills, size, etc. Watch that apologetic approach -- it will not lead to success. In the golden days at DB, there were always athletes who sacrificed their summers and holidays to be at the gym or in the weight room so that they could improve themselves. One summer for Coach Van Huss, we played over 40 scrimmages in a six week span. If you missed one of those scrimmages to go to the beach, you did not see the court for a while. The best players did not test the system. It was the system that worked and won lots of games. Kingsport's parents/athletes may not be as willing to make those sacrifices. Certainly, where I live (big city), the high school coaches constantly have trouble getting kids to turn out for offseason scrimmages and workouts. If that is the community mindset in Kingsport, then it will take a coach who is able to shake out the apologists and quitter mentality that seems to be the real problem. Morgan is probably glad to let someone else solve that problem.

WaCo, Did you have a bad bag of popcorn from Wallace's News Stand? You have incredible negativity about DB sports. Even in Kingsport, where high school sports are incredibly important, your brand of onions and garlic is venomous and toxic. You have been carping about the basketball coach, who has now resigned, and now you are expecting a bad hire because "[t]hey haven't made a decent hire in 20 years." Take a step back and see all that is good about DB sports: great facilities, loyal (mostly) fans, longstanding rivalries, historic teams, iconic coaches and a long list of accomplished players. Patience is never a hallmark of DB supporters, but now there is a chance to change the paradigm in basketball. Could be an opportunity to find the next Van Huss. Has anybody made a trip to Carter County yet? That was the cradle of good coaches back in the day.

As somebody who played at DB back in the 70's, I have to say that all of this negativity (on this topic and the DB football topics) is very discouraging. If the kids that quit the teams and their teammates did so to concentrate on another sport or to improve their grades, then those choices are hard ones that happen all the time among adolescents. Hopefully, those decisions paid off. If the choices, however, were made out of spite or frustration with the coaches (or playing time or position), then I expect that the root problem is with the kid or the home situation, likely both. Part of the sports experience is developing resilience and following authority. If the athletes balk at either of those requirements, the level of talent they possess will never be enough; there will always be a practice that is too tough, a comment that is too sharp and likely some deflection of responsibility (by the athlete or the parents) that lays the problem on the coaches, not the athlete. Over the years, DB has had many "All-Americans" that never played a down or made a shot. They were the ones that the "Coach ran off" or "quit because he/she couldn't stand Coach X." Interestingly, we had a few of those in my class. At our reunion a few years back, one of those good athletes who quit came up to me and asked me to forgive him for "his selfishness" in quitting on his friends over 35 years ago - those were his words. He had tears in his eyes (and no there were no spirits present). It was quite moving. Many years had passed, but he still felt bad about his decision. I admired him for coming up to me, but I did not think he "let me down." Rather, he missed a lot of fun and some great memories of playing with friends and for his town. That was the sad part. So, for those of you still close to the DB program, please think hard about blaming coaches for players who walk out on their teammates. After playing all the way through college, I seldom came across better coaches who cared more about the players than the ones I had at DB. And, if the coach makes the game a drudgery, I hope that the athlete thinks twice before quitting. By walking away, you are letting someone else keep you away from a sport that you love. That is the kind of decision that will eat at a person, especially someone who had the talent to help his teammates win some games. Roll Tribe!

This is an interesting column. There are a lot of great teams that did not make it to the big game, but still have legit claims to be among the best teams in Tennessee history. Let me add another one. Kingsport Dobyns-Bennett 1979 (9-1), only loss was to Science Hill, 9-7, in the second game of the season. DB won 8 in a row and did not get to go to the playoffs as only one team per district made the tourney back then. DB beat eventual state champion Oak Ridge in Kingsport in a classic 21-14 comeback win. That was the only blemish on the Oak Ridge record for two state championship seasons. The DB defense, led by Larry Cage (UGA signee), was punishing and gave up only 62 points all season. The offense had a strong option running game that featured David Templeton (Carson-Newman). In the final game of the season, DB blew out Elizabethton, 35-8. 'Betsy was the preseason pick to win the conference/district and had only one loss to Johnson City. Had there been a rematch with Oak Ridge, it would have been a real showdown.

I don't live in Tennessee now, but I grew up in Kingsport in the 1960's and 1970's. From that era, there was no question about the Tennessee High dynasty of the early 1970s. Incredibly balanced and strong teams with top skill players and versatile linemen. I got to play against three strong Oak Ridge teams in the late 1970's. OR had great QB play and imaginative coaching by Emory Hale. DB beat OR in 1979, which was the only loss for the Wildcats in that championship season. I would include Alcoa on the list for their continued excellence over the decades. In the 1960's, Alcoa had Albert Davis, who is one of the all-time great backs in Tennessee high school history. Knox Farragut was another strong program in the '70's. Coach Sparks had some great teams. On the Gate City debate. I am familiar with the lore of a Gate City beat down of DB in the early 1970s. I believe it happened and I also believe that was one of the reasons that there was a coaching change at DB in the early 1970s. When we would go to scrimmage GC during my DB days, we were always told to tighten our chin straps because it was going to be a bloody fight on every play. True. I also recall in my senior year in 1979, we took our first and second team units to a preseason scrimmage in Greeneville. That same evening, our third and fourth team players, mostly sophomores, played in a jamboree in Hawkins County against Surgoinsville. In that one quarter of action, Surgoinsville won 6-0. The next day, all of the local papers jumped on the "big upset" story. I relay that tidbit to give some credence to the "everybody in Upper East Tennessee wants to beat DB" story line. It was true then and I bet that it has not changed much over the decades. I am biased as to Dobyns Bennett, but the continued line of strong teams from the 1920's to the present is certainly hard to dispute. Roll Tribe!