uniden

Catholic 2 - Farragut 1, final

Very well said, Impactdad. Unfortunately, I think most of us are simply responding to the constant drone of complaints. Your approach is much more sound.

I am strongly on coniglio's side. One state champion is all tennessee needs in soccer, period. I played at Notre Dame when the AAA / A/AA split first happened (before division II existed). My first year at ND ('97), we won the A/AA state championship. Winning was fun of course, but it was somewhat cheapened because we did not play the best teams. The following year (my senior year), we were moved to division II. Competition was significantly stronger and we reached the state semi-finals. I will always remember that season with much more pride than the state championship season. I wish we had been able to play in a single classification. I have also coached at Catholic, during both the DII and A/AA periods. I had much more fun in DII playing some of the top competition. That is of course aside from the CAK rivalry and the games against Notre Dame, which were very fun in A/AA. Again, I wish I could have coached in an open classification. Coniglio has already said it best. Teams and athletes should simply push themselves to be their best. They should extend their abilities as far as possible. If that means you win 3 games or 20 games, it should not really matter. If you want your community to start winning 10 games a year instead of 3, then get kids involved year round. Don't expect someone to reclassify all the teams that have done more work than you so that you can "win" too.

Everybody gets a trophy, right? It seems that public schools already have a very fair shot at making the state tournament...a) advance to the region championship game, and /cool.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="B)" border="0" alt="cool.gif" /> win the substate game. Private schools have the same path. Tennessee is already in a minority in terms of the way it treats private schools (D-II). Most states have no split at all. I grew up going to public school (in another state). Some schools had good programs in some sports, and some in others. The public / private issue was non-existant, despite the fact that private schools were dominant in several sports.

Just one Akula? I like your confidence.

congrats boys. 8 in a row.

I believe Mark Leader was given the award a few years ago when the Catholic girls finished runner-up at state.

Is there really an epidemic of shin injuries? I think bigger shin gaurds lead to false security and more reckless challenges.

There are actually 10 teams in the top 50 list. You have 9 above, plus Catholic is listed at 47. 2. Brentwood 7. Father Ryan 15. Christian Brothers 16. Houston 18. Baylor 19. McCallie 38. Pope John Paul II 42. Knoxville West 43. Farragut 47. Knoxville Catholic

Better than you think. Catholic actually loses 6 (Derosa, Beckham, Martinez, Wegryn, Trombly, Holleman). All were starters this year. In fact, the juniors and seniors that made up the majority of this year's team were starters on the 06' team as freshmen and sophomores that lost in the finals.

Nice post coach. If no one has congratulated you, I'll be the first. You must be about 35-1 in playoff elimination games? Maybe more? I know you don't like the "1", and you shouldn't, but it is a heck of a mark to put on the board. Congrats to Catholic. 42 goals for and 0 against in the playoffs. 26-2. One loss without 5 starters and one loss in a very close rivalry game. Both losses to AAA quarterfinalists or better. I think the second loss was very good for you. You do deserve a fairly high spring national ranking.

That would be great!

Let me guess, you are a Webb guy? Whoever you are, you have a strong resentment for Catholic. Catholic soccer was very happy, and successful, in DII. The soccer program was against the move to DI. Several DII East Region Championships and state quater / semifinal appearances doesn't sound like a team that couldn't "hack it". Frankly, I am thankful for the rivalry that Catholic has with CAK. It is healthy and competitive. But, in DII, there was BAylor, McCallie, Notre Dame, and sometimes Webb. Don't jump all over me. I respct Webb as well. They have had some very good teams. But, since I am working on the assumption that you are a Webb guy, I must throw in the fact that Webb would fall in the lower part of DII East over the last 10 years. That is nothing to be ashamed of, it has been an excellent region Anyway, you people can argue public/private all day (and I am sure that you will), but the line that Catholic couldn't cut it in DII is simply false. Again, the soccer program was happy in DII. The school switched to DI because the TSSAA said that they met the guidelines and it is cheaper to play DI due to travel requirements of DII. At most schools, including Catholic, the general feeling is that decisions are based on Basketball and Football. Well, both sports were doing very well in DII as well. both on the verge of state championships. The general feeling was that these sports would struggle in DI against Austin East and Fulton. In fact, they have done well (and caught slack for it).

The difference between Catholic and every TN team on that list other than JPII is state championships. Everyone on the list has multiple state championships except for JPII (and they have some of the seasons most impressive wins). Catholic needs to worry about winning its last game, not rankings.

Now that the sectionals are set, does anyone know how the brackets look?