wizard

Ultimately, the Publics will get exactly what they want: The Privates will leave the TSSAA and form their own organization. This will happen and it is only a matter of time. People who are more intelligent than me are thinking through the challenges of making this happen. What will this mean for the privates? Well, it will mean a few years of transition and potentially more travel. Tactically, it will be difficult. Strategically it is a win. The privates will no longer have to be under the thumb of a dictatorial mob run by a board stacked with public school lackeys. Privates will no longer have to adhere to the draconian policies created by a bunch of misfits most of whom have no business regulating high-school athletics or even a Mapco Express. Will all of the privates recruit? No, there will likely be a classification for privates who won't recruit because it 1) doesn't go along with that particular school's mission or 2) it is not in the budget. What will it mean for publics? A short-term victory and bragging rights. More significant will be the loss of great athletes in high school. Remember, transfer rules won't apply. So if an athlete looks great as a sophomore in a public high school setting, he can quickly be lured to a private school without having to sit out a year. I can see the private school coaches attending public school games and talking with parents during the game. This is indeed a win for the privates. The TSSAA will be powerless in this situation. "Please do something! Elite Private Academy keeps stealing all of our players." "I'm sorry there is nothing we can do." What will it mean for the TSSAA? In addition to a significant loss of power, the TSSAA stands to lose 15% - 20% of its revenue much of which is collected during the playoffs. On the upside, the TSSAA will be able to cut staff becuase they won't have nearly as many "investigations" to conduct since we all know that privates are the only ones who cheat. What will it mean for coacht? Not much other than this forum will be deleted. Be careful for what you ask for, you might just actually get it.

My 10 year old daughter would like to play AAU ball next year. 1) What is the best way to find out about tryouts? Or said another way, what is the best way for her to be successful finding a team to play on? 2) When do AAU teams normally get put together? January? 3) Does someone have a listing of Middle Tennessee travel teams? Thank you in advance for all of your help.

Based on today's box score, you really have 2 guys that come off the bench and contribute points. Also, I noticed that 24 Middleton points were off of turnovers but the box only had Temple with 8 turnovers. Is that right? If Middleton was indeed the recipient of 24 points off of turnovers, was it good defense or did Temple just play a sloppy game. With only one loss before today, I can see Temple coming out a bit cocky and unmotivated in the first round. Can someone clarify what they saw out there today?

Actually, it is quite amazing that we (Ezell) won the game. Our two best outside shooters went 0 for 14 from behind the 3 pt. line. Pitto and Duke had a terrible day. But we were just scrappy enough to hang in there. We only led the game for a few minutes at most. Amazing. Pitto and Duke will have to shoot better (and I know they can) if we want to have a chance against Middleton.

I'm an Ezell fan. I think Ezell has to play a very strong game to beat Middleton from everything that I've read. We are a good team, but haven't blown anyone out. They've been squeakers. I hope we win, but this Middleton team is tough. I just hope it is a good game and that the refs don't influence it one way or another.

59-56 Ezell over CAK in overtime. Ezell had one last chance in regulation but took a bad shot.

I had more fun at DCA the other night than I've had in quite a while at a basketball game. I'm not talking about the score either. The student sections for both teams were really having a lot of fun. DCA had 3-4 students dressed up in costumes: Ninja Turtle, Superman, "planet of the apes guy????", and some guy who looked like Fletch in Ezell colors. Ezell had a whiteboard w/ dry erase markers , also had a huge EH flag. There was plenty of harmless banter exchanged. One of Ezell's players who ordinarily is a great shooter, missed a couple of threes and the DCA students launched into the classic "Air Ball" drill. Within 5 seconds, the EZell students screamed "score board, score board." After the second period, DCA introduced their football team (State champs?). Anyway, DCA always saves those occasions for the Ezell visit just to rub it in. Aftwards, the Ezell students wrote on the dry erase white board "Our band won state..." Joe Lackey for Ezell had a good night and Ezell students started chanting, "You can't stop him, [clap..clap..clapclapclap]. Near the end of the game Ezell students started chanting, "This is our house, [clap..clap..clapclapclap]. After the game many of the students from each school talked to one another. This is what high school basketball is all about.

I'm an Ezell fan and I know that we don't have it all together yet (new coach, loss of several players to graduation last year). But, this team has at times played brilliantly. Other times we look awful. If we get a little streaky, we can beat anyone. Ezell could be a "sleeper" in the upcoming tournaments. If we have a bad game, we're out.

can someone list the schedule/bracket for this tournament? thanks in advance

I have given a great deal of thought to the new multiplier system that was heavily promoted by "Herby the drum-beating monkey” and recently adopted by the TSSAA. In this age of fairness, I feel that this multiplier thingy has even greater implications than its current use. Consider the following: 1) Back in 2001, Cloudland’s Beefy Boys outweighed opponents by 1.8 to 1. I have always wanted to meet the conditioning trainer for this team because I was truly amazed at the size of these individuals. One football player strutted around with his gut hanging out. Another combed his beard. A player from the opposing team nervously paced back and forth. These guys were surely not on the Atkin’s diet. Back in Antioch, the Lighthouse Christian football team (still playing at that time) couldn’t field a guy over 120. In this age of fairness, I suggest that the number of players on the field for a given team should be as close to 1700 pounds as possible. So if the average Cloudland player weight was 240 then Cloudland would be able to play 7 players at any given time. Lighthouse would be able to keep 14 players (120 lbs each) on the field. This neutralizer will allow Lighthouse Christian to get back into the game. 2) Many public school students do not even come close to having the intellectual or financial capital to get into an Ivy League institution. One public school student studders as another works on grammar not typically used in these here parts. As time goes on, the “intellectual downtrodden” suffer great psychological harm and may never recover. I suggest that we multiply their ACT scores by 1.8. Now, this isn’t to say that all public school students need the help. However, this is a generalization and must be applied to all public school students. After all, it’s fun to punish the achievers. 3) McDonald’s fry cooks stand over hot grills each day and serve people who surely make more money. A guy in a pin-striped suit orders a Big Mac while a lady in a wool dress munches on a California Cobb salad. This type of emotional brutality cannot go on. I suggest that we multiple each fry cook’s pay by 1.8 and buy him or her a new outfit. 4) Some schools just will never have the talent or motivation to win a big gold ball. How can kids from these schools ever feel good about themselves when they get older? After giving this some thought, I suggest that we present two trophies each year. The first gold trophy goes to one random losing team each year and is presented based on “sportsmanship.” It doesn’t really matter if they were good sports, what matters is that these kids feel good. This will be the gold trophy. The second trophy will be silver and presented to the team that is “lucky” enough to win the final game of the season. At the end a banquet will be given for all of the kids from all of the schools. Each athlete will receive a “participation” medallion.

If I understand it correctly, Wooden hyperextended a knee on the second to last play of the game. Even though he stayed in the game for the final play, he was definitely hurt according to my source. If he can't play next week, Ezell should be able to hang in there.

Perhaps another team contacted Pack and told him that he needed to contact the TSSAA or they would. *

Wesvols: I wouldn't say that Goodpasture had an easy win over Ezell. Afterall, the game was tied in the 4th quarter.

Cloudland's Beefy Boys: Don't feel so bad about 2001 Do you remember when Ezell Harding's Erik Davis scored 3 TDs and had 365 all-purpose yards against you in the 2001 Tennessee Class 1A Championship Game? Ezell Harding broke several Championship Game records. Among them: Longest Touchdown Pass: 91 Yards, J.P. Shelly to Erik Davis, Ezell-Harding Total Yards (one team): 603, Ezell-Harding Most Individual TD passes per game, JP Shelley Most Touchdowns in a Game (one team): Ezell-Harding 9 Most points in a game, 63 (tie) Click here for the 2001 Championship Game Recap: http://www.tennessee.ihigh.com/0,1688,1_3_...1_47594,00.html Well now, Erik Davis is a Vanderbilt Commodore. Granted, the Commodores lost to Ole Miss by 3 points this past Saturday. But Erik, in his first start, had 6 catches for 138 yards and a touchdown. The Ole Miss defensive backs couldn't stop him either. So don't feel so bad about 2001.

Aftermath: See one of my reasons in an earlier post.....INJURIES!!!! Okay, two people had to assist #50 off the field. One of Ezell's lineman had some type of ankle injury. Who knows if or how long he will be out. QB was virtually decapitated on several plays and had to come out of the game at one point. He really got smacked a couple of times. Maybe the nfl preseason analogy isn't quite right. I will admit that. But if the QB had been lost for the year, I would have been called a genius. Sidenote: I thought Ezell hung in there pretty well. In the fourth quarter, this game was tied at 20 and was anybody's game. Goodpasture had 60-70 players. Ezell had about 40. Ezell didn't have enough depth as Goodpasture reloaded linemen all night.

Update from a Pro-preseason game: Last night, the Packers played the Titans. Brett Favre and Ahman Green sat on the sidelines in street clothes. After all, this game means nothing in their quest for the Lombardi trophy. Do you think Brett should have played? McNair was pulled after 3 plays too. Does that make Fisher stupid?

Don't get me wrong. I would really love to see these to teams both play their hearts out. This has the makings of a great game. I was just analyzing the practical incentives and potential negative consequences. I agree, Goodpasture has much more to lose. It is sort of like Vanderbilt playing MTSU. If MTSU wins, it is a huge upset. If Vandy wins, well they were supposed to win. Same thing applies here. Also, suppose that a total private / public split does happen. If that happens, Ezell Harding may have to directly compete with Goodpasture for the championship. This is a good measuring stick for teams like Ezell and CPA. I am looking forward to seeing these two teams go at it on Friday.

rollwhatever: believe me, I am not prematurely making excuses. Goodpasture may indeed be a better team than Ezell. My questions are: 1) is it worth injuring a key player, 2) shouldn't we save the playbook for CPA? Does everyone think that CPA played their very best against Goodpasture?

At first, I was excited about this matchup. But I really don't see anything in it for Ezell. If Ezell really tries to win, they will have to open the playbook and also risk injury. Is that really in Ezell's best interest at this time of the year? When I first heard that CPA got shut out by Goodpasture, I was thinking that CPA really dropped off. Then it dawned on me that CPA probably did not want to show too much. Should Ezell even try to win this game?

JP II had some noticeably good players. #69 looked like the second coming of Reggie White. Overall, JP II had quite a few more players. I think I counted 38 Ezell players suited up. JP II looked to have 50 or so. Maybe I am wrong though. I believe that JP II will be a pretty good team in 2-3 years. Interesting Tidbit: I heard a rumor that Goodpasture lost kids to JP II. I know, that sounds fishy. Church of Christ to Catholic??????? I don't know if the rumor is true. If it is, I don't know if it relates to overall students or just football players. Maybe someone can fill in the truth here.

CPA blanked? Well, maybe there is more dropoff there than we thought. Ezell plays Goodpasture next week. That should be a pretty good benchmark.

Listen up. The guys at the City Paper are much more objective than Murphy Fair. I won't read his trash.

Interpretation of disgruntled posters: "They didn't say anything about my team so they stink." To the contrary, the writers at the City Paper are pretty decent and usually scoop the Tennessean on big stories. They have had pretty good coverage of Nashville teams. "I can't believe they don't include hayseed Smyrna in the NASHVILLE CITY PAPER." I would venture to say that not too many sponsors/advertisers of the City Paper reside in Greenbrier or Smyrna. I thought they did a nice job on the teams in the paper.

The Nashville City Paper has a nice preview for middle tennessee teams. In fact, you can download the PDF file. http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index.cf...df#fallfootball http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/pdf/fallfootball.pdf Ezell's Randy Schlappi made the front page of the section. Ezell is predicted to finish first in Region 5 - 1 A by the city paper.

Once and for all: SCOTT SMITH - Carlton Flatt and all of these other rednecks have nothing on Scott.