Bleacherbum

Indian, you hit the nail right on the head...its more about parents "ego" than any child that I have ever seen transfer. High School ball means nothing as far as college coaches are concerned. parents want to brag that their little girl played in, or maybe won a state championship

Since the topic is who to watch "this" year, cant count Mashburn. She isnt pitching this year. Include her for next year.

Must be getting senile in my old age, but when did Warren County ever become a stronghouse?

yes, I saw a number of frost-parker matchups, especially in the mid 90's when they had a few nashville area girls on the teams. Also played against them too

Indian, I have seen quite a number of summer games. Been involved with travel teams for 15 years playing in chattanooga

Cat, just hang in there, maybe your day in the sun will happen. It just gets to be hard especially if you come in 2nd, because the other area schools are getting better, and then there is always riverdale to contend against in the sectionals if you cant get past soddy.

Indian, no problem...I have just been watching softball a long time and it just amazes me that chattanooga area teams forever have hated, and criticized each other all those years, and not realizing that the other parts of the state are catching up to, and in some cases have surpassed them. Being from middle tennessee, you very rarely see other schools downgrading coaches, and players as much as the chattanooga teams do, and I think that is why them, along with Knoxville have gotten better over the years, cuz they support each other.

who did both teams lose to?

Cat, I am also taking this is a fun way. yes, i was referring to Thomas as your only real threat at hitting. She may make more outs than she does hits, but most girls do, or they all would be hitting above .500. She is the only one I see that has the talent to become a good, consistant hitter against quality pitching, which may be why the owls never score much against the good pitchers. The other girls seem to get overpowered by hard throwers. I never said Ooltewah wasnt a good team, but a good team wont make it to state in your district. You have to be better than good.

Indian, shows you how much you know...I am not a soddy supporter, nor do I live anywhere near chattanooga.

Sounds like Capt. Kirk to me

Cat, remember when I told you after the Brentwood tourney that if you couldnt beat the teams you lost to there, you wouldnt beat Soddy?..You said ya'll were a different team this year. There werent any internal problems as in the past years. If you wanna hang with the big boys, you gotta learn to score. Except for your pitcher, I dont see very many bats. Yes, Red Bank did win the state last year and they earned the title, but at least Soddy got there.

Goodpasture should make it to state, and Marshall county has a quality team that should make it. Winner will probably come from middle tennessee or chattanooga area

looks like Soddy still has the owls number, even though Catbiddle implied that this was a different Owls team this year. Looks the same to me. Catbiddle, why arent you crowing now?

I've seen great coaches yell, and great coaches not yell as much. However, all great coaches yell at one time or another. And any girl that plays for a coach that never yells, and she wants to play in college, she better get used to yelling quickly or she will fall apart on the college level. All college coaches yell, because its a business at that level. And as I have heard all my life, the day that a coach quits yelling at you, is the day he has given up hope on you. The more he/sshe yells, the greater that he thinks you will become.

kenHawk, I totally agree with you. Most of the people who complain about stats not being submitted are the egotistical parents. There is no reason to be submitting stats to the paper every week, except maybe team stats such as won-lost records. At the end of the season, most major newspapers will ask for stats when selecting all-star teams, and that would be the only time necessary for making public that information so the players can get rewarded after the season, and not during it. I agree that most college coaches dont ask for high school stats because they dont feel high school ball is a very good indicator of a quality player. They are interested in grades, character, and work ethic. The only stats they might care about are those from playing competitive travel ball, which is much tougher than high school ball.

I thought it was a pretty good list of teams. I imagine if there are any teams being overlooked, its because they dont play in some of the big tourneys. All of those teams listed play in all the big tourneys year in, and year out. I know of one pretty good team, but they dont play in any tourneys, so how are they going to be judged if they dont

its the mid-state top 10, regardless of classification

From what I heard, Mashburn did quit because of playing time. There are not enough softballs to go around for three quality pitchers, but other than that, it looks like from what I saw that all the girls on the bruin team get along. The loss to Ravenwood didnt mean anything. Its hard to judge a team in those limited inning tourneys. ravenwood scored when they needed to, and Brentwood had some injury issues.

If you cant score against Brentwood Academy, and Siegel, then you arent going to beat Soddy

Ooltewah didnt beat anyone the entire tourney...they went 0-3, while only scoring one run...Mahre started for Brentwood, with Lott pitching in relief

single elimination just finished round one....ooltewah lost to siegel, brentwood lost to ravenwood, forrest lost to lipscomb, wilson central lost to mt juliet, ravenwood beat overton

I think its a pretty good proposal. A high school sport should not have to be a year round ordeal like some coaches make it out to be. However, one rule that isnt being proposed that would be better for softball would be to play it in the fall. That way, the travel girls could just take up where they left off from the summer, and it wouldnt take as long to get prepared for the season, and most of all, you might avoid the tornados that come along in the spring.

sba, my case exactly...I know sba has some really good talent this year as well, and if not mistaken, one player is going to an sec school...good luck

I have coached and been involved with more girls getting scholarships than you have even seen play, so dont go making judgements on me. I have been involved with many girls playing in college, and also playing for top 20 teams, and there is not a coach in the top 25 that I havent talked to over the years, so dont tell me that I dont know how they operate...when you learn about college softball, then come talk about it