orcats2005

oak ridge went 2-3-1

Congratulations on a great hire to the Oak Ridge Family. Looking forward to seeing what Coach Blade can do with the Cats. With the new season we have a new website. Be sure to check out the new oakridgefootball.net and continue to check back as I continue to update and add more things to the site.

umm... this is pretty easy. Jill Prudden from Oak Ridge. She has 850+ wins over her thirty year career at Oak Ridge. She is currently on a 27-2 season with strong State Championship potential. Prudden is a great coach that has a deep passion for the came in some many ways.

Yes, Knox West is a very good team, but a major factor as I stated earlier was that we were without our veteran post Kierra Johnson which would have done major things to help shut down West's big girl down low that had 25 points in the game. I am not trying to say that Oak Ridge is the almighty, just telling the facts of how they have been playing and what is going for them.

As a person that has seen every Oak Ridge game this year, I don't know how more people are not talking about them right now as a real possibility for AAA. As for our defense, it is greatly improving (especially compared to last year which you don't need to compare to since we have an entire year of experience since then. With the West and Clinton game, you can not judge our defense adequately since we didn't have our Senior Post Kierra Johnson. Coach Prudden will tell you that our defense has been far from stellar, but it is a constant work at practice and I believe that having a senior led team that has been to the state tournament two times, will greatly help prepare them for the road through the tourneys to get to the state.

Thanks! Continue to check back, I hope to add some more with the coming games.

Hey.. Just thought I would clear that up, for the West game David was still under the weather so we used a current Junior and Senior. The person that was doing play by play has done color for a little over a year and the person doing color has done less than ten games. Sorry if it was a little different than the usual call from David, but he couldn't do it. David will be back for the rest of the year, and started back with his calls this past Friday against Karns, so be sure to tune into prepradio.com again. And yes, as it was mentioned before.. everything David does is done by HS students learning the field Thanks!

Polls should just be taken for what they are. They are people that have more than likely never seen a team play judging them based on records. As stated by OmahaVol, how can Oak Ridge be ranked 2 in the SE but 4 in the state. The next USAToday poll comes out this Wednesday and I am interested to see the changes after the Christmas Tournaments. To show another way that polls make no sense, USAToday had OR ranked at 7th before the Christmas Tournaments for several weeks (ranking 25 teams). The ESPN poll did not have OR ranked in the top 50 until after their Christmas Tournament in Phoenix. While in Phoenix, Oak Ridge played a great team, Regis Jesuit, CO. They had 8 D-1 commitments and only 4 girls under 6'1" and yet they were not ranked at all. So yes, it is an accomplishment to be proud of making these national polls, but they should not be taken very far as to how good some teams really are.

From Oak Ridge... Raegan Thompson to Furman University Kortni Jones to Middle Tennessee State University

A great way to come out and start in this tournament with a win. We did play sloppy, but Jazzmin Hazzard and Quesha McClanahan both played great games each with 12 points. Kierra Johnson stepped up on the big stage with some key rebounds. After taking the lead in the second quarter, Oak Ridge never let go of it. We will have to play much better today against a very good and fast H.D. Woodson team. Their junior Point Guard already has major D1 scholarships as well as a 6'6" girl that did not play against Clover West yesterday, but could be back today. I believe that some of the big stage jitters are going to be gone today after winning a first round game. The girls had a good afternoon of rest yesterday and should be rested up for the game. Game time is 4:30 MST or 6:30 EST. Listen to the game LIVE on prepradio.com and Check oakridgebasketball.com for details from the game.

Coming off of a State Final 4 appearance last year only losing one senior, knew they would be a strong contender again. They have started off 5-0 beating Webb and two out of state teams. They are #7 in USA Today Poll. Is this the year to make it number four for Coach Jill Prudden?

Does anyone have a 08-09 basketball schedule for Clinton or Hardin Valley?

This is what happened at Blankenship on Friday night... http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee108/g...56/goalpost.jpg

The Wildcats did show some improvement from week 1 to 2. The offense came to play for awhile and we we didn't have to rely on the special teams. The problem that Cats faced was effort issues. After we made it 21-0 we laid down. That is what Coach Stevens told them after the game. He said that our O-Line stopped after 21-0 and didn't show back until late when they were able to wear down the Bradley D-Line pretty quickly. This was however a much improved Bradley Central team and hats off to them keeping us honest and making us play till the end. Overall not a bad showing, but going to need a lot more against our old friends from DB.

When looking at these teams, I think Oak Ridge is kind of getting overlooked. I have had the opportunity to see almost every game this year and I see a determined team with a lot of heart. They might not have had as tough of a road as every other team that is is in substate game, but no matter what right now they are one of sixteen teams out of the state that still playing and that has to say something. On Monday Night against Maryville the girls fell behind in the first half, but didn't give up. Coach Prudden is a great motivator and got them fired up at halftime and they came out and played Oak Ridge Basketball. They went for it and never looked back and are now the district champs, district tournament champs, back to back region champs and looking at possibly another trip to Murfreesboro. Led behind senior Tiffany Johnson and Juniors Kortni Jones and Raegan Thompson I really like the team I have seen this year. They have been getting great work from Kierra Johnson down low and Jazzmine Hazzard as well. They love to play the run and gun and that is what gets their opponents. They may not led the whole game, but they will be at the end because they just tire out the other team.. I really like the Lady Wildcat's chances this year and look forward to a great substate game and hopefully another state tournament apperance next week.