formerblazer

Unless we see some changes in the local recruiting, that ship has sailed. Rest of the state has caught up and passed our orange and green friends. 5A looks better for them right now, 4A is becoming tougher and tougher.

I'm sure those 1's and 2's at Elizabethton will be more than happy to give up their position to the kid who is just transferring into the school his senior year. Nothing better than working your tail off for years just to give up your spot to a transfer. This thread is hilarious. Yeah that Witten Huddle has never been used to recruit, no sir. Elizabethton is a power house, winning breeds success, but come on let's not try and hide everything that's going on over there. Carter County All Stars are now the Carter-Sullivan All Star Team.

Well right now you have Jeremy Bosken as the head football coach there. Lakeway went through a few head coaches but it looks like they got a fit right now and they had a fairly decent crew to play football. I always thought that Lakeway was going to have a tougher time because there were so many other private and public schools competing for players in that area. TriCities Christian Academy, though, seems like it could just suck up kids, especially if they are willing to pay tuition for students who want to attend. That location is just a killer. You can grab students from DB, SH, WR, Boone, Crockett, TN High pretty dang easy. Come here, win championships, be awesome. Biggest thing will always be if they are winning championships but also if your child is able to get recruited. If they can establish that, bye bye best athletes. Not sure about a coach change, but I see it coming just because of the way Lakeway was with their first few years. You'd really have to throw money at the coaches to get them there. I also think you'd have to at least establish a few years of varsity football and people coming in. I think it would be interesting to see how many students they want in their school. If we are talking about grabbing 1000 9-12 graders from our area, you have a good chance to see a few teams drop in classification.

I think it depends on where they position themselves. If the immediately (not happening) had to play with the biggest and best of private schools, it is doomed to fail. If they position themselves in with the smaller schools at the beginning where the road to a state championship is easier by comparison, then yeah I can see them draining the schools in the area. Let's take a Unicoi County athlete. Great athlete, he's a football player, he is going to be really good. That's great, but if he is ever looking for a state championship that road is done in the 3rd round against Alcoa. Same thing with those DB kids, West Ridge, Boone, Crockett, etc. The only two schools in the area who have a fighting chance are Greeneville and Elizabethton in 4A, and heck that comes into question if a certain school decides to move up into 4A next go around. I really don't know much about the private school divisions, but it feels like you could throw together a Tri-Cities All Star private school and win a state championship. Look at what Jason Witten did down in Texas. Took him 3 years and sure, his name didn't hurt anything, but he got the athletes and I think the closest game he had this year was a 30 point win. I would think you could put together a team from our area that would be unreal.

Just to add a little something to the conversation, going by the 2022 numbers that were reported, DB is the 3rd biggest population school in the state and SH is the 5th largest. 6 teams in Region 1 so we are looking at trying to pick up 5 games that will help you be more successful when it comes to the playoffs. I'd say West Ridge will probably be 6A next classification when it hits, but I would say by 2027 their numbers will have them back down in 5A. Locally I'd say you can talk your Boones and Crocketts into picking up a game, Elizabethton and Greeneville want that too, After that you are having to head to Knoxville every week to find some games. 6A is rough in upper East TN. As far as extra games go, I'm not going to say those coaches don't want it. I'm going to give every coach in Upper East TN the benefit of the doubt and say they are working hard and want to be successful, but I think it is more fair if you just say they aren't doing a good job at what they are doing. It ain't a good feeling knowing you are going down to play some Region 2 team that even if you have a pretty good team, you just won't be able to compete. Should DB and SH be able to compete? Sure, I don't think any region 2 teams take either of them lightly tho.

That particular year 2018 was a close game, if the transfer horses would have come over you’d have the majority of the 12-1 kids back and some speed that would I would make a case to get past Knox County that year. Since then not a chance getting past round 3 in 5a.

We need you all to share the meal plans we got going on out there. I just remember looking at TA Dugger and they looked like 10th graders, those will be some great games in years to come.

It wouldn't answer everything but how many of those DB SH DB-2 kids are going to different schools? Also, when you have the Carter County and Greene County All-Stars it makes a difference. Hard to say what a difference it would make, but I thought a few years ago if those SH kids had transferred to Crockett you'd have had a group that could have possibly made it to State after a year where they went 12-1. 6A is just the worst for going far, kind of like 3A up here.

I'll tell you what's scary. Somewhere there was the TA Dugger 8th grade team posted from winning, well everything. Holy crap Elizabethton has a ridiculously big looking crew coming in. Give them a couple of years and yeah.... 2026-2028 you could be looking at an unreal Betsy crew.

You all just got a really good Coach. Reading this thread, if you all have the horses, Coach Palmer is going to know how to use them. This is a passionate, smart football coach who is going to get after it and do everything he can to get those wins. I was able to coach with him for one year and this guy is as smart as it comes. He's got Head Coach experience and is passionate about football. You all got a winner, just let him get settled in and you'll see results this fall. Congrats to you all.

Competition in our area is currently dominated by students who would rather go to Elizabethton or Greeneville where they figure they have a much better shot to win and go deep into the playoffs. When TriCities Christian Academy opens that campus at the Crossings I'm still convinced it'll just suck up all the athletes in the area. As of right now, as far as every high school in Sullivan County goes, DB would be the best one to attend.

I think Kingsport would be fine with an outsider, especially GQ. The thing that keeps making me chuckle is the way that people are talking about the DB job like it is the best high school job in the state of Tennessee.

Last I've heard, 80 acres have been purchased, twice the size of Lakeway, and they are just ready to get started building.

I read that and can’t disagree with anything you are saying. I do not think Boone beats West with their QB. That West team was unreal. As for 5A/6A in our area, when Tricities Christian Academy opens at the crossings, it’s going to become even worse for 5A 6A in our area. It’s going to suck up athletes from all over who, if you look at some of the lower numbered DI schools, can figure out pretty quick they can move over and win a state championship pretty quick.

Anderson, your offensive line is just unreal. Big shout out to the big guys up front they are giving that QB all day to throw.