Yamba

Kortni Jones is a very good freshman from Oak Ridge.

Pretty sweet. But no! He changed it.

I'm betting that Ooltewah will have a great year next year, maybe even better than this year. They will be pretty talented. Farragut has the possibility to have a good run too. Sterling looks pretty good out there on the field. Now, what about the Reveiz brothers? Were they both seniors? If any of them come back, they'll be looking for blood next year. I don't see McMinn, Bradley Central, or Heritage going anywhere. It could possibly happen with McMinn though. Not too sure 'bout Soddy-Daisy or William Blount, though if W. Blount is losing a lot of seniors, that could be detrimental. My predictions for who makes play-offs: Oak Ridge, Farragut, Ooltewah, and Soddy-Daisy/ McMinn And then maybe the top three teams will have the potential to move on to the 2nd, 3rd, maybe 4th round. I don't see another region 2 5A team in next year's championship though. Just too much talent being lost this year. I hope I'm wrong though.

No kidding! The fact that I was a senior and that Saturday was my last game hit me like a brick wall a few moments after it ended. Now I can't even go into my school without knowing how soon it's all going to be done. What a weird feeling.

Oak Ridge won over Powell.

i think oakridge should be num 1!!1111! Er... just kidding. Must suppress hometown bias. Looks great. Except I do believe Dobyns-Bennett has two t's. I've never figured out whether that hyphen that I always put in is actually in the name itself though. Oh, and I might put Ooltewah higher. I think they did excellent this year. ...I just realized. I am proud to be part of Tennessee football. I mean, come on, if a team like Dobyns-Bennett is at the bottom of the top ten, we have some pretty awesome football teams in this state. And that's just 5A. I don't want to start a TN vs. TX football debate or anything haha, but I'm just saying, I would be proud to be part of any football team on that list, even #10.

I really loved the Melrose band. They were small, but played loud! Their bass drummists were excellent, and the brass section was good too. Just thought I'd throw that out there to any Melrose band people who may be reading.

Beautiful. Pretty much sums up what I feel right now. Next year without high school football is going to be so strange.

Hahaha, no worries.

Whoa! That's an awesome picture! What's that from?

Thanks. I'm proud of DB too for having such a great season when no one really expected that much. You were a young team and yet still pulled off some pretty good things. So next year when I'm following high school football from whatever college I go to (fingers crossed for Oberlin ), I fully expect to see DB kick some butt!! Roll tribe indeed! But always too: Roll Wildcats Roll! I bet next year's Oak Ridge/Dobyns-Bennett game is going to be a good'un.

*woman But thanks!

I’m a senior at Oak Ridge High School, and you guys can talk all you want about game stats and errors and penalties and who’s classy or not. You can call Oak Ridge classless, Riverdale classless, BA classless, whatever. But what it boils down to right now is that my seniors and their seniors have worked so hard to get to where they are now: countless practices and hours spent on this. Literally: tears, sweat, blood, all of it. And same for the band and the cheerleaders and the trainers. They’ve all worked hard. I have been to 54 games over my whole high school career. 54! I stopped to think about it today, and it’s mindboggling. I remember getting ready for all the home games. How many of those did we have? 30? Goodness. Blankenship’s an awesome place to play. I wouldn’t trade it for anything, not even Neyland Stadium. There’s the woods in the background, and the kudzu up by the practice field, and the hills, and that annoying dog you can sometimes hear barking, and the train call, and the wildcat call. I loved how closed in it felt. I loved the stairs and the big, long line at Big Ed’s. I loved watching the football players bounce before they tore through the signs. And I loved watching them sing the fite song and pretend-direct to the band after they were victorious. And then the away games: countless hours of fun on the bus. I loved seeing different places in Tennessee. Tennessee’s a gorgeous state; it was great having the opportunity to traverse it. I think my favorite ride was to Soddy Daisy. We had to take a lot of backroads, and the scenery was so beautiful. I loved experiencing how different schools experience football. It’s amazing how different it is from stadium to stadium, but yet the excitement’s always there. I liked the atmosphere at Dobyns-Bennett especially-- great place to watch some football! I also loved Heritage football games because you can always see some cows in the distance. That was always pretty amusing, watching guys pummeling each other in the foreground and then seeing cows complacently chewing in the background. Through it all there’s been heat, cold, sadness, happiness, anxiety, laughter, rivalry, fun, joy, love, companionship. That’s what life’s about right there, all those emotions. Being with your friends and experiencing it all. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I used to not care at all about football. I thought it was a pretty stupid game. But after immersing myself so fully in it, and seeing all that can come from “just a sport”, how can I not love it?? It’s really hard knowing that this is my last season. And Spencer’s and Revel’s and Tyler’s and Jake’s and Ben’s and Josh’s and... oh, all of them. It’s their last season. Last game ever. Maybe some will call us classless and losers and whatever, but I know those seniors out there. And they are definitely not classless. And they definitely deserved every win they got this season. I hate that they lost this game. But... one of my friends gave me some very wise words today that are so true: “What always redeems the loss for me is the knowledge that the other team’s band, the other team’s parents, and the opposing football players are all incredibly proud of themselves -- our passion is not gone because of a loss, it has simply been transferred. Perhaps they feel doubly proud because they beat such an incredible team. Tonight, it is their turn to rejoice, and they get to experience what we have felt all year.” I really wish my senior class could’ve brought home a gold ball to Oak Ridge. I really, really, really do. They deserved it. But my friend is so right. And now Ravenwood has their first championship ever. And they deserve it so much as well. So here’s to all the seniors, from Oak Ridge, Ravenwood, Riverdale, Farragut, Clinton, wherever: I am so proud of all of you! What you have accomplished is amazing. Keep your heads up. Congratulations Ravenwood, you guys proved you know how to play football. And I’m glad for you; I really am.

Haha, Gilmore. It's Gulmire and don't forget that when he's trampling all over the raptors!! Oops sorry, had to get some smack talk in there. That's out of my system now. Oh, but #33's name is Daniel Johnson. He's in one of my classes at school and he's just as nice as he is good at football. Just thought I'd throw that out there because I don't think he gets recognized as much as he should. Anyway, can't wait for tomorrow's game!!! It's only 27 hours and 47 minutes away!! Good luck to both Wildcats and Raptors. You are both really great teams, and this is going to be one awesome game.

You're probably thinking of Lost Old Dad, a definite Riverdale supporter.

Man, check out that picture. What STUDS! haha Congrats again to all of them for the honor of being finalists and for leading their teams to at least the semi-finals! Maybe there's argument over who should have been the winner (putting one above the others DOES seem like such a shame in this case), but the fact is all of three of them definitely deserved to be finalists. Congrats to Mr. Gaston Miller!! And to Spencer and TC!

Well, if you're going to switch who you're cheering for just because of one person's comment, then go on ahead. I assure you, Oak Ridge does not need nor want that kind of superficial support.

I too would've like to have seen Spencer win. In my opinion, he was the best of the three. However, I am biased. Both Jennings and Miller are very fine players. Really, they all deserved to win! I'm kind of glad in a way though that Miller won. It sort of works out: Jennings and Spencer get to go to the Championship and Miller gets the Mr. Football award.... That's not to say that Miller wouldn't rather go to state (I'm sure he WOULD rather go to state), but at least all of them walk away with something, which definitely doesn't usually happen. Anyway, congrats to Mr. Miller, Mr. 5a Football Back Champ!

I will be there on the field during the 5A game, playing my hardest... with the band, that is.

You got that right! I know of at least a few times where I saw a Riverdale guy help up one of Oak Ridge's players. It was very good to see.

Wow! That's pretty impressive, going from 3-7 to 13-1 in just two seasons! And they only started in 2002?? Maybe we've got another powerhouse started?

Terrific crowd last night! Check out the home side: http://orwildcats.smugmug.com/gallery/994812/10/45985374 And that's not even counting the hill, the band, and all the people standing along the fence!! Great atmosphere; I loved it.

Mmm, let's see, there were a few. They had a couple on the far fence; I forgot what the first said but it had a good drawing of a spear shaft or something and then the second said something like 'the gulmire show stops here' which I got a big kick out of since even if we had lost, there's still Conner next year. And then there was a huge one on the little fence around the field. Forgot what that one said, something about state championship. And then some fans were holding up some... there was one that said 'beat oak ridge' and then another person nearby had one that said 'again'. That got my blood boiling just a little. They were all really good. I loved those signs. And Riverdale had also put some school colored flags on their side of the stadium. Amped up the atmosphere a bit, I thought.

Thanks for coming on out and cheering for us! What a great game to sit on the home side. It was soo exciting. And hey, Oak Ridge beat Riverdale by the same amount that they beat Dobyns-Bennett. Anyway, I thought Riverdale was terrific. You could tell that tonight wasn't their greatest game which is kind of a shame, but they'll be back in action next year. Good job guys! I loved your signs... really added to the excitement a little, I thought. I was kind of disappointed as well when some of the Riverdale people started leaving early, but traffic can be a bear, I guess. GREAT JOB WILDCATS!!! I'm so proud of you guys! Good luck next week against Ravenwood.

Amen. Good luck on Friday Cats!!!! Go beat those Warriors!! And then bring a championship home. You can do it; I know you can.