swamp

As crazy as it sounds, Harriman has defeated this measure more than once recently. It will probably be like their liquor vote: they will keep putting it on the ballot until the result changes! To be honest, this is the first I had heard of school consolidation in 10+ years. What about you TigersFan? KEEP THE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS!

If you moved to 3A, would they make 4-3A an 11-team region? And, if not, will they realign regions for the 03/04 seasons? [Edited by swamp on 7/22/02 3:22P]

There definitely needs to be something resolved before 2004, that's for sure. I didn't realize my YellowJackets were so close to being 2A again! What do you think will happen with Clay County?

Consolidation is very unpopular in Roane County with the exception of Oliver Springs, and that's because most plans for said consolidation keep OS open.

ELA, if they know (or expect) that several teams are going to move up, couldn't they set the enrollment limits beforehand, so it would even out when they did?

Interesting. I didn't realize that. It is still in their power to deny a request to move up, though, isn't it? I just looked up the enrollments, and we're the 7th smallest school in 3A (not counting those with 2A enrollments). If Kingston were to have a 2A enrollment in 06, I'd say that's where we'd stay, since most of our rivals (Harriman, Rockwood, OS, Sweetwater, etc.) would be that size (Loudon is even smaller than us). For the record, if it weren't for Grundy Co, I still think TSSAA would have moved us south.

OS 91, if you get cable channel 12, watch a Harriman City council meeting sometime. It's funnier than comedy central. If Harriman is in such financial woe, why have they annexed into Midtown?

Hey, Goose, I'd be surprised to see any Morgan county consolidation, because its terrain is so rough. It's not a pleasant drive from any school to any other, with the possible exception of Coalfield to Wartburg, unless there's some back roads I don't know about!

OS 91, it ain't gonna happen. School consolidation has already been *soundly* defeated once, and would be again. How is it that every consolidation plan ever proposed keeps Oliver Springs as Oliver Springs, but the other schools are expected to combine? A more logical step would be to keep the community schools and re-draw the districts. Let's not forget that the county has spent quite a bit of money building new elementary schools and renovating the existing high schools. As for Harriman, I think that if Harriman City voters vote to turn Harriman City Schools over to the County, the County should, as soon as possible, have a vote to overturn it. Or, at a minimum, the county should do everything possible to make Harriman pay a large share of Harriman City Schools' liabilities.

Maybe we can convince York that they want to go back to 2A with Bledsoe and Sequatchie!... At what point does TSSAA say too many teams are playing up?? And why is it that all the 2A teams playing up are from the Upper Cumberland? If all these 2A-enrollment schools play up to 3A, then that changes the characteristics of both 2A and 4A. I know that TSSAA wants approximatley even distribution of teams across classes. If the 2A teams play up, then some of the 3A enrollees at the bottom will get classified as 2A, and the larger 3A enrollees will get bumped to 4A.

I would like to see some different teams on our schedule sometimes. I can't complain too much this year: we play 7 region games and 3 county games. We have played some games that I really thought were pointless in the past, Wartburg and Ooltewah (a Chatt suburb) come to mind. In the latter years of Coach King's tenure, he has seemed to play closer to home (except for Tyner occasionally).

I never played. Never had much God-given athletically ability, but even if I had, I don't think I would have had the family support. I think the Smith Co. games were 91 playoffs (I was a college freshmen), and then 93-94 regular season. I guess I misspoke about Chattanooga area. The Chattanooga area has its own district. I was talking about the teams you mentioned: Marion, Sequatchie, Bledsoe, etc. (I should have called it the Sequatchie Valley district and the Sweetwater Valley district).

ELA, it's been a long time since I've been on US 127 through Pall Mall. It's a windy mountain road, too, although I remember it being slightly better than SR 52. I think you'd probably lose time going that way, though.

Antwan, I hated going to York worse than I hated going to Livingston when we were in football region together, even though they were technically closer (although I do like that we swept them both 8-0 in that span). They took Kingston's charter buses to LA on Hwy 84 the first time RCHS played them. I can't believe no one told them about Hwy 111. Then again, I can't believe they took our buses to Lenoir City to go to Chattanooga (adding about 20 miles each way), or Marion Co (adding about 40-50 miles each way). But that's a whole other discussion...

I have driven it. I go to a church event up there in the fall sometimes... I also have in-laws in Overton Co, so sometimes I have gone that way. I have learned more back roads lately, so I'd probably still go Monterey-Clarkrange, even from Livingston, now... I think it might be quicker! I heard that there was construction on the interstate this year, so WLIV was telling LA fans to drive 52 to Portland. Not a pleasant drive from Livingston to Lafayette, but not so bad west of Lafayette, IMHO. Maybe they'll eventually build that connector!

Really? No one in our district (now district 4) seemed to feel that way at the time. I know your district hasn't changed much (except maybe adding Upperman) since then, but I think ours at that time was: Kingston Oliver Springs Harriman Rockwood Scott High Wartburg? Of that list, Only Kingston, Harriman, and Rockwood were reasonably close to the interstate. The good thing about playing your region was that 2 of three tourneys were at Tech or Cookeville High (now Avery Trace middle). The other was at Jackson County. I think 2 of 3 were at Kingston and the other at Harriman for our dist. The schools I always thought got the worst of that were Scott High and Cannon County. I've only been thru Woodbury once, and that was just b/c I wanted to know where Woodbury was. For the record, I liked your district being coupled with Chattanooga, and I liked ours being paired with Sweetwater, Meigs, etc. Most of the Roane and Loudon schools play Sweetwater, Meigs, Sequoyah anyway. When I was in HS in the late 80s and early 90s, we were coupled with Knoxville, as we are now, so I have a partiality to that arrangement. Of our current region, I doubt you'd want to go to any school other than Kingston from a travel standpoint, except maybe Lenoir City, and that might be pushing it. (Current 4AA: Kingston, Loudon, LC, And Co, Scott, OS)

ELA, why have you been going to Jamestown? Does Celina play York (or Oneida or Sunbright?)

Hey, Antwan, just be glad we're not in the same basketball region anymore! Nothing like driving from Huntsville to Gainesboro in the snow to play at 10:00 eastern time game! Or losing an hour before you ever leave home for you guys!

I know the route from Kingston, hehehe. I40 to exit 317. I've also been on SR 62 through Lancing, and SR 52 from Sunbright, before you go to all that trouble!

You never did tell me how many miles it was from 317 to AYI.

I'd only know whether or not you knew the best way if I knew enough of your personal history to know that you'd driven it. For all I know, you could be a 16-yr-old who just got his license. I also know my way around our region (and our basketball dists, too), and know that Loudon to Livingston or Loudon to York doesn't work, either. I think York to Portland, or LA to Portland, for that matter, is a ridiculous drive. York to Cannon Co is too. Either way, I don't like the way the regions are drawn, even though ours has very limited travel. (Scott High is our worst travel, and it's not that long a drive, but US 27 is awful).

By the way, 'twan, I would recommend I40 to exit 300 at Monterey, then Hwy 84 North a few blocks to Hwy 62, Then Hwy 62 East to US 127 at Clarkrange. That seemed to be the preferred route of everyone I knew from Fentress and Scott Counties when I was at TTU in the early 90's.

I'm not sure what figure you're using for mileage from the Crossville/Jamestown exit to AYI, but it would be about 73 miles from exit to exit from AE. It's roughly 35 miles, mostly city driving, from And. Co. to Kingston, so it would be 70 miles for them to Exit 317. (I guess AC could go I-75 North to Hwy 63 west, and go through Scott Co, and that might be closer)...Gibbs isn't anywhere close to any exit, so it would be even worse for them. I feel your pain with York... York is kind of like Grundy County in that they aren't very close to anybody. They are kind of close to Scott High, but that's about it. (It's easier to get from Jamestown to Huntsville than Jamestown to Livingston on SR 52). If the Lebanon-Caryville connector ever gets built, this will be a moot point. And, if your region was a manageable size, this would be a moot point. By the way, how did we wind up in this discussion? Oh, you said to put york in our region. Nah, we'll pass. Been there, done that.

Ego, Knoxville's CBS affiliate force feeds us the Titans all the time. Our FOX affiliate seems to prefer Atlanta, although they do a much better job of showing a diversity of teams. We do get rivalry games a lot for the late games when they show double-headers, though. And FOX most definitely will show the Colts if their game is a FOX game that week. I personally hate the Titans, but even if I didn't, I wouldn't want to have to watch the Bengals and Browns four times a year just to see them.

They may be closer to us than you (Smith Co, I assume), but that probably isn't true for Austin East, Fulton or Gibbs, and probably not for Loudon or Lenoir City. We and Scott High are the westernmost teams in our region. I guess they could create another region in the middle or something. Of course, if you didn't know already, I'm an advocate for 16-district brackets, anyway. That old region we were in was just stupid: LA, York, Scott, Kingston, Loudon, LC. Here's a possibility: Move Scott High west with York, LA, etc. Move Kingston, Loudon, and LC south with Sequoyah, Walker Valley, and Howard. Move Grundy Co. and Portland West. Combine region 1 with the KFL 3A schools. Would that east half be better for you? ...or we could just expand region 4 to 12 teams, in 3 groups of 4, and play a 3+2+2 format... [Edited by swamp on 7/20/02 3:13P]