BigFly

Why is somebody that lives in Karns going to Alcoa High School? That's over 20 miles one way. If Alcoa pulls in players from that far away, it's no wonder they keep winning the AA championship.

Just let one of the seniors be a player-coach. Looks like William Blount might have to go this route.

Here is the text of the rule: All-Star Games Section 23 (a). No student shall be permitted to participate in an all-star game unless it is sanctioned by the TSSAA and unless he/she has completed high school eligibility in that sport; ( no individual player is allowed to participate in more than two sanctioned all-star contests during the school year; and © any student who fails to comply with the preceding requirements loses athletic eligibility for a period of time to be determined by the Board of Control. This rule reflects the present NCAA rule involving all-star games and is designed to parallel those regulations. An all-star game is defined as any contest (where admission is charged either directly or indirectly) in which one or both teams is composed of players selected from two or more regularly constituted teams. This regulation does not apply to summer baseball and girls softball. Any all-star game beginning after March 1, 1997, and involving TSSAA athletes must be sanctioned by the TSSAA. A filing fee of $250.00 is required for the game to be considered for sanctioning. If the game is approved then an additional approval fee of $750.00 is required. If the request is denied, then all fees shall be refunded. This fee is required for games involving groups not affiliated with the TSSAA and only upon initial application. No member school shall permit use of its equipment, facilities, or of its employees, directly or indirectly, in the management, coaching, officiating, supervision, or promotion of player selection of any unsanctioned all-star team or contest during the school year. Read the first sentence again. It says that you can't participate in an all-star game unless it is sanctioned by the T$$AA. Further down you will see that it costs $1,000 to get sanctioned by the T$$AA. No fallball game will ever get sanctioned. Now read the definition of an all-star game. The 50% rule ensures that the teams will be "composed of players selected from 2 or more regularly constituted teams." If you interpret the rule strictly as written, any fallball game will meet the definition of an all-star game, and that all-star game will not be sanctioned. Therefore, by rule 23(a), no TSSAA athlete can play in it. I'm not saying that this is how the TSSAA will treat fallball, nor have I heard anybody else say this. I'm just saying that if you interpret the all-star rule as it is written, they could say all fallball games can cause you to lose eligibility.

Because of the Sonny Gray situation, I went to the T$$AA rules. Here is their definition of an All-Star Game. "An all-star game is defined as any contest (where admission is charged either directly or indirectly) in which one or both teams is composed of players selected from two or more regularly constituted teams. This regulation does not apply to summer baseball and girls softball." Therefore, if you form a fall team from 2 or more schools to obey the 50% rule and play in a tournament where admission is charged, will the T$$AA define this as an all-star game? We all know it is not, but it meets the definition as stated. The T$$AA is really a joke. If there is money involved and they can't get a cut of it, they make it illegal.

I have heard that they don't have an open teaching position at WB, so they can't get anybody to take the job.

When is the 1-2 roster going to show up? I have been told that about half of the kids on the team played for the 2 coaches, and 2 were the coach's sons. Many others never tried out, but were on the team, and one was a sophomore to be. I thought this was mainly for rising Seniors. Many in the East are not happy with the way this was handled.

I am not a SD fan, but I have seen many District 4AAA games over the past few years, and I saw the SD v. DB game on Friday. My observations on DB are based only on this single game, so they may be somewhat skewed. DB was not as good as I expected. I watched them warm up and take the field, and I never thought "these kids look like they can play". Looks can be deceiving, but they just didn't give me that feeling that I was looking at a special team. The DB pitching, on that night, was way below what I expected. I expected to see elite level pitching. What I saw would have been 8th or 9th best in District 4AAA. The pitching on short rest experiment failed miserably, because the starter was throwing cheese that would have gotten ripped by most above average hitters. The fielding looked like DB was not used to having balls hit hard at them. Both infield and outfield play looked very suspect. The main thing I never expected from DB was that they appeared to fold after the first inning. Maybe that goes back to losing this game several years in a row, but it happened. I was seated very close to home plate and I didn't see that dogged determination in their eyes. It was like "here we go again", let me get my 3 swings and hurry back to Kingsport. All of the above can either come from a mental thing, coaching, or just not being used to this level of competition. I will let the DB people figure that out. Also, I believe you can be extremely fired up and refuse to lose without cheering like a girls softball team. Several of the SD players have played together in the summer for several years. They have gone up against the East Cobb's and the best players at their age in the world. If DB players are not doing this, don't expect to compete successfully with those that are. With all this said, I don't want to take anything away from SD. Loaded teams like that only come around once a decade or so. Without 2 injuries, they would have been even better. I hope they make the most of it.

I was thinking more of a hair-pull'n, eye-goug'n wrestling match. The batting cage would make it like a cage match, nobody can run. Plowboy could be the ref to help even things out.

I'm not making any predictions, but let's say that DB loses and travels to SD or WB on Friday. Let's put 1moreDBmom and ihavenofriendzz in the batting cage for a best 2 out of 3 falls, loser leaves CoachT match.

OK. Back to the 4AAA All District team. The team was listed in today's Knoxville News Sentinel, and I was amazed. 26 made all-district, 18 made honorable mention, and there were 4 "best's". That makes a total of 48 players. If you assume each of the 8 teams has 12 kids that see significant playing time, that is 96 total players. That means that 50% of the starting players in District 4AAA got some mention. That is way too many kids. I know that 10 years from now all 96 starters, some subs and some kids that weren't even on a team will supposedly have been all-district in 2007. However, shouldn't the actual numbers be cut back to make it a real honor?

OK. So we have the entire South Doyle team and a couple from Sevier County. Who else is a part of this secret society? Don't they ever put the list in the newspaper?

Is the all district team some kind of secret club? Are the players who make it told, but then sworn to silence?

Who made all district in 4AAA? Has it been in the newspaper yet?

I heard that the 2 umpires in a Maryville game last week almost got into a fight on the field, with each other. They had to be broken apart by the coaches. Does anybody have any details?

First of all, what does the height of the umpire have to do with the strikezone? It should be based on the batter. Second, The fairest thing to do would be to attempt to call the strikezone as defined in the rules. Finally, when I say 4 inches off the plate, I am talking about the inside part of the ball being 4 inches off the black. Now that I seem to have some umpires attention, I have some questions: Do you actually try to determine if a pitch was over the plate and between the knees and letters for a strike to be called? If not, what method do you use and why? Would it be that hard to try to call the strike zone as defined in the rule book? Do you have your own unwritten rules such as "catcher drops ball no strike" or "batter leaves box early on obvious ball is a strike"? How long have you been umpiring, and are the complaints getting worse? I am not saying that umpiring is easy, and I do not expect absolute perfection. I know you get blasted by many people that have no clue what they are talking about, wear hot equipment and get beat to death by foul balls. $40 is not enough for me to seek that out and give up my time. I just expect those who accept the job to know the rules, apply them consistently and hustle to the correct positions. I know you can't be on top of every play with only 2 umpires. However, I think you have brought alot of the grief on yourselves with the variable strike zone. You should be able to tell on a fairly consistent basis if a pitch crosses the plate or not, but you are asking to be blasted when the standard is close enough. What would a basketball game be if the refs could rule that the ball rattled around the rim long enough, the basket counts.

This is my biggest problem with umpires. The strike zone is not set in the first couple of innings, it was set back in the 1800's. The rule book defines the strike zone and nobody should have to adjust to it. The plate is there for more than just touching to score a run. Chin high curve balls and ankle high fastballs in the opposite batter's box are not strikes. 2" out turns into 4" out, and as Blue gets closer to his $40 and a free hotdog, you better be getting out the fungo bat. If the batters and bats have gotten too good, widen the plate. Don't let each ump decide their random definition of what is close enough.

That is what the 1.7 multiplier is for. If Catholic went on raw student numbers, I think they would play single A.

I just want to make sure that everybody knows Anderson County is not just a little AA team from Norris. About 1/2 of the kids that see most of the playing time don't live in the school district. I'm not saying that any TSSAA rules were broken, I'm just saying that the playing field is not level. Before you jump on the privates that choose to play as a D1, they face the 1.7 multiplier to help even things out. A public school that somehow has kids come in from all over as freshman is just like the privates, but they don't get moved up by the multiplier. I may be naive, but high school sports should be about a coach taking the kids that actually live in the school district and making them into the best team possible. If people want to physically move into a school district for sports, then I say this is a free country, but the ability to jump districts freely just makes things too easy to manipulate.

So does that mean you only have recruits from Knoxville, Clinton and Oak Ridge?

If the winning stops at Anderson County, the fact that so many out of district players have been brought in might cause problems. As long as the winning continues, things will be fine. However, if the losses start to mount, I can't believe that some in district parent won't resent the fact that their son is playing behind some kid that lives in Knoxville.

I guess Lockwood has moved on, so maybe you can make it through the season this year.

Your posts sound alot like the ones last year by 40yearoldvirgin. Whatever happened to him?

William Blount's playing surface is good. Their lights are terrible, and you can hit a wiffle ball out in right field.

Seymour pitched their ace, Keoneman. Heritage pitched a freshman, and a sophomore that normally plays JV. A few hits + several walks + a couple errors + 4 HR = 11 Seymour runs 1 hit + few walks + no errors = 0 Heritage runs

Here is the definition of recruiting from the TSSAA Handbook: Section 17. The use of undue influence on a student (with or without an athletic record), the parents or guardians of a student by any person connected, or not connected, with the school to secure or to retain a student for athletic purposes shall be a violation of the recruiting rule. The transfer before freshman year is in the definition section under Transfer Student: A student who must change schools because he/she has completed the highest grade at his/her previous school is not considered a transfer student and is eligible to participate in athletics at any school he/she attends, without further approval, provided he/she satisfies the residence requirement above. So, you can go wherever you want as a freshman under the transfer rule. However, if a coach asks you to come to his high school that you are not zoned for, that would seem to be a violation of the recruiting rule. There is a team in this district that needs to go DII, but it is not CAK or Catholic.