KevB1990

Seems like a good place to jump in...being the former SID for Rutledge High School... The Rutledge records, trophies, All-State recipients plaques and so on now reside at Grainger High. The Lady Pioneers (now Lady Grizzlies) made two previous appearance at the TSSAA State Tournament. 1977 (or 78, forgive me I've been in Ohio for the past six years) and 1998. They made the Final Four of the 98 tourney. The 77 team was coached by Curtis Wells, who is the great uncle of one of the current team members. Doug McBee (yes the father of the "stache") coached the 98 team and he is also the great uncle of the previously mentioned team memeber as well as the uncle of another one of the current members. A lot of family ties are with this particular bunch. I'm sure I'm forgetting some other notable ties that while they didn't play in the State Tournament, they were important in the history of Grainger (Rutledge) girl's basketball. Also, head coach Justin Combs' father Ronnie played on the only Rutledge boy's team to make it to the state tourney...he played with A.W. Davis on that 1959 team. Like I said a lot of family ties. Grainger County is tight-knit and boy do I miss it!

I'm glad the fans and parents of Grainger haven't given up on the team. They've always travelled well. You can expect that when they get things together and get back to winning a few it will be an even bigger following. This move to this classification plan came on the heels of losing a 3-year starter at quarterback and I keep hearing about injuries and kids quitting. I've not gotten to talk with anyone about the team except the AD a time or two, but I would say it's all about the inexperience factor either by attrition or necessity. We've seen this happen on occasion. My advice to everyone...get the Grizz while they're down because things won't always be like this. And to Claiborne...you guys have really surprised me this season. I really thought you wouldn't make it out of Rebel Hill victorious, but you did so the winner-takes-all district title is up for grabs next week. I still think Greeneville is going to win it, but at this point I won't be surprised if they don't.

For the record Kev.....I am not a WG fan....but its an off week for Greeneville and I thought after 2 W's in a row, the Buffs could pull it off. I knew you weren't a WG fan barb...I've seen your posts in the Greeneville threads before. 2 W's yes, but against a second year varisty team and a rebuilding Cloudland. I wasn't thrilled with the prospects of Grainger starting 0-3, but I felt like WG well-wishers were getting a little to boisterous in thinking the Grizzlies would let them run all over them.

LOL! Losing to Grainger? WG fans forgot who their team really was until last night...probably shouldn't have been talking like they were going to romp all over Grainger. It had been about 4-5 years since West Greene played Rutledge and it's been 15 years since the Buffs beat Rutledge/Grainger. The streak continues and thankfully for Grainger it was a district win. Some of the woofing mimicked the way Cosby fans were yapping last season when they were undefeated coming in...and the result was the same. Thanks guys...I'm sure all the chatter fired up coaches and players during the last few days. The young Grizz needed some added motivation as if losing two a pair of KFL schools wasn't enough. Anyway...good luck the rest of the way, but keep the expectations on an even keel.

Yeah...OK...this will be the year that West Greene has any shot of beating Grainger/Rutledge in the last 15 years...so if you're gonna do it you'd better.

All I got to say about this one is...YIKES!

I read the account of the jamboree in the Sun and Grainger had more interceptions than first downs...not going to beat anyone doing that in a quarter's time...especially not a team that's historically played up in class all these years and has been moderately successful to boot.

TSWA team won't be announced until after their convention in late June - early July.

Skylar is going to walk on at UT. He's a Volunteer through and through. I hope he gets his scholarship as a sophomore.

That's not totally accurate. The county is now an open zone and there were a few kids that started coming over from Washburn. I'm not sure if many if any decided to play any sports during the year, but the word is more are planning on attending Grainger in the fall.

Good...so we'll start a new thread when the tournament comes around. I'm tired of the ump issue.

Word is he really enjoyed his official to Santa Clara and he fits their style of play. Word also is that Bobby Cremins wants him pretty bad at College of Charleston and is shocked that no other big schools have signed him. Telling words from a man that's coached quite a few NBA players and been to the Final Four. And Wake Forest is crazy...taking a foreign guard that just had double knee surgery and a JUCO guard no one else seemed to want. Good riddance to the Deacs.

My, my, my...when it's close it has to be the umps...and at Pigeon no less. Grainger really must have a lot of clout everywhere they go...

Agitator is from the other side of Clinch Mountain and his schtick is pretty harmless most of the time.

It may be different now, but the run rule has been a "gentleman's agreement" most of the time. The only place I've seen a 15-run rule applied at any point is in slow-pitch softball. My hope is the winning team used a different pitcher every inning and played his entire lineup.

You'd better calm it down buddy boy. You have no grounds to make such accusations and furthermore you're pushing the language restrictions for the board. I'll let you slide on it if you cease, but know this; I will delete any other posts that are inflammatory and lock this thread so another one where civil discussion and debate is expected to be used can be started up. And I did read your previous post on hometown cookin...you're obviously setting up spin in the event that Grainger beats PF at Grainger. I guess in your mind the idea that kids from Grainger beating PF is totally unacceptable so there has to be an excuse of some sort...so you pull out hometown cookin. New to the board or not you're not endearing yourself to many folks...you're trolling and flaming on here so I suggest you stick to relavent discussion and not try to drum up a baseless accusation. Anyone can lose at any time.

LOL! That's rich. Home-town cookin' goes on lots of places and is the OLDEST EXCUSE when a team loses to someone they think that they shouldn't have. I'm as guilty as the next one for letting my emotions get carried away over officiating, but in the end it all evens out. Now then, PF has a dandy record and has played some biggies, but D-B and Bearden ain't Farragut and Science Hill. As it is the end of the schedule being loaded for the Grizzlies is a tough order of business, but I imagine Coach Bishop and Coach Tate will have them ready.

I think Grainger will be fine. There have been better Rutledge teams most likely, but this Grainger team will be just fine in the end.

Someone needs to post the rest of the schedule on here...AHEM...Coach Bishop!

District for the blind eh...where is this "Pigion Forge?"

Seedings are impossible. The AP Poll is extremely biased and since the teams in the West don't play many if any teams from the East and Middle then there's no way to correctly do a seeding. And let's not get computers involved with some sort of formula to get a seeding. Also impossible to be accurate. Do a geographical bracket where the state is split up into four quadrants (as best as can be done) and then do NE vs. SW and SE vs. NW. Or SE vs. SW and NE vs. NW. Something that will give every team a neutral court chance at winning.

Comment: BLIND DRAWS MEAN ANYTHING GOES! End of Comment.

If indeed...the board opted not to put in lights on either of the diamonds as well as not pave the track at the stadium. Leave it to our fine folks in Grainger County. We finally get a new school and instead of finishing it up right they whack some stuff out of it last minute because "there's not going to be enough left in the budget to finish it all." News flash...the price tag was that high because this thing is at least a decade past when it was needed and less than 10 years since all the renovations to all the county schools were done as a "cure-all." Had this been done right the current middle school (old high school) would be a little bit smaller, but still serviceable for a good number of kids to attend grades 7-8 as well as leaving a lot of other things alone at the two schools on the east and west ends of 11W...and saving the county 5-7 million in funds they could've used for this project...that doesn't begin to touch the fact that years ago no one thought to include central heat and air in the schools which was the big issue in the early 90s and cost another big chunk of money. While I love Grainger County and would rather be there now than here in Cincinnati some of the decisions made in the last 35-50 years have been awfully short-sighted...but I digress.

Just saw where the gap has closed some this past Monday. Beating the top teams in Region 1 each by six while are still wins are not indicative of dominance. Both sound like they were good games. Plus as we have been trying to get across to you for some time now Greeneville has been a AAA school playing a predominately AAA-heavy schedule for a looooonnnnggg time. They've played against the likes of Science Hill and Dobyns-Bennett in their regional tournaments and have managed to make it through to the state tourney a few times. Dropping down in classification to AA (which they have been at enrollment-wise for many years) gives them an automatic competitive advantage. True it helps if the coach is competent and you have some kids that can get it done on the floor, but tougher competition for years makes Greeneville one of the pre-season favorites in the sectionals next season.