The [{RUMBLING}] Raider

Sounds like a great game! What did you guys do against Bradley the other night?

Walker Valley picks up a district win in extra innings against Ooltewah 3-2.

Overall, there have been very competitive games among the district. Yes, there have been blowouts, but overall there has been good ball. The seeding off the regular season results are nice, but anything can happen in the District Tourney, especially this year. Lets not forget that a (15-19) Rhea County team handed a solid Walker Valley team a loss in the tourney last year.

The District 5 AAA tournament will be very competitive, I don't think that anybody would be guaranteed to go a certain length in the tourney. Soddy Daisy, obviously appears to be the frontrunner for the District again, but I think there are a few teams that could create upsets. After Soddy Daisy, it's really scattered. The one thing defining the district is that all of the teams show flashes of being great, then turn around and be the completely opposite the next. No consistency so far.

Cleveland is in a very tough situation now. Losing their starting quarterback for the season, and having to replace him with a freshman is a huge loss. Then you have to rumors looming about two transfer players, supposively from Soddy Daisy. The rumor there is that they do not have a permanent address in Cleveland. One of those transfer players if of course their running back Mobley. That's a huge hit for Cleveland. If he is ruled ineligible then the 2 wins they have will be forfeited, which could could leave Cleveland to another losing season, and the worst season in Cleveland history... for the 2nd year in a row.

Cleveland returns plenty of players with experience. At least 10 starters, and at least 6 that were rotated in a lot in varsity games. Didn't Rhea County move up to 6A?

I think Cleveland will be very interesting this year. I believe that it could go two way, they do very good or they're mediocre. Cleveland returns four senior offensive linemen, several skill backs, and three defensive linemen. The inexperience part of Cleveland will more than likely be the linebackers. With a new coach at the helm I think Cleveland may actually live up to their hype, which is something they have not done in a while!

Definitely agree that it is a surprise to see all of the Chattanooga AAA softball teams are staying home this year. That never happens!

From what I've heard, Slaughter is going to keep the veteran guys of the Cleveland coaching staff which will definitely help him along the way. I wonder who the defensive coordinator will be... I've also heard that an assistant from Red Bank is coming to Cleveland.

Definitely Agree. /thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" />

The kid transferring to South Pittsburg is Coach Wilson's son, so obviously that makes sense. From what I've heard the players like the coach and the system he runs will more than likely keep everybody at Cleveland.

I believe he already did have a couple of championships from Riverdale before he applied, but that's besides the point, I agree that we need to look towards the future with Slaughter. I've heard that Cleveland will hold spring practice sometime next week. It should be interesting in seeing who will be on Slaughter's Staff; I've heard that he's bringing an assistant from some school with him to Cleveland.

Cleveland fans definitely feel that this was a long, unorganized process, but are happy that Slaughter is coming to Cleveland! How successful will he be?......only time will tell, but he will definitely be able to breathe new life into a program that has been unsuccessful as of late.

From what I've heard, Cleveland is already aggressively going after another coach.

It's already happened 3 times. Gary Rankin, Benny Monroe, and now Ron Crawford. Who is this certain coach you speak of?

I feel very bad for the Cleveland football players. They have a solid, hard-working junior and senior class with many starters on both sides of the ball.... that being the case most of them are bound to Cleveland and can't transfer. Cleveland could very well lose young players to other schools if something doesn't happen quick. I honestly feel bad for the Cleveland upperclassmen, because obviously Coach Wilson made his decision for the benefit for himself and had no consideration for the players that put alot of time in under his program. /dry.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="

I would like to see them go after someone with a offensive background; Wilson had so much talent last year, but squandered it by not getting the ball to all of his skill players ...... The Raider faithful definitely doesn't want to see that again.

Definitely, hopefully we'll find out what Cleveland's next steps are this week.

E.K. Slaughter of Soddy Daisy, already told Cleveland that he has no interest in our program. Cleveland is definately in trouble. They only have one coach that could be tabbed as interim head coach and he does not want that, so that is not an option. They want a good, credible head coach, but no good coach is going to screw over their program like Wilson did to Cleveland by resigning in the spring. Cleveland might have to go after a young assistant coach.

RC turned it down this morning.

I definately agree with this statement. I've heard that this job has drawn some out-of-state interest, so that could definately be the next step. I don't believe Cleveland has any other candidates from southeast Tennessee.

With this confirming that Crawford has declined, I would have to believe that Cleveland will have get rid of the thought of landing a coach with state championship experience. This makes it much more interesting; they obviously won't have spring practice and summer workouts are just around the corner....

Very true, but Cleveland wants to return to that level and I really don't believe they are patient enough to wait with a younger coach Anyways, I'm not holding my breath with the chance of hiring Crawford. Who are we looking at as our other candidates for the job?

If Crawford WERE to accept this job, news of this would NOT come out until Monday. This would allow Crawford to talk to his players as well as allow Cleveland to talk to its players. If news were made official Sunday, it would make everyone around Brentwood think Crawford is a jerk for telling everyone else his decision before them. So if Crawford WERE to accept this job it more than likely WON'T happen before Monday, allowing Crawford to leave on good footing.

The people conducting the search at Cleveland, have clearly stated they want somebody with State Championship titles, so of course they were going to take a chance at some long shots.