lasal2000

Hello Fellow Shelby County fans! It's been a while since I was last posted, but I wanted to give my quick assessment of Whitehaven!. Overall, I was impressed with the POTENTIAL of this year's team. I believe that they have the POTENTIAL to be better than last year's team! Negatives: Poor tackling at times - There were multiple times when the Whs defenders could have tackled the MHS running back in the backfield, but somehow missed or arm tackled and allowing the running back to make a play for a gain. However, the good thing is that the WHS defenders got there to make the tackle. I suspect that the coaching staff will fix that problem for the next game and games to come. Defensive Line questions: - There were also some times early in the second quarter that Mitchell run through the WHS defense. However, later in the game they made adjustments and limited those attempts. Again most of the gains by Mitchell was due to mised tackles and a VERY SLIPPERY RB. Defensive Back questions: - There were a few times when the Whitehaven's DB got burnt on the deep ball. Luckily on those attempts the were overthrown or dropped. Furthermore, a couple of times there were pass interference calls due to the DBs trying to make up for being burnt by Mitchell's WR. Positives: -Line Backers I believe that this Line Backer Corp can really be good this year. They are bigger, and seem faster compared to last year. And keep in mind that I am including the Defensive Ends in this assessment. - McMillon (DE) is a BEAST One of the most AGGRESSIVE defensive ends I have seen in a long time. Could stand to gain about 5-10 more pounds of muscle, but still very beast-like. -OFFENSE Has the potential to be more explosive in every position (except RB of course) compared to last year. They have 2 burners at RB, Good physical receivers, and of course J. WIlliams at QB (who was very accurate vs. Mitchell). I really like the tag-team tandem of lightning fast RBs. I do believe that Warren #8 will get more reps in the future because of his ability to break more tackles per attempt. Overall, the game was kinda messy which is expected from the first game. I expect and hope that a lot of the wrinkles are worked out for the next game and games going forward. My only concern is that I hope that Whitehaven's OC will not limit these athletes and be conservative in their playcalling. If they open up the playbook for this offense, then I believe that this offense can be VERY hard to stop! Looking forward to this year's team progression!!!

MY POINT EXACTLY. THE OC FOLDED UNDER PRESSURE! WE ALL WERE THINKING WHY IN THE WORLD DOES HE NOT RUN. AND WHEN WE THOUGHT SURELY HE WOULDN'T THROW IT AGAIN....HE THROWS IT AGAIN... AND AGAIN. I REMEMBER THE SECOND HALF OF THAT GAME OUR STAR RUNNING BACK WAS LOOKING LIKE, WHAT THE HECK!!! THE OC BECOMES COMPLETELY UNCONCIOUS UNDER PRESSURE!

OH YEAH!! WE'RE COMING FOR YOU MARYVILLE! In all seriousness if we did not FIRE our offensive coordinator from last year then we will be limited regardless of how talented we are. There has been TOO much talent on our teams to be so conservative. The OC freezes under pressure and limits the talent tremendously every year, frustrating! I have been preaching it forever and hope they have done something about it!

I attended the classic kinda of late so I don't know what the outcome of the Westwood game. However I believe Fairley def. Hamilton 20-6. And the Whitehaven/Hilcrest game was a massacre. I left at hafttime. Whitehaven was up on Hilcrest 45-0 AT HALFTIME! Whitehaven accually played the B-Team midway in the second quarter. I will say that from what I saw of WHS- If the playcalling continues to be aggressive instead of conservative, Whitehaven will destroy people with their offense especially their passing game. THe QB displayed superior accuracy and arm strenth. He (#15) was like 7 of 8 from the field. He scored on the first or second play of each every possession so he didn't have much opportunity to throw more. However, the times he did throw we was VERY affective. Whitehaven's defense will not miss a beat, they are SMART and agressive. Actually, there secondary seems to be stronger (I believe they returned everyone from the secondary). Now I know this was against inferior competition, but I see the same team from last year's semi-final team. I do not see a drop off in any postion. As I said if they the offensive coordinator continues to MAKE AGRESSIVE CALLS AND NOT BE TOO CONSERVATIVE when he is faced with real competition they have the opportunity to make it to state! Anyone who attended the game what was the final Whitehaven/Hillcreast game?

Heard that Whitehaven DOMINATED MUS in a scrimmage recently. Anyone know what happened. Also, what happened in the Whitehaven's Jamboree game vs. Ridgeway? Just now getting abreast of the new season after the summer break. Where's my Memphis fans!

Question for Smyrna fans. I have not seen Smyrna play, but is Smyrna a team that focuses more on the run or the pass. Because one insight that I can tell you about Whitehaven's defense is that hardly no one will be able to run against this Whitehaven defense, except maybe South Panola. And even S. Panola may not be able to pile on the yards against this stout run defense.

Didn't attend the game. Can someone tell me did whitehaven utilize the passing game or did they play it safe and run the ball all night, with an occasional long ball. If did not use the short passing attact to open up the offense, then the coaching has not learned the obvious fact that so many other fans realize: Being one dimensional=another exit in the 3rd round. This play-it-safe attitude from the offensive coach WILL be the death of this season, book it. THey will not be able to bully every team in the state, PERIOD. THey have the ablility to throw short passess efficiently and allow the opponent's defense to ACTUALLY THINK. Instead, the coaching staff or the play caller for Whitehaven cannot see this obvious fact. I am a huge Whitehaven fan, but I just cannot understand this for the life of me. Someone pleasseee tell me I am not going crazy here! Anyone else agree they should mix up the passing attack in order to be successful?

As I have been saying all along. Whitehaven needs to FIRE the offense coordinator. There is WAAAY too munch talent on the offensive side of the ball for the offense to struggle like is has. The offensive coordinator is wayy too conservative and predictable. WHen did whitehaven become a one dimensional team?!! Throughout whitehaven's past, we have always been very balance with a strong passing attack with great recievers. The last couple of years has been nothing close to that! I am upset at the preformance by this WHS team showed last night, and yes I did watch this game in person. Although Melrose won fair and square, the playcalling and decisions made by the coaching staff was not surprising. MOst coaches around the state would kill for the D-1 level talent that whitehaven puts out year in and year out. I want to make 3 points that seems very obvious to everyone in the stands, but not to the WHS coaching staff: 1). The passing game consists of more than just throwing the ball deep to the fade!! WHenever they show a glimpse of the short passing game or slant type passes, they are very successful and sometimes unstoppable. However, the key word is WHEN. Most passes are long deep fade passess that more often than not are intercepted or thrown way off target. 2). Find more creative ways to get the ball in the hands of the most talented players whenever possible. The RB tony jefferson is one of the most talented RBs I have seen in a while. Because of the offense being so predictable, most times he is keyed in on even before the play develops. He often has to work for every big play himself. 3) USE MORE TYPES OF MISDIRECTION PLAYS ON THE OFFENSE. Trying to overpower every team we face is not going to work. There are some teams that match us lb for lb. One thing that I have noticed, especially with the white station offense is their ability to use misdirection to throw the defense off and maximize the production of thier talented players. One thing that WSHS did that killed the WHS defense was had the WHS defense Guessing all nightlong! NOt only did they have the WHS defense guesing, they had the entire crowd guessing what was going to be the next type of play. WHS offense= run, run, long ball pass. The Melrose loss did not surprise me one bit. I knew if melrose was a running team, we would win big because I knew we had an all state level run-defense, and we still do. However, I knew that if melrose was a great passing team, then we would struggle. I have noticed the secondary coverage has been suspect all season long. Again not because of the player, but because it seems like the coaches never practice pass defense. I am a big WHs fan, however as long as our playcalling remains as it is, we will have an early exit in the postseason. If the coaches smarten up, then we will see the full potential of a sleeping giant.

CAn anyone tell me the status of Whitehaven's RB injury. Is it serious and what did he hurt? Also I was not able to attend the game, but it looks like the offensive playcalling was one dimentional once again (only 38 yards passing?!!!--Are you Serious!). WHitehaven fans or Mitchell fans, give me a synopsis of the game.

Here is my synopsis of the WHitehaven vs. CBHS game on friday: CBHS From what i was able to grab from the game is that CBHS has a darn good run defense. The WHS RBs could not break lose most of the night. The WHS backs had some success running on the outside, however the inside was pretty much closed. THE offense of CBHS was totally shut down by the WHS defense, they were not able to run the football efficiently all night. There were some plays through the air that seemed to work (short passing plays to the corners) for CBHS. To the credit of the QB ,there were a few droped passess that were on target, which came at crucial times of the drive. All in all, the bright spot i saw from this CBHS team was the run defense which was wayyy above average. Whitehaven: First, the WHS run defense was just as stout as CBHS's defense. Both schools possess huge defensive lines and great size LBs. Great overall defenses on both sides (which is no surprise). Now here it is WHS fans: THE OFFENSIVE PLAY CALLING WILL KILL THIS WHS TEAM. FIRE THE OFFENSE C. RIGHT NOW! (No offense to CBHS, but this game could have easily been 40-0 had the playcalling had not been so freakin predictable) All the offensive weapons for the tigers are not being utilized!! Im cool with them using the wildcat offense, however they only used 2 freakin plays the entire night: Shotgun> run with RB, and Shotgun> run with QB. It was very painful to watch becuase everyone in the audience knew that they were not going to overpower the CBHS front line. THere were a time or two when they tried to mix it up in the 3rd and 4th quarter. When they mixed it up, they were VERY successful and seemed to maximize their speed and talent. It seems in the big games the playcaller seems to play not to lose and not play to win, very conservative. Im a huge tiger fan and I support the staff at WHS, but they need to wake up and FIRE the playcaller, because he will cause the tigers to underachieve once again. With the caliber defense the tigers have and the athletes on the team, we should be blowing people out easily. On a side note the tiger's defense actually played very smart, fundamental football. Good luck to CBHS and WHS on a succuessful season. By the way the atmosphere at WHS stadium was very good. Due to the long history between CBHS and WHS, it was obvious that both teams had a healthy respect for each other. Great game!

Hats off to the Fairley and Whitehave community for a great high school football environment: Here is my spin on the game. As you know the tigers pulled out a W with a score of 38-6. Here are a few things: Fairley: Pretty impressive QB with accurate arm. Showed signs of inconsistancy at times when pressure was applied to him from the WHS defense. With time I think he could be a pretty solid QB later in season. Fairley can be a solid team, not great, but solid team in time. THier passing game was I would say one step above average with speedy recievers and a strong armed QB. Whitehaven: THis WHS team looked like one of best tiger teams in a while. THeir defense is just as stout as last year, however the coaching staff has revived the electric WHItehaven offense of old. I mentioned before the WHS offense now is ran through the freakin shotgun and seems more like a spread offense. There are many weapons that this WHS team has that will cause fits for other teams. However, I was most impressed with WHS offensive and defensive line. THey are very big, strong, and pretty much bullied the Fairley line all night. Overall i beleive this team can do something special and will go far in the postseason if everyone stays healthy. THis is a 4th round team if the coaching staff is up to par by postseason time. White Station Fans: We saw that yall let that RB from Ridgeway gain 200-300 yards on the defense. I hope for your sake that the coaching staff corrects that by next week. Because the WHS running back (remember the name Tony Jefferson) is an absolute beast and will be ranked a top RB by season's end, book it! Anyway looking forward to a competitive game with the Spartans on next week.

Who ya got my shelby county folks?

Okay one observation from the Whitehaven vs. Hamiliton game. Now I know this is against lesser competition, however WHitehaven looked pretty darn GOOD and Crisp on offense last night. Everyone knew that their defense was pretty stout, but I was very impressed with the way they ran their offense. The biggest problem about their offense last year was thier CONSERVATIVE and predictable play selection on offense (run, run, pass every series). However in the Hamilton game, they were a lot more creative and liberal ( which is very encouraging as a WHS fan). One thing specifically: they played from FREAKING SHOTGUN all night!. Every since I have followed WHS they have run plays through the I formation. THis new shotgun formation almost looked like a spread offense, which was very productive. Now all of this said, I do realize that the competition was Hamilton. But for Whitehaven to put up 53 pts has to mean something positive for the potential of this very talented WHS team. Also: Watch out for WHS starting runningback. With his size and speed, he is going to be a problem for opposing teams in the open field.

How are they looking?

THese 2 teams are atop the shelby area poll, so my questions is who would win if these two tough teams played. For those who have seen BOTH teams play. Since both teams played a very good melrose team maybe Melrose fans can give their opinion (whitehaven 13-6 melrose vs. Mus 13-12 melrose). Me being a whitehaven fan I will have to give the edge to WHitehaven ( maybe im a little bias). History seems to be on WHitehavens side between the two teams. I believe that in recent years when these teams played in the Briges classic, Whitehaven was undefeated vs. MUS. Now I know this years MUS team maybe be better than recent years but just something to think about.

As a whitehaven fan, I have to say the one thing that makes me very nervous about this game is the QB Toney. I was at the game last year and he just gave us fits with his ablity to avoid the tackle and throw the strike. I mean there were times where the WHS defender had him in their grasp and he was able to escape and throw for the first down. Two bright spot for whitehaven is that WHS really should have won by more than one point. First: Whitehavens starting QB did not play vs. Melrose last year. He was injured in the white station game the game before. Second: Melrose could NOT move the ball vs. the WHS defense consistantly all game. Melrose's lone score came off of a whitehaven turnover deep within their territory. I am very nervous about our offense-particularly the QB. Although he is good, he has never played in a game like this. The mistakes he made allowed Fairley to creep back in the game two weeks ago. IF he plays effectively, we will be ok. IF he plays like a young QB, we will have a hard time with melrose. Melrose will not run on whitehaven, they are too stout on defense, however their secondary is somewhat suspect. Be on the lookout for the CB/Safety for WHS. #1 GENE ROBINSON. Ranked as one of the top CBs in the nation per rivals. He will make some noise-literally. OTher than him the other CBs are not tested and this makes me nervous. My final prediction: Whitehaven 13 Melrose 12.

This will be a great game! Two of the most dominant team in Memphis going head to head in the heart of orange mound. KWC, TraderB, and memphis fans please share who you got!

Anybody knows how did WHitehaven look against EASt in the Jamboree? Score?

Another note for the game, watch out the heart of WH defense-the LBS. Three Dynamic LBs #2,#5, #1 (heavily recruited). These LBs are fast and will hit you in you mouth if you try them. They dont miss many tackles and they cover fairly decent. Also, be on the look out for the safety #27 Gene Robinson. He is an awesome tackler, I have watched me play since last year. I have NEVER seen him miss a tackle. Many have tried to shake and bake him- the RB from whitestation, players for melrose and others. He always tackles his man. I agree that this will be a great game with lots of hard hits. I really hope that the WH coaches mix it op on offense, they will need to in order to get the W.

I am so thrilled to see that hightower will be back for this game, he is a real game breaker. I have seen millington play in the past and their complex running plays are my biggest concern. I think that WH defense will not be overpowered by any team in the state but I think that if the WH coaching staff can figure out the wing T, then we will win. If we can not do a good scouting job, then millington will win. I think it is that simple.

I too am exicited about the WHS-Millington game. Two questions: I know millington can run the ball, but how is their passing game-below avg, decent, good, or great? The second question is for my WH fans, the star RB #8 Hightower for WH has been injuried in the last 3-4 games, how is his injury and will he return for the millington game?

I was able to make the long trip to houston for the game. ANd man am I glad to have gone. The game was amazing if you were a Whitehaven fan. Whitehaven fans came out and filled the stands, I was actually shocked that many WHS fans showed. WHS has all the peices to become a legit state contender. This team as great skilled players on both sides and the will to win, which seperates this group from recent WHS teams. Now the game seemed closer than what the score was. Houston is a very good team that seemed to just wear down later in the game. However, WHS did have a part in that. a couple of factors that i think was key to WHS victory: 1-WHitehavens defense in the second half was very aggressive, I mean some the hits they put on houston made ME sore. 2-Whitehavens running game was very much improved vs. houston. I was impressed not only with the star RB #8, but the other backs made strides also. 3- WHitehavens work ethic was just impressive, I mean they seemed to not take one play off, they swamed the field all night. One more thing KWC, Tank #1 is back and he is relentless. Sadly if there is one small weak spot for Whitehaven, it is there pass defense at times. Houston exposed a small weakness with slants down the middle. I definately hope the coaching staff for WHS correct caught that as well. All in all, great game and a huge win in a hostle enviornment. Also, great game houston fans, you have great team. I would not advise any other team to take you guys lightly. I cant wait to see what happens when White STation plays yall. Go Tigers.

Alright, I thnk this is going to be a heck of a game. I have not seen houston play much, but I have seen my whitehaven team play several times. It seems like everyone with the exception of KWC is forgetting about whitehaven's DEFENSE. Whitehaven's overall defense is very, very stout. For those who went to the Whitestation game, WhiteStations OFFENSE only scored 7 points on whitehaven's defense. White Station scored on an interception and a field goal. So I hope the sake of houston, they dont underestimate what got whitehaven to a 5-1 season. I agree, I think that Whitehaven's offense as a lot room for improvement. THe offensive playcalling for whitehaven is in my opinion key in order to be successful this season. Another question for my whitehaven fans, has whitehavens allstar linebacker back in the line up?

I dont know much about Independence, but I do know that if yall are a decent football team you should have no problem with East. They used to be a power, they have a couple of golden balls won back in the late 90s early 2000s. But lately they been a little below average. Although they may have a few athletes that you shouldnt take lightly.

First I would like to say that melrose put up a great fight last night and I think they have a solid team. However, I read the article in the Commercial appeal and there was no mention of Whitehaven's injuried starting QB. I think the team should be acknoledged for beating a great melrose team without thier general. WHS offense suffered greatly and was not able to play even close to there potential offensively. The QB seemed to be very timid and did not produce through the air at all. Melrose did not see the true potential of this WHS team. I don't mean to be a bad sport, but WHS was forced to run about 90% of the time because the backup QB was a hazard- and I believed the melrose staff knew this. Anyway a win was a win and I am glad we were able to pull it off. As far as the RB controversy at melrose, there should not be any. #34 is by far, head and shoulders better than #32. Both defenses played great however, I want to say that this WHS defense is the best defense I have seen in a long time. To hold melrose they way that they did was just awesome. Melrose's only score was the result of a gift from WHS punter whose knee touched the ground from a low punt and melrose was able to receive the ball on the 2 yard line. After about 3 attempts the melrose QB was able to punch it in for a TD. It is good to see WH come through in big game situations and I hope they continue to work. Melrose has a good team, I believe the X-factor is their QB. Toney is a big time player and i knew this coming in. We weren't able to stop him, but we were able to contain him. Anyway, what are yalls your thoughts?