DII Champions

[WayneCO68]

I know Coach Grannon pretty well, he told me that FACS only lost 1 starter from last year and he was expecting them to have a fair team for all of D II. Pretty amazing you guys only lost one starter. Also, I have seen both Rosemark and FACS play Middleton, and I'll probly end up at the Arlington games since I know so many kids from arlington. Coach Grannon also said, FACS had a good senior TE and a good senior TB. Who are they?

[CrsdrFootball]

I know Coach Grannon pretty well, he told me that FACS only lost 1 starter from last year and he was expecting them to have a fair team for all of D II.  Pretty amazing you guys only lost one starter.  Also, I have seen both Rosemark and FACS play Middleton, and I'll probly end up at the Arlington games since I know so many kids from arlington.  Coach Grannon also said, FACS had a good senior TE and a good senior TB. Who are they?

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The TE would be Will Fruitt, he's gained about 15lbs since last season and has put about 40lbs on his bench. He has college potential. The TB is Hunter Carter, whose speed has increased dramatically. Our line this year should be a whole lot better then last fall. They've gained a lot more strength then they had last year. We had a disappointing season last fall (7-4), we were hit extremely hard by the injury bug. I don't think we had all of our starters except for maybe one or two games. But we are looking to have a much better season. Aug. 26th our season starts against Arlington.

 

What is Bishop Byrne suppost to look like this year? I heard they got another guy that can be compared to former player, Charles Hampton.

[WayneCO68]

They are apparently going to start a freshman quarterback who has very quick feet from what I hear. Not sure how well he can throw but I know he is fast. How many returning starters does Rosemark have this year? What positions have to be filleD?

Edited June 29, 2005 by WayneCO68

[ubankit]

Rosemark lost Hanks as QB and Porter and Gish, 2 receivers. There are plenty of receivers left that are as good and got a couple good rRBs. Line is much bigger this year but Hammonds was lost and he was good. Got several QB's to fill for Hanks - will probably juggle some. I don't see much changing except got a bigger stronger line and perhaps not quite as much passing. Hanks had experience and was very good so his spot as far as passing will be hard to fill. But backup is good and I think will do the job for us. Byrne is always good with lots of speed and all. They are fun to play. FACS will do good and SBEC will be better. Don't know about Davidson and I think St. Georges will do good to.

[Heartstopper]

glad DII A is getting some board time now but what about DII AA?

[ubankit]

I am not sure how many St. Benedict lost. Last yr was the 1st yr in sometime that they had stepped up and I would think it would depend on who all they lost.

BGA is always a good team and I don't know anything about Ensworth. I have not heard about any "greats" from Harding or ECS this yr but they could have some. From reading on this site on other posts, Pope John Paul looks to have a good team and Knoxville Webb has had some post too. So I guess it could be anybody but taking a wild guess I would say as follows:

 

Pope John Paul

BGA

Knoxville Webb

St Benedict

ECS

Harding

 

Never heard of Ensworth so I just will put them last but hey maybe they are first, just don't know. I think that is all in Div 11 A since Briarcrest moved up.

[cbg]

Ensworth has been a K-8 school up until the 2004-05 school year when they added a freshmen class. They have made plans to add one class per year to the high school. Give Ensworth and Ricky Bowers 5 years and they will compete for a state championship. Their facilities and coaching staff may be better than any school in the state and with a few more athletes they will be very strong. With David Pack the admissions director and Ricky Bowers as the AD this school will soon become the BA of the 80's.

[ubankit]

Ensworth must be in a ritzy neighborhood. Goodluck to them in football. Are they competing in the playoffs since they only have 10th grade added then this year if I understand it from your post? Or will they wait and compete when all 4 grades are added?

[Manzikert]

Ensworth must be in a ritzy neighborhood.  Goodluck to them in football.  Are they competing in the playoffs since they only have 10th grade added then this year if I understand it from your post?  Or will they wait and compete when all 4 grades are added?

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I think their schedule this year is a mixture of varsity and JV games. I know, for example, that they're playing Harding Academy from Memphis in a varsity game, but they've got some games againt JV teams as well (Ryan, for example). So I don't think they'll be eligible for the playoffs this year,but that's no big deal, becuase with just 9th & 10th graders they wouldn't have had much chance of making the playoffs anyway. I think the objective for this year will be to gain experience and build character-- if they beat somebody, great,but I wouldn't expect any sort of power house.

[rollredroll]

Ensworth has been a K-8 school up until the 2004-05 school year when they added a freshmen class.  They have made plans to add one class per year to the high school.  Give Ensworth and Ricky Bowers 5 years and they will compete for a state championship.  Their facilities and coaching staff may be better than any school in the state and with a few more athletes they will be very strong.  With David Pack the admissions director and Ricky Bowers as the AD this school will soon become the BA of the 80's.

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I usually agree with almost everything you say in here, cbg, but I'm not sold on Ensworth becoming the BA of the 1980s. While I think Ensworth's athletic program will be a quality one, the football program will have three barriers as it relates to mirroring BA's football teams of two decades ago:

 

1) a much more prohibitive tuition structure at Ensworth;

2) seemingly tougher admissions standards; and

3) much tougher competition.

 

As for competition, while I think BA's teams in the 80s (and early 90s) would have been successful at 3A (vs 2A, in which the Eagles played), they won a lot of their games versus relatively weaker competition, vis-a-vis the teams Ensworth will be playing (MBA, BA, MUS, et al.). But, Ensworth will certainly become better quicker by playing those teams (and I'm sure EHS will move up to DII-AAA eventually, as Ricky is on record as saying he wants to play at the highest level).

 

The Ensworth High campus certainly is nice, as I hear the football field is actually regulation size (I know our 7th and 8th grade games played at Ensworth Middle in the early and mid-80s were played on an 80-yard long field with no goalposts)!

Edited June 30, 2005 by rollredroll

[Manzikert]

I usually agree with almost everything you say in here, cbg, but I'm not sold on Ensworth becoming the BA of the 1980s.  While I think Ensworth's athletic program will be a quality one, the football program will have three barriers as it relates to mirroring BA's football teams of two decades ago:

 

1) a much more prohibitive tuition structure at Ensworth;

2) seemingly tougher admissions standards; and

3) much tougher competition.

 

As for competition, while I think BA's teams in the 80s (and early 90s) would have been successful at 3A (vs 2A, in which the Eagles played), they won a lot of their games versus relatively weaker competition, vis-a-vis the teams Ensworth will be playing (MBA, BA, MUS, et al.).  But, Ensowrth will certainly become better quicker by playing those teams (and I'm sure EHS will move up to DII-AAA eventually, as Ricky is on record as saying he wants to play at the highest level).

 

The Ensworth High campus certainly is nice, as I hear the football field is actually regulation size (I know our 7th and 8th grade games played at Ensworth Middle in the early and mid-80s were played on an 80-yard long field with no goalposts)!

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I think you're exactly right about the factors that will make it tough for Ensworth to be anything like the dominant force that BA was in the 80's--- I also agree with your comments about the competition those BA teams faced-- I've often wondered whether we'd have the split today if BA had played up to the highest classification, which was clearly justified by the number of SEC prospects most of those teams had--- we'll never know, but I do know that they poisoned the minds of a lot of rural coaches (a key constituency in the TSSAA) by going into places like Milan with long proud traditions and beating them 40-0 with a team that then had 6 guys sign SEC scholarships--- then when they had those really great teams in the mid 90's and stuck it to Riverdale, there was no good will for them anywhere, and I think HS sports, esp sports other than football, have really suffered as a result. Water over the dam now, but its too bad, in my opinion.

Turning back to Ensworth for a minute, I can also say with absolute confidence that nobody associated with the school at a decision making level has the slightest interest in becoming what BA was in the 80's---- there's a lot more emphasis on having an academic program that will enable kids to get into top colleges than anything else---- and as far as admissions standards are concerned, in both of the last two years Ensworth has turned down some kids who were accepted at MBA, USN or Harpeth Hall for the 7th and for the 9th grades, and I don't believe they've taken any kids that those schools turned down-- so-- yeah, "seemingly higher admissions standards" is an accurate statement, but its MBA, HH and USN that they"seemingly" exceed---they leave BA's admissions standards, in the 80's or now, in the dust. That will make it tough to compete in athletics, but they do have great coaches and great facilities (and btw, they've had a regulation football field, WITH goal posts on the middle school campus, for 15 years-- although your memories of the early 80's are accurate)---- but the goal, just like at MBA, HH or USN is to aspire to excellence in everything you undertake, to have the best teachers and the best coaches you can get and give the kids the chance to be the best they can be--- if that's a 9-1 team, great--- if its a 4-6 team, then be sure you compete hard to the final whistle, behave like gentlemen (or ladies) , shake hands and leave the field as friends--- that's what all of this ought to be about anyway. Sorry for the long post.

[rollredroll]

That will make it tough to compete in athletics, but they do have great coaches and great facilities (and btw, they've had a regulation football field, WITH goal posts on the middle school campus, for 15 years-- although your memories of the early 80's are accurate)

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I'm out of the loop, but really shouldn't be as I've passed Ensworth Middle's athletic fields dozens of times. Those fields are practically high-school level fields.

 

The 80-yard field was classic. Unfortunately, my memory doesn't serve well enough to remember if illegal procedures were penalized five yards or four.

Edited June 30, 2005 by rollredroll