Should Top Teams in the State Play other top programs

[rigger101]

Some top programs in TN have stepped out of their comfort zone and played other top programs in the State and have traveled or invited other top teams in the Nation to play at their stadium.

Is this good for TN Football and should a power like Maryville try to do the same?

Edited October 3, 2005 by rigger101

[ambiguousrock]

Of course it is. If you play the best, you will get better. Who cares if your team might lose 1 or 2 games because you play the state champion of another state? It makes your team better and eventually will make them more of a competitor when the playoffs roll around.

[redupset]

The goal of any school or program should be to compete for a championship.

It could be a District, Conference (IMAC), Region or State Championship depending on the talent, resources, tradition and recruiting budget at a given school.

 

Difficult to argue with the sucess of Maryville. They are not afraid to schedule powerful programs -played Morristown West (my team) in the regular season a couple of years ago. There responsibility is to compete in championships. Historically the LADY VOLS BASKETBALL team in the interest of helping womens basketball would go anywhere and play any team. That was good for the sport and did help womens college basketball. Much more difficult to raise high school football across the state because of limited media coverage. To my limited knowledge COACHT is the only outlet covering high school sports from Bristol to Memphis. Football interest in Maryville needs no external boast other than the continued success of Alcoa and Maryville and the continued improvement of Heritage and William Blount.

 

It is true that some teams go out and take on teams from outside the region. Many time when a program does that they do not know what they are getting into. You do not know the level of play for an out of stste opponent. What does a victory over Swain County North Carolina mean to the fans of Morristown West. Many fans would prefer a victory over Morristown East, Cherokee or Greenville. Swain has aprogram stronger than many local rivals, but I work and go to church with fans of these rival programs. Would a UT fan cherish a basketball victory over Iowa State or Kentucky. Winning a football game over Boston College or Alabama. Realizing that varsity football games are played on Friday nights- do we want players getting home at 12:30 or 1:00 VS getting home at 3:30 or 4:00. Plus the late night return of fans. Parents of players will travel no matter the distance-but as a fan I would not be able to take off a 1/2 day of work and drive 4 hours to watch a regular season game (Coach Don Woods lead us back to the championship game and I am there.)

 

MARYVILLE @ CENTRAL

Maryville does not need to go to Trigg County, Kentucky to face stiff competion or a big game atmosphere. I skipped the Morristown City Chapionship for the first time in over 20 years to watch the game in Fountain City and a LITTON'S burger.

 

BOTTOM LINE

Maryville and Coach Quarles have bee so successful that people have having to look awful hard and deep to try to find a bone of contention.

The goal of Maryville football is to win championships----end of discucussion.

[ridgeway rowdy]

Teams out of Memphis are doing alot of this. The last two years Ridgeway has gone and played at Rogers Arkansas which is one if the top programs in the state. And Germantown and Carver have bothed plyaed South Panola this year.

[fan360]

It sure is....not only dose it make your team better but brings in HUGE gates...everyone wants to see great teams play each other

[rigger101]

It sure is....not only dose it make your team better but brings in HUGE gates...everyone wants to see great teams play each other

These are some of the same thoughts I had but when it's bbe suggested to some other State powers, their posters became defensive about the subject.

I was wondering if I missed the boat and was a Minorty in my way of thinking.

 

I think it a great thing when our best play other top teams from TN and from other states.

[TDCman]

The goal of any school or program should be to compete for a championship.

It could be a District, Conference (IMAC), Region or State Championship depending on the talent, resources, tradition and recruiting budget at a given school.

 

Recruiting budget?

[REBELRON]

Maryville will never drop the county schools like Alcoa,Heritage and William Blount. Those schools fans would go nuts if Maryville dropped them. The Maryville game is by far their biggest gate of the year.

 

Earlier this year there was 10'000 fans at the Alcoa/Maryville game. I watched the Alcoa/Wartburg playback and I bet there wasn't 500 fans there.

 

I don't want Maryville to drop the county schools. The other 7 games are region games so there is no way Maryville can pick up another game unless they drop Alcoa,Heritage or William Blount. I wish Maryville could drop teams like Clinton,Lenoir City and South Doyle. But! Those are region games.

 

I would love to see Maryville play teams like Riverdale,MBA,Brentwood Academy,Oak Ridge or Dobyns Bennett.

[FBEmeritus]

I guess what we are saying here is "Maryville does not play anyone" Right? How many times and how many people are there out there that want this program to get beat?

 

Let's look at this from a practical stand point. Let's use the Alcoa to Trigg Co, KY stupidly to make my point. After all I am a Blount County Tax payer and I buy stuff at local retail stores near my home to support my community and my family.

 

You load a football team into two or three buses, chartered I'm sure. Maybe part of the band in another bus with the cheerleader's. The coaches and support staff, school officials and who all knows who else? You take all those kids and coaches/teachers out of school that day. Pay for food, gas, toll, ect.ect.ect... Guys like me and my wife take the day off of work and pay our expenses to watch our son and his team play and then spend money on the hotel because there is no way this kid is gonna drive 5-6 hours, one way, sit in the stands watch a game that means nothing but free press only, then drive that 5-6 hours back home! Of course the team left early Friday in buses, waited an extra 1-2 hours past the kick off time because of the heat index, played a football game vs. a team that my be unsportsmanlike then get on a bus and drive all the way back home after the game! Then complain about the fans in KY, the officials and have a coach say something like “They couldn’t whip us if some guys came out of the stands”, or something to that effect.

 

Well like I said I’m a taxpayer. Does anyone have a clue as to how much this boondoggle cost Alcoa, a public school/taxpayers? Or the residents of Alcoa? Every time you read the paper the schools are crying about teacher pay, school funding and then the politicians start to stick it to us taxpayers for more of our money to support the schools. Most public schools are hurting for simple things like text books and parents are having to fork over more and more money out of pocket for Kleenex, crayons and other “Lab Fee’s” for stuff the schools should have in the first place. Just ask any decent teacher if he or she puts out money from their own pockets to buy things for their classroom or for some student’s?

 

High School football and other sports are great things for “Our” kids. But with the current mismanagement of some athletic programs and moreover many of the public schools who allow boondoggles like Alcoa’s to Trigg Co. one has to wonder where is the fiscal responsibilityis or went? So do you think, that I think it is a good idea for a public school to travel a great distance to play a “Big Game” and to prove what?

 

We have some great football here locally, let's play our neighbors, keep our money at home for our schools and kids and enjoy what we have been blessed with.

[Rebel9]

FBEmeritus, One of the BEST POST that you have ever had. I could not agree more with the stay at home and play our county and city brothers. William Blount and Alcoa made the entire years budget on the Maryville game this year and Maryville had a nice gate when Heritage played at Maryville. Keep our money at home. I bet that Jerry would like to have a cut of the Central gate last Friday night also.

[VolunteerGeneral]

In a better world high school teams would be classified by quality of play rather than quantity of students. This way all the best teams in the state like Riverdale, Maryville, MBA etc... would all be competing together in the state playoffs and have a TRUE state champion.

 

It wouldn`t be hard to do and this would allow more teams to have a reasonable chance to win a state championship since they`d be competing against teams that play on their own caliber.

[Rebel9]

And in that better world we could turn off the score board and let a select group of people decide who played the best that night. This system would change weekly and would never work. We have a good system now and it works ever year with the 2 best teams playing for the GOLD Ball in the BURO.