Tennessee High School Football

[Purple & Gold Standard]

Just wanted to post about an experience I had last night..

 

I went to Bowling Green,Ky. to watch the 9-2 Graves Co.,Ky Eagles play the 9-2 Warren Central,Ky. Dragons in the Kentucky High School 2nd round of that states playoffs....First off,in Ky they play what is basically a district tournament the first two rounds of action...Graves was the third place team in their 4A district and Warren was first...This being the same district you would think it wouldn't be that far away between the two schools distance wise..Graves Co High School is in Mayfield,Ky...That's almost a 3 hour drive between district opponents...So,anyway,the stadium at Warren is an old one...I guess it's alright,but you would think a school that has a good history in the playoffs would have a better facility...The field was in very bad shape...Green patches in random places,which is understandable for this time of year...The field wasn't level though,it had hills and valleys on it...No lie...LOL...Warren is a good team,like I said..They have good size and speed..They have a really good QB...But they are very undisciplined in the attitude department...I've been watching high school football a long time..I've never seen two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties called on a team in the huddle,while the other team was in a time-out near the sideline...Last night I saw it..I don't really know what they were doing to get the penalties..They had to be cussing or something...Near the end of the game,1:19 left in the game actually,with Warren Central winning 33-17 and a 4th and inches on the Graves 14 yard line..The coach calls for a pass play,which went for a TD...Now up 16 with a minute left isnt exactly having a game sewed up I guess,but this team could have easily called a qb sneak and got the first down...With that they could have easily ran the clock out considering Graves was out of timeouts..But that wasn't the kicker...Warren goes for the two point conversion and makes it..They win the game 41-17...Now what that caused was this..On the ensuing kickoff,the Graves players went after the Warren players...One fight occurred when a Graves player went after a Warren player and they were both fighting with a ref staring right at them...Both were swinging and rolling around on the turf...The ref throws a flag..Offsetting penalties..Right??..Wrong..Unsportsmanlike on the Graves player...The other player was one of the ones with the penalties in the huddle..I guess had they called him for one he would have had to sit out the next game....He was spared that...Anyway,in the last minute of the game there were at least 6 or 7 penalties called on the players...All of that could have been avoided with a simple qb sneak..An ugly scene to be sure....Now I know that stuff happens in Tennessee by some coaches...You don't hear about it much though..Most of the coaches in Tennessee have more respect for their opponents and their programs....What I learned from last night was something I already knew...We got it pretty good in Tennessee with our football......Be grateful..

[trnbrant]

I think what you saw was the exception and rather than the rule. I covered KY HS football for 6 years in the media and followed it for 18 more before that as a kid growing up in Western KY. I think the bad blood like you describe can happen in TN as well.

 

There are some programs in KY that have top-notch facilities where the field's still in great shape in November. In fact in Hopkinsville they have a two-team stadium built in 1991 that is nicer than most small-college digs across the country. Their field is bermuda which goes dormant in November but it is still a very playable surface.

 

Most KY football games are like the ones here in Tennessee in that they're hard-fought events between two teams with good sportsmanship.

[Purple & Gold Standard]

I think what you saw was the exception and rather than the rule. I covered KY HS football for 6 years in the media and followed it for 18 more before that as a kid growing up in Western KY. I think the bad blood like you describe can happen in TN as well.

 

There are some programs in KY that have top-notch facilities where the field's still in great shape in November. In fact in Hopkinsville they have a two-team stadium built in 1991 that is nicer than most small-college digs across the country. Their field is bermuda which goes dormant in November but it is still a very playable surface.

 

Most KY football games are like the ones here in Tennessee in that they're hard-fought events between two teams with good sportsmanship.

You are talking about the Stadium of Champions in Hop-Town??

I also think there is a stadium in Owensboro with field turf.....I also think now that Graves County is going to get their own stadium,the Mayfield Cardinals are entertaining the idea of putting field turf down in their stadium...

 

It may be the exeption,but I also saw Boyle County a couple years ago play at Paducah Tighlman during their long winning streak,and they weren't that impressive either...Other than the Louisville and Lexington private schools,the level of play in Kentucky isn't up to par with Tennessee...

Edited November 12, 2006 by backinthaoc