Halls High Red Devils

[DiverCity]

The only active Halls thread is getting a tad too long with 26 pages, so I'm starting a new one given the upcoming scrimmage with D-B this Friday. With a couple of practices in pads under their belts, what are everyone's thoughts about this year?

 

Also, I've heard one rumor that's got me a little concerned: the huge Shaddix kid is said to be considering quitting the team. He's a big part of this team's future and so I hope everyone who knows him will encourage him to stick with it.

[ZCAR]

Good move the other thread was a hold over from last year.

 

I hope Shaddix stays the course and he should see opportunities come his way.

 

How has the practices been? I have been hearing a lot of enthusiasm from the players. They sound ready to strap them up and play some football.

[DiverCity]

Good move the other thread was a hold over from last year.

 

I hope Shaddix stays the course and he should see opportunities come his way.

 

How has the practices been? I have been hearing a lot of enthusiasm from the players. They sound ready to strap them up and play some football.

 

 

I haven't been able to catch a practice yet, but I"ve heard that there's some pop out there. The defense is on the right track and I've heard from an observer that the offense appears to be a little ahead of where they were this time last year. I'm not the first to say it, but I think a major concern will have to be the kicking game with the loss of O'Kicker....

[ruse?]

New Thread. Nice. What about some new discussion points?

 

What are the five most important tasks to accomplish between now, and the Kingsport DB scrimmage?

 

What three developments between now and the Catholic scrimmage will be positive signs?

 

What perceptions have changed since the Spews Sentinel series on parental involvement began running?

 

What one action/event can inspire even greater self-confidence in the team?

 

ruse?

[DiverCity]

New Thread. Nice. What about some new discussion points?

 

What are the five most important tasks to accomplish between now, and the Kingsport DB scrimmage?

 

What three developments between now and the Catholic scrimmage will be positive signs?

 

What perceptions have changed since the Spews Sentinel series on parental involvement began running?

 

What one action/event can inspire even greater self-confidence in the team?

 

ruse?

 

Those questions make my brain hurt....jk

 

I'll try a few: the offense has to become more disciplined and well oiled. Implement offense and get TT acclimated. (I hear he's throwing the ball very well). Work on that kicking game (or kick out of bounds everytime). The kickoff team didn't have to do anything last year except run to the endzone.

 

One good development b/w now and the Catholic scrimmage would be the 1st team putting some respectable points up on the DB defense.

 

That article was interesting -- I doubt anything has changed much. I could be mistaken/uninformed, but I don't think Halls has that problem to a very great degree.

 

See third paragraph above.

[ZCAR]

I think that about sums it up Diver. Julian runs a tight ship. I can't see were any parent can talk him into anything which is what you want.

 

He keeps doing it his way he gains everyone respect and doesn't ruin his reputation with all the kids.

 

On every team some athletes rise to the top or get more media attention but I have found most coaches like to keep their players out of the limelight so they can concentrate on the games at hand and working to get better.

 

I liked what Petrone stated today in the Sentinel I can enhance your child but I can't make him a superstar. Parents just have to be more realistic about D-1 offers. Joel Helton also expects parents to be realistic. You can take your kid to all these facilities but you can only be so tall and fast. Once you get over the UT syndrome and look further there could be a spot for your child. He said he has put 100 kids in college ball. These coaches for the most part know what they are doing and will give every opportunity for a player to excel.

 

I think Halls doesn't have any problem with this at the moment. Not with a 120 or so kids out to compete. The future looks great in this program and I expect this year to kickstart our State playoff visits.

[Ironman80]

ruse?

Three posituve developments from the DB scrimmage to get ready for Catholic?

1) QB - First and foremost - How will JR Tyler Turner do? Word out is that he is looking really sharp in practice. He needs to take a step forward in this scrimmage to perform well at Catholic. I believe he is "THE MAN" and his teammates are ready to rally around him. (Side note- heard SOPH Zack Dowdy looked good tonight and his improving. Also, hope Hunter Snoderly continues to heal quickly and can wear the red and white before the year is over. Really good kid.)

2) Tackling- Tackling must be better than it was at W.Blount. Too many missed tackles! I hear the LB's - Daniel Hodge(JR), Kevin Waggoner(JR), Chris McGill(JR), and Jake Carr(SR) - are dominating in practice. (Look for Ethab Gunter(SR) to push for playing time).This trend needs to continue at DB. These four must become big playmakers for Halls to have a good year.

3) Blocking - The O.Line must continue to improve. Losing OG Brent Houghes(SR) - 2 to 4 weeks- is a big loss. Matt Laddish(JR) must grow up in a hurry! Seniors Aaron Blair (3 year starter) and Curtis Plunk must provide leadership. Junior's Caleb Leonard - 6'4/265 and Steven Hill - 6'4+/275 look big and mean on the right side together. Look out for these two next year if they can stay healthy. TE still a big question - Dorian Cottrell maybe?

 

I know this sounds simple - QB, Blocking and Tackling - but that sums it up from my perspective. What do think or hear ZCAR or Divercity? Finally, will we see you at the Catholic scrimmage RUSE?

[ZCAR]

Linebackers have to step up this year in a big way. How our season goes is how the linebacking corp does. Great point. Hoping Jake Carr will have a great senior season.

 

Heard about Hughes and he will be missed. I hope its more on the two week side than four.

 

Hearing a lot of good things about Halls this year and the media isn't being to shy about them either.

[Pirateman894]

I'm not the least bit scared about our Linbacking Course. Returning Starters Daniel Hodge and Jake Carr can lay hits and are very smart in a football sense. Also, Jon Case is a powerhouse.

[ruse?]

ruse?

Three posituve developments from the DB scrimmage to get ready for Catholic?

1) QB - First and foremost - How will JR Tyler Turner do? Word out is that he is looking really sharp in practice. He needs to take a step forward in this scrimmage to perform well at Catholic. I believe he is "THE MAN" and his teammates are ready to rally around him. (Side note- heard SOPH Zack Dowdy looked good tonight and his improving. Also, hope Hunter Snoderly continues to heal quickly and can wear the red and white before the year is over. Really good kid.)

2) Tackling- Tackling must be better than it was at W.Blount. Too many missed tackles! I hear the LB's - Daniel Hodge(JR), Kevin Waggoner(JR), Chris McGill(JR), and Jake Carr(SR) - are dominating in practice. (Look for Ethab Gunter(SR) to push for playing time).This trend needs to continue at DB. These four must become big playmakers for Halls to have a good year.

3) Blocking - The O.Line must continue to improve. Losing OG Brent Houghes(SR) - 2 to 4 weeks- is a big loss. Matt Laddish(JR) must grow up in a hurry! Seniors Aaron Blair (3 year starter) and Curtis Plunk must provide leadership. Junior's Caleb Leonard - 6'4/265 and Steven Hill - 6'4+/275 look big and mean on the right side together. Look out for these two next year if they can stay healthy. TE still a big question - Dorian Cottrell maybe?

 

I know this sounds simple - QB, Blocking and Tackling - but that sums it up from my perspective. What do think or hear ZCAR or Divercity? Finally, will we see you at the Catholic scrimmage RUSE?

 

 

Ironman80.

Thank you, Nice post. Granted, it was passing scrimmage, but I thought the short/mid range passing game looked good. Any positive develpoments on the deep routes? Glad to hear Turner is being viewed as a leader. Tackling will get better. Always does around the 3rd week of pads when the older guys stop trying to blow everything up, and get back to what they have already been taught, along with the younger guys starting to apply what they are learning. When the OL start getting confident that Julian's offense really does work, all that other "grow-up, leadership" stuff will happen. Those are good size lineman with enough athletic ability to make that thing go. How many of those guys go both ways up front is a key question? That offense can create long drives which is a good thing for obvious reasons, but can wear on Lineman who go both ways. I know Leonard does, but what about the others? At TE, all you need is a kid who can block, and catch the occasional "jump" or short inside seam pass. Don't know if I will get to the Halls/Catholic scrimmage. The only reason I saw the passing deal was that I was over that way @ Webb watching the passing league, and snuck it in.

ruse?

[gun816]

I found that there is a lot of optimism being posted on this thread about the upcoming football year, but I can’t figure out why. It’s not like we came off a good year last year. We didn’t even make the playoffs. How do we figure things are going to change when all that has changed is the loss of key players, not that those that quit were that great, but there was a reason why they were starting. I believe that some players have made gains in the off-season, but for the most part Julian has done a poor job in the weight room with these guys. I think that we figured out last year during the Sevier county game that Julian is clueless when it comes to strength and conditioning. In addition, we lost 90% of our offense with O’Connor leaving which means we will not even score against teams like Maryville, west, central, and Bearden.

 

I have also heard a lot of praise for Coach Julian and I can’t figure this out either. He is a great man and I respect him, but he couldn’t out coach a monkey. What has he done to receive so much praise? Go 7-4 with a team that should have at least made it to the 3rd round of the playoffs. Everyone hated Coach Shepard for his offense, but what has changed, nothing! He should go back to defense because I have never seen a Halls team get ran over like they did against west. His coaches are so brilliant that they can’t even figure out the best players to put on the field or even the difference between a football player and a decent athlete. This is basic stuff you can’t win a grass hopper game without those basics.

 

If we are lucky we will go 5-5 (thank god for Gibbs).

[HaveitYourWay]

I found that there is a lot of optimism being posted on this thread about the upcoming football year, but I can’t figure out why. It’s not like we came off a good year last year. We didn’t even make the playoffs. How do we figure things are going to change when all that has changed is the loss of key players, not that those that quit were that great, but there was a reason why they were starting. I believe that some players have made gains in the off-season, but for the most part Julian has done a poor job in the weight room with these guys. I think that we figured out last year during the Sevier county game that Julian is clueless when it comes to strength and conditioning. In addition, we lost 90% of our offense with O’Connor leaving which means we will not even score against teams like Maryville, west, central, and Bearden.

 

I have also heard a lot of praise for Coach Julian and I can’t figure this out either. He is a great man and I respect him, but he couldn’t out coach a monkey. What has he done to receive so much praise? Go 7-4 with a team that should have at least made it to the 3rd round of the playoffs. Everyone hated Coach Shepard for his offense, but what has changed, nothing! He should go back to defense because I have never seen a Halls team get ran over like they did against west. His coaches are so brilliant that they can’t even figure out the best players to put on the field or even the difference between a football player and a decent athlete. This is basic stuff you can’t win a grass hopper game without those basics.

 

If we are lucky we will go 5-5 (thank god for Gibbs).

 

 

It's good to see you prove your football knowledge and integrity, which would be none.

 

In regards to the '05 team, lets go back and look at those losses.

Maryville- yeah right, enough said...came closer than should have probably

 

Central-busted coverage by a player, results in TD; QB throws interception for a TD (final score 26-14). Those two things cost Halls that game, otherwise, coaching gave players chance to do something no one has done in a while at Halls High School (and please explain to me that that QB was taught to use the jump pass that he inexplicably would do for no reason..no way he's taught that)

 

Powell-From the stands, as a non-player/non-parent/unbiased person...coaches called a pretty decent game, players didn't execute, several times players bounce of running backs or didn't tackle QB and were left without their jocks, again, poor execution by players, nothing more

 

Red Bank- Halls goes up 10-0, loses 21-10. Most people blamed coaching staff. My question is how many times the QB overthrew his wide receivers who were wide open running by themselves for a TD. At least 4 times and not at the end of the game.

 

Bottom line, that year's team was good, but had a lot of selfish attitudes (see players who quit because they thought coach did them wrong and then returned to play after previous coach left...see also players who did their "own thing" instead of what coaches taught them) and players who simply didn't execute. Coaches got the players where they needed to be and I'm sure taught them how to be there and what to do when they got there.

 

As for last year's team, they got gassed in the second half against a decent team, the first game of the year with a young team. A team with something like 10 seniors, a lot of juniors seeing their first varsity action, a lot of sophomores seeing their first varsity action. Please, go ahead and compare last year's team to this year's team. That makes a lot of sense. Isn't Halls returning something like 18 or 19 starters? They also lose a senior class that didn't contribute a lot to last year's team for various reasons including a large portion of that winning basketball team Halls had. Then you have a freshmen class/rising sophomore coming in that sounds like it might have some athletes in it which adds speed to a Halls program that hasn't had that in a while. So, again, please try to compare last year's team to this years and say it's going to be the same thing again.

 

It's good to know that 90% of the offense last year came from O'Connor. That sounds somewhat fishy to me though because I only heard O'Connor after we scored a TD or about 8 or 9 times for a FG. I'm pretty sure I heard Wesley Kitts or Daniel Dayton's name for at least 50% of the scoring total, not to mention all the other kids that scored.

 

Regarding your apparent respect for Julian, since that is what you claim, I sincerely urge you to ask someone what respect is because the words from you compare him to a monkey. And if I were a betting person, I'd bet that doesn't reflect the word respect.

 

Perhaps, if you respected Coach Julian, that would mean you would respect Halls High School as well and when you played or your child played, you'd have given 100% either on the field or in support of the program instead of the selfish crap you seem to dwell in.

 

Why should people be optimistic? Go back and look at how the team developed the last 5 games compared to the first 5, and keep in mind, 19/22 of the starters were either a junior or a sophomore. Once you go back and look at that coupled with the fact that the QB Halls has now is between 125,000 and 30,000 times smarter than the previous QB, and then you have optimism.