FATHER RYAN INVITATIONAL 9-21/22

[bb317]

Wow, no patsies games here. This is a great tourney.

 

Ist day results

Teams divided into three 3 team pools. Today the 1's play the 1's etc...

First

Ryan

siegel

Independence

 

2nd

Greenbrier

Ravenwood

Briarcrest

 

3rd

St Benedict

Wilson Central

Hillsboro

 

Pool play this am followed by Tournament Bracket @2:00

 

Strong showing by siegel

 

Watch out for St Benedict out of pool three... lost two very close matches

 

Great first day Poll play begins this am at 9:00

[PHargis]

While I am sure 317 will detail the finish of the tournament, it is always good to see how these torunaments are run and develop after they are organized. it is normally an art, carefully crafted and with detail which is a reflection of someone or a very knowledgable group whose signature is at the bottom of the final act. Middle Tennessee is very fortunate to have those people in the right places with the great organization skills. While I am not at the finish of the invitational, this was a first class event in every way. Yes, I am sure they tried to be as good or better than Brentwood High Schools Bash. The only thing different was the number of teams and locations. Once you lose the General, it is hard to maintan the edge. Every location which puts on one of these has had those Generals and are fortunate they have been there for a time. The very good thing about these events is the play of the teams. They put on a show. What was also evident was many of the players on these teams knew each other and had made acquaintances throughout the year whether in club or otherwise. The club magazine at sale at the event was first class in every way and provided great information about some of the schools.

 

if you haven't been to one of these events, you do not know what you have missed. Two matches held between Greenbriar/Independence/Ravenwood/Siegel almost filled the arena with fans standing around the walls. I thought at the time it would have been good to have a picture of the crowd.

 

Well you do know there is the next one coming up and stay turned as very likely it will be very good again.

[fiftyfifty]

Independence beat the Lady Irish on Saturday morning, but both Ryan and Independence made it to the finals with the Lady Irish squeaking out a win in two straight games. One of the best matches was the Greenbrier-Lady Irish match on Friday evening, with the Lady Irish again squeaking out a victory winning two out of three. The last game was 25-23 and both teams played well. /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

[PHargis]

Independence beat the Lady Irish on Saturday morning, but both Ryan and Independence made it to the finals with the Lady Irish squeaking out a win in two straight games. One of the best matches was the Greenbrier-Lady Irish match on Friday evening, with the Lady Irish again squeaking out a victory winning two out of three. The last game was 25-23 and both teams played well. /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

 

After seeing both of these teams play, it was obvious that defense was the difference in their play along with consistancy. Both will go a long way in the state IF Independence can get out of their District. Greenbriar will go a long way in AA but in the state this Division is a tossup. This reflected how good the teams were in this tournament. A major factor, encountered by all teams, was the endurance factor. Teams having tough Thursday nite matches, playing twice Friday Nites or traveling Friday and playing twice Friday nite and then playing four or five times Saturday gave the atmosphere of State participation and what it will take to get there.

 

Greenbriar again proved they are up to the task against AAA schools. Their players, their coach and their fans are the real thing and play the part of being able to withstand the pressure of big tourneys. But in AAA, back in the wings lurks Brentwood High School who every year is written off as a maybe but still returns. Their District battle will be a Mini-State and will have teams like Ravenwood, also in attendance at this tourney, and all of the other great teams in this District. Ravenwood is a great team but may need a little more seasoning as it seems very young to finally make it to the State this year. They will compete significantly.

[bb317]

After seeing both of these teams play, it was obvious that defense was the difference in their play along with consistancy. Both will go a long way in the state IF Independence can get out of their District. Greenbriar will go a long way in AA but in the state this Division is a tossup. This reflected how good the teams were in this tournament. A major factor, encountered by all teams, was the endurance factor. Teams having tough Thursday nite matches, playing twice Friday Nites or traveling Friday and playing twice Friday nite and then playing four or five times Saturday gave the atmosphere of State participation and what it will take to get there.

 

Greenbriar again proved they are up to the task against AAA schools. Their players, their coach and their fans are the real thing and play the part of being able to withstand the pressure of big tourneys. But in AAA, back in the wings lurks Brentwood High School who every year is written off as a maybe but still returns. Their District battle will be a Mini-State and will have teams like Ravenwood, also in attendance at this tourney, and all of the other great teams in this District. Ravenwood is a great team but may need a little more seasoning as it seems very young to finally make it to the State this year. They will compete significantly.

 

Thanks PH for the kind words about the event. As anyone who has ever hosted even a 4 team play date knows these events require an extraordinary amount of work.. cooking, cleaning, line judging you know the drill. What makes the Irish event proud is the number of nice comments made to the parents about the campus and general friendliness of the workers. That is very important to the Ryan coaching staff.

 

The play was really outstanding and many matches went to three games (the 3rd games were played to 25).

 

Hats off to all of these players. it WAS great to see so many of these kids from opposing teams hugging each other then squarring off during the match.

 

Observations:

Greenbrier is the real deal and could have easily won this event. They missed Katie for sure but stepped up and lost a heartbreaker in the brackets.

 

Ravenwood- the team nobody wants to play!! Just a matter of time before their youthfulness becomes experience then watch out.

 

Independence- gutty, tough, never out of a point... played with 7 players most of Saturday

 

Ryan- great Ball control, great setting, then BAM their outsides just pound it down or hit a line shot to win a point. They rise to the occasion.

 

siegel-the overcomes adversity team. Played lights out Friday night, beat a good Briarcrest team Saturday in quarters and got overpowered by the Irish. Hats off to the kids for sticking it out and playing well.

 

Wilson Central gets the all-scrappy award. They were in every match they played. Thanks for coming!!!

 

Nice article in the tennessean Sunday.

 

Thanks again to all for your participation. You'll see some of these guys again in the 'boro next month!!

[KCdaddy]

Greenbrier can whip 99% of the AAA teams and never break a sweat. It is their year to dominate in A-AA. They have great fans and an energy that only makes them more unbeatable! If a AA teams beats them I will be shocked!

[harpua51]

Greenbrier can whip 99% of the AAA teams and never break a sweat. It is their year to dominate in A-AA. They have great fans and an energy that only makes them more unbeatable! If a AA teams beats them I will be shocked!

 

 

I could not agree with you more! I am very surprised to hear that Father Ryan beat them. Greenbrier could lose to an A/AA school, but I would be very surprised.

[LuvVB63]

I could not agree with you more! I am very surprised to hear that Father Ryan beat them. Greenbrier could lose to an A/AA school, but I would be very surprised.

 

Katie Clinard missed being a part of a great tournament, just hoping she gets to finish her senior year out strong after a pretty significant ankle injury. Greenbrier has great players in their younger players. Sophomore Nina Dever came up strong in the game against Father Ryan Friday night as our other middle. She played outstanding with great defense and good kills. We have always tried to be good sports and ladies on the court. When we suffer a loss, we can generally look to ourselves for our own defeat, never blaming anything but our own play or another teams better play. We had an unusual night in calls on the line from parents who either didn't see a call or just made bad ones. We are only human, but it must be pretty blatant when the official walks to the score table and says she is truly troubled by the calls that were made or not made in such a close game of point for point. Followed up by the next day having the tourny play and set up changed overnight. What gives here. We like the fans and parents of Father Ryan, but had a real bad feeling about some of it.

[bb317]

Katie Clinard missed being a part of a great tournament, just hoping she gets to finish her senior year out strong after a pretty significant ankle injury. Greenbrier has great players in their younger players. Sophomore Nina Dever came up strong in the game against Father Ryan Friday night as our other middle. She played outstanding with great defense and good kills. We have always tried to be good sports and ladies on the court. When we suffer a loss, we can generally look to ourselves for our own defeat, never blaming anything but our own play or another teams better play. We had an unusual night in calls on the line from parents who either didn't see a call or just made bad ones. We are only human, but it must be pretty blatant when the official walks to the score table and says she is truly troubled by the calls that were made or not made in such a close game of point for point. Followed up by the next day having the tourny play and set up changed overnight. What gives here. We like the fans and parents of Father Ryan, but had a real bad feeling about some of it.

 

calls are part of the game sorry... the tourney set up never changed. period end of sentence. It was in the brochure I received on Friday when I got there. Good luck the rest of the year. You really do have a great team.

[LuvVB63]

calls are part of the game sorry... the tourney set up never changed. period end of sentence. It was in the brochure I received on Friday when I got there. Good luck the rest of the year. You really do have a great team.

 

Thank you bb, for keeping me straight /blink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":blink:" border="0" alt="blink.gif" /> there were changes made prior to the tourny, because your coach said she emailed the changes to our coach. That was one email our coach never received. We only found out about the changes on Saturday, so maybe that was our fault, not. I didn't mean to strike a nerve, we think your girls are a talented group of ball players, as are ours. Funny though, as we were leaving, we noticed the St. Benedict coach was eating your coach's lunch. Hmmm, maybe it's an epidemic. /roflol.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":roflol:" border="0" alt="roflol.gif" />

[LuvVB63]

......and by the way, this is all in competitive spirit. No harm no foul. See you at thr boro hopefully

[5-Sport Dad]

calls are part of the game sorry... the tourney set up never changed. period end of sentence. It was in the brochure I received on Friday when I got there. Good luck the rest of the year. You really do have a great team.

 

Calls are part of every sport and every game, and when they go against you, you must learn to play through them. Incompetence, on the other hand, shouldn't be allowed to be part of the game. The two guys that helped call our game with FR on Friday were in-com-pe-tent! Both of them jumped around like little girls when the ball came close to them. Watch game film and you'll see, since you obviously couldn't see it during the game, that the worst/blatant call was where your setter (#20 I believe?) managed to hit the ball so that it curved around the antenna from out-of-bounds on our side and fell fair. When the referee looked at both line judges, they indicated that it looked good to them. Of course it did! But, truthfully, it was either a miracle... /blink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":blink:" border="0" alt="blink.gif" /> ...or geometrically impossible. Whatever. Play through it.

 

And I've got written proof that the tourney was changed, sir. My first clue is that our particular play times were changed from the first notice (we rec'd from your coach, I guess) until brochure-printing time. Initially, game times were 5 and 7 (also see play4keeps' schedule above, unless she made it all up /blush.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":blush:" border="0" alt="blush.gif" /> ). We actually played at 4 and 6. Also, the pools went from being called 'A,' 'B' and 'C' on Friday, to Pools 1, 2 and 3 on Saturday. That's not what the brochure says, though. The tourney set-up/schedule was changed. Period. End of sentence. Back atcha!

 

As far as your brochure, who knows. You probably got a 'special' one... /rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":rolleyes:" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" /> . With your attitude, you probably think you deserved it.

 

Good luck to your girls. They played hard and are very good. Especially #4. I saw her play a couple of years ago and she's improved...a lot. But, I don't think they'd want to play us again...with some good (i.e., competent) line judges. /wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" />