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Cocke County Football - Newport, TN


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From other news and posts, I have heard that there are barely 20+ kids playing as we speak. Also in the off-season, the school/coaches ran off former colleges coaches and a former NFL combine coach. With a school that was really good 15-20 years ago... why is there not more going on to help turn around the program? All I hear is "They don't care", "It's the AD's fault", "Not enough talent", etc.........

 

 

Well ok FOshizzle, I have decided to create an account and answer this post as you asked. Also, there have been many other people, players, and professionals who have sent links from this site and etc. It's amazing that I am hearing all of this stuff and I live over 14 hours away. For those who are wondering, I am that strength coach! When I have more time (probably tonight), I will get back on here and shed more light on this topic.

 

First off, I don't think Cocke County High School is the worst program in the state. There are a handful of other schools in the state that have been historically bad and Cocke Co. (CCHS), has been down for quite some time. To rank CCHS as the "worst" could be vailidated in some eyes... even in the Newport community, but to say CCHS is bad and even worse as North Greene, Unicoi County to name some others is totally not true.

 

CCHS used to be a tough opponent for most regional teams. Now they are laughed at and serve as a football whoop-arse buffet on Friday nights. Keeping this short for now (running out of available time), I will leave some topics for discussion on why the CCHS program is in the state it is in today.

 

#1 - Player development

 

#2 - Community Support

 

#3 - Administrative Support

 

#4 - Coaches & Players work ethic

 

#5 - Feeder systems

 

#6 - Booster Programs

 

#7 - Scheduling - regular season & scrimmages

 

I will return to individually comment on each of these topics tonight. I feel I can offer some truths to this equation that is presented. I also feel that if some of these topics are addressed AND EXECUTED, then the program will lift itself from the bottom of the barrel so-to-speak. I respect many people in Newport and there are some that I would not p!ss on if they were on fire. That in itself does not matter, thats personal. I am here for the athletes who have worked hard for me in the past and there ARE athletes in the community and if I ever hear "we aint just got the talent" again, I'm going to scream! The kids ARE good athletes, the community DOES want a winner, and there are plenty of wrinkles that need to be ironed out and butts to be kicked out the door. For the future athletes-sake is one of the reasons I am going to come out and post on this silly message board. For the past 3 weeks I have been emailed and asked questions by former players, athletes parents, and now people who have tracked me down from a newspaper article. If you want some truths, you will get them. I will be fair, but tough! If I can reach someone to actually gives a crap, then it's a win-win for the CCHS athletic programs future. It's not as bad as what people think, but there needs to be some chlorine put into the athletic pool up there there! I'll return, but next time with my 2?? on this matter.

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Well ok FOshizzle, I have decided to create an account and answer this post as you asked. Also, there have been many other people, players, and professionals who have sent links from this site and etc. It's amazing that I am hearing all of this stuff and I live over 14 hours away. For those who are wondering, I am that strength coach! When I have more time (probably tonight), I will get back on here and shed more light on this topic.

 

First off, I don't think Cocke County High School is the worst program in the state. There are a handful of other schools in the state that have been historically bad and Cocke Co. (CCHS), has been down for quite some time. To rank CCHS as the "worst" could be vailidated in some eyes... even in the Newport community, but to say CCHS is bad and even worse as North Greene, Unicoi County to name some others is totally not true.

 

CCHS used to be a tough opponent for most regional teams. Now they are laughed at and serve as a football whoop-arse buffet on Friday nights. Keeping this short for now (running out of available time), I will leave some topics for discussion on why the CCHS program is in the state it is in today.

 

#1 - Player development

 

#2 - Community Support

 

#3 - Administrative Support

 

#4 - Coaches & Players work ethic

 

#5 - Feeder systems

 

#6 - Booster Programs

 

#7 - Scheduling - regular season & scrimmages

 

I will return to individually comment on each of these topics tonight. I feel I can offer some truths to this equation that is presented. I also feel that if some of these topics are addressed AND EXECUTED, then the program will lift itself from the bottom of the barrel so-to-speak. I respect many people in Newport and there are some that I would not p!ss on if they were on fire. That in itself does not matter, thats personal. I am here for the athletes who have worked hard for me in the past and there ARE athletes in the community and if I ever hear "we aint just got the talent" again, I'm going to scream! The kids ARE good athletes, the community DOES want a winner, and there are plenty of wrinkles that need to be ironed out and butts to be kicked out the door. For the future athletes-sake is one of the reasons I am going to come out and post on this silly message board. For the past 3 weeks I have been emailed and asked questions by former players, athletes parents, and now people who have tracked me down from a newspaper article. If you want some truths, you will get them. I will be fair, but tough! If I can reach someone to actually gives a crap, then it's a win-win for the CCHS athletic programs future. It's not as bad as what people think, but there needs to be some chlorine put into the athletic pool up there there! I'll return, but next time with my 2?? on this matter.

 

 

/thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" />

 

I have a question. There about 4 or 5 K-8 schools in Cocke County that feed to the high school. Do all of these schools have football or how is the middle school program established?

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/thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" />

 

I have a question. There about 4 or 5 K-8 schools in Cocke County that feed to the high school. Do all of these schools have football or how is the middle school program established?

 

SPLITBACK, to say the least, it's a mess. You have three middle school "programs" in the county. First, you have Cosby which gets its players from the Cosby area K-8 schools (Cosby, Smoky Mountain, Grassy Fork and I assume some of the kids from Del Rio). Second, you have Edgemont Elementary School which fields a middle school team and has been doing so fro 2-3 years I believe. You then have the "Cocke County Middle School" program, which feeds from the Newport area schools (Newport Grammar, Northwest, Parrottsville, Centerview, Bridgeport, some of the Del Rio kids). As you can see, this set-up creates a bad situation from the get-go for the middle school program. There are transportation issues in getting the kids to practice, trouble getting the word out to the kids in school, etc. The coaching staff in place for the middle school program is a very capable group of guys who were VERY successful when working with the Little League feeder programs throughout the county. Maybe the loss of "Midget" football at the Little League level was to blame, I don't know. But when everyone else in the area went to middle school, Cocke County was put behind the 8-ball, as there are no "true" middle schools in the county. I don't know the answer, but I do know I miss the days when CCHS was a team to be reckoned with. What is the answer? I don't know. My feeling is there is a chance to turn this program around, as well as have this school system make sense. The school board recently spent millions of dollars renovating old schools. Could that money have been spent better, to increase readiness for high school academically, as well as athletically? I believe so. Build a centrally located middle school in the county, which would benefit the kids as they would be exposed to a "true" middle school environment...as far as athletically, all the kids would go to school in a central location, so there would be fewer practice and participation issues. Could you possibly combine Cosby and Cocke County High Schools? You could, but you would kill a lot of tradition at both schools and I don't know if it would be fiscally possible or responsible. There is definitely talent in this county. The lowest level of the feeder programs are competitive and consistently playing for championships, year in and year out. The middle school was respectable this year for the first year in many. But when you get to the high school level, there is a drop in participation. I, as a resident and graduate of CCHS don't understand it. I can only hope that they get it figured out before my son gets to high school.

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SPLITBACK, to say the least, it's a mess. You have three middle school "programs" in the county. First, you have Cosby which gets its players from the Cosby area K-8 schools (Cosby, Smoky Mountain, Grassy Fork and I assume some of the kids from Del Rio). Second, you have Edgemont Elementary School which fields a middle school team and has been doing so fro 2-3 years I believe. You then have the "Cocke County Middle School" program, which feeds from the Newport area schools (Newport Grammar, Northwest, Parrottsville, Centerview, Bridgeport, some of the Del Rio kids). As you can see, this set-up creates a bad situation from the get-go for the middle school program. There are transportation issues in getting the kids to practice, trouble getting the word out to the kids in school, etc. The coaching staff in place for the middle school program is a very capable group of guys who were VERY successful when working with the Little League feeder programs throughout the county. Maybe the loss of "Midget" football at the Little League level was to blame, I don't know. But when everyone else in the area went to middle school, Cocke County was put behind the 8-ball, as there are no "true" middle schools in the county. I don't know the answer, but I do know I miss the days when CCHS was a team to be reckoned with. What is the answer? I don't know. My feeling is there is a chance to turn this program around, as well as have this school system make sense. The school board recently spent millions of dollars renovating old schools. Could that money have been spent better, to increase readiness for high school academically, as well as athletically? I believe so. Build a centrally located middle school in the county, which would benefit the kids as they would be exposed to a "true" middle school environment...as far as athletically, all the kids would go to school in a central location, so there would be fewer practice and participation issues. Could you possibly combine Cosby and Cocke County High Schools? You could, but you would kill a lot of tradition at both schools and I don't know if it would be fiscally possible or responsible. There is definitely talent in this county. The lowest level of the feeder programs are competitive and consistently playing for championships, year in and year out. The middle school was respectable this year for the first year in many. But when you get to the high school level, there is a drop in participation. I, as a resident and graduate of CCHS don't understand it. I can only hope that they get it figured out before my son gets to high school.

 

 

Well said. /thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" /> Maybe there should be a New Cocke County Middle School built somewhere in Newport. All of the students from 6-8 go to that school. You can stilll keep your elementary schools K-5 /blink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":blink:" border="0" alt="blink.gif" />

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Well said. /thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" /> Maybe there should be a New Cocke County Middle School built somewhere in Newport. All of the students from 6-8 go to that school. You can stilll keep your elementary schools K-5 /blink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":blink:" border="0" alt="blink.gif" />

 

Yea Cocke County not having a middle school hurts the players. Don't know if they will ever get a middle school in place. It would help the kids in the school and on the field I believe. Would like to get direct info on spme of these subjects we have discussed.

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/thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" />

 

I have a question. There about 4 or 5 K-8 schools in Cocke County that feed to the high school. Do all of these schools have football or how is the middle school program established?

 

 

 

Each school used to have it's own football program and it competed in a recreational setting. There is no "true" physical middle school in Newport. The middle school "team" is established by taking kids from all the elementary schools. What you get is about 30 kids total from that and at least half of those will go on to play at the high school level.

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I will leave some topics for discussion on why the CCHS program is in the state it is in today.

 

#1 - Player development

 

#2 - Community Support

 

#3 - Administrative Support

 

#4 - Coaches & Players work ethic

 

#5 - Feeder systems

 

#6 - Booster Programs

 

#7 - Scheduling - regular season & scrimmages

 

 

Ok lets start this off with what some of you guys have been talking about... #3, the feeder systems.

 

There is no true middle school in Newport. Years ago there was a park recreational league that featured it's teams against some of the countys surrounding elem teams. Was a great concept and the numbers were out there. All of those teams fed into the high school where the numbers were high for tryouts and etc. Well at some point in the late 90's this "idea" arose about having a true "middle school team". The elementary school teams were eliminated and it was required that all kids play for this one team. After years of kids getting tired of not playing, the numbers have dropped and the feeder system was not like it was. Seems like a loss of interest and you know what they say... if it's not broke, DONT FIX IT! Recently one of the elementary schools (Edgemont) created another "middle school age" team. This was met with a lot of conflict and politics. After the dust settled, the team was allowed to exist and play a schedule. (Should have been great news to at least give kids more options and more players out = more players in high school,... right?) Anyways, with the feeder programs comes another issue that I have still yet to this day completely understood. The Newport Middle School DOES NOT play the Cosby middle schools, the Jeff Co. Middle schools, or any of the white pine/morristown hamblen systems. They go all the way to west Knoxville and play teams that smear them. Why not play teams, your age, in your own backyard?? I am glad to see another team in the county and there should be 2 or 3 more developed in order to get kids to come out and play. Keep the one middle school team now with Newport Grammar and Brigeport kids and allow Parrotsville, Edgemont, and Centerview/Del Rio to field teams along with Cosby. I don't know how to fix the system, too many ego's and good ol boy networks/barriers need to be tossed aside to fix this problem. I guess if you do not have a "true middle school" why not have 3-4 teams play each other each year and then play the surrounding area (close by) teams? There is probably more to this, but it's what I hear from parents and even some middle school coaches. If there are a few elem teams, so freaking what. Your giving some kids an opportunity to play that would be shuffled out with just one team and if you keep the interest up, guess what, the potential for more kids in the long run to FEED into the high school system.

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#1 - Player development

 

#2 - Community Support

 

#3 - Administrative Support

 

#4 - Coaches & Players work ethic

 

#6 - Booster Programs

 

#7 - Scheduling - regular season & scrimmages

 

 

I'm going to hit #2, #3, and #6 next... Support.... wow, this is what is really needed across the board. So much negativity is in the area about the kids, the coaches, the parents, the school, etc... CCHS is now on it's 3rd coach in 4 years. I do not see how in this world, kids can go through that. Anyways, lets start from the top - Administrative Support. This one has me really baffled. I think it's more of an organizational issue than anything. The coaching search from last year only consisted of 2 interviews and was dragged out until mid January. The kids in the meantime did not do hardly any training until January (2 weeks before winter break) while this "search" was going on. If the school knew from the start, why in the heck did they not let the guy start organizing the off season stuff? I have to also question this support with not only the way the new coaching situation was handled, but how the old coaches have been handled. The freshman coaching has been a joke due to not enough staff and proper prep. If it starts "from the top" then the top needs some fixing in order to get the program where everyone wants it or at least to some level of respectability. The failure of the administration to look into siuations like drug testing and even the athletic training situation is a complete mess. In this day and age, the school has had athletic trainers in the past. To basically not have one the past 2 years other than side contract work with unlicensed trainers is just opening the door for future liability. This is not a bassh by any means, there are some good administrative people, but some organizational and rational changes have to be made!

 

Community Support - football attendance, newpaper press, and just the overall mood of the community is horrible. Negativity surrounds everything and makes life on the players and coaches a rough deal. First off - and you people of Newport, if you on here, listan up - IT WILL TAKE YEARS TO BUILD THIS THING BACK UP! To be honest, you could bring Bill Parcells into CCHS and the people would bash him and try to run him off. Be supportive of the players and coaches, come out to the games, and buy into the booster programs IF YOU REALLY CARE about whats going on. CCHS Friday night football used to be a main staple of entertainment, until the team wins again (and it could be many years away)... you have to support the school and its programs and make the best out of the situation. Where is some sort of positivity in this thing?

 

Football/Athletic Booster Programs - the days of the Big Red Rooster Boosters have been long gone. This is kinda tied to community support. There used to be many things in the paper, banquet awards sponsored by compaines, calendars, banners, season tickets, qb club parking, the whole 9 yards. Anyone in this field, whether its an athletic director, administrator, coach, parent, or even player will tell you that with successful programs comes money. Money from the gates is important, but also money from the booster programs. I don't really know if there is an emphasis with the marketing of the season tickets/seasonal parking, etc. I'm sure there could be some creative ways to get people in the community and even businesses active for support of the team. I think it may be in the line of just "effort and organization", but I know there are people in Newport that can help and assist in this matter. There are tons of ideas and even to get former players and alumni involved, there needs to be some creativity there. Who knows, maybe someone else can shed some light on this topic.

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Well ok FOshizzle, I have decided to create an account and answer this post as you asked.

 

 

Thanks so much for responding! I don't know if you remember the Crumptons from Columbus High in FL, but they had some fantastic things to say about you and some of the work you did for their boys when you were at the Scout camp in Boca Raton a few years ago. You sound like you know a lot of whats been going on in the Newport area and you seem to care. Good information and its also what I hear from that area...

 

Sounds like more people need to buy in the system. It also seems like something is holding the program back. Im still surprised that more Newport fans and players have not commented on this topic. I hope the Morristown East game this week is not going to get out of hand.

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Thanks so much for responding! I don't know if you remember the Crumptons from Columbus High in FL, but they had some fantastic things to say about you and some of the work you did for their boys when you were at the Scout camp in Boca Raton a few years ago. You sound like you know a lot of whats been going on in the Newport area and you seem to care. Good information and its also what I hear from that area...

 

Sounds like more people need to buy in the system. It also seems like something is holding the program back. Im still surprised that more Newport fans and players have not commented on this topic. I hope the Morristown East game this week is not going to get out of hand.

 

Don't think many Cocke Countians come out for the football boards...maybe more will be around come basketball time

They did the same thing with the coaching "search" when Crawford got hired as well. I think Crawford came in at like friggin April 2-3 weeks before spring practice. We had a few weeks to do workouts and get started on an entirely new terminology and playbook with a no huddle. Just sad really. We had NO offseason workouts unless we went out on our own to a gym in town. Don't think the workouts will be much with this current staff (Hope I'm proved wrong). It is gonna take a lot of time to get it back on track. Hope to see it get headed the right way.

 

The community support is lacking. I remember coming to the sidelines lots of times in our home games and hear people cussing us and the coaches. The complaining was warranted for the play, but remember its high school kids out there. They're out their playing for fun...not for scholarships or money.

 

The freshman teams have just been an ABSOLUTE MESS. I've also wondered why we dont play teams around here in middle school. I know Cosby/Edgemont/CCHS played each other at the end of the year this year. We go play Heritage and Carpenter from knoc counties. We was dong well tho when the whole "middle school" program started. I think we had winning seasons for a few years there. Another season comes to an end Thursday...this time 0-10. Congrats to the kids that came out and played their hearts outs on the field. Even tho the times are hard now, you'll look back and hopefully feel like it was worth it for the memories and life lessons.

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i played for cosby an was a senior on that 06 team i believe mr hartsell was talkin about. in all honesty i believe cosby an cocke co have the same amount of talent, but cosby excells because they are playing 1a ball, while cocke co has to go against the 4a schools. this year i think cosby would beat cocke co tho.

 

going to the conversation about the feeder programs i went to grassy fork which is the smallest school in the county, but was academicly excellent. so im a fan of the small elementary schools. however i think it would would be great to keep every elementary an make them k-5. and make 3 middle schools in the county. i would send all the elementary kids from smoky mtn to cosby elementary and make smoky mtn school a middle school for the kids from the cosby, grassy fork, and smoky mtn area. and if the middle schools kids from del rio an bridgeport wanted to go there ( because they want go to cosby high) then they would have to have their own transportation. build a middle school program in parrotsville, for the middle school kids from parrotsville, del rio, bridgeport, centerview an maybe northwest. (which that midle school could be located in parrotsville). an the last one could be at edgemont, for the kids from edgemont and any middle school kids that live in the city an want to go to a county school. that gives us 3 middle schools at smoky mtn, parrotville, and at edgemont. therfore no money would have to be spent to build any schools, and no schools would be shut down. i believe that would help both high schools sports programs greatly. each middle school would have there own sports programs and play each middle school in the surounding areas.

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i played for cosby an was a senior on that 06 team i believe mr hartsell was talkin about. in all honesty i believe cosby an cocke co have the same amount of talent, but cosby excells because they are playing 1a ball, while cocke co has to go against the 4a schools. this year i think cosby would beat cocke co tho.

 

going to the conversation about the feeder programs i went to grassy fork which is the smallest school in the county, but was academicly excellent. so im a fan of the small elementary schools. however i think it would would be great to keep every elementary an make them k-5. and make 3 middle schools in the county. i would send all the elementary kids from smoky mtn to cosby elementary and make smoky mtn school a middle school for the kids from the cosby, grassy fork, and smoky mtn area. and if the middle schools kids from del rio an bridgeport wanted to go there ( because they want go to cosby high) then they would have to have their own transportation. build a middle school program in parrotsville, for the middle school kids from parrotsville, del rio, bridgeport, centerview an maybe northwest. (which that midle school could be located in parrotsville). an the last one could be at edgemont, for the kids from edgemont and any middle school kids that live in the city an want to go to a county school. that gives us 3 middle schools at smoky mtn, parrotville, and at edgemont. therfore no money would have to be spent to build any schools, and no schools would be shut down. i believe that would help both high schools sports programs greatly. each middle school would have there own sports programs and play each middle school in the surounding areas.

 

Yep, this would prob be the year for Cosby to beat CCHS in football. Cosby is having a good year..congrats. Hope the kid that was in the wreck will be alright. Prayers go out there. CCHS fielding like 20 kids on a 4a team is terrible. No depth or speed there really. Still some kids there that can play.

 

I don't know if the school situation will ever change

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