District 7AAARiverdale leads a very strong District

[champs7xuk]

Very good. Note on district 7. I think that aaa girls is gonna be tough this year and I don't believe at this point you can pick a favorite..mt. juliet is better as well as clarksville , memphis central defending. Their title. And riverdale....I know little about east tennessee...what march will be if these four make it that far...I can't wait.

[PHargis]

After watching and keeping up with the scores for 7AAA its becoming obvious that while many had hopes that Lavergne would continue to improve and be better during the District competition, they are doing some better but will not be close to where they were three years ago when it was decided the then coach would not be able to lead the Girls Play to where they wanted to go. Two years in to trying to provide an answer to their play are not providing many answers yet. Talent at the school for many years has been very good but for some reason, right now, girls basketball is trending down and a sport which has had a great deal of respect has either selected the wrong leader or needs to have a look at the program to see what is wrong.

The same thing happened with another sport, volleyball, and inatention to the sport for about 3-4 years did the same thing. This year, finding a coach which knew something about the game and had some interest in the team to succeed, the team improved substantially and from the beginning of the season till the end the report card had an A in about every area. This didn't mean they were world beaters but skills were taught and future prospects could be seen. It was an exceptional job of coaching by someone who obviously knew what they were doing.

I would hesitate to grade the school and the team so far in girls basketball because after a year and the beginning of the season is likely not enough time. But there will be a time tward the end of the season and right now Lavergne's Girls Basketball is not the proud group that the players, parents and fans expect. They can be better but right now they are not 7AAA caliber and need to improve their play. Things sometimes don't work out with teams but this is not the case here. its time , in a short time, that the program needs to analyze what it is doing and find ways to make the program successful again and if the current staff was not there to realize how much the skill level has dropped, it might help just to remind them. This is a proud school and has proud parents and players and High School is just 4 years or less. Expectations should be high and it is not. Something is wrong and the parents, players, coaches and adminsitration need to put their heads together and find out what it is.

Trends happen and there are other schools that seem to be trending dowsn also in the sport. Now is the time to look at this to see the reason. Motivation to offer and play has never been a problem in 7AAA. it is strong in every sport. Surely this is not a motivation problem. And surely its not an inattention problem.

[nic]

After watching and keeping up with the scores for 7AAA its becoming obvious that while many had hopes that Lavergne would continue to improve and be better during the District competition, they are doing some better but will not be close to where they were three years ago when it was decided the then coach would not be able to lead the Girls Play to where they wanted to go. Two years in to trying to provide an answer to their play are not providing many answers yet. Talent at the school for many years has been very good but for some reason, right now, girls basketball is trending down and a sport which has had a great deal of respect has either selected the wrong leader or needs to have a look at the program to see what is wrong.

The same thing happened with another sport, volleyball, and inatention to the sport for about 3-4 years did the same thing. This year, finding a coach which knew something about the game and had some interest in the team to succeed, the team improved substantially and from the beginning of the season till the end the report card had an A in about every area. This didn't mean they were world beaters but skills were taught and future prospects could be seen. It was an exceptional job of coaching by someone who obviously knew what they were doing.

I would hesitate to grade the school and the team so far in girls basketball because after a year and the beginning of the season is likely not enough time. But there will be a time tward the end of the season and right now Lavergne's Girls Basketball is not the proud group that the players, parents and fans expect. They can be better but right now they are not 7AAA caliber and need to improve their play. Things sometimes don't work out with teams but this is not the case here. its time , in a short time, that the program needs to analyze what it is doing and find ways to make the program successful again and if the current staff was not there to realize how much the skill level has dropped, it might help just to remind them. This is a proud school and has proud parents and players and High School is just 4 years or less. Expectations should be high and it is not. Something is wrong and the parents, players, coaches and adminsitration need to put their heads together and find out what it is.

Trends happen and there are other schools that seem to be trending dowsn also in the sport. Now is the time to look at this to see the reason. Motivation to offer and play has never been a problem in 7AAA. it is strong in every sport. Surely this is not a motivation problem. And surely its not an inattention problem.

[/quot

In the last two years the girls that went to Rocksprings and Lavernge middle did not go to the high school. Parents sent them to Oakland or they went to private school. If those girls had come to the high school it would be different.

[Indian]

At least they're not the team Lavergne held to 7 points. Hope that group keeps working and makes the best out of their situation.

[PHargis]

There is certainly no disagreement with Lavergne players going to Oakland. That explains Oakland's sudden rise in record along with the addition of players coming out of the Middle School just built across the street but was the move from L to O a physical move or was a waiver given for them to do that. Word from Middle School Coaches was their players transferred to the Magnet School at Murfreesboro Central. Was the transfer from Lavergne to Central and a special waiver to Oakland for special classes for the Lavergne players and Oakland also got the advantage of players from their own zoned Middle School and also got Middle School players from the same special waiver for special classes at Oakland. The devil is in the details and is legitimate but this seems not be be anything the TSSAA did but if true, had the the blessing of the District Office. If it did happen simular to this, transfers for good reason have gotten out of hand and its all right as long as their is an understanding why everything is going on as it is and credit is or is not being given to those who deserve it. The clear loser here is laVergne in Girls Basketball it seems who not only lost players, potential players but maybe got a coaching staff that is having some difficulty in the transition and losing students in the meaantime. The clear winners are Oakland and Central which is all right but mostly Oakland on the athletic end. This will not be superior development and coaching skills but moves from the District Office that complicates transferring students around and puts them where they want to go. To recap, zoning is not as important as it used to be but what has taken over are waivers because of special situations that continue to show up and its all right, its the rules. Someone had to make the decision. Its not more or less complicated than any where else. A High School coach just has to deal with what they have or what they thought they had. This post had to do with Girls basketball. Wonder what happened to football in all of this situation. Someone else can tackle that one. I've confused you enough. Only when a District has a major number of its students transferring for the reason of athletics and it begins to cause major imbalances in schools populations will anything be changed. Special waivers are just reasons, maybe not good reasons. They meet someones needs.

Edited November 26, 2011 by PHargis

[PHargis]

Blackman beat Lawerance by 4, Oakland beat Centennil by a lot and now is 5-0. Siegel lost to Franklin by 8.

[hotshot]

Blackman beat Lawerance by 4, Oakland beat Centennil by a lot and now is 5-0. Siegel lost to Franklin by 8.

Lawrence County lost by 1 on one of the most questionable calls Ive ever seen. They called a foul with no time on the clock and sent Blackman to the foul line with 0.0 on the clock. They cleared the floor and let her shoot the freethrow with no time left. If the foul was committed as clock had expired then game should have been decided in overtime or they should have had to put time back on clock.

[mboro]

Lawrence County lost by 1 on one of the most questionable calls Ive ever seen. They called a foul with no time on the clock and sent Blackman to the foul line with 0.0 on the clock. They cleared the floor and let her shoot the freethrow with no time left. If the foul was committed as clock had expired then game should have been decided in overtime or they should have had to put time back on clock.

No doubt it was a foul! She knocked her out of bounds! the real question is why would you even touch the player thats 40 + feet from the basket? LC coach should have told players not to even go near! Chances of a player making a 40ft shot is not high!

[riverdaleman]

my girls lost to memphis central in OT today 68-60

[PHargis]

my girls lost to memphiisings central in OT today 68-60

Looking at the writeup concerning the loss to MC, Coach Wild figured out what has happened to the Warriors during this last perio.d of time with the losses to two really good Schools. Its really not

unexpected and fixable.

Barbee is a great player even though a little undersized at post for the Warriors. Her size is made up for by her great agressiveness and quickness. She is a tremendous mismatch for most post players who play her. Riverdale does not match up well with MC defensively. There is too much size underneath. That likely has been noticed by wild for some time. Ninety percent of the time RD will outquick all of the teams it plays except for 2 or three noticeable teams in the area, not in 7AAA. But if Barbee leads the fast break and loses the momentum, RD has no answer. If RD guards lose the momentum, there will be some difficulty with size also.

RD is a great school with possibly three to four D1 players. Their speed is exceptional. Their reaction time is their own worst enemy. Players out of position likely will work against them. They could lose a couple of more games but not likely much more. The success this year will go thru Barbee and keeping this player involved. To do anything else will keep games closer. Schools will try to take advantage of any undersizing RD has in their lineup. this is a great team.

[mboro]

Blackman Lady Blaze beat Louisville pleasure ridge high 50-42

[Blazeallthewaze]

Blackman Lady Blaze beat Louisville pleasure ridge high 50-42

Thanks mboro. I was wondering how this game came out. Any details?