Grace Christian

[TwinCityT]

GCA.. Gonna Cheat Always... Why would a kid sit out an entire season, just to play Single A post season baseball? And you say, "Oh, we pitched a 15 year old kid the entire game." I can remember times in District 3 and 4 A that 70% of the team that the school furnished was 15. Also, there has been teams in Both District 3A and 4A that could "score 50" on district rivals, but out of respect they don't. You pitched a kid that hadn't pitched much in a game? Almost every year each team in Both these districts are forced to pitch a kid that has never pitched before, because most teams have 2 maybe 3 decent pitchers. And just calling it station to station makes me upset for some reason? It's a base not a station. Good luck to Grace at State, granted they make it there. You will need it.

Sounds like CAK,CPA, FRA etc.

Parents from travel teams talk to one another re schools. Goes something like this.....My son goes to GCA, we love it and he loves it....small school, great academics, good sports program. If your son comes and we get a few more kids from our travel team we'll crush the local schools and have a good shot at State every year.

These parents work hard at creating a Stacked Team kinda like Little League parents do. I'm sure the 15 year old pitcher pitched 100 innings last summer vs excellent travel teams as did most of his teammates. I'm also fairly sure Harriman, Greenback,Tellico etc can't say the same.

 

I don't think anything is wrong with this except these schools refuse to go Dll because they don't want to lose their advantage over public schools. It seems to me that a school formed to glorify God would want any student that wanted to attend... to be able to attend no matter if they have money or not. Non sporting kids can receive financial aid ...kids that want to play sports can't receive aid. Seems to me that these schools would want to spread the Ministry to all!

[braveheart]

AS an ex-GCA player, it really upsets me to see people try to discredit all the hard work my friends and I put in to bulding up the sports at Grace. You say we were horrible before people started transferring and we have only gotten better because of them, however, you forget to mention the fact that GCA Baseball, Football and Basketball didn't even exist 10 years ago. I can remember being in middle school going to Grace football games when they had 4 people on the bench and a few 8th graders starting varsity. As the school grows, more people are going to come and obviously play sports. All of those sports got better bc people started working and the team and school started growing. In fact, all of the people that have gone on to play in college have been there since middle school or their freshman year. I can only think of one transfer in my 4 years there from any sport that went on to play in college. We went to state last year and only one of our players (Until Helton became eligible for 3 games) was a transfer. The rest had come into Grace just like myself. I understand that people do just come for sports, but they sit out their time as they are supposed too just like if they had transferred to any other school. If you really think that 1 transfer on a baseball team or 2 on a football team could win you a ring, youre kidding yourself.

 

Also, everyone that is talking about the score being run up by them is completely ridiculous. I can promise that Coach Hoch is the last guy that would want to run it up on anyone. I wasnt there, but I guarantee he did not leave the starters in long and played station to station baseball, bc we did that every time we got a big lead when I was there. Tellico is in a stuation that Grace was in not to long ago where they are trying to build their program and Hoch (and the players for that matter) know that. As for football, Grace sometimes runs it up on those schools due to past experiences. I can remember my freshman year in football, getting absolutely hammered by certain schools who would leave their starters in the entire time and be laughing at us and taking cheap shots. I also remember after the game when the coaches would shake hands and coach Mckamey saying, "dont worry, we'll see you again". Getting a little taste of their own medicine is what makes sports fun and Im sure everyone would agree.

 

I think the reason people continue to lash out at Grace is because they continue to deny things that are very open and evident to the publics (we didn't know we couldnt give that kid a benevolent check to pay his tuition, we didnt know that that kid wasnt eligible living with a coach while his parents resided back in FL, or as you mention above all of our athletes have been here since middle school). Im not sure if Grace people are just kept in the dark on things or if they just will continue to deny that they havent done anything wrong other than the with the Williams kid. Its just hard to believe they are in the dark, when most of us know different. Just so you know, Adrian Wannamaker was a transfer that did not attend Grace in middle school (went to play football at Carson Newman, but quit the team), David Amos transferred his senior year to play basketball at Grace and then transferred back to KCS and qraduated from there (currently playing football at Faulkner), Cameron Pridemore did not attend GCA in middle school (playing basketball now at UAM) and your current QB was a high school transfer from the Halls area. I can keep going if needed with the high school transfers. but I think I make my point. Not trying to be nasty, just trying to explain why we discredit the school. The publics continue to work with what we're dealt and we kept seeing Grace reload every year, and in every sport it seems like, keeping our kids from advancing in the state tournament. I think that is where the much repeated suggestion to go to Division II stems from. Just not a level playing field b/w publics and privates. I understand you sticking up for your school and you getting upset when your school is discredited, but a lot of it has been brought on by the powers to be at Grace. While I have little respect for McKamey, from what I have heard about Hoch, he is a class act (although I only know Hoch by reputation). I was not at the games where Grace ran up the score, so I cannot comment on the circumstance regarding that.

[buc1973]

I knew nothing about Grace before this year. I do know Hoch, as he has worked with my son, and he is a class act.

[orngnblk]

I think the reason people continue to lash out at Grace is because they continue to deny things that are very open and evident to the publics (we didn't know we couldnt give that kid a benevolent check to pay his tuition, we didnt know that that kid wasnt eligible living with a coach while his parents resided back in FL, or as you mention above all of our athletes have been here since middle school). Im not sure if Grace people are just kept in the dark on things or if they just will continue to deny that they havent done anything wrong other than the with the Williams kid. Its just hard to believe they are in the dark, when most of us know different. Just so you know, Adrian Wannamaker was a transfer that did not attend Grace in middle school (went to play football at Carson Newman, but quit the team), David Amos transferred his senior year to play basketball at Grace and then transferred back to KCS and qraduated from there (currently playing football at Faulkner), Cameron Pridemore did not attend GCA in middle school (playing basketball now at UAM) and your current QB was a high school transfer from the Halls area. I can keep going if needed with the high school transfers. but I think I make my point. Not trying to be nasty, just trying to explain why we discredit the school. The publics continue to work with what we're dealt and we kept seeing Grace reload every year, and in every sport it seems like, keeping our kids from advancing in the state tournament. I think that is where the much repeated suggestion to go to Division II stems from. Just not a level playing field b/w publics and privates. I understand you sticking up for your school and you getting upset when your school is discredited, but a lot of it has been brought on by the powers to be at Grace. While I have little respect for McKamey, from what I have heard about Hoch, he is a class act (although I only know Hoch by reputation). I was not at the games where Grace ran up the score, so I cannot comment on the circumstance regarding that.

Great post!

[xBraves10x]

I think the reason people continue to lash out at Grace is because they continue to deny things that are very open and evident to the publics (we didn't know we couldnt give that kid a benevolent check to pay his tuition, we didnt know that that kid wasnt eligible living with a coach while his parents resided back in FL, or as you mention above all of our athletes have been here since middle school). Im not sure if Grace people are just kept in the dark on things or if they just will continue to deny that they havent done anything wrong other than the with the Williams kid. Its just hard to believe they are in the dark, when most of us know different. Just so you know, Adrian Wannamaker was a transfer that did not attend Grace in middle school (went to play football at Carson Newman, but quit the team), David Amos transferred his senior year to play basketball at Grace and then transferred back to KCS and qraduated from there (currently playing football at Faulkner), Cameron Pridemore did not attend GCA in middle school (playing basketball now at UAM) and your current QB was a high school transfer from the Halls area. I can keep going if needed with the high school transfers. but I think I make my point. Not trying to be nasty, just trying to explain why we discredit the school. The publics continue to work with what we're dealt and we kept seeing Grace reload every year, and in every sport it seems like, keeping our kids from advancing in the state tournament. I think that is where the much repeated suggestion to go to Division II stems from. Just not a level playing field b/w publics and privates. I understand you sticking up for your school and you getting upset when your school is discredited, but a lot of it has been brought on by the powers to be at Grace. While I have little respect for McKamey, from what I have heard about Hoch, he is a class act (although I only know Hoch by reputation). I was not at the games where Grace ran up the score, so I cannot comment on the circumstance regarding that.

 

I understand what you are saying about them not taking responsibility for their actions. It was hard to watch some of the interviews and hear the explanations of why things happened, when I think all that we and other people wanted to hear was; yea we did it, sorry, it won't happen again. I'm not getting my degree in public relations but I'm pretty sure that would be a better move. As for the kid that came from FL, he didn't live with a coach. He lived with a family that was led to believe that they were just housing him until his parents could move to TN. I'm not sure who all knew about this, but people did lose jobs over it. Regarding the "transfers" you mentioned, Adrian didn't play sports at AE and was adopted by the pastor's brother. (They had known him his entire life and helped him when he needed it. They didn't just adopt him to come play sports as I'm sure some wise guy would have said.) Of course when he began to live with them, they wanted him at Grace and he wanted to be there. It wasn't until then that he decided to play sports. David Amos went to KCS, a school that averages graduating under 10 students a year if I'm not mistaken. Grace and KCS had a co-op program when they were both small schools allowing the KCS students that wanted to play sports to come and play at Graces. There would usually be 2 or 3 students that would play and TSSAA had approved this. The co-op ended his senior year so him and another kid transferred to Grace bc they had both played for Grace since they were in 8th grade. They wanted to graduate from KCS, where Amos' grandfather was the headmaster and they had been their whole lives. This was all fine, according to TSSAA. Pridemore's dad accepted a coaching job at Grace from FLORIDA. If you count him as a transfer bc he moved hundreds of miles with his family, that's pretty dumb. The QB now came in as a Freshman. That is not a transfer. If that's at transfer, then 75% of the students at Grace, athletes or not, are transfers. It's not a zoned school so technically everyone at Grace is a transfer I guess...

[DCBoysfan]

I understand what you are saying about them not taking responsibility for their actions. It was hard to watch some of the interviews and hear the explanations of why things happened, when I think all that we and other people wanted to hear was; yea we did it, sorry, it won't happen again. I'm not getting my degree in public relations but I'm pretty sure that would be a better move. As for the kid that came from FL, he didn't live with a coach. He lived with a family that was led to believe that they were just housing him until his parents could move to TN. I'm not sure who all knew about this, but people did lose jobs over it. Regarding the "transfers" you mentioned, Adrian didn't play sports at AE and was adopted by the pastor's brother. (They had known him his entire life and helped him when he needed it. They didn't just adopt him to come play sports as I'm sure some wise guy would have said.) Of course when he began to live with them, they wanted him at Grace and he wanted to be there. It wasn't until then that he decided to play sports. David Amos went to KCS, a school that averages graduating under 10 students a year if I'm not mistaken. Grace and KCS had a co-op program when they were both small schools allowing the KCS students that wanted to play sports to come and play at Graces. There would usually be 2 or 3 students that would play and TSSAA had approved this. The co-op ended his senior year so him and another kid transferred to Grace bc they had both played for Grace since they were in 8th grade. They wanted to graduate from KCS, where Amos' grandfather was the headmaster and they had been their whole lives. This was all fine, according to TSSAA. Pridemore's dad accepted a coaching job at Grace from FLORIDA. If you count him as a transfer bc he moved hundreds of miles with his family, that's pretty dumb. The QB now came in as a Freshman. That is not a transfer. If that's at transfer, then 75% of the students at Grace, athletes or not, are transfers. It's not a zoned school so technically everyone at Grace is a transfer I guess...

 

Couldn't have stated it better myself. Thank you xBraves10x for the post......I was getting ready to do the same.

[DCBoysfan]

Sounds like CAK,CPA, FRA etc.

Parents from travel teams talk to one another re schools. Goes something like this.....My son goes to GCA, we love it and he loves it....small school, great academics, good sports program. If your son comes and we get a few more kids from our travel team we'll crush the local schools and have a good shot at State every year.

These parents work hard at creating a Stacked Team kinda like Little League parents do. I'm sure the 15 year old pitcher pitched 100 innings last summer vs excellent travel teams as did most of his teammates. I'm also fairly sure Harriman, Greenback,Tellico etc can't say the same.

 

I don't think anything is wrong with this except these schools refuse to go Dll because they don't want to lose their advantage over public schools. It seems to me that a school formed to glorify God would want any student that wanted to attend... to be able to attend no matter if they have money or not. Non sporting kids can receive financial aid ...kids that want to play sports can't receive aid. Seems to me that these schools would want to spread the Ministry to all!

 

 

Let me try to answer your question. You wanna know why GCA will never go D2, the reason is $$$$$$$$. The same reason Catholic dropped from D2 to D1. Grace currently has the cheapest tuition in and around Knox county for private schools. Catholic dropped down to D1. CAK will never go up to D2 for the same reason. If we charged $18,500 tuition per student like Webb....well yeah we could play D2 and travel to Chattanooga, Nashville and Tri Cities for district games....that's a long way from a $6500 tuition like GCA's. We, don't have the funds, resources, ability to do that. AND...why in the world would we do that? My resources have told me that We (GCA)will always stay and play D1.....as most every small private school like CAK and Catholic should. Enuf Said!

[braveheart]

I understand what you are saying about them not taking responsibility for their actions. It was hard to watch some of the interviews and hear the explanations of why things happened, when I think all that we and other people wanted to hear was; yea we did it, sorry, it won't happen again. I'm not getting my degree in public relations but I'm pretty sure that would be a better move. As for the kid that came from FL, he didn't live with a coach. He lived with a family that was led to believe that they were just housing him until his parents could move to TN. I'm not sure who all knew about this, but people did lose jobs over it. Regarding the "transfers" you mentioned, Adrian didn't play sports at AE and was adopted by the pastor's brother. (They had known him his entire life and helped him when he needed it. They didn't just adopt him to come play sports as I'm sure some wise guy would have said.) Of course when he began to live with them, they wanted him at Grace and he wanted to be there. It wasn't until then that he decided to play sports. David Amos went to KCS, a school that averages graduating under 10 students a year if I'm not mistaken. Grace and KCS had a co-op program when they were both small schools allowing the KCS students that wanted to play sports to come and play at Graces. There would usually be 2 or 3 students that would play and TSSAA had approved this. The co-op ended his senior year so him and another kid transferred to Grace bc they had both played for Grace since they were in 8th grade. They wanted to graduate from KCS, where Amos' grandfather was the headmaster and they had been their whole lives. This was all fine, according to TSSAA. Pridemore's dad accepted a coaching job at Grace from FLORIDA. If you count him as a transfer bc he moved hundreds of miles with his family, that's pretty dumb. The QB now came in as a Freshman. That is not a transfer. If that's at transfer, then 75% of the students at Grace, athletes or not, are transfers. It's not a zoned school so technically everyone at Grace is a transfer I guess...

 

 

Let me try to address each of your above rebuttal comments. First of all, I gather you are probably only a few years out of high school from your post, but apparently are much wiser than the decision makers at Grace as to how the illegal activity at Grace should have been addressed. And I don't thing a Public Relations degree is necessary either to realize that stepping up and taking responsibility for your actions instead of playing the naive card, would have been a better option. I think most of us would have a lot more respect for the pastor and the school if they had just stated that they got caught up in all the winning and got off keeping Christ the main focus of the school, and then offer the those affected an apology. I also think many of the students saw through the facade, which only made many of them lose respect for the adminstrators and pastor, as I am friends with many of those who attended Grace in the past who have both insight and negative opinions as to what went on there. XBraves10X, it is a shame the powers to be didn't ask for your advice before making weak excuses to the public on the radio, tv, etc. If so, perhaps the verbal abuse Grace continues to take would not have been near as harsh. Anyway, in regards to your post... the kid from FL did live with one of your asst baseball coaches. If you know who he lived with, then you know this to be fact (if you are only going by what you have been told, then maybe not). As for people losing their jobs, the only person I am aware of was Coach Lamb. And there were numerous issues with him already, in that he was working there much of the time without a contract due to those issues. In fact, I was told that Pridemore threatened to pull his son out of Grace because of Lamb, and Slusher was to leave with him, as well (pretty easy to validate this being Pridemore is now your girls basketball coach). As for the transfers I mentioned, per the TSSAA, Adrian was required to sit our his first year at Grace, whether he was adopted or played sports at AE, or not. Here is language taken directly from the TSSAA website:

 

Q. A student with or without an athletic record moves to live with a guardian other than a parent. Is the student eligible?

A. No. A student must live with the new guardian, if other than their parent, for 12 months or longer.

 

And by the way, it was the Pastor's son (not brother) who was to have adopted Adrian (I heard that was the intention of the pastor's son, but not sure if that ever actually happened, or not). Also, he actually met Adrian when he started an inner city church a several years back, and had not known Adrian all his life. Whether or not the intention was to involve Adrian in sports at Grace to benefit him or the athletic program at Grace, I will not comment on, as that would be speculation at best. As for David Amos, all of your facts are correct to my knowledge. However, after the KCS basketball program was turned down by the TSSAA to co-op with Grace, the Amos family petitioned TSSAA to allow him to be illegible to play basketball at Grace if he transferred. Again, all legal as you stated. However, I can tell you for fact they would never have approved the tranfer illegiblity if they had known the intention was for him to transfer to Grace only for the basketball season, and then withdraw and return to KCS to graduate. And just so you know, I only mentioned Amos because you stated in your post that Helton was the only transfer at Grace in the 4 years you played sports at Grace. As for my Pridemore comment, I never said he was a transfer (so I will let the dumb comment slide). That was only a response to your comment that all the people who have left Grace and went on to play college sports attended Grace in middle school (Pridemore did not attend middle school at Grace and he is playing basketball in college). Someone I failed to mention in my prior post is the star of your girl's basketball team who transferred from Oak Ridge after her freshman year. No family relocation of residence, no sitting out for a year, and no 20 mile rule adhered to, so I am still trying to figure how they pulled that off (or maybe they didn't and she played illegally). Since a lot of what is in you above post is incorrect regarding my comments, I actually find humor that yet another one of the Grace faithful (Ram Fan) jumped on the bandwagon to commend your post. No beef with you though, as you seem like a pretty decent young man. I am sorry you had to go through what you did while attending Grace due to the actions of a few adults.

 

 

 

by asking .

[gcapride]

Let me try to address each of your above rebuttal comments. First of all, I gather you are probably only a few years out of high school from your post, but apparently are much wiser than the decision makers at Grace as to how the illegal activity at Grace should have been addressed. And I don't thing a Public Relations degree is necessary either to realize that stepping up and taking responsibility for your actions instead of playing the naive card, would have been a better option. I think most of us would have a lot more respect for the pastor and the school if they had just stated that they got caught up in all the winning and got off keeping Christ the main focus of the school, and then offer the those affected an apology. I also think many of the students saw through the facade, which only made many of them lose respect for the adminstrators and pastor, as I am friends with many of those who attended Grace in the past who have both insight and negative opinions as to what went on there. XBraves10X, it is a shame the powers to be didn't ask for your advice before making weak excuses to the public on the radio, tv, etc. If so, perhaps the verbal abuse Grace continues to take would not have been near as harsh. Anyway, in regards to your post... the kid from FL did live with one of your asst baseball coaches. If you know who he lived with, then you know this to be fact (if you are only going by what you have been told, then maybe not). As for people losing their jobs, the only person I am aware of was Coach Lamb. And there were numerous issues with him already, in that he was working there much of the time without a contract due to those issues. In fact, I was told that Pridemore threatened to pull his son out of Grace because of Lamb, and Slusher was to leave with him, as well (pretty easy to validate this being Pridemore is now your girls basketball coach). As for the transfers I mentioned, per the TSSAA, Adrian was required to sit our his first year at Grace, whether he was adopted or played sports at AE, or not. Here is language taken directly from the TSSAA website:

 

Q. A student with or without an athletic record moves to live with a guardian other than a parent. Is the student eligible?

A. No. A student must live with the new guardian, if other than their parent, for 12 months or longer.

 

And by the way, it was the Pastor's son (not brother) who was to have adopted Adrian (I heard that was the intention of the pastor's son, but not sure if that ever actually happened, or not). Also, he actually met Adrian when he started an inner city church a several years back, and had not known Adrian all his life. Whether or not the intention was to involve Adrian in sports at Grace to benefit him or the athletic program at Grace, I will not comment on, as that would be speculation at best. As for David Amos, all of your facts are correct to my knowledge. However, after the KCS basketball program was turned down by the TSSAA to co-op with Grace, the Amos family petitioned TSSAA to allow him to be illegible to play basketball at Grace if he transferred. Again, all legal as you stated. However, I can tell you for fact they would never have approved the tranfer illegiblity if they had known the intention was for him to transfer to Grace only for the basketball season, and then withdraw and return to KCS to graduate. And just so you know, I only mentioned Amos because you stated in your post that Helton was the only transfer at Grace in the 4 years you played sports at Grace. As for my Pridemore comment, I never said he was a transfer (so I will let the dumb comment slide). That was only a response to your comment that all the people who have left Grace and went on to play college sports attended Grace in middle school (Pridemore did not attend middle school at Grace and he is playing basketball in college). Someone I failed to mention in my prior post is the star of your girl's basketball team who transferred from Oak Ridge after her freshman year. No family relocation of residence, no sitting out for a year, and no 20 mile rule adhered to, so I am still trying to figure how they pulled that off (or maybe they didn't and she played illegally). Since a lot of what is in you above post is incorrect regarding my comments, I actually find humor that yet another one of the Grace faithful (Ram Fan) jumped on the bandwagon to commend your post. No beef with you though, as you seem like a pretty decent young man. I am sorry you had to go through what you did while attending Grace due to the actions of a few adults.

 

 

 

by asking .

 

You CONTINUE, year after year, to troll on Grace threads and trash the school. Nobody has listened to you thus far and especially nobody from the TSSAA, so, go away. The TSSAA conducted the most thorough investigation ever conducted by that organization (as stated by their own investigator) at GCA. You continue to bash GCA and hide behind your comments and also throw in the occasional "I know people that went to GCA" comments to try to validate what you say. Hiding behind insane comments and saying you have inside sources doesn't give you ANY credit. Anyone can say that. You act like you know what's happened, but in reality, you are just stating what's been said in the paper and what's been said on different threads on the many boards on this site.

Edited May 10, 2012 by gcapride

[olerockyrebel]

Being from Roane County and watching Harriman athletics we've had our fair share of watching our sports teams compete against Grace. You'll be the first to know i despise their football and basketball programs with a blazing passion. But baseball is a different story, yes they have transfers that role in but tell me a private school that doesn't have what they do. It doesn't help our case baecause they have one of the best coaches in the state either. The program has had their slip-ups but it's time to let the past go and focus on the future. Whether any of us like it or not that they're in our district it's something you have to live with and just play ball! Nothing but respect for the GCA baseball program! Good luck to them in the Road To State!

Edited May 10, 2012 by olerockyrebel

[hooters]

Grace might be the dirtiest program in Tennessee history.

[baseball100]

IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SOME GOOD BASEBALL IF THIS GRACE TEAM WAS AROUND 4 OR 5 YEARS AGO WITH THE GOOD ROCKWOOD AND HARRIMAN TEAMS