ensworth and knox webb short a ball game

[NextLevelRecruiting]

I don't think WEBB would want any of Ensworth but, No disrespect to WEBB! Maryville and maybe Fulton would be the only two teams out of East TN that would have a chance with them This Year?

[ExSpartan]

My beef is not with Webb - they are, as you say, playing in the division that TSSAA put them in. My beef is with TSSAA for making the cutoff between D2-A and D2-AA too high. It is currently at 500 students. This puts Webb, with TSSAA enrollment of 453 students in the same division with schools that have as few as 123 students (which means that each class at that school has about 15 boys). Assuming that every boy at that school played football, the team would have about 60 players. It is simply unrealistic to believe that schools of that size can compete with a school like Webb in football.

 

Webb's region games in D2-A this year are against Friendship (TSSAA enrollment of 217), DCA (237), BGA (324), Ezell-Harding (230) and King's Academy (168). That means that they have 129 more students than the next biggest school they play (BGA) and about or more than twice as many students as the other four region teams that they play. This does not make for a competitive situation in a sport like football, which requires a certain minimum number of players to be competitive. The average score of Webb's regular season region games last year (excluding a win by forfeit) was 46-5. I can guarantee you those games were not fun for the kids from the tiny schools that were getting creamed on a regular basis. One team actually had to forfeit a game against Webb because they had a couple of injuries, which left them without enough players to field a team that week.

 

I believe that the TSSAA should move the cutoff between D2-A and D2-AA to 400 students, which would move Webb up to play against similar-sized schools like Ensworth (422 students) and BA (473). As it stands with the current cutoff, D2-AA has only 9 teams for football (plus Ensworth and BA, both of which move up to make a total of 11). Moving the cutoff to 400 would ensure that D2-AA, arguably the best division in the State, would have a minimum of 12 teams every year. This would also pit Webb against schools with similar missions, rather than against the very small primarily parochial schools which it has been beating up on for the last several years. Once again, I am not faulting Webb - they are breaking no rules - but I am asking that the TSSAA take a look at changing the cutoff from 500 to 400. Anyone else have any thoughts on this???

 

I agree with your post... the TSSAA should lower the cutoff. For whatever reason, Webb's male student body typically only produces around a 15% participation in football. Including freshman, their roster will be in the mid-30s most every year. Personally, I liked it better when we played in AA.

[CommanderMan]

How many players will Webb have on the team this year? 30 sounds awfully low

[RedRobin]

How many players will Webb have on the team this year? 30 sounds awfully low

 

Sounds awfully low to me as well. The last time they came to Ensworth (2011 season) Webb had just as many on the sidelines as did Ensworth (which had about 48 on the team, including freshmen).

[WebbSpartans]

Ensworth is the best football program in the state. Period. One of the top programs in the nation. Period. They are bigger. They have more depth. They work hard, its what they wanted and they got it.What is there to contest? Nothing.

 

But I wouldn't want to be anything but a Spartan.....

[WebbSpartans]

How many players will Webb have on the team this year? 30 sounds awfully low

 

33 is the correct number.

[orangecrush]

 

 

33 is the correct number.

I believe you meant to say 33 studs!

[KWoodroof]

My beef is not with Webb - they are, as you say, playing in the division that TSSAA put them in. My beef is with TSSAA for making the cutoff between D2-A and D2-AA too high. It is currently at 500 students. This puts Webb, with TSSAA enrollment of 453 students in the same division with schools that have as few as 123 students (which means that each class at that school has about 15 boys). Assuming that every boy at that school played football, the team would have about 60 players. It is simply unrealistic to believe that schools of that size can compete with a school like Webb in football.

 

Webb's region games in D2-A this year are against Friendship (TSSAA enrollment of 217), DCA (237), BGA (324), Ezell-Harding (230) and King's Academy (168). That means that they have 129 more students than the next biggest school they play (BGA) and about or more than twice as many students as the other four region teams that they play. This does not make for a competitive situation in a sport like football, which requires a certain minimum number of players to be competitive. The average score of Webb's regular season region games last year (excluding a win by forfeit) was 46-5. I can guarantee you those games were not fun for the kids from the tiny schools that were getting creamed on a regular basis. One team actually had to forfeit a game against Webb because they had a couple of injuries, which left them without enough players to field a team that week.

 

I believe that the TSSAA should move the cutoff between D2-A and D2-AA to 400 students, which would move Webb up to play against similar-sized schools like Ensworth (422 students) and BA (473). As it stands with the current cutoff, D2-AA has only 9 teams for football (plus Ensworth and BA, both of which move up to make a total of 11). Moving the cutoff to 400 would ensure that D2-AA, arguably the best division in the State, would have a minimum of 12 teams every year. This would also pit Webb against schools with similar missions, rather than against the very small primarily parochial schools which it has been beating up on for the last several years. Once again, I am not faulting Webb - they are breaking no rules - but I am asking that the TSSAA take a look at changing the cutoff from 500 to 400. Anyone else have any thoughts on this???

 

A more fundamental problem is the fact that there are too few teams in Div II for it to be a truly legitimate classification, coupled with the extreme disparity between the bulk of Div II AA and Div II A. I really don't see a way to change this issue.

[WebbSpartans]

A more fundamental problem is the fact that there are too few teams in Div II for it to be a truly legitimate classification, coupled with the extreme disparity between the bulk of Div II AA and Div II A. I really don't see a way to change this issue.

 

An excellent observation. As previously mentioned, Webb does play Maryville and Baylor. We also play non-regional Catholic and CAK (local, larger private schools that would be in our division if they had teh budgets to meet the travel requirements of DII. )

 

The playoffs have teams that are very, very much like Webb in numbers, size and mission. ECS. USJ. St. Georges. Great teams with winning traditions. Hopefully we can get a chance to be back in the mix.

Edited August 2, 2013 by WebbSpartans

[WebbSpartans]

I believe you meant to say 33 studs!

 

Funny thing. I spoke about Friendship just last night. And I said "Dont get ahead of yourself [Dad], we have to be smart and play our best ball against Friendship. They have a great program". Everyone around me agreed.

 

The Spartans have some pretty good talent returning this year. Hopefully we can be competitive and have a good game against y'all.

[orangecrush]

Funny thing. I spoke about Friendship just last night. And I said "Dont get ahead of yourself [Dad], we have to be smart and play our best ball against Friendship. They have a great program". Everyone around me agreed.

 

The Spartans have some pretty good talent returning this year. Hopefully we can be competitive and have a good game against y'all.

Appreciate the complete about our program and we are looking forward to joining Division II as a whole, but we also realize that our game has to step up a notch to be able to compete with the likes of Knoxville Webb, USJ, ECS, St. George's, BGA, etc.... After seeing you guys in person and on tape the word that can be used to describe Webb's program is "impressive." Top to bottom the coaching and the way the kids play, which is a reflection of the coach, is "impressive." Best of luck this season and we look forward to competing with the Spartans come week four.

[WesVLT]

Young man....Glad to see you posting again

 

Some of the adults are coming back. Perhaps there'll be football talk this year.

 

It's good to be back. I plan on being on here a lot this year. I'm in my second year as BA's play-by-play announcer and plan on giving and getting a lot of good info from CoachT.