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Volunteer High Football Out of the cellar?


DandDD
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Hope they can turn it around and be a little competitive. I was around the program for several years. My son played there from 01 to 04. Played on one playoff team during that time (went 6-5 that year). I think 6 win season is the best in school history (done twice). The school has had one playoff win ever. During the years that my son played we were in the old IMAC with Greeneville, the Morristown schools, Cocke Co. and Cherokee. We were always competitive (didn't get blown out every week) Very strong league. My sons Junior year MWest went to the State Finals.

I don't feel the league they are in now is even close to that strong, with the exception of Greeneville and a lot of times South. Volunteer is a fairly large 4A school. Can't figure out why we don't win those "winnable games" and never really have.

Hard to change a tradition especially a losing one.

Barry Jones is a good coach and knows the game. He's been a coach on 9 State Championship teams in his career ( Powell Valley Va. and Gate City Va.). Any one who lives in NE Tn or SWVA knows what kind of tradition those schools have had over the last 30 to 40 yrs.

Those schools are different from Volunteer. They don't know they are supposed to lose. They think they are supposed to win and work to keep it that way.

Volunteer has very dedicated fans. Always have. Remind me of Cub fans. Cubs are turning it around maybe there is hope :thumb:

 

Go Falcons!!!   Good luck this season.  It's freakin time to start a new Tradition!

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DandDD - good post, I think you nailed it about the attitude of winning (or losing).    Winning breeds winning and .......

I would guarantee there are Volunteer guys roaming the halls that could be fantastic players but you can't get them out on the field.

I would love to see them have a big year just one time. They have such dedicated fans. They travel well with the team. Years ago when Coach Rider came to Volunteer I told him that if he could win 7 games in a year that Church Hill people would make him Mayor. Volunteer fans are starving for a winner. Unfortunately the players aren't (at least not up to this point). Time to buckle down boys.

Go Falcons!!!!

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I would love to see them have a big year just one time. They have such dedicated fans. They travel well with the team. Years ago when Coach Rider came to Volunteer I told him that if he could win 7 games in a year that Church Hill people would make him Mayor. Volunteer fans are starving for a winner. Unfortunately the players aren't (at least not up to this point). Time to buckle down boys.

Go Falcons!!!!

DandDD, from what I remember Church Hill Middle School football was always strong and beat Colonial Heights on more than one occasion when my kids were that age.  Why the big fall off from Middle to High School?

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DandDD, from what I remember Church Hill Middle School football was always strong and beat Colonial Heights on more than one occasion when my kids were that age.  Why the big fall off from Middle to High School?

Not really sure. In my opinion (and you know what they say about opinions) when Church Hill and Surgoinsville combined to create Volunteer had to play at a higher classification (due to their enrollment. The talent level coming out of Surgoinsville was very thin. Their feeder system was virtually non existent. Church Hill had a pretty darn good High School Football tradition with a legendary Coach in Jay Salley. When the new school was started Jay Salley was not named the Head Coach. I feel like he could have got the tradition going in the right direction for a few years and things might have been different.

So with the way the two feeders are you basically have Church Hill High School with a different name playing on higher level. Very little help from the other feeder. Nothing against Surgoinsville. I know a lot of great people from that area. But the talent they send to Volunteer is very small. There have been some great athletes from there (Randy Jones, Ben Southam), that's a couple that I remember off the top of my head, and a few more I'm sure. But not many.

That's my theory. Hope I didn't hurt any feelings because I wasn't trying to. Just a theory.

Go Falcons!!!

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Not really sure. In my opinion (and you know what they say about opinions) when Church Hill and Surgoinsville combined to create Volunteer had to play at a higher classification (due to their enrollment. The talent level coming out of Surgoinsville was very thin. Their feeder system was virtually non existent. Church Hill had a pretty darn good High School Football tradition with a legendary Coach in Jay Salley. When the new school was started Jay Salley was not named the Head Coach. I feel like he could have got the tradition going in the right direction for a few years and things might have been different.

So with the way the two feeders are you basically have Church Hill High School with a different name playing on higher level. Very little help from the other feeder. Nothing against Surgoinsville. I know a lot of great people from that area. But the talent they send to Volunteer is very small. There have been some great athletes from there (Randy Jones, Ben Southam), that's a couple that I remember off the top of my head, and a few more I'm sure. But not many.

That's my theory. Hope I didn't hurt any feelings because I wasn't trying to. Just a theory.

Go Falcons!!!

The current feeder situation for Volunteer sounds very similar to the one at South with one much larger middle school (CH) and the other very much smaller (Sullivan) which has at times struggled to to field a team. They have made it work though. Biggest thing my friends at Volunteer have talked about is coaching. I hope Barry can turn things around. I won't call any names but a recent graduate there told me that certain Dobyns-Bennett coaches did more for him regarding college recruiting than his own coaches at Volunteer. That is sad.
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Not really sure. In my opinion (and you know what they say about opinions) when Church Hill and Surgoinsville combined to create Volunteer had to play at a higher classification (due to their enrollment. The talent level coming out of Surgoinsville was very thin. Their feeder system was virtually non existent. Church Hill had a pretty darn good High School Football tradition with a legendary Coach in Jay Salley. When the new school was started Jay Salley was not named the Head Coach. I feel like he could have got the tradition going in the right direction for a few years and things might have been different.

So with the way the two feeders are you basically have Church Hill High School with a different name playing on higher level. Very little help from the other feeder. Nothing against Surgoinsville. I know a lot of great people from that area. But the talent they send to Volunteer is very small. There have been some great athletes from there (Randy Jones, Ben Southam), that's a couple that I remember off the top of my head, and a few more I'm sure. But not many.

That's my theory. Hope I didn't hurt any feelings because I wasn't trying to. Just a theory.

Go Falcons!!!

Thanks, that makes sense and like RebRaider said it does resemble the South feeder system.

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