Volunteer High Football Out of the cellar?

[formerblazer]

Volunteer will squeeze one against south and finish 5-5. Not a terrible year but a year volunteer fans have seen too many times before. Must turn the corner for people in church hill to get excited!

The South vs. Volunteer game will be a great one.  South may be down, Volunteer is getting better, so it should be a great competitive game.

[WaCoJaCo]

Give the coach some time and see what he can build.  You went from 0-10, 1-9, to 5-5.  Give the new coach some time and see what happens.  Look in 4A you have to deal with Greeneville and Elizabethton, in 5A you have TN High (who appears to be down and will stay down) Boone and Crockett (up and down) Cherokee (nothing new) Morristown East (tough one here) and what Cocke County?  5A looks a lot better than 4A.  Play 5 teams that will make you look good, get more interest in the program, start stealing more kids from that side of Kingsport and you all are in good shape in the future.

 

In my opinion Jones is far and away the best coach Volunteer has had. He is a very good coach. It takes time to build a program. If they give him 6 years he will have them winning playoff games and will bring respect. There is talent in Hawkins Co. Probably more talent not playing than is. Jones will get the kids excited about playing and you will see those kids on the practice field. 

[BlueDevil58]

The keys to building a program at VHS has always been

 

1.)  Relate to the kids and keep them out

 

2.)  Keep the athletes from CHMS going to Volunteer and staying out for football once they get there.  Ever since the schools consolidated, a lot of the best talent from CHMS (and occasionally SMS) will go to HS at Dobyns Bennett.

 

3.)  Build and keep a coaching staff together when every other district nearby pays better.  If you look around, half of the coordinators and top assistant coaches in the area got their start at Volunteer.

 

Gene Venable was good at this stuff, which is why he had the first winning season in school history and, I believe, retired with the best win percentage of any Volunteer HC.  During Ryder's first few years, he kept those things going and built on what Venable had done... but then the wheels started falling off.

 

Give Jones some more time.  5-5 is a huge improvement over where they'd been for a few years. However, Jones is no spring chicken.  He retired in VA first and he doesn't have the same tradition to work and community dynamics to work with in Church Hill that he had going on at his previous starts, which means he has a lot more headaches at Volunteer.  Will he want to stick around once he gets 5 years in TN and is vested in drawing a pension from here, too?  Nobody knows.

 

I wish him the best, though.  It looks like Volunteer will be going 5A next year, which is not good for the long term building of the program.  In 4A, it would basically be Greenville and then everything would be wide open after that (Unicoi County, Central, South, East, Johnson County) with 3 more playoff spots to go around.

 

In 5A, they'll haveTN High (will be improved), both Morristown Schools (always tough), Boone and DC (both improved) as district opponents, with Cherokee (improved) in the mix as well, and that doesn't look so competitive for a rebuilding team.

Edited October 15, 2016 by BlueDevil58

[DandDD]

In my opinion Jones is far and away the best coach Volunteer has had. He is a very good coach. It takes time to build a program. If they give him 6 years he will have them winning playoff games and will bring respect. There is talent in Hawkins Co. Probably more talent not playing than is. Jones will get the kids excited about playing and you will see those kids on the practice field. 

I agree WaCo. I know Barry and I know he's a winner. He knows how to coach football. And he's been around high School football long enough to know what it takes to be a winner. I just hope he stays around long enough for volunteer people to get a taste of what winning is like. If the excitement every builds up in that program and the athletes come out to play, It could be fun to see.

[DandDD]

Bump

[DandDD]

Bump

[DandDD]

Bump again

[BlueDevil58]

Well, 5A it is.

 

The district being talked about for Volunteer is:

 

Tennessee High

David Crockett

Daniel Boone

Volunteer

Cherokee

Morristown East

Cocke County

 

So a 7 team district with 4 playoff spots.  The TSSAA may put Sevier County there, too, but it wouldn't make much sense with them being closer to the Knoxville metro area schools.

 

4A would have been far preferable, because there it's basically Greeneville on top and everything else is wide open with some teams that Volunteer has beaten this year.

 

Region 1-5A isn't a bunch of world beaters, though.  Tennessee High's down this year, but they will rise again (the freshman and sophomore class there are stacked).  They'll rule this district, but none of the rest are elite.

 

Rebuilding is always doable, and it still is, but this wasn't the ideal scenario for Volunteer.

[DandDD]

Well, 5A it is.

 

The district being talked about for Volunteer is:

 

Tennessee High

David Crockett

Daniel Boone

Volunteer

Cherokee

Morristown East

Cocke County

 

So a 7 team district with 4 playoff spots.  The TSSAA may put Sevier County there, too, but it wouldn't make much sense with them being closer to the Knoxville metro area schools.

 

4A would have been far preferable, because there it's basically Greeneville on top and everything else is wide open with some teams that Volunteer has beaten this year.

 

Region 1-5A isn't a bunch of world beaters, though.  Tennessee High's down this year, but they will rise again (the freshman and sophomore class there are stacked).  They'll rule this district, but none of the rest are elite.

 

Rebuilding is always doable, and it still is, but this wasn't the ideal scenario for Volunteer.

Tn High would be the odds on favorite most years in that district. The rest have their ups and downs. Cherokee has always had Volunteers number. M East usually does too. The rest depends on the year. Bottom line is if Volunteer can continue to improve they could be competitive in that district. Nobody said it should be easy. Winning records by playing weak teams mean nothing. It's nice seeing the wins but it gets you nothing down the road. Just ask the fans in Kingsport. They will tell you the same thing. So if volunteer is going to turn it into a winning program they need to step up to the competition not step down. 

[TheManiac]

Takes me back to the old IMAC or 5 rivers conference minus TN High and Boone. Not having Mo West and Greeneville are key! Both teams used to own this conference. Volunteer has a chance at beating all these teams. Obviously, I wish they were still in their current conference but, I'm not upset about this.

[BlueDevil58]

Tn High would be the odds on favorite most years in that district. The rest have their ups and downs. Cherokee has always had Volunteers number. M East usually does too. The rest depends on the year. Bottom line is if Volunteer can continue to improve they could be competitive in that district. Nobody said it should be easy. Winning records by playing weak teams mean nothing. It's nice seeing the wins but it gets you nothing down the road. Just ask the fans in Kingsport. They will tell you the same thing. So if volunteer is going to turn it into a winning program they need to step up to the competition not step down. 

 

True about the district, but when you're trying to build, you want the most winnable games you can get because the psyche of a rebuilding team is a fragile thing.

 

You worry about stepping up in competition when you're ready and making some playoff runs by adding tough non-conference opponents to the schedule.  Playing against good teams and losing, week in and week out, only shatters the confidence of your kids and community.

 

I would have rather Volunteer be the biggest school in 4A, but with Elizabethton playing up now in 4A, this probably is about equal in terms of districts.

 

As for Dobyns-Bennett... I thought it was funny that D-B fans used to talk about how their 5A/6A conference (pre-Super 32) wouldn't prepare them for the postseason and they were so worried... then Dobyns-Bennett finished 3rd one year there a little before the Super 32 became a thing.

Edited October 21, 2016 by BlueDevil58

[Pudding]

In my opinion Jones is far and away the best coach Volunteer has had. He is a very good coach. It takes time to build a program. If they give him 6 years he will have them winning playoff games and will bring respect. There is talent in Hawkins Co. Probably more talent not playing than is. Jones will get the kids excited about playing and you will see those kids on the practice field.

The best coach ever, far and away, was Darrell Watson. Then he went to DB and made Clark look good for a few years.