Where is Riverdale getting all their talent?

[UCSportsFan]

How did Riverdale get so dominant all of a sudden?  Are all these players coming from their zone or are they moving in?  Just curios how they have became the #1 team in the nation in a short amount of time. 

[allabouttheO]

Short amount of time?? They have been competitive for years.

[GCPioneer]

Go watch Christiana Middle School play, and you'll find out where the talent is coming from.... no recruiting, no jobs being given.... player development through high school ball, travel ball, and trainers... hard work and dedication.

Riverdale isn't through for awhile either.... The Hayes' youngest is in 8th grade now, Brinae Alexander's sister is in 7th grade, and there's another kid, Garen Haney, who you might hear about a time or two in the coming years...

[UCSportsFan]

10 hours ago, GCPioneer said:

Go watch Christiana Middle School play, and you'll find out where the talent is coming from.... no recruiting, no jobs being given.... player development through high school ball, travel ball, and trainers... hard work and dedication.

Riverdale isn't through for awhile either.... The Hayes' youngest is in 8th grade now, Brinae Alexander's sister is in 7th grade, and there's another kid, Garen Haney, who you might hear about a time or two in the coming years...

Sounds like they’ve got a great program going on.  Riverdale was good then dropped off there for awhile but I’m glad to see them back on top doing it the right way, building from within!  

[ZEBRA35]

Randy Coffman is as good a coach on the high school level as there is

[WilsonCoFan]

A little of both. I don’t believe the older Alexander played at Christiana.  The older Hayes girl played for Hendersonville as a freshman. One family that has multiple players on the team moved in to a rental house owned by a former boys basketball coach 3 years ago. Not suggesting a TSSAA violation, but all the talent is not home grown. Really good coach and they play hard. If they just had the girls from the middle school they would still compete for state championship, just not as dominate.

[wingman10]

Been good for a while and has had good coaches and good players who work hard

[Lost Old Dad]

If you could see all the traffic in my little neighborhood, you would know we are being over run with folks moving in.  When I moved to my house I was 8 miles out of town.  Now the city limits is 3.5 miles away and I haven't moved a thing!  There are either subdivisions or massive apartment complexes on 5 places I used to bird hunt on safely.  They are now building on two more!

Somebody tell the developers God is NOT making any more prime farmland they are paving over every day!

[FinalCountdown]

The area has grown in the past few years, no doubt.  All of the area teams are currently good or have been good.  This current Riverdale team has a very good coach and all of them have played extensive travel ball for a while.  Certain circumstances a few years back helped develop this particular senior class, but they play hard and will have a great chance to be dominant for a few years to come.

[fish6]

I'm a little curious myself, but not critically.  I live in Green Bay WI (haven't lived in TN in almost 50 years), but grew up in Shelbyville and naturally followed the great powerhouse Shelbyville Eaglettes teams under Rick Insell's tenure there.  No program has more gold balls than Shelbyville.  During those years, Shelbyville did have a great feeder program locally, but - yes - parents would move some students to Bedford County to play for a great coach...something there is a tendency to do if a parent has a talented girl and wants to maximize their potential.  After Rick left for MTSU, his replacement coach led the Eaglettes to the state tourney for a few years, but since - Shelbyville has relapsed to an average program.  I still root them on, but the middle TN power regions moved on to Wilson County and in more recent years to Murfreesboro (I love that Riverdale is nationally #1).  For anyone familiar with the evolution of middle TN girls basketball over the last 10-12 years, has any of this got to do with Insell's presence at MTSU (I realize he's had a close relationship with Riverdale coaches in recent years)?  Rick Insell was national HS coach of the year on two occasions, and is viewed as one of the top collegiate coaches during his MTSU tenure.  Any insight?  GO TENNESSEE GIRLS BASKETBALL!!! [I'll still root on Shelbyville and the powerhouse Murfreesboro teams this year!] 

[Lost Old Dad]

R'dale basically used Insell's model from Shelbyville.  So did Blackman, Oakland and to a lesser extent the rest of Rutherford County High Schools.

I also followed Shelbyville as my Mother's side of the family were from there and my Uncle was the County Commissioner from Wheel for a bunch of years.  Three of my Cousins went to Shelbyville while Coach Insell was there.