Oak Ridge visits Mount Juliet

[SweetScience]

4 minutes ago, MidTennFootball said:

Actually, there really isn't this huge talent disparity between Oakland and the other RuCo. Just about every program has a player or two that will be playing for a FBS program. Also keep in mind there are 5 HS just in Murfreesboro alone. Oakland thrives above the rest because every facet of the program is completely on board. Talent, Coaching, Feeder Program, Administrative support, it's all there. That's what it's going to take for OR to get back to winning titles, everybody has to be on board

That city is so big that they have enough talent to go around. OR is a city of about 29,000 give or take with a very small amount of youth in it. Even comparable cities like Maryville have a ton more youth, MidTenn. It doesn't matter if we get everybody on board with the demographics the way they are in this city. Like I was saying, and what ORC reiterated, it is a town full of old people, no youth and no young families. It is what it is for now.

[MidTennFootball]

19 minutes ago, SweetScience said:

That city is so big that they have enough talent to go around. OR is a city of about 29,000 give or take with a very small amount of youth in it. Even comparable cities like Maryville have a ton more youth, MidTenn. It doesn't matter if we get everybody on board with the demographics the way they are in this city. Like I was saying, and what ORC reiterated, it is a town full of old people, no youth and no young families. It is what it is for now.

That is true, but popular opinion used to be with more schools, there would be a decrease in chances to win a gold ball. I understand the demographics, but the things I listed is stuff OR can control. First step would make it feasible for families that want to move there, nobody is going to transfer when they had to pay 5-6 grand. I also heard OR has people in the building who coach for programs other than OR

Edited October 16, 2019 by MidTennFootball

[WillieTheWildcats]

1 hour ago, oridgecat said:

SS, think about this. I'm a little older than you are but  at one point in time we had 7 elementary schools: Cedar Hill, Elm Grove, Highland View, Woodland, Willowbrook, Linden, and Glenwood.   Each school had 3 age groups grasshoppers, minor pee wees and pee wees.  You do da maff.  That's 21 little league teams.  Plus we had the hand picked travel team The Atoms. and we had 2 Junior high teams that had 40 plus players year in year out.  That is 24 youth football teams to feed the high school program.  Eventually Elm Grove and Highland View shut down and Cedar Hill hung on for a few more years after that.  Now we have 3 youth teams total.  11under, 10 under and 8 under.  Each team has about 15 players.  And THAT is why the football program is not the power house that it once was.  Simply a numbers game.  Old folks town, very few kids and young families. 

I wish I could disagree with what you said here oridgecat because it is so sad and depressing. However, it is all true. I came from a Family with eight kids and only one of us raised children in Oak Ridge. They played soccer for the Soccercats although one did play freshmen football before concentrating on being a goalie for the soccer team. The rest of my siblings went off to college and never returned home.

Just a small footnote to the history of Oak Ridge youth football, I believe in the 1960s  St. Marys fielded some teams. I attended St.Mary's from 1st through 8th grade and played grasshoppers and minor pee wees for Cedar Hill.

After reading your well thought out post, the question should not be:

" WHY ISN'T OAK RIDGE WINNING STATE TITLES? "

 but should be:

" HOW IS OAK RIDGE WINNING ANY PLAYOFF GAMES "

My best answer to that question is that there are still people in Oak Ridge determined to see the PRIDE and TRADITION LIVE ON! 
 

Edited October 16, 2019 by WillieTheWildcats

[SweetScience]

3 minutes ago, MidTennFootball said:

I understand the demographics, but the things I listed is stuff OR can control. First step would make it feasible for families that want to move there, nobody is going to transfer when they had to pay 5-6 grand. I also heard OR has people in the building who coach for programs other than OR

Unfortunately I'm not a member of city council and nobody I know on here is either, nor do any of us work for the OR school system. It's easier said than done, my friend. OR has never had to rely on transfers really, even in the past when we were great. I grew up with most all of the kids on those really good 90s teams. I wish I could change some things, but I don't have any power to do that. Like I said, easier said than done. And the only guy I know that coached for another program was Coach Gray, and he was @ Halls and he isn't anymore.

Edited October 16, 2019 by SweetScience

[WillieTheWildcats]

8 hours ago, thegreatone36 said:

I just hope everybody that has posted in here realizes that no matter what happens in your east/east, and east/middle matchups this week, nobody is beating Oakland. So good luck in your matchups.

Bye Felicia.

[thegreatone36]

8 minutes ago, WillieTheWildcats said:

Bye Felicia.

Just being honest. But two good football programs going at it in Wilson County friday night

[WillieTheWildcats]

1 hour ago, SweetScience said:

ORC, the Boy's Club has made some great strides recently. They hired Shawn Summers on there ,so things are starting to look up, but it is gonna take us awhile to get it back to what it once was, if it will ever get there again I'm not sure. 

They hired Summers? Thank you Sweet Jesus. Before there was Tee there was Shawn. Thanks for the bit of news Sweet! I swear to God, Summers was not human but Super Human on the football and baseball fields.   

[SweetScience]

1 hour ago, WillieTheWildcats said:

They hired Summers? Thank you Sweet Jesus. Before there was Tee there was Shawn. Thanks for the bit of news Sweet! I swear to God, Summers was not human but Super Human on the football and baseball fields.   

They did.

[SweetScience]

2 hours ago, MidTennFootball said:

That is true, but popular opinion used to be with more schools, there would be a decrease in chances to win a gold ball. I understand the demographics, but the things I listed is stuff OR can control. First step would make it feasible for families that want to move there, nobody is going to transfer when they had to pay 5-6 grand. I also heard OR has people in the building who coach for programs other than OR

Not when one of the schools is more dominant @ football than the others are, and right now Oakland is, so the great ones are gonna wanna go there to have a chance at a gold ball. The same thing happens at Maryville. Blount Co has 3 pretty big HS's, but any of the great players are going to wanna go to Maryville simply for the winning culture they have in football and to have a chance at winning gold balls. What kid that is great @ football in Murfreesboro is going to wanna go to Siegel or even Riverdale (They have been down for quite a good while) to win a state title in football?  Of course with the size of Murfreesboro there are still gonna be quality athletes at the other schools, but the cream of the crop for the most part is going to Oakland. Same thing goes for Heritage and William Blount in Blount Co. No great football player in Blount Co in their right mind is gonna go to either of those schools and the results show because of that. Of course the argument against that is that those schools need to build a winning culture. But, that’s hard to do when all of the decent players they do have leave there, so it’s easier said than done. They are obviously gonna go to Alcoa or Maryville, which they do. I'm not bit&*^% nor complaining, it is the simple facts.

Edited October 16, 2019 by SweetScience

[MidTennFootball]

16 minutes ago, SweetScience said:

Not when one of the schools is more dominant @ football than the others are, and right now Oakland is, so the great ones are gonna wanna go there to have a chance at a gold ball. The same thing happens at Maryville. Blount Co has 3 pretty big HS's, but any of the great players are going to wanna go to Maryville simply for the winning culture they have in football and to have a chance at winning gold balls. What kid that is great @ football in Murfreesboro is going to wanna go to Siegel or even Riverdale (They have been down for quite a good while) to win a state title in football?  Of course with the size of Murfreesboro there are still gonna be quality athletes at the other schools, but the cream of the crop for the most part is going to Oakland. Same thing goes for Heritage and William Blount in Blount Co. No great football player in Blount Co in their right mind is gonna go to either of those schools and the results show because of that. They are obviously gonna go to Alcoa or Maryville, which they do. I'm not bit&*^% nor complaining, it is the simple facts.

No doubt the success definitely recruits itself at any big-time program and Oakland does profit from a few transfers, but they've also lost some really talented kids as well. Oakland isn't doing anything out of the box, they just took the Maryville model and applied it to their own situation. Most of the kids we've won with have been with us since at least freshmen ball, and more likely have been here since middle school. It wasn't that long ago Oakland had to fight with Smyrna, Blackman, Siegel, and Riverdale for RuCo supremacy.

FWIW, I hope OR gets back to competing for titles. HS Football in this state is at its best when the traditional powers are winning big

[SweetScience]

14 minutes ago, MidTennFootball said:

No doubt the success definitely recruits itself at any big-time program and Oakland does profit from a few transfers, but they've also lost some really talented kids as well. Oakland isn't doing anything out of the box, they just took the Maryville model and applied it to their own situation. Most of the kids we've won with have been with us since at least freshmen ball, and more likely have been here since middle school. It wasn't that long ago Oakland had to fight with Smyrna, Blackman, Siegel, and Riverdale for RuCo supremacy.

FWIW, I hope OR gets back to competing for titles. HS Football in this state is at its best when the traditional powers are winning big

Oh yeah, definitely not saying Oakland or even Maryville is recruiting by any means. I’ve never been one to make that claim. I’ve always been a firm believer that success recruits itself. If Maryville was doing anything shady it would’ve been called out by now after 20 some odd years. I can’t disagree with any kid wanting to go to either of those schools.

I guess what I’m trying to say is in OR we just don’t have the luxury of pulling from a pool of talent like a Maryville or Oakland has the luxury of doing and we never have for the most part, so we just have to play with the hand we are dealt. And the talent from that hand just isn’t what it used to be unfortunately because of the demographics of the city that I’ve already mentioned. AC usually fields pretty darn good teams so their players stay in house. For whatever reason we have never benefited much from transfers, even in our heyday. The sky high tuition doesn’t help of course. Of course we will get the occasional one here or there, but that’s about the extent of it.

Edited October 16, 2019 by SweetScience

[MJGOLDENBEARS]

31 minutes ago, SweetScience said:

Oh yeah, definitely not saying Oakland or even Maryville is recruiting by any means. I’ve never been one to make that claim. I’ve always been a firm believer that success recruits itself. If Maryville was doing anything shady it would’ve been called out by now after 20 some odd years. I can’t disagree with any kid wanting to go to either of those schools.

I guess what I’m trying to say is in OR we just don’t have the luxury of pulling from a pool of talent like a Maryville or Oakland has the luxury of doing and we never have for the most part, so we just have to play with the hand we are dealt. And the talent from that hand just isn’t what it used to be unfortunately because of the demographics of the city that I’ve already mentioned. AC usually fields pretty darn good teams so their players stay in house. For whatever reason we have never benefited much from transfers, even in our heyday. The sky high tuition doesn’t help of course. Of course we will get the occasional one here or there, but that’s about the extent of it.

Neither does Mount Juliet. We have gotten more talent over the last few years and middle school and freshman teams have been undefeated, but it’s nowhere near the talent pool those teams have. Especially with the new high school being built in Mount Juliet... who knows what that will do.