Let's talk " West Ridge High School Wolves " Sullivan County / Kingsport

[BarneySox2007]

9 hours ago, 83SouthRebel said:

In 1980 with the completion of North and South, there were 3 high schools in Kingsport with DB of course being the lone city school and North and South county schools. All 3 high schools were within 10 minutes of each other. The consolidation created a very unique and automatic rivalry in Kingsport. In my opinion, and I admit I am biased because I was in the 3rd graduating class from South, this was an awesome time for Kingsport area sports. Gyms and football stadiums as well as baseball stadiums were filled to the max. North and DB were powerhouse basketball programs. South started out strong in football and baseball. North also fielded 2 AAA baseball championship teams and South 1 in the 80's. Unfortunately an aging population and unchecked annexation by Kingsport in the late 80's was the beginning to the end for North high as Kingsport annexed all of Lynn Garden removing 1/2 of North's enrollment and it was down hill from there. Colonial Heights fought annexation and won a moratorium until 2010. When that expired, Kingsport annexed most of South's enrollment area in Colonial Heights and Rock Springs. The county school system was forced to operate 2 buildings built to house 1600 students each and were down to 500 at North and less than 900 at South. The county ultimately ended up moving Ketron middle into the North high building to take advantage of that extra space and closed 3 elementary schools in Bloomingdale making Ketron the lone elementary for the Bloomingdale area. Ironically in the late 70's when consolidation was being floated around, the first plan was to build 1 high school on the perimeter of Kingsport that was to combine, Lynn View, Ketron and Sullivan West instead they went with the 2 school option. I don't know if West Ridge was the right answer but it will be here soon none the less. What kind of sports teams West Ridge will field is of course yet to be determined. I know South football benefited from Central being down. The key is if athletes stay in zone. DB is closer to a lot of North and South students than West Ridge will be but they would have to pay tuition. Time will tell of course.

Not being from there and and playing a tough Ketron team in my day and knowing Lynn View also went into that North school my first thoughts were Kingsport annexing for that enrollment to be that small because 2 times 450 or 500 is 900 to a 1,000 and seeing only 500 at the North school kind of made me figure that was the reason. There was a originally just a Sullivan County High School there that shows up on a lot of teams down here in the Knoxville area back in the 40's. 50's and 60's schedules. My guess is that it would have ended in 1968 since Central and East started in the fall of 68. Am I right or wrong there and where was the old Sullivan High School located at in Sullivan County. Thanks for all the info.

[83SouthRebel]

3 hours ago, BarneySox2007 said:

Not being from there and and playing a tough Ketron team in my day and knowing Lynn View also went into that North school my first thoughts were Kingsport annexing for that enrollment to be that small because 2 times 450 or 500 is 900 to a 1,000 and seeing only 500 at the North school kind of made me figure that was the reason. There was a originally just a Sullivan County High School there that shows up on a lot of teams down here in the Knoxville area back in the 40's. 50's and 60's schedules. My guess is that it would have ended in 1968 since Central and East started in the fall of 68. Am I right or wrong there and where was the old Sullivan High School located at in Sullivan County. Thanks for all the info.

Bluff City and Holston Valley High schools consolidated in 1968 to form Sullivan East,

Blountville and Holston High schools consolidated in 1968 to form Sullivan Central.

The Sullivan High School that your are referring became Sullivan West with the formation of East and Central in '68. They just changed the name from Sullivan to Sullivan West and is located in Sullivan Gardens. My entire family graduated from the old Sullivan High School. It currently serves as Sullivan Middle school feeding South High. It will cease to operate at the end of the year when West Ridge opens and South High becomes a middle school. South high will become Sullivan Heights Middle School.

1980 Ketron and Lynn View = Sullivan North

1980 Sullivan West and a large chunk of Central = Sullivan South.

The old Sullivan High School served a very large area of Sullivan County. I am not sure of the area or time frames. I need to do some more research myself. The Kingsport Times-News did a 3 part series on Sullivan High school a few months back. It was very interesting. You can find it by googling.

 

[BarneySox2007]

54 minutes ago, 83SouthRebel said:

Bluff City and Holston Valley High schools consolidated in 1968 to form Sullivan East,

Blountville and Holston High schools consolidated in 1968 to form Sullivan Central.

The Sullivan High School that your are referring became Sullivan West with the formation of East and Central in '68. They just changed the name from Sullivan to Sullivan West and is located in Sullivan Gardens. My entire family graduated from the old Sullivan High School. It currently serves as Sullivan Middle school feeding South High. It will cease to operate at the end of the year when West Ridge opens and South High becomes a middle school. South high will become Sullivan Heights Middle School.

1980 Ketron and Lynn View = Sullivan North

1980 Sullivan West and a large chunk of Central = Sullivan South.

The old Sullivan High School served a very large area of Sullivan County. I am not sure of the area or time frames. I need to do some more research myself. The Kingsport Times-News did a 3 part series on Sullivan High school a few months back. It was very interesting. You can find it by googling.

 

Thanks for the great info on how all this came to be. I've done a lot of research on the teams down here and even schools that are closed but sometimes there is so limited info you just have to ask people that know those areas. I've seen Sullivan County on the old Everett High School's records from the late 40's here that went out of service in 1977 and a lot of Knoxville High Schools over the 50's and 60's and wondered what exactly happened to it and where it was at. I've seen pictures of the school but really not any info.

[chrisburr]

I think West Ridge goes 8-2 and wins their region

they beat Bradley Central in the first round before losing to Bearden in the second round to end 9-3

[blazer1set]

10 hours ago, chrisburr said:

I think West Ridge goes 8-2 and wins their region

they beat Bradley Central in the first round before losing to Bearden in the second round to end 9-3

hmmmmm, 8-2.....    So the 2 losses would be to Boone and Crockett?      haha just kidding, the 2 losses would be DB + Science Hill, right?

[83SouthRebel]

10 hours ago, chrisburr said:

I think West Ridge goes 8-2 and wins their region

they beat Bradley Central in the first round before losing to Bearden in the second round to end 9-3

I would be very happy with that result in year #1, however I don't think that will happen. If they were bringing together 2 out of 3 powerhouse schools then yep, it would be a great possibility. Jumping a group of kids up to 6A football....lot's of work to be done.