2023 Union City Tornadoes

[Croppygenius]

37 minutes ago, BIGPURPLEMACHINE said:

I get a kick out of how people think there is some big conspiracy theory about numbers and hiding kids. Lol. Just like you said cyclical. Numbers go up and down from class to class. 

Union City is kinda like the Nashville Christian of the west. May be legal but it's not a level playing field!

[BIGPURPLEMACHINE]

13 minutes ago, Croppygenius said:

Union City is kinda like the Nashville Christian of the west. May be legal but it's not a level playing field!

I can understand that to a degree. But there have been several people over the years directly and indirectly accuse UC of wrong doing. The accusations are baseless and take direct shots at people’s character. People that the posters don’t even know. If people want to say they have an unfair advantage because off TSSAA rules ok. But people don’t need to accuse them of cheating or insinuate it without the proof. 

[ManOfMillions]

1 hour ago, BIGPURPLEMACHINE said:

I get a kick out of how people think there is some big conspiracy theory about numbers and hiding kids. Lol. Just like you said cyclical. Numbers go up and down from class to class. 

I agree. However, I think it is fair to say that UC should not be playing Gleason. No knock on Gleason but they simply should not be playing them. I think the fairest way to handle this is would be to have a single A-1 and single A-2. We have the monster sized school in their own classification. Why not have one for the smallest. Just my thoughts. 

[ManOfMillions]

45 minutes ago, BIGPURPLEMACHINE said:

I can understand that to a degree. But there have been several people over the years directly and indirectly accuse UC of wrong doing. The accusations are baseless and take direct shots at people’s character. People that the posters don’t even know. If people want to say they have an unfair advantage because off TSSAA rules ok. But people don’t need to accuse them of cheating or insinuate it without the proof. 

This. 

UC is playing within the rules laid out by the T$$AA. If you have proof someone is cheating, stealing, or breaking the rules lay it out and let them handle it. Playing schools with similar enrollment is the fairest way to make the field of play equal. 

[BIGPURPLEMACHINE]

21 minutes ago, ManOfMillions said:

I agree. However, I think it is fair to say that UC should not be playing Gleason. No knock on Gleason but they simply should not be playing them. I think the fairest way to handle this is would be to have a single A-1 and single A-2. We have the monster sized school in their own classification. Why not have one for the smallest. Just my thoughts. 

That’s a great idea and other states do this exact thing. 

[Swipes]

52 minutes ago, BIGPURPLEMACHINE said:

That’s a great idea and other states do this exact thing. 

I know NC did this for all their classifications from 1a to 4a from 2002-2021. (Classes were 1A, 1AA, 2A, 2AA, 3A, 3AA, 4A and 4AA for football only). 

[BIGPURPLEMACHINE]

25 minutes ago, Swipes said:

I know NC did this for all their classifications from 1a to 4a from 2002-2021. (Classes were 1A, 1AA, 2A, 2AA, 3A, 3AA, 4A and 4AA for football only). 

Thanks!!  North Carolina was one of the states I was thinking of. 

[Swipes]

4 minutes ago, BIGPURPLEMACHINE said:

Thanks!!  North Carolina was one of the states I was thinking of. 

The Coach (Steve McCurry) at Greeneville my Senior year came over from AC Reynolds in Asheville and he had won a state championship in 2002 in 4a when they changed to that system. (he is a big reason Greeneville is what they are today with the new weight program he put in).  Greeneville got flack from a lot of people playing Pisgah in 17 and 18 because they were a smaller classification in NC even though they had more students than Greeneville did. (Uneducated people)

I wouldn't mind seeing the smaller classifications going to that format but 3a and above I think is fine staying the way it is with one division per class.

[SpottedGoat]

Multiple 1A divisions sounds great until the bills come due. These schools barely fielding teams and barely/not filling the home bleachers is tough. Hometown pride is one of if not the best parts of 1A ball. Beating your neighbor is a 1000 times more important than driving 90 minutes to play a team nobody back home has even heard of. Make half season games 2 hour or more round trips & the fan numbers will crash. My son plays at Dresden, we are in the larger part of 1A or 1AA as it could be. We travel very well. Often times we have more fans in a stadium than the home crowd does. That's money to that little program & I'm proud to help them with my ticket$ & fat belly I fill up with their grub. What goes around comes around & those folks are sure welcome at Dresden to spend a dollar too. 

However, we aren't land locked over here like mountain towns, so it very well may be of benefit elsewhere.

 

[BIGPURPLEMACHINE]

53 minutes ago, Swipes said:

The Coach (Steve McCurry) at Greeneville my Senior year came over from AC Reynolds in Asheville and he had won a state championship in 2002 in 4a when they changed to that system. (he is a big reason Greeneville is what they are today with the new weight program he put in).  Greeneville got flack from a lot of people playing Pisgah in 17 and 18 because they were a smaller classification in NC even though they had more students than Greeneville did. (Uneducated people)

I wouldn't mind seeing the smaller classifications going to that format but 3a and above I think is fine staying the way it is with one division per class.

I agree. But honestly at the end of the day someone is going to be the smallest. That happens to be schools like Gleason, Red Boiling Springs, etc. I have never seen a poster of those such school complain. Everyone knows the rules and how things work when they joined the TSSAA. And if something changes after you join and you stay you shouldn’t complain later that something is unfair. People would be better served to work and get better than to whine and complain. Hard work beats crying any day of the week. 

[BIGPURPLEMACHINE]

2 hours ago, SpottedGoat said:

Multiple 1A divisions sounds great until the bills come due. These schools barely fielding teams and barely/not filling the home bleachers is tough. Hometown pride is one of if not the best parts of 1A ball. Beating your neighbor is a 1000 times more important than driving 90 minutes to play a team nobody back home has even heard of. Make half season games 2 hour or more round trips & the fan numbers will crash. My son plays at Dresden, we are in the larger part of 1A or 1AA as it could be. We travel very well. Often times we have more fans in a stadium than the home crowd does. That's money to that little program & I'm proud to help them with my ticket$ & fat belly I fill up with their grub. What goes around comes around & those folks are sure welcome at Dresden to spend a dollar too. 

However, we aren't land locked over here like mountain towns, so it very well may be of benefit elsewhere.

 

Great post. 

[TryNotToSuck]

13 hours ago, BIGPURPLEMACHINE said:

That 66 isn’t just at UC. That’s UC, Obion and South Fulton combined. So if you can see that much at Milan, Dyer Co, etc, surely you can see it at 3 schools combined where the total population would be the same or more than the schools you mentioned. 

It's a tough pill to swallow knowing they're the only school in that part of West Tennessee that had a significant drop in enrollment. Majority of the schools north of I-40 had either an increase in enrollment, or a small drop (ex. Milan at .06% and West Carrol at .07ish%. However, everyone else in Gibson County and Carroll County went up in enrollment).

If their neighboring schools had a significant decrease in enrollment similar to what Union City had, I don't think anyone would complain, even if they were to drop to 1A as a result. All Jackson public schools experienced a dropped in enrollment in the same percentage or near as Union City, but the cause for that was the addition of JCM. I didn't have a number that JCM had in 2021, but that had around 430 students in this class. So, it's a simple cause and effect for the JMCSS schools. 

When it comes to Union City, I can't think of a "cause and effect" of why their enrollment dropped and the neighboring schools didn't. I think that's the reason why, and there's a concern for that. That's all. I'm not trying to fire up a debate, but it's kind of a head scratcher when you look at the schools in West Tennessee geographically, UC is an outlier.

Edited August 9, 2023 by TryNotToSuck