West at Heritage

[strongx]

Where did the f’n hairtage fans get to? The last I checked, they had some momentum on the gridiron.

[WestHigh4Life]

16 hours ago, strongx said:

Where did the f’n hairtage fans get to? The last I checked, they had some momentum on the gridiron.

They went to go piss...lol sorry couldnt resist. Im sure West will win this game but are there any fans that know much about Heritage? Do they pass more than run, any standout players to watch for?

[oridgecat]

11 hours ago, WestHigh4Life said:

They went to go piss...lol sorry couldnt resist. Im sure West will win this game but are there any fans that know much about Heritage? Do they pass more than run, any standout players to watch for?

Barney knows more about them than anybody that posts on here.  

Barney, tell us about f'n Heritage.  

[WestHigh4Life]

On 9/20/2023 at 5:53 AM, strongx said:

Where did the f’n hairtage fans get to? The last I checked, they had some momentum on the gridiron.

West with a solid win tonight but need to cutback on penalties. Had one turnover which is getting better but needs to be sustained against better opponents.

[Whs1984]

Got another region win hoping that Bowers and Jamison get well soon and back on the field 

[FarmTeam]

West is such a fun team to watch. GREAT talent, depth, and well coached. And they played clean & were an overall class act on the field last night.
 

Heritage is a very “young” team this yr  (most probs don’t know they have several key starters that are undersized freshmen & sophomores, & a few starting upperclassmen who haven’t played since middle school, but have learned the system quickly & are playing rly well, esp #8 & # 11). HHS has little to no depth,  so also got lots of kids playing both ways. But they didn’t just lay down & die. Kept giving it 100% till the buzzer & overall played some pretty good football, against a state champ opponent. (Not sure, but it didn’t look like West started putting in some of their 2nds & 3rds till late 3rd to mid 4th qtr ?) Obviously West had 2 injured key players tho, & that is duly noted. 

Best of luck to West in the playoffs again. Hopefully, HHS will keep on developing their young players & keep making strides in the weight room during off season, and will cont to become more & more competitive. (Esp if none enter the “transfer portal.”) Will also be interesting to see how dropping down a class next yr will impact potential future success of HHS teams. 

[BarneySox2007]

On 9/23/2023 at 11:58 AM, FarmTeam said:

West is such a fun team to watch. GREAT talent, depth, and well coached. And they played clean & were an overall class act on the field last night.
 

Heritage is a very “young” team this yr  (most probs don’t know they have several key starters that are undersized freshmen & sophomores, & a few starting upperclassmen who haven’t played since middle school, but have learned the system quickly & are playing rly well, esp #8 & # 11). HHS has little to no depth,  so also got lots of kids playing both ways. But they didn’t just lay down & die. Kept giving it 100% till the buzzer & overall played some pretty good football, against a state champ opponent. (Not sure, but it didn’t look like West started putting in some of their 2nds & 3rds till late 3rd to mid 4th qtr ?) Obviously West had 2 injured key players tho, & that is duly noted. 

Best of luck to West in the playoffs again. Hopefully, HHS will keep on developing their young players & keep making strides in the weight room during off season, and will cont to become more & more competitive. (Esp if none enter the “transfer portal.”) Will also be interesting to see how dropping down a class next yr will impact potential future success of HHS teams. 

It's great to have someone on here that does know this much about Heritage but I want to ask you a question you may have a better feel for. The new Eagleton team with a a roster of about 40-42 players what would be your guess on how many of those kids would have been headed out to Heritage to play had this not ever came about. I know the Everett School which are kids from all over the county  are a part of this teams makeup. I also know there are a Maryville kid or two on this team. If there are a large number that would have been going to Heritage isn't this one of the reason Heritage fell backwards some this year not having any depth. Eagleton at one time was the big feeder system for Heritage until the county figured out a way to shave a penny off the budget and disbanded the Eagleton program for a couple of years back in the early 90's and that's when the Heritage program really took a big nose dive. Your opinion would be great to hear on this subject.

[FarmTeam]

5 hours ago, BarneySox2007 said:

It's great to have someone on here that does know this much about Heritage but I want to ask you a question you may have a better feel for. The new Eagleton team with a a roster of about 40-42 players what would be your guess on how many of those kids would have been headed out to Heritage to play had this not ever came about. I know the Everett School which are kids from all over the county  are a part of this teams makeup. I also know there are a Maryville kid or two on this team. If there are a large number that would have been going to Heritage isn't this one of the reason Heritage fell backwards some this year not having any depth. Eagleton at one time was the big feeder system for Heritage until the county figured out a way to shave a penny off the budget and disbanded the Eagleton program for a couple of years back in the early 90's and that's when the Heritage program really took a big nose dive. Your opinion would be great to hear on this subject.

 

That’s a great question, Barney. 

 

You have way more insight on the current Eagleton roster than me (other than I knew about the Maryville kid, and I’ve crossed paths w/a few others via youth sports in years past). I DO know that a lot of Eagleton zoned kids have historically in the past chosen to go to Alcoa vs Heritage (and not just FB players, but students in general, bc Alcoa is actually closer than HHS, on that side of the county). And some chose WB vs HHS, for various reasons, and esp way back when Meadows had a winning program. So I think there’s always been at least some level of loss for HHS to Alcoa & WB over the last 12-15+ yrs, before ECCA was ever established. And of course there’s always been attrition to Alcoa and MHS for talented players who wanted to invest said talents in a solid vs dying program. (And who could blame them?) It has not been at all unusual to see a talented HHS middle school football player transfer to Alcoa, MHS, and even Greenback. (That is, until MHS stopped taking tuition students a few yrs back, and we are now beginning to see glimmers of that impact on the MHS program.)

That being said, I don’t think the CURRENT HHS depth issue is specifically related to ECCA, any more than it was in years past, w/losses to other high schools. Howevs, in the next few years, we may see that manifest much more, and esp like you said, w/Sam Everett in the mix. 

I think the current depth issue (esp w/HHS upperclassmen) is in large part due to the leftover impact of the previous unfortunate HHS program. There are numerous great athletes who played football in middle school, but chose not to play in high school (IF they stayed at HHS), for obvious reasons. If you look at the upper class baseball and wrestling rosters, there are great athletes at HHS, they just quit football once they got to high school. Like I mentioned before, one of the Sr starting WR/DBs (#8) hasn’t played since middle school, and he’s been a game changer this year. Same for the Jr DE (#11). Also until last yr, HHS hadn’t kicked an extra point, in I don’t know when. Coach O went & trolled the hallways & found him a Sr soccer player, who could nail it thru the uprights. He could also hit & tackle like a freight train after the ball left his toe, when needed. That kid probs could’ve had a full ride to a D1 school, had he been kicking all 4 yrs. His cousin, a Jr is kicking lights out this yr for HHS, too. 

Bottom line, you gotta give kids a reason to stay, and when they do stay, you gotta give them a worthwhile reason to keep playing. Football is one hard-#### sport. No one wants to invest their whole hot summer on a brutal moot point and then take repeated beatings on Friday nights, as well as take a risk on getting hurt (bc that risk is  intrinsically elevated in FB), when they have a chance to play on the next level, in a DIFFERENT sport. 

Until last yr, HHS didn’t even have a working headset system to communicate w/the press box. I kid you not. And no active booster club in over a decade. I’ve heard good things abt the previous coach, as a person (and at one time in the distant past, as a decent coach). But he let the HHS program go off a steep cliff into complete crap-storm. Other than keeping the grass looking great on the field, I don’t know what the heck else he did. Never saw him at a middle school game or knew of him to reach out to middle school coaches or players, much less connect w/ feeder program. 

Bottom line, you can’t undo over a decade’s worth of decay, in just one or two seasons. But the level of coaching needed is now there, the booster club is robust (headsets now bought & paid for), and kids are investing & staying, as evidenced by the talented pool of freshmen & sophomores on the roster, many of whom are starting. (At least 2 or more could easily be at MHS and 1 or more at Alcoa). 

There’s also been BIG work to do in undoing losing attitudes, and mediocrity as a norm, as well as getting used to extremely high expectations, discipline, commitment, and becoming LEADERS. Those expectations weren’t there before. Lost a starting Sr OL due to lack of such, at beginning of the season, which has hurt, but needed to happen. And I respect Coach O for letting him go, even tho it’s been a difference maker. 

Depth is s’thing that has to be GROWN, over time. And that’s just not happened, over last several yrs. Gotta retain & get players to invest, develop them physically, as well as mentally, on FB IQ and a better mindset than in the past, recruit right on campus, and make a connection w/middle school & feeder programs.  (Coach O’s own son is playing in youth league & he’s at almost every game & practice, when the high school schedule doesn’t conflict). 

HHS can’t be a winning team, esp in its current class & region, w/out depth AND a whole mental paradigm shift from the previous program. HHS looks 180 degrees different than 1-2 yrs ago, but it’s still gonna take some time to grow experienced, fundamentally sound, physically developed, high FB IQ players, and leaders, as well as any depth in that mix of factors. And that starts with KEEPING players from feeder on up. But based on my observations, that seems to be happening.