Super South Private School League

[FlyBy]

Having played at MBA and attended a college in the Southeast along with individuals from other private schools in the Southeast, I have often wondered how great it would be to have a "Super South" League. It would include the schools in DII AAA, the privates like Woodward and Marist in Atlanta, Evangel in Shreveport, Bolles in Jacksonville, and other prominent programs in the South. I can't remember all of them off hand, but I always thought it would be pretty interesting. Can you imagine the rivalries that would develop then?

 

Food for thought... The bar would be raised yet again!

[Guest Dingo]

FlyBy,

 

Your view of a "SuperSouth" league would be a great idea for the exclusive independent schools. You can drop out Marist, though, whose brave Marist brothers would never leave their less-fortunate diocese brothers and sisters (in TN, Father Ryan, Notre Dame, CBHS, Knox Catholic, etc.) to suffer the fate of the destruction of their schools' athletic programs. Marist Brothers' schools are keenly aware of their economic advantages within the parochial system (as opposed to independent schools to their private school kin, which kinship the NAIS disdainfully refuses to acknowledge), and would never leave their brothers and sisters in the dirt. I also can't wait to see what programs (learning centers, labs, whatever) the independent schools are going to be willing to cut to cover the costs of travel, etc., in this new league.

 

I begin to tire of the insouciant arrogance of the NAIS and their affiliates here in Tennessee. We gave you your league of unlimited financial aid. Now you are angry that your championships mean little, especially outside of football.

 

But your post is different and very refreshing. I beg you to confer with your school. Encourage them to bring MUS, Baylor, and McCallie into your point of view.

 

Dang, the only problem is that when you do that you will have to admit that Finny and Gene would never have chosen any of these schools. You would have to admit, worse yet, that Salinger's Caulfield, that despicable little perverted jerk, would not even recognize the school you attended as remotely comparable to his (I mean, any of those N/E bastions of intellectual superiority from which he was summarily excused). The myth that Tennessee's independent schools are not the equivalent of the Exeters, et. al., would explode (only slightly more to the consternation of the boarding schools than the day, except the male single-sex schools; hm, well, that rounds out our BIG4, so nix this parenthetical exception).

 

My opinion is that your idea is great. Please make it happen.

[FlyBy]

Dingo,

 

Great stuff! Your name sounds appropriate! By your statement that you "gave us our league" for financial aid schools, I'm assuming that you are the TSSAA. You sound all-powerful atop your perch.

 

Who said our championships didn't mean anything? Do you have someone who wants to come out and play?

 

That's what bothers people like you the most. How do we do it? Our kids are smaller and slower; but we are smarter, more physical, and we have a better understanding of the game. That's what it takes to win championships, not recruiting the best athletes in the land! Even more importantly, our coaches are teaching our kids about life. Nothing is handed to you; you have to work for everything you get! It is amazing that the harder we work, the luckier we seem to get.

 

Before you lump us all into one pot, you may want to investigate just who is on financial aid at each of the schools. MBA's offensive and defensive line (all recruits of course) must have averaged 6'6" and 305 pounds according to the way some of you whine on this site. Oh yeah, that's right, we had kids that were under 200 pounds on the offensive front.

 

One other problem for you involves the fact that every child at MBA must do the work. Unlike other schools in our division, there are no free passes. If you can't make the grade, you do not play. We practice what we preach: Gentleman, Scholar, Athlete. Athlete is mentioned third for a reason. Yeah, I love football and MBA, but educating our leaders of tomorrow is the most important mission of MBA.

 

For us to continue to make our program better, we will look for the best competition that will agree to play us. My hats off to a programs like DB and Lincoln County who aren't afraid to play us which gets me back to the original thought of an all private Super South League. Friday night matchups between McCAllie and Bolles and MBA and Evangel; sounds pretty entertaining to me.

[rollredroll]

Dingo,

 

I do not know of anyone on here who is trying to compare the Tennessee independent schools to any of the renowned New England prep schools. Nevertheless, if we are going to talk about differences, I think we, as Tennesseans, should be more concerned about the disparity in the quality of public school education provided in Tennessee versus that in the New England states (even tiny New Hampshire, to stay with the Finny and Gene theme) than the disparity in the quality of education provided at an MBA or McCallie versus a Phillips Exeter.

[Guest Dingo]

FlyBy

 

Thank you for your forthright post. I apologize for suggesting in any fashion that I had obtained any "perch" whatsoever, much less an omnipotent one. I am guessing your inference comes from my unfortunate implication by choosing the first person pronoun, as in "we." I retract that poor choice immediately, and supply, instead, "You were given your unlimited financial aid league at your own bequest."

 

"Who said our championships didn't mean anything? Do you have someone who wants to come out and play?"

 

Again, I misunderstood the gist of your original post, for which I apologize. Do you want to remain a member of the TSSAA or not? If everything is not to your liking, do you want to leave to form another league among southern independent schools? Will that extend to basketball, baseball, lacrosse, soccer, swimming, cross-country, track, etc.?

 

"That's what bothers people like you the most. How do we do it? Our kids are smaller and slower; but we are smarter, more physical, and we have a better understanding of the game."

 

Alas, of course, a strikingly bedraggled public school product like myself can never understand the innate superiority of the "smarter" (your word) independent school students. It doesn't matter that I received a full athletic scholarship to a PRIVATE university, although I'm only 5'6." Nor does it matter that I was graduated MAGNA CUM LAUDE by that same private institution (hey, I just tricked them). I just never understood the game like you guys.

 

"Even more importantly, our coaches are teaching our kids about life. Nothing is handed to you; you have to work for everything you get! It is amazing that the harder we work, the luckier we seem to get."

 

My poor, DA, public school coach never taught us about discipline, life, sacrifice, perseverance, commitment, or love of country. Somehow, we just figured this out on our own. The fact that 100% of our baseball team, 80% of our basketball team, and (I'm kinda' guessing here, going by memory, the other stats are dead on) about 80% of our football team matriculated to colleges, universities, and jucos. We never worked hard; heck, we just smoked j's during our 3 hours of practice. I just dreamed all those hills, suicides, line runs, etc. Fortunately (another poor choice of words), we just lucked into our wins and championships; obviously, we were incapable of work, since we were just public school kids.

 

"MBA's offensive and defensive line (all recruits of course) must have averaged 6'6" and 305 pounds according to the way some of you whine on this site."

 

My dear, dear friend, you treat me most unkindly and with no justice. I challenge you to find one time I have whined on this or any other site. I challenge you to find one occasion when I accused any school, private, independent, or public of having "all recruits of course." If you take my responses to your posts to be whining, I question your understanding of the term and beg you to demonstrate where I shrink from an intellectual exchange of ideas. On the other hand, I will leave others to determine who is making facetious, emotional, and ill-founded accusations against one system as opposed to the other.

 

"One other problem for you involves the fact that every child at MBA must do the work. Unlike other schools in our division, there are no free passes. If you can't make the grade, you do not play. We practice what we preach: Gentleman, Scholar, Athlete. Athlete is mentioned third for a reason. Yeah, I love football and MBA, but educating our leaders of tomorrow is the most important mission of MBA."

 

What a most interesting paragraph. What schools in your division supply free passes? Hm. Obviously, you include McCallie in your venue. Oh! Of course, Baylor and MUS must! No? Is it those evil "Papalists"? They didn't want to be a part of your league, remember? Who in your league provides "free passes"? I await your answer with ill-concealed enthusiasm.

 

I am trying to forget the time I made a "C" in English and was not allowed to play basketball until after Christmas. That was just my school trying to . . . I don't know what they were trying to do, since they didn't practice what they preached.

 

Of course, my public school must have had a different motif from MBA. Oh, yes, I remember: "Scoundrel, Cheater, Gambler." My school was not in the least interested in preparing "leaders of tomorrow." We had conceded that particular proficiency to the independent schools. We heard your intellectually enlightened cheers (as we won on the scoreboard): "that's all right, that's ok; you're gonna' work for us someday." Intuitively, we knew we were your social, economic, and intellectual inferiors and abdicated immediately the inane idea that our graduates might actually be the "leaders of tomorrow." Since at the current time I have in my employ several MBA graduates, can you suggest a means by which I might determine to whom I should give the reins of my leadership?

 

"My hats off to a programs like DB and Lincoln County who aren't afraid to play us which gets me back to the original thought of an all private Super South League. Friday night matchups between McCAllie and Bolles and MBA and Evangel; sounds pretty entertaining to me."

 

I assume you are speaking only of football. Maybe I'm wrong. At the same time, I cannot argue with your designation of "entertaining." I agree with that, and I mean it without malice. I wish you the best in bringing this into reality.

[rollredroll]

Dingo,

 

Man, are you getting cynical! I'm starting to wonder if someone stole your password! Seriously, I can't help but laugh about the part about "smokin' j's"!

 

I also find it hard to believe you ever received a "C" in English. You are probably the most well-spoken person on this site (almost to your detriment at times, and that is a compliment to you!).

 

I'll add more later, but I would be interested in your background (schools attended, current job - I think you said you are a CEO, etc.) if you are so inclined to divulge.

[Guest Dingo]

rollredroll,

 

I apologize for offending you. I agree that my comments were unjust, but I meant them as hyperbole in response to a post I found particularly offensive and quite different from your usual reasoned contributions. Having said that, among your headmasters, I think I speak not in hyperbole but in terms of recognizing a delusion that exists in fact.

 

Beyond that, I stand by our public schools. I am one of their products, and I daily competed against the graduates of independent schools academically while in college (forgive the convoluted sentence structure). I faired well, and, lest you think me a braggart, my record speaks for itself. To succeed in public schools, you must have a great deal of self-motivation; ironically, I have found the same to be true in the real world where we (public school graduates) are supposed to fail. I will not risk my anonymity here, but I think by any standard I am somewhat more than a failure.

 

All that aside, I must congratulate your 9th grade English teacher. You remembered Knowles and caught my allusion. You are a credit to your school.

 

I did not direct my asperity at you or the other independent school contributors to this board who seek reasonable solutions, or else are honest and fair with those of us from different backgrounds, and I apologize again that my pen drew unwarranted blood. As you know, I want all of us back together, not in some super league of any sort whether designated by a number or a region.

[Guest Dingo]

rollredroll,

 

You shame me twice!!! Your second response came even I was composing my reply to your first.

 

Alas, I admit to my absurd cynicism. I begin to think I overreacted.

 

I only want to challenge extremist views from either side that will cement the split. "Extremist" is defined ONLY from the perspective of those that disagree with you. I have a somewhat unique view in that I know what ticks each side. I try to call those who espouse such views into question.

 

I apologize again, my friend.

[chxian]

Dingo,

 

From one Super 7 graduate to another, well...public school graduate, are you hiring? If you carry the passion of your post into your business it must be a great place to work.

[hoop04]

Hi there Mr. Dingo I have to say that I read your posts with complete attention,you remind me of a man I know named clarence, Clarence and I wouold have talks while we worked together, it seemed that everytime we talked I would start out with my opinon and clarence would explain the way that he saw the topic of discussion and I would be floored at just how wrong he was. He would then explain some of the reasons he thought the way he did. LOL he would look at a situation and go straight to the hart of a problem, some times he had a solution sometimes he did not but he had an uncanny nack for stateing the problem. I cant tell you how many times I would go home and spend alot of time thinking about what he had said and after a while a light would go on. your posts do the same thing. I have seen time after time people say I will think about this and post after a while. I myself have made some posts that I truly wish I could get back but once I make a post I will not go back and delete It . I posted It I will take the heat. Your posts have changed my mind about many things I thought I beleaved and yes I had to take time and think about what you had said, You and Clarence both give me a headache but its a good type. guys like you make people think on a more complicated and mature plane. now all of this is to say I agree with most of what you have said but I also belive It would not of mattered what school you had attended. public private, homescchool, heck no school. Mr. Digo if you are typical of public school there would not be a prviate school in the state. My friend Clarence attended school only through the 4th grade. he is very succsessful and self educated lol one way he furthered his education was to read the entire set of britanica encyclopedia's. after reading your posts I could imagine you doing that. I find it very hard to beleave you are an average public school product.

[rollredroll]

Dingo, we may have disagreements on some issues, but you are OK in my book. It's good to have some well-conceived posts on this site. Keep up the good work, and the well-placed literary wit.

[FlyBy]

Greetings Your Dingoness!

 

Your mastery of the English language is nothing short of impressive. I am assuming that you are either a Hillsboro, Hillwood, or Overton grad. I haven't read many posts by you, which violates one of my own rules by which I live; but you actually are living proof of one of my main frustrations with public school people. The educational opportunities do exist in the public schools!

 

Look, you certainly don't believe that I am that arrogant to believe that only MBA graduates are capable of being high quality leaders. You said it yourself that you are the reason that you are a success. It was you, not the public school educational process that forged your path to where you are now; however, the public school process was sufficient enough to provide you with the tools that you needed to succeed. You demanded superior results from yourself. 99.9% of students in the public and private sytems do not have that kind of drive, determination, and self motivation. I applaud you for that; flip, I don't think I could have done that!

 

A high quality education provided by qualified teachers exists in the public school system; however, the children must be motivated and dedicated to seeking it out. Therein lies the difference. MBA products have no choice but to graduate with the tools that they need to succeed. If one graduates from "The Hill", he is qualified to succeed at any institution at the next level. Having said that, I am not implying that all MBA products are guaranteed a life full of success.

 

I appreciate your accomplishments, and I wish you continued success. Yes, I was quite sarcastic and accusatory towards you; however, I started this post for the purpose of entertaining thoughts of high profile match-ups between storied programs throughout the Southeast. You are the one that changed the tone of the original post.

 

By the way, football and baseball are the only sports that I know anything about; therefore, that is all I will ever comment about on this board. I know those two sports; outside of that, I can not contribute.

 

Go make some $$$$$$.

 

I am FlyBy!