Morristown West vs. Swain County (NC)

[MaroonDevil]

I have just heard that Morristown West (4-A) will be playing Swain County (1-A) from the Smoky Mountain Conference (SMC) in Western North Carolina. Does anyone know the date and place? I understand that Morristown West is a school with a great winning tradition In football. I'm afraid I don't know a great deal about the Eastern Tennessee schools but I will tell you what I know about the SMC.

 

From 1963 to present SMC schools own (36) state football titles (6 of which belong to Swain County). The most notable of the players from the SMC include Heath Shuler (Swain) and Carl Pickens (Murphy). You guys there in Volunteer Country may have heard of these two.

 

Meanwhile....back to the present, Swain returns almost all of it's defense and a pretty good stable of running backs. I don't think the QB situation has been worked out yet, but there are a couple of guys that look very promising. If the Devils don't get beat to death in the first four games (two 4-A teams, and two 3-A teams), they should do OK.

 

Somebody please send me directions on how to get there if the game is in Morristown!!

[REBELRON]

Morristown West started winning when Don Woods started coaching there. They are well coached,Dress 80-90 players and have good athletes.They have 10 starters back on defense. Their defensive end #98 Brandon Fanney and their 2 middle linebackers (Emmanuel Frederick#42 and Caleb Goforth #49) are headhunters. They lost their quarterback on offense but return running backs Charles Rucker#2 and Adam Shockly#36.They will be tough.

 

I expect the road to Murfreesboro will run through Morristown this year. Who ever survives between Maryville,Cleveland or Knox Central will have to go to Morristown West this year because it is their turn again. I don't think Greeneville,Elizabethon or Tennessee High of Bristol to have enough to beat Morristown West.

 

Maryville is the champs until someone knocks them off.

[JPATS5]

greeneville will be very weak this yr; elizabethton will be about average, probable 1st or 2nd in their region. however, region 1 4a will field its worst teams since reclassification. rebelron should be quite accurate in his assumptions of 4a. in addition, morr. west's problem this yr might come from lack of competition. they will only play three games in which the other team poses any threat to them--maryville, jeff.co., and cleveland. they play maryville early, so they should win given the fact that maryville's o-line will be non-starters from last yr and that west's defense is a beast. cleveland will play with west for about 3 qtrs but will run out of gas in the 4th (cleveland has no depth and starts too many players both ways). jeff probably has the best chance of beating west; they have lighting speed at several of the skill positions and return 15 starters from last yr's 9-4 team.

[JPATS5]

if you are going to beat west, you have to be very, very physical and play sound fundamental football the entire game. oh, i have never seen a team that hits as hard as west. my body ached for days after i'm watched them dismantle jeff last yr.

[REBELRON]

I will agree that West is a hard hitting team. The hardest hits I saw all of last year was in the 1st Morristown West/Maryville game. Larry Hannon#35 ran down on a kickoff and busted up the wedge and a split second later Zack Thomason#30 nailed the ball carrier.

 

Offensive line will be better than people think. With the injuries Maryville had last season a lot of players got playing time. Chris Large is the only starter returning but Jimmy Wallace started 4 or 5 games last season as a sophomore and did well.Matt Gardner,Cory Everett,Aaron May and Thomas West got a lot of playing time last season. Bobby Browning will be a good offensive lineman.He would have probably started last season if he didn't get hurt.

[artiefeelgood]

Mr. Swain County, NC.

Bet against Swain County on this one. Plain and simple. Kaleb Goforth, Pee-Wee Fanney, Emmanuel Frederick, and a Alabama transfer all will start on defense. West 30, Swain 10.

[randy3116]

The game will be in Morristown on September 26th.

 

FYI - The football teams from both Hamblen East and Hamblen West High Schools actually share the same football field and stadium. The stadium is located directly adjacent to East High School whose street address is One Hurricane Lane, Morristown, TN., 37813.

 

I would suggest using any mapping web site (i.e., Rand McNally, Mapquest etc.) using the address for both schools. That should get you there.

[MikeBleedsBlue]

JPATS you still have Cleveland all wrong. They will have depth this year with only 2 or 3 players going both ways. No lineman should be playing both ways either. I hope the Mo West coaches think the same way you do..come Aug 29 you'll be in for a surprise..

[JPATS5]

artiefeelgood, what is your take on the west/jeff game? do you think it will be close this yr or just another blowout by west? it's very early to be predicting. for now, west by 7 (21-14 or 14-7). i don't see jeff consistently driving the ball on west, but given the fact of their lighting speed at the skill positions (houston, rb, brown, wr, jennings, rb, and shiverdecker, wing-back)they could score 3-4 tds on long plays. furthermore, with 8 players returning to the defensive side, i think they can keep west from scoring more than 21. your thoughts?

[MaroonDevil]

Randy3116,

Thanks for the reply and the directions. I am really looking forward to this game. This team might be a little too much for little old Swain County but it should be a fun game to watch. The Devils usually dress about 40-50 players which is very good for such a small school and believe me..they will not be intimidated by a 4-A team. The Devils have quite a reputation of their own and play larger teams year after year because of the difficulty in scheduling 1-A opponents other than conference teams. Mark this down as a must game to watch...the Devils will be a huge underdog and rightfully so, but I think everyone who watches this game will be impressed.

[artiefeelgood]

28-21 West..over Jeff County. It should be a tighter game. Meadows has changed Jeff County. They return plenty of speed. If Clay Farrar would have finished his transferal papers from New Jersey, they could beat West. But, since that fell through and he went to California AC High in Long Beach, West will win 28-21. They return too much on defense which should counter Jeff County's offensive speed.

[artiefeelgood]

West dresses 90-105 each year.