West Tennessee Sports?

[bulldog69]

Yes ...but you can still PLAY them...you know just in case you want to builld a long-term program instead of having a real good team when you have a few athletes. Facts are facts. 5a Centennial is playing Brentwood Academy for their first game. Why??? Because they want to get better, play tough teams...you can't do do that by playing the Fayette-Ware's of the world....There simply is not any regions over there that are deep enough unless you count 1a and 2a...and I do not see any schools over there picking some big name opponents..

[926]

Ummmm, Milan24...it's not because stupid middle and east Tennessee private schools recruit...it's because SMART middle and east Tennessee private schools recruit

 

I'm SURE there's never been a student from a different school district play for Milan. I used to be just like you. I thought the only reason private schools were as competitive as they were was due to recruiting. Then I looked around and realized that most competitive public school programs have at least one or two key players from outside the legal school district boundary. That's when I stopped my belly-aching on that subject.

 

With the exception of a few Westview, Huntingdon and Bruceton folks, there just aren't many people from west Tn who make their voices heard on this board.

 

And kudos to BigDogDaddy who is either The Cut-and-Paste King of the Internet, a very fluent typist, or on vacation and has a bit of time on his hands

Edited August 20, 2003 by 926

[FHSrebel27]

BigDog is actually a little bit of all three... and some in between. OK, that doesn't make sense, now does it? I imagine he got all of that from www.tssaa.org.

[926]

Apparently, the post to which bulldog69 and myself were responding was removed by the poster. If anyone is wondering who we were talking to.

[VwBajaBug1973]

I am from West Tenn. I aint saying who I am.

[turkey]

I am a West Tenn. supporter but you can't argue with the record in state championships. I think the east and middle teams must have better coaches. I don't believe there is that much difference in the athletes. Coaching at the High school level in my opinion is more important than in college or pro football. Reading the posts it seems that the teams in East Tn. have more fan support aaand the students more school spirit than teams in the west. It seems at a lot of the games I go to in the West, student and even players don't think its cool to be fired up and show a lot school spirit. Milan is a exception but if they have a couple of down years would their support erode ? Bulldog 1 hope you guys win the state championship I will support you if you play a east or middle team. But talk after you do it not before.

[FormerCav]

First of all, Crockett Co. has to play Fayette-Ware as they are alss in region 6-AAA. And as far as private schools go...there aren't many in West TN that will play us...outside of those in the Memphis area. We have SBEC on our schedule this year, while they are not a powerhouse, they are more formidable than some of the teams we have on our schedule. But the closest private schools are all 1A and don't want to play Crockett County. And Crockett County doesn't quite have the money to travel 3 or 4 hours every other week to play. I won't disagree that our schedule has been week the past couple of years, but it's not because we don't want to play tougher teams, a lot of the tougher teams don't want to play us.

Edited August 21, 2003 by FormerCav

[brothers15]

Not all West TN teams have weak schedules. No one can talk about CBHS...cmon we have BA, MBA, McCallie just to name a few. Briarcrest has scheduled BA in the past and did beat BGA in state last year. Or what about Ridgeway and Fulton. Oh yea, and the reason the big private schools don't schedule teams like Crockett Co. is because it looks bad on your schedule to drop a powerhouse for a small team without reputation.

[SemperFiBlue]

Well, I think the reason why West Tennessee doesn't get much respect is two reasons:

 

#1. History

 

#2. Size of the region

 

Middle Tennessee is larger than West Tennessee or East Tennessee and East Tennessee is larger than West Tennessee.

 

But you look at the history books.

 

A West Tennessee school has never won a Class 5A title. Classifications 4A and 5A were added after the 1992 season and the entire state's ahtletic football teams were reclassified by number of students under new guidelines. Before that the state was only comprised of Division 1 1A, 2A, and 3A. There was no Division II to separate the private and public schools until after 1996. Recently there has been a new classification system. Division II has also been separated in classifations based on number of students. There is a Division II 1A, 2A, and 3A.

 

The last time a West Tennessee school did win the state title in Tennessee's largest classification at the time was in 1985. Memphis-Hillcrest won the Class 3A state title.

 

1999 was the last time and only time a West Tennessee school won the Class 4A title and that was accomplished by Memphis-East.

 

Compare that to Middle Tennessee who has collected 2 state titles (belonging to Pearl-Cohn) in Class 4A and East Tennessee has collected seven: 4 belonging to Maryville and 3 belonging to Cleveland.

 

I think most people on this board are fans of Class 4A and Class 5A football or Division II.

 

I think West Tennessee does have some really good Class 3A programs. I know Milan won a state title in Class 3A a few years ago. Memphis-Melrose has won as well. And Ridgeway won last year.

 

Class 2A it's just about the same across the board.

 

Class 1A belongs to East Tennessee. Teams like South Pittsburgh.

[divepix]

Class 1A belongs to East Tennessee????? 8 of last 10 1A state champs are from Middle Tennessee, other 2 from South Pittsburg. Other than South Pittsburg, Middle Tennessee dominates 1A. Competition in Region 5 alone makes Region 5 dominating - CPA, Ezell Harding, DCA, FRA - all in the same region.

[bluefan2]

I'm from a public "city" school and the sports programs are lacking in support. Also the City of Memphis is divided into so many teams that not one school can get the overall talent that I believe the middle and west Tn. schools get. It has even happened in the County schools around Memphis with the division of Germantown, Houston, and Cordova a few years ago and with the growth of the surrounding areas more High schools are sprouting up. There is going to be a new private school in the area St. George's that I think is going to really affect the area in the next few years. Now it only goes thru the 10 grade adding a grade each year and Coach Neatherland from Germantown is the new athletic director.

[pennyplay6254]

divepix, can we say private? Not trying to make a debate here but everyone knows...