White County Basketball

[whowebe]

Does anyone know what next year looks like? Will Slatten be back? Will Gribble be back? Both? Any info is appreciated.

[warriorettemom]

I heard yesterday that Slatten is leaving. Is is true?

[benchcoach]

Slatten forced to resign or lose teaching job to. White Co. runs off one of

their own and keeps Hess who lives in Cookeville. Sad day for White Co.

Material slim and following Whited to much to bear. Sad because some

good talent on the way. Like to have seen Slatten have a chance with

some better material. His players this year played as good as they could

and were competitive most of the time.

[tex]

Benchcoach, you do not like Hess, O.K. fair enough that point has been beated to death. The man can or cannot coach(to each his own opinion) but what does him living in Cookeville have to do with anything!

[drdefense]

I am sorry that Coach Slatten will not be coaching at White County next year. I think he did a great job with the talent level he had. He did a great job of coaching the talent up. In most games the boys were competitive even though they did not match up in talent with their opposition. They beat Oakland and carried Riverdale to overtime. They had the ball with the scored tied in the last seconds against Lebanon when an errant pass allowed Lebanon to intercept and score as the clock expired.

When he came back to Sparta after Coach Whited retired, he was not the choice of the players or most of the parents of the players. I think that many did not want him to be successful. With the talent level improving I think Bruce would have had the boys in the fight for the district title in the next couple of years. I would have liked to see what he could have done with this years freshman class and the two classes behind that class. The talent level is fairly high in those three classes .

However I think that he made a few mistakes in the way he handled a some things. The players did not seem to enjoy playing for him for whatever reason. In retrospect I think he would probably acknowledge that he might do a few things differently. It appears to me that Coach Slatten really cares for his players. I think he loves coaching and basketball as much as anybody can. I just wish that he had a chance to show what he could do with good talent.

[fullcourt]

The dissatisfaction with Slatten went far beyond his record. Everyone realized the talent was not as good as in some years past. The problems were the way he handled things away from the court, his demeanor and the relationships he built or rather failed to build with his players. Two hour practices before games did nothing to build morale. One thing is for sure he knows his x's and o's but did he know how to get the players to respect him. Players don't have to like coaches but they have to respect him and that just wasn't there. Too many discipline problems. You have to punish your best players for mising practices or misbehaving just like you do the others. That didn't happen. When rules are bent it makes far bad situations. No sense though in beating a dead horse. This is over now. White County will be looking for a new coach. Some will support them and there will be those who don't. That's the way it goes. Good luck to the new coach and team and good luck to Coach Slatten in whatever he pursues.

[CoachSH]

Is the job open? Who will get the job?

[attila]

Fullcourt, Slatten is a great X's and O's coach. He also is very intense. He did not have the support of the community when he came in. The people seemed to blame him for simply applying for the job and then getting it. How would this make anyone feel , much less someone who grew up in the county. It would have been very hard, almost impossible for them to get behind anyone else but a Whited guy. The administration at WCHS are to blame because they never stood behind Bruce from day one. As for the discipline, that has always been what he has been about, but Slatten was overruled on some of those because a parent would call and complain to the powers that be. This is Fact! The parents didn't like Bruce because from what I saw he tried to coach them hard and get blood out of a turnip so to speak.

 

With all this being said I appreciate the fact that Coach Slatten came here because he wanted his family to be here. We usually don't have people who move back here because they want to. He worked very hard to keep our team competetive when the talent was way down. They were small, slow, and unathletic compared to the schools that are in the district. Who is to blame for that? Anyway, hopefully everyone will get behind the team, for the kids sake, and good luck to Coach Slatten and his family.

Edited March 30, 2004 by attila

[85warrior]

Is the job open? Who will get the job?

I heard they will be interviewing and picking a replacement by mid April.

[bbfbfan]

This is Fact! The parents didn't like Bruce because from what I saw he tried to coach them hard and get blood out of a turnip so to speak.

 

He worked very hard to keep our team competetive when the talent was way down. They were small, slow, and unathletic compared to the schools that are in the district. Who is to blame for that?

Excuse Me!!!!!!!! I am so tired of having the blame placed on parents who didn't like Slatten and boys that could not play. I know personally that after the first wave of boys left when Slatten came that the most of the parents tried very hard to be supportive of the new coach until things go so out of control that they just got tired of defending the man all the time. I really believe the school system made a bad call when they let Bibb go, but if the boys had been so opposed to Slatten they could have walked off and quit and according to a few people around here, no one would have missed them because NO ONE COULD PLAY. THERE WAS NO TALENT THERE!!! I know that maybe we didn't have 5 outstanding players but there was a couple of really good players on that team and I for one appreciated the fact that they stayed through thick and thin and played when they got so little recognition from some people in this town. These boys have been told that Whited quit because he saw no talent coming up. I spoke with him personally and he told me that maybe there wasn't state championship material in every boy but he thought there was some real talent on that team. SO DON"T GO THERE!!!! Last of all, if you didn't have a young man that played on this team don't talk about what you don't know. Coach Slatten said in his interview in the paper that there was real talent coming up and there may be but don't place all the losses of the last 3 seasons on these young men. I heard that one player on the team played AAU and helped take his team to the YBOA national championship. So there was talent, so shall we just drop the no talent, poor parent thing and hope that whoever they get to replace Slatten will start off on a better foot that he did with the players and their parents. He was a caring coach for some of his players and he spent a lot of time in the gym getting prepared but he just couldn't send that back to his players. Let's hope the next coach can have better luck.

[85warrior]

Anybody heard anything about who is in the running for this job?

[addictedtosports.com]

Is Hess taking over as boys coach? That's what I heard, any truth to that?