Clinton High School

[OrangeCrush23]

I am a senior at CHS, and as I will not be able to be at some of the games next year, I am still excited because of the new start we have. I have met Shattuck a couple of times, and I can see that he is great with kids. He sat in the student section with us during a couple of games and yelled with us. When we weren't being loud, he would yell at us and tell us to be loud for the team. I'm sure he has even more passion to him about football. In my high school career, we won a total of 7 football games...7...Germantown won 14 games last year alone. I know you can't compare Clinton to Germantown, but it was time for a change. I hear all these people talking about the politics and all this bad stuff about Clinton. I didn't realize so many of you went here and knew EVERYTHING that went on. I am being very positive about this situation, because what's the point of being negative? What's that going to help. What's done is done, and I feel we received a very good coach in Shattuck from Oak Ridge. Clinton is a very proud community who takes pride in their sports, and when a team is down for so long, as the football team has, people get ancy and want change. You can blame it on politics or whatever you want. Do you expect people in the community to just sit back and say "Well, looks like another down year for us...let's wait until next year." No, most of them wanted change. So did a lot of players I talked to. It's not like we haven't had good talent to play with...Matt Lopez (who started a few game at UTC before hurting his knee), Blake Sharp (All-Region), Jesse Rodd, Bo Pebley (Tusculum), Chad Acres, Dameon Splawn, Jesse Souder (before he hurt his knee in the first game)...the list goes on. A lot of our good players were in the stands because they didn't like the system or whatever reason (I don't know if that's right or not, but that's how it goes) I believe it was time for a change, and we got it. Now it's up to Shattuck and the Dragons to make the Community a believer and get back to the top. I'm behind you all and will be supporting you. Once a Dragon, always a Dragon!

Edited April 6, 2004 by OrangeCrush23

[Newman]

Right on, brother! I'm just glad they got rid of the idiots they had on the coaching staff. A buddy of mine knew some of their former coaches and he said they couldn't have coached my sons peewee teams. Morons.

[OrangeCrush23]

I just wanted to set a few things straight and get out how I felt about it. I searched for posts about Clinton, and they were all negative and about how Clinton is only about politics...it comes down to football. And Catlett wasn't winning, bottom line. If it was up to some of the players, Ingle would have been head coach 2 years ago. All I know is I had some of the coaches as teachers, and I didn't like them as a person, so I can imagine how that would be magnified by be yelled at on the field by them. You have to have trust in your coach, and it doesn't hurt if you can get along with the coach. Shattuck is a great guy. I'm sure he'll be able to pull some students out of the hallway and get them playing. Also, something else that hurts is when your players leave to go to other schools because things aren't going their way winning wise. If everybody that went to CMS went CHS, we would more than likely be winning in just about every sport, if not winning then we would more competitive. I'm not going to mention names, but 2 "all-stars" from the Oak Ridge girls basketball team last year(One was a freshman starter for the Kentucky Lady Wildcats, and the other could have gone anywhere...she probably broke a bunch of scoring and rebounding records) went to CMS, and there were more that went to AC...recruiting and leaving has hurt us a lot. What can you do?? Play on and don't complain about it. It makes it even better when you beat them.

[OllieShaggnasty]

Maybe the old clinton coaches were good coaches.But brother they was cuter.

[crkjon]

i think clinton is going to need more than a new start......well maybe new startERS

[crkjon]

umm but good luck on the season though, hope it turns out great

[Newman]

I saw one of their old assistant coaches and he was still toting around a copy of "Coaching for Dummies."

[OrangeCrush23]

I talked to the one of the coaches last week and I asked him how spring practice was coming along and how they were looking. All he said was, "Looks promising." Guess we'll have to wait until August to find out.

[dilweed3]

Will clinton scrimmage anyone this spring?

[OrangeCrush23]

Will clinton scrimmage anyone this spring?

I'm sure we will, but don't put too much stock in it. Last year we scrimmaged a team from Knoxville...I'm thinking it was Fulton, or A-E, or a Knox team like that and beat them. I know it sounds ridicolous to say we beat Fulton, but it was one of those teams. If you have the correct information please post it.

 

A big problem we had was quarterback. 2 years ago we had Matt Lopez who signed with UTC, and last year we had a quality quarterback in Mario Foley who could scramble and had a good arm. This last year we had no experienced quarterback. Michael York was a sophomore and started the season. Then he got hurt or was pulled and Johnathan Dye played. Both were not very tall, so it was tough to see over the line of scrimmage. I remember Dye having more success though, because of his running ability. I don't know who's lined up to start, but hopefully the players gained some experience after last year. Something else that didn't help us was Jesse Souder went down in the first half of the first game with a season-ending knee injury on a kickoff. There wasn't a lot of experience at tailback after him. There were some bright spots, at the game against Maryville. A freshman quarterback came in and threw 3 touchdowns against the undefeated Rebels. Even though they had their 3rd string defense in, they didn't just give him the touchdowns. He had to throw good balls to get the score.

Edited April 27, 2004 by OrangeCrush23

[TankTalk]

Coaching changes and an infusion of community pride are already paying dividends.

 

With around 130 players coming out for spring practice, the new staff have excited the city and student body which will only help things. It won't be an easy turnaround for a few reasons. First, of course, the region Clinton plays is very tough as is their non-region schedule.

 

Things can only improve and judging from the calls I get each week, the city is ready to stand behind the program and show some patience in the rebuilding process. I hope that's the case. It took longer than one year to get the program in the wrong direction and it will take longer than one year to get it going in the opposite direction.

[Biggamer]

bring bill clinton to harriman and we will rogh them up. we ready. we ready. we ready.