Upper East Tn. Football

[GLee]

Committment by players and coaches 12 months a year, facilities. A field house "training facility" at Betsy would be nice. It has been a football school for years but seems behind in several areas. Probably should be playing where they belong.... 3A, and they would be one of the smaller 3A schools in football in the state. This would cause more travel and most people would rather play 4A, which is where they are playing currently. Kind of a down year and their was some overachieving done by several in reaching the quarterfinals. Oh well..... next two years should come together nicely for Elizabethton, but......... Knoxville is a tough venue for any team to go in to.

Hope Maryville brings the big ball back.

[Pudding]

What about the number of players on the roster? I have to believe, and agree with others, that "stars" play both ways is detrimental. Why can't schools like Tennessee High, Sullivan South, East, Central, Morristown West & Morristown East, Boone, Cocke County, and Science Hill put 70-80 kids in uniform. I understand some smaller schools don't have that many uniforms and money is tight, but I think schools should find a way if that's the excuse. I'm sure some may raise the excuse of losing programs not attracting kids...who wants to play for a team just to lose. This one has me befuddled. Schools like Holston (Sullivan Central feeder), Colonial Heights (Sullivan South feeder) and Church Hill Middle (Volunteer High feeder) have great histories of winning and turnout many kids for their teams. Some of the middle school programs have more to try out for football than their high school programs do....? Seems the high school coaches need to do a better job of connecting down to the feeders and keep the kids filled with community and progam spirit. With the success Sullivan East had this season, for the first time ever, it will be interesting to see if their staff can build on it or revert bact to the past 30 years.

 

Heck some NE TN schools may have a full roster. Dobyns Bennett is the only one I have seen with a full sideline. But what happens elsewhere, when students from the middle school football feeder schools go on to high school to just walk the halls? Some of the largest schools for their classification are in NE TN, so shear number of enrollment is not what makes success. Cosby is 4th largest in 1A. Chuckey Doak is 11th largest out of 56 in 2A; Happy Valley is 14th and West Greene is 16th. None of these are world beaters and some are maybe the worst for their classification. Alcoa in East TN, but not NE TN, is only 49th largest out of 56 in 2A and you can see thier success. In 4A, Morristown East is 2nd largest out of 57. Science Hill is 15th out of 55 in 5A. Dobyns Bennett is near the middle of 5A at 27th our of 55. D-B with the large roster and kids desire to play there, is successful regardless of middle of the road enrollment, but not to the level Waco understandably wants. They need to take further steps, like the seven figure field house, etc.

Seems like programs that get a large bunch excited & trying out, and in uniform have a better chance to start with, like D-B. Seems to me that the saying "there's strength in numbers" only applies to those particpating and not to those watching or sitting at home.

My argument, I feel, can be a problem for many NE TN teams. But, to get to level of a Maryville, I admit it isn't this simple. But a question to those in the know.... how many kids tried out for your team?

[bud]

Interesting topic WaCo. I am just taking all this in. There are some good ideas on here and I think every team has room to improve. I personally think that the New DB facility will take DB fooball up another notch. It may not be instant (like next year) but it will help. I am glad that DB has good numbers on the sidelines, I still think DB could have even more kids interested in playing. There always seems to be many potential great players that for some reason do not play. I think DB football in the past 7 or so years has taken steps forward with many deep playoff runs, and it appears that DB will again take another step with our new building.

[Rebel Nation]

Along with playing harder teams, I think there needs to be more football for younger kids around here. If they have a lot of experience before they go out there it can help them.

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BINGO...a quality feeder system is emseasurably helpful!! Playing a higher level of comp will help, but if you're not conditioning kids from 8 years old on....it'll never work consistently in the long run. CONSISTENTLY being the operative word. That's what upper ETN lacks.

[nisstek]

I agree with the lack of quality football for kids. The Bristol Tenn Leisure Service football program is a joke. It appears to be mismanaged at best. There is absolutely no reason why as many as three elementary schools would have to be combined just to form one team. Redicules!! I have had a daughter in their system, as a cheerleader, off and on for the last seven or eight years. My youngest just finished up her last year. We didnt know when or who they were playing. They never had practice and if you were lucky you were informed of schedule changes. We have shown up at game time on numerous occasions to find noone there. There is very little money allcoated to them and it seems they wait until the week prior to the games starting to look for coaches. I'm sure a big portion of their problems lies with the parents. I know from personal experience, its hard to get excited about a program when everyone that you have to deal with acts like its a burden on them to help you. A football parent may have a different point of view. I'd like to hear what it is.

 

No money = No interest. Sad but true.

[Tweeter08]

My uncle came up from New Mexico where he was a coach for the local high school and caught one of our (DB) games and said afterward that our offense was way to simple, always running to a certain side of the field and running the same plays consistently.

[theobserver]

just want to say as an experienced coach at several levels. look at the number of athletes that go on to play skill positions at the next level. I know there are a few. fast twitch muscle fibers play a role in this. I also think that when you get used to playing at a certain speed it's hard to play faster when you need to. It's hard to get someone to understand that things need to be done at a quicker pace when they are having success against inferior talent. alot of times its almost impossible to be challenged in practice because of the great lack of depth in this area. When Riverdale practices they may be facing younger people but look at the speed they face everday. also at some schools the starters job is never in jeopardy because they have enough sense to know the person behind them is far inferior, which sometimes results in bad habits.

[DRDB]

One Reason DB can't go play the Riverdales and such during the regular season is simple..........Lack of money...... I thought the MBA series was a good one, and clearly they did too, they invited us back again after they played up at our place, but we couldn't go because we do not have the funds to travel that far........ We scrimmage maryville which isnt exactly like playing them but the team does gain some possitive experience from lining up against such a great team......

 

And Waco, your statement about DB's coaches was way out-a-line........ The Dobyns-Bennett coaching staff is one of the best in the state, I don't care what any of you say....... You said yourself that Clark outcoached Oak Ridge's coach the first time around, everyone was going on and on about Coach Watson's halftime adjustments, but it seems to be a different story after the game for you..... DB's coaching staff suffered a blow this past off-season with the unexpected exit of Coach Vance, who was the linebackers/fullbacks coach, Special Teams Guru, basically the main man in the press box, and the most talented coaches I have ever seen at getting a team fired up....... When he left for Kent State to be the outside linebackers coach, the rest of the coaching staff stepped up...... And I respect them for the job they did....... It was our first year in the new defensive scheme, and only the second in the new offensive......... Not to mention the also unexpected car wreck of Coach Johnson which kept him away the majority of the season......... cut them some slack man....... they did a great job with this team.......

[PrestonForestWreckinCrew99]

But without the propper trainer it won't do much good.

Then theres the coaching staffs. I know this will get some people riled-up, but it needs to be said. I don't know if we are not paying enough up here or what, but when a upper east tn. team hits the playoffs against a team west of here, seems like we always get out coached (badly).

 

 

HA, Waco that's embarassing, and all I'm going to do is laugh at you...

[highschoolfbfan]

But without the propper trainer it won't do much good.

Then theres the coaching staffs. I know this will get some people riled-up, but it needs to be said. I don't know if we are not paying enough up here or what, but when a upper east tn. team hits the playoffs against a team west of here, seems like we always get out coached (badly).

HA, Waco that's embarassing, and all I'm going to do is laugh at you...

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DB has a very good trainer and medical staff.

[WaCoJaCo]

I know I shouldn't argue with a couple of church league b-ball players, but what the heck.

DRDB, I never said DB's coaching staff was bad. And I agree they are among the states best. But that doesn't mean theres not room for improvement. Yes Coach Clark did out coach Lusser in that first game. But I bet if you ask Clark he would tell you that he got out coached in the playoff game. Do you realize there was a 27 point turnaround between the two games? DB went to Oak Ridge with the same game plan as the first game. And everybody was saying DB could not beat Oak Ridge twice throwing the ball. So you tell me, did DB run more or throw more, and who won the game? Why was McMillian not used on offense? Peeler? Am I right?

Now having said that, I would not trade Clark or any of the DB coaches for anyone. This is the best crew DB has ever had. Six out of the last seven years DB has had a team capable of winning it all, yet we haven't made it past the simi's. I think even the DB coaching staff would tell you, we have to improve. So the fact that you think everything is just great don't really matter.

 

PFWC99, while your laughing, why don't you post a list of all the coaches in upper east tn. that have coached a team in the BlueCross Bowl (State Championships)

 

this otta' be good

[medman]

I think it's real hard to pin down a reason as to why an area is better at a sport than another. Look at Texas football, Indiana basketball or Minnesota hockey. It's part of the culture. Most schools have excellent feeder systems. Growing up in Indiana, we learned the plays the high school basketball team ran as 6th graders. By the time we got to HS, we didn't have to learn them, we were working on skills and varitations on them.

 

If you look at Maryville's feeder system, you see the same thing. Knox Co. starts the kids real young in Pee Wee leagues. Knox Co. does not have middle school football, but Powell has started a middle school team and I know Central is trying to get something going at Gresham Middle. Also, most of the football players at Central only play football. Sure, a couple will play basketball and 3 or 4 will play baseball. Several will run track, and that is a great way for those kids to stay in shape and work on speed and strength. Football, weight lifting and training are year round jobs.

 

I'm also going to give kudos to Quarles at Maryville. Before he took over at Maryville, most schools didn't platoon much and the offenses were not too innovative. He has taken advantage of the Maryville feeder systems and the large number of kids in the program to run it more like a small college team. His offense is varied and exciting. The kids have fun running it. The other teams in this area, expecially those in region 3 of 4A, have had to try to keep pace. Coaches "borrow" ideas all the time from other teams.

 

I think if I was a coach at a high school, one of the 1st things I would do is try to establish communications with the youth leagues and get them excited. Give the coaches of those teams in those leagues some things to work on, and expand those skills as the kids get older. I know all this takes MONEY, commitment from parents/coaches and lots of time. But going to youth parents, businesses, etc., will grow this and in time, the teams will get better.