JDHoss

And here we have Bishop Kenny HS in Jacksonville. The stadium itself is nothing special, but the setting on the banks of the St. John river is, and you can see bridge lit up after dark. A friend of mine used to coach the OL there before moving to Pensacola.

Camden County in Kingsland, Georgia has a nice facility too. We stopped there on a Friday on the way to Florida to watch them play Valdosta. I was told it seats 10K, and it was pretty full that night. Nice weight room as well.

Bill Spoone Stadium at Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando is a nice facility. Nothing spectacular in terms of size or anything (although the school campus is really nice), but it is right across the street from Universal Studios, and sometime in the 4th quarter, they will stop the game when the "end of the day" fireworks display starts, weather permitting. Unfortunately, when we were there a couple of years ago, it was a steady rain and they didn't have them. This facility is also rented by colleges for practice for the Orlando bowl games.

Dorman HS in Roebuck, SC can be seen off to the left of I-26 as you head East outside of Spartanburg. It's a monster campus and the stadium has seating for 11,500 with "bank" overflow that will hold an additional 3K. Been to a few games there. Marvelous facility that a lot of FCS schools would be proud to have.

....commit to anyone yet?

He signed with Marshall, who was coached by former UT assistant (to Ray Mears) Stu Aberdeen. IIRC, he started and averaged around 10 ppg. Stu Aberdeen died unexpectedly, and I don't recall exactly what happened, but Hamler left and came back to CVC (UVA-Wise) and was a star there. Not sure where Hamler is now, but he got into coaching, and at one time was the head coach at Elizabeth City State in NCAA Division II.

Of the 2K point club, Marsee and Mitchell would have had a lot ore points for sure. Most of Hamler's points came from the paint out to 15 ft or so, but he had a sweet baseline jumper as well and was just relentless on the glass.

Not that familiar with guys outside of Region D, but I'll go with these guys in no particular order: * Steve Marsee - Pennington Gap * Barry Hamler - PV * Mac McClung - GC * Calvin Talford - Castlewood * Trazell Silvers - Ervinton Certainly an argument can be made for any of the following: * Brad Nuckles - Council * Stacy Ervin - Twin Springs * Hobbie Stuart - Appalachia * Randy Poole - Castlewood * David Mitchell - Coeburn I'm probably forgetting some others as well, but even though this is basically a greatest players from Region D answer, it's the best I can do.

No, but it was a really good team. I think Gate City was still in the LPD at the time, so that was probably in 1969. Man...that was a long time ago.....PV had some really good teams under Coach Paye. Pressed and trapped all over the floor, and liked to get out on the break.

Or Coeburn's David Mitchell. I remember an LPD tournament game where Mitchell went for 57 of Coeburn's 67 points in a 107-67 loss to PV. Mitchell would have had a lot more if there had been a 3 point line.

I did not know that. Good point.

I guess the Crockett team from a couple of years ago was pretty decent, and Science Hill caught a bad break that may have cost them 1 state title when Shannon Hale and another kid transferred to Christ School a few years ago, but other than that, it's been really lean.

According to the box score, DB and Columbus, MS both went scoreless in the 2nd quarter after Columbus lead 24-22 after the 1st quarter. Don't think I've ever seen two teams go scoreless in a quarter, even in the days where it wasn't uncommon to see a team play a version of the four corners offense. Dobyns-Bennett scored 22 points in the first, then 21 points in the last three quarters combined as Columbus recovered from whatever was going on in the 2nd quarter to score 37 more points and win the game 61-43. Overall, has high school basketball in Upper East TN ever been as bad as it is right now? I know that Buck Van Huss, Bobby Chambers, Dickey Warren, Bobby Snyder, George Pitts, Elvin Brown, John McCrary and Charlie Bayless aren't walking through that door, but is this a coaching problem, or is there just a severe talent shortage?

David Mitchell - Coeburn (Played basketball and baseball at UT) Billy Joe Berta - PV (nice career at King and coached at one of the Morristown schools for a good while) Barry Hamler - PV (Marshall and Clinch Valley, was a starter at Marshall and really, really good at CVC and was head coach at Elizabeth City St in NCAA DII) Jerry Meyers - PV (nice career at CVC and coached girls BB at Volunteer and Lee) Eric Fugate - GC (Pretty sure he either played at King or Milligan) Hobby (sp?) Stuart - Appy (good career at CVC) Jason Horton - Twin Springs/GC (played at UNC-Asheville and if he's still at Food City, he's probably the tallest employee in the history of their company)

We get around. My wife and I are both retired. We usually pick a game from Knoxville to Roanoke to go to on a Friday. Sometimes we'll venture over to the Asheville NC area or the South Carolina Upstate. Been to some games in Eastern KY, and we usually go to Florida in the fall. We'll catch a game or two there and will sometimes stop overnight in Georgia and catch a game. Been to games in Mississippi and Alabama as well. Love going to high school games, especially in places where the town pretty much shuts down and everybody comes out to support the teams like they do in SWVA. We're probably going to be moving to Florida next year, but I definitely want to come back for a couple or three weeks during football season.

....of location or classification. Let's hear it.... #1 Vero Beach (FL): Finished the season 11-1. They were 10-0 when I saw them in the opening round of the FHSAA Class 8A playoffs. They had a 220 lb RB who has committed to Syracuse, a 335 lb tackle that is committed to Georgia St, and 3 other guys who have FBS offers. The night I saw them, they were mercy ruling Orlando Olympia when we left in the 3rd quarter. They beat Oscar Smith in Chesapeake in the season opener and lost to Sarasota Riverview in the 2nd round of the playoffs. #2 Greeneville (TN): Finished 14-0 and Class 4A champions. I saw them 4 times. Extremely impressive team all the way around. Beat 6A Dobyns-Bennett and Science Hill, and their only real challenge came in the 2nd round against undefeated Anderson Co, who they outscored 35-10 after falling behind 21-0 early. QB Cade Ballard is just stupid good, accounting for 4000 yards of offense and 59 TD. Scary thing is that they return just about everyone next year. #3 Orlando (FL) Olympia: Yeah, they were mercy ruled by Vero Beach, but their QB is headed to Michigan, a DE headed to Colorado St and a brute LB who is a junior with lots of FBS offers. Their biggest problem appeared to be coaching. In terms of pure physical talent, I'd put them ahead of Greeneville. #4 Anderson Co (TN): Finished 11-1 and gave Greeneville a run for their money when they jumped out to a quick 21-0 lead before falling 35-31. They didn't have spectacular talent, but they were well coached and had a QB who was tough as nails and a good passer. In fact, if it weren't for a Greeneville CB who picked 2 passes in the end zone that were on the money and at the WR hands, and a 3rd that he took out of the WR hands as they were going to the ground, Anderson Co probably wins that game. #5 Alcoa (TN): Class 3A champions. I saw them play at 6A Dobyns-Bennett, where they trailed by double digits for much of the game. Teams who are used to winning never give in though, and they just kept fighting and overtook DB in the last 2 minutes, and sealed the game with an interception. Head coach Gary Rankin has a bigger trophy case than God with 13 state titles and over 400 wins. #5 Kingsport (TN) Dobyns-Bennett: Lost in the 2nd round of the Class 6A playoffs after having a sizable lead, which is a repeating theme with DB teams over the years. The Indians had a big OL and 3 big, hard running backs, but they seemed to get away from what they do best at times, and it costs them. #6 Charlton Co (GA): Finished 9-3 and lost in the 3rd round of the Class A playoffs. They didn't have a whole lot of size up front, but probably had as much team speed as anyone I saw. They had a kid (Raykwon Anderson) who is a junior WR/DB who was committed to Florida until McElwain was fired. Their QB was a tall, skinny guy who had a decent arm and could fly. He looked like a spider when he was running with his arms and legs flailing around everywhere, and he wouldn't think of going down at the end of a run without going completely airborne at some point. Their offense pretty much consisted of him taking the snap and either handing it off to Anderson or this other kid on the jet sweep or scrambling around trying to find Anderson or one of 3 other guys who could really scoot, his big (6'5 240) TE or pulling it down and running. They were entertaining to watch and were mercy ruling Lanier Co in the 2nd quarter. #7 Appomattox (VA): We all know about these guys. Three state titles in a row is a great accomplishment. #8 Union (VA): We know all about these guys too. Might have been a shanked punt away from winning a state title....or maybe even a knee injury to their QB away. #9 Graham (VA): I was tempted to put Richlands here, but I truly believe Graham is much better than the team that got shut out by Union. #10 Richlands (VA): Had a crazy tough schedule and wound up 4-7 and just about every one of those losses saw them in the game in the 4th quarter.

IMO Greeneville and Alcoa will be prohibitive favorites again. Cade Ballard is just a super football player. This kid accounted for 59 touchdowns this year with 38 TD passes against 4 interceptions (one of which should have been a TD but went off the WR hands and was picked at the goal line) and 3100+ yards passing at an 82% (yes, eighty two percent) completion rate, and 21 rushing TD and just short of 1000 yards rushing. So basically, he accounted for 59 TD and 4000 yards of offense. Holy shit dude......

The missed hold on the punt return was bad, but if Union gets off a 30 yard punt at the end of the half, it's probably 14-14 heading into the 4th.

Man....woulda, shoulda, coulda....critical errors on special teams were the difference. I had serious doubts that Union had closed the gap enough from last year, but they did. Closed it more than enough but couldn't overcome special teams errors which lead to 20 Appomattox points. Yeah, the hold on Mitchell should have probably been flagged, but I thought the most critical thing was the shanked punt just before the half. If Union gets off a decent punt there, it's probably 14-0 at the half. What was the deal on the penalty with the punt? From where I stood, it looked like the Appo kid was clearly offside (and he thought so too as did the rest of their team), and it looked like the ref who threw the flag was ready to call it offsides until Santa Clause ref stepped in and appeared (at least from what I could see) to talk them out of it and make a penalty against Union. That series of events was huge. At any rate, I was impressed that Union never panicked or folded when down 20-0. Congrats to the Bears and good luck to Appo next week.

That's not really a good comparison as I'm pretty sure Appy had a ton of players who were sick with some sort of bug for that game.

Murville 42 Cane Ridge 7 Final East TN teams win 5 out of the 6 state title games. Not surprised about Alcoa and Greeneville (or even Greenback), but that's a little bit of a surprise for Catholic & Murville.

Will be rooting hard for the Bears to win, but that is a huge gap to close from last year. Can they do it? If they can tackle in space as well as they did against Graham, hold on to the football by running for 3-4 yards a pop with zero turnovers and minimal penalties, they have a shot.

Murville 28 Cane Ridge 0 Halftime Cane Ridge beat Marshall Co 27-20 during the regular season. The significance of that? Greeneville beat Marshall Co. 59-24 last week. That probably wasn't a good sign for Cane Ridge.

I saw them twice in the regular season and twice in the playoffs. I thought they were the 2nd best team I saw this year. Would love to see them against Murville.

And I really don't understand his mentality. He had no problem with games being hosted at sites with terrible field conditions before. Hold the games on a field that has turf, and let the weather be whatever it will be.