SXSW

Gate City's basketball team may have a bad year but they have a lot of talent in the system Scotty built, they will be back in the State Tournament sooner rather than later! There basketball future is strong!

My predictions for next football season are that: There will be a 10 game season; There will be a lot of blowouts and close games; Union fans will complain if they go undefeated and unscored on during the regular season but lose in the second round if the playoffs; The QB play will be the key to all the contenders contending; No team from Southwest Virginia will win a championship until Appomattox and Riverheads combine and move to 4A. You could call them Rivermattox or Appoheads! Threads like this are really crazy to have because no body knows, there are too much speculation anyway, and in football season to many other variables like weather, injuries and coaching changes, transfers, your starting QB's love life or your starting tackle's mindset on getting lucky after the game with the cute cheerleader! Just let it happen, as it happens and enjoy the game we all love! Here's to better days and football forever!

Palmer would win a title and Turner would lose in the second round of the playoffs. Union is fast becoming the Dobyns Bennett of Southwest Virginia, great regular seasons and crushing disappointment in the post season! Sometimes pressure situations aren't good for certain teams....ask Kirby Smart!

Absofreakinglutley they need a new coach, or new fans which ever is easier!

I just want to wish the G-Men the best! Make Southwest Virginia proud! I know Graham has the talent and coaching to bring back the title. We need another team in Club 5!

With the addition of nearly 11,000 jobs coming to the metro area, they will dominate the state in everything not just football. It is incredible how the economic development of Tennessee has taken off in the past 5 years, not even considering what is going on with Ford in the Memphis area. That whole area south and east of Nashville is just exploding in population. Word on the street is that if Tampa doesn't get the Rays a new stadium is that the city is going to try and lure the Rays to Nashville.

Tullahoma figured out Betsy's offensive game plan about half way thru the second quarter and both teams missed some opportunities but easily the game of the weekend. I watched 7 of the games and man there is some legit talent D1 talent in Tennessee now and it's getting deeper every year.

The TSSAA 2021 Season is over. The Finals were completed over the weekend. The weather was nearly perfect all weekend with high's in the 70's. Congratulations to all the winners here are the summaries of all 9 games. On Thursday the Division 2 Teams took the field. In the 1A game Donaldson Christian beat Nashville Christian 31-7: It is DCA's 4th State Title. In the 2A game Lipscomb Academy beat Christ Presbyterian 27-0, it was Lipscomb 1st title. In the 3A game The McCallie School of Chattanooga beat Montgomery Bell Academy 28-7. It was McCallie's third title in a row and 4th overall. On Friday in the 1A Game: South Pittsburg beat McKenzie 24-21, it is South Pitts 6th State Title and first since 2010. South Pittsburgs coach quit on the team after their first game to become a DC in the CFL. In the 3A Game: Alcoa beat East Nashville 45-14. Alcoa has won the last 7 straight 3A titles and it's their 20th overall. In the 5A Game: Powell beat Page 42-34. Jordyn Potts outdueled Jake McNamara (Colorado State Commit) (they combined for 615 yards passing and 8 TD's) It is Powell's first state title! On Saturday. In the 4A Game: This was a classic. Tullahoma beat two time defending state champion Elizabethton 21-14 in 2 OT's. Tullahoma's Ryan Scott was the MVP he was 12-16 for 124 1 TD, and ran 16 times for 88 yards and 1 TD. Bryson Rollins finished his brilliant career at Elizabethton Rollins finished 16-26 passing for 131 and a touchdown and a interception on the first play of the 2nd OT for Betsy, and ran 35 times for 138 yards. Tullahoma had back to back 0-10 season's on 2015 and 2016. It is Tullahoma's first state title. In the 2A game.: Westview beat an outmanned and outclassed Hampton 55-14. Ty Simpson (Alabama commit) was the MVP he was 5-10 for 99 yards and 3 TD's and ran for 181 yards on 10 carries and 2 TD's. In the 6A game: Oakland beat Summit 43-26. This game marked the first time that defending state champions teams played for a title ( Summit won the 5A title and reclassified this season). Georgia commit Jordon James was the MVP he carried the ball 27 times for 232 yards and 2 TD's. Oakland now has won 2 championship in a row and 6 overall. Congrats to all the Champions and it's just 36 weeks till kickoff!!!

Sorry to hear about the troubles, if you need anything just message me. I can offer a prayer and conversation outlet if you need to talk!

You sorry Devil, long time no here from! hope you start making regular appearances again. I would love to have about 22 holdback for next football season! LOL!

I think the idea is for Alcoa is to play up, there has been talk about them going all the way up to 5A with the rest of the Knox County Schools, when the last round of reclassification occurred all the Knox County Schools went to 5A regardless of size for scheduling and travel purposes.

Alcoa should move up to 4A during the next cycle if the numbers don't magically change!

The Food City Deli in Bluefield is better than just about anything in town except that little Italian place downtown close to the railroad yard, Applebee's! I guess the Wendy's drive thru line was too long!

It's Finals Week!!!! The long and winding road reaches the end starting Thursday in Chattanooga at Finley Stadium The D2 (private schools) get things started Thursday. In D2 1A: Donaldson Christian (12-1) plays Nashville Christian (11-2), 2A has CPA (12-1) playing the Trent Dilfer coached Lipscomb Academy(11-1) and 3A has McCallie (12-0) playing MBA (9-3) 2A game time is 12pm, 1A is 4pm and 3A is at 8pm. The Public Schools get thing rolling Friday at Noon. 3A plays first as Alcoa (13-1) plays East Nashville (10-4) at 4pm in the 1A title tilt South Pittsburg (10-2) plays Mckenzie (14-0) and the night cap has Powell (12-2) playing Page (13-1). Saturday has the 4A championship game at noon when Elizabethton (12-1) plays undefeated Tullahoma (14-0) Betsy is trying to win it's 3rd state title in a row, in the 2A game at 4pm Hampton (12-2) plays 13-1 Westview and the 6A game gets the 8pm primetime game when undefeated Oakland (14-0) plays undefeated (14-0) Summit. All game times are Eastern Time and all the games will be broadcast on WCYB 5.2 the CW, in the Tri-Cities.

Tennessee does have a separate division for the privates. The split that they have today all started with the TSSAA fined and placed on probation Brentwood Academy for recruiting and Brentwood sued and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court. Brentwood Academy was the prominent large football power in Tennessee from the time the school opened in 1969, they won 9 3A titles (the largest classification at the time) between 1969 and 1997. The split came 21 years ago for the schools that offer financial aid and the rest of the private schools left to form their own division in 2018. TSSAA labels it D2. and has three classes (1A-3A) and gave Tennessee a total of 9 State Champions. Football is the only sport that is split into more the 3 Classes, everything else is a three class system. There are rumbling that the TSSAA want to go back to a 4 or 5 class format in the future, which will probably happen!

Well it's semifinal week and an unprecedented event will take place in Carter County. With 3 semifinal games all within 18 miles of each other! Kind of like the old days of Southwest Virginia. In 1A: South Pittsburg (9-2) visits Cloudland (12-1) Cloudland's only loss this year was to Hampton. The other side of the bracket is Trenton Peabody (12-1) @ 13-0 McKenzie. In 2A: Trousdale County (12-1) makes the 4.5 hour trip to Hampton (10-2) to take on the Bulldogs. Hampton had an incredible come from behind win over Oneida. The other semifinal 12-1 Westview travels to 12-1 Riverside. In 3A: 12-0 Giles County will be 12-1 Alcoa's next victim and 12-0 Dyersburg travels to 9-4 East Nashville in the other semifinal In 4A: The trifectas final game is 12-1 Upperman visiting the 12-1 Cyclones of Elizabethton. The other side of the bracket is a battle of unbeatens Haywood travels to Tullahoma. In 5A: Knox Powell (11-2) plays Knox West (11-2) and 12-1 Page hosts 8-5 Henry County In 6A: Oakland travel Maryville in a battle of 13-0 teams and Summit (13-0) travels to Hendersonville (10-3) The Division 2 Title games are already set. These games are set to be played on December 2 in Chattanooga. In 1A: Donaldson Christian(12-1) takes on Nashville Christian (11-2) In 2A: CPA (10-2) plays Lipscomb Academy (11-1) and 3A: McCallie (12-0) plays MBA (9-3) I am hoping for a Carter County sweep but Hampton and Cloudland have very tall tasks. Good Luck to all involved and Happy Thanksgiving To One and All!

You are correct we played against him in 94. the years and teams and games run together!

The miracle FG against Jefferson Forrest (with Anthony Poindexter) was the loudest I ever heard Legion Field. The 97 team was struggling running the ball at the end of the season until a meeting between Colobro, Houseright and Gilbert Smith and they moved Andy Smith to Fullback and put Jake Houseright in the I formation and the rest was history.

I was at nearly every game on the this list. The two that stick out the most were the 96 game with Brookville, it rained so hard you couldn't see across the field. Shoemaker the QB got a concussion and was the holder on PAT's, he has the biggest hands ever and the backup QB dropped two snap on PAT's and GC lost 13-12. and the 2000 Rustburg semi in a sleet and rain storm had the ball inside the twenty several times and fumbled into the end zone. But what coach Jones did was stabilize things I had several conversations with him at little league games and loved the way he could explain and teach football and make it interesting. He is the DL and OL coach at Westridge in Sullivan County and the OL and DL were dominate this year, just saying. Oh and before Westridge he hung out at DB with Colobro and Christian.

Pat Loggans at Gate City was awesome, fair and precise all you could ever had wanted in a stadium announcer.

Napier will go big time he can have Florida or LSU or even Ole Miss depending on what Kiffin does. Chadwell can't be trusted to do the right things but in the NIL era he doesn't have to be so careful, Clawson can wait out Mack Brown and get the UNC job and may have a suitor in Gainesville. Freeze seems to have revived himself at Liberty and can bring Kaidon Salter the 4 star QB from Texas with him (Salter was kicked out of Tennessee for two issues before school even started) where ever he goes if anywhere. Of the 4 you mentioned you have two with bigger ambitions and two with NCAA issues. Choose wisely!

I don't think that Turner should be fired, but they have wasted a lot of talent since 2016. Union fans must realize that they are never, ever going be as dominate as they were! Firing coaches in high school is really a hard in a small community you automatically create division and lose half of your fan base. I do believe that Union is in a rut and are just good enough to excite the community but not good enough to win a state title, which is the only thing that will quite the voices of dissention. I like the Union turmoil it is good for the message board but would hate to be part of the mess if I lived there.

I think I will take Central in a squeaker 28-27...they are that close!

Alcoa vs. Riverheads would be a great game or even Alcoa vs. Appomattox would be quality too.

Check with Allegiant out of Asheville and the good looking kid fixing the airplanes is our son. He is now the lead mechanic, soon to be the chief mechanic! Flight costs $109 and takes an hour and forty nine minutes to West Palm Beach.