Melvin

Cloudland v Oakdale - Roan Mtn is a tough place to play and it's supposed to be in the 30's with a chance of rain/snow. I'll go with the Landers. South Greene v Oneida - Going with South Greene. Rockwood v Hampton - It's a road game, but after looking at the Rockwood schedule/results, I think Hampton gets the win. Unicoi v Pigeon Forge - Should be a really close game. Going with a narrow Unicoi win. Greeneville v Fulton - Like South Doyle, Fulton isn't a pushover, but are no match for Greeneville. Anderson Co v Betsy - The Mavs are 6-5, but played a super tough schedule with only one loss that I'd call lopsided. Guess who that was? I'll go with Betsy to beat them again. Boone v Central - Boone is really physical, but doesn't match up well with Central's skill people. I'll go with Central. West v Crockett - Hats off to Crockett for last week's win, but that's not happening this week. West is head and shoulders better. Murville v West Ridge - The Wolves have had a great inaugural season with a 9-2 record and playoff win, but they have a mountain to climb at Murville. Like the vast majority of past seasons, no one in upper ET is in the same universe as Murville.

I'm a "current" D-B fan because our grandson plays, although an injury against Jeff Co finished him for the year. I retired from the Big E in 2016, and moved to Florida a couple of years later, although we still have a place in Kingsport and spend 3-4 months out of the year there because of kids/grandkids and my in-laws, but I used to work with a ton of D-B fans and most of them are really good people, but some of them had a sense of entitlement and loved to tout those win totals and state championships on paper. IMO, D-B's (as well as Science Hill) post season woes are starting with the lack of highly organized, tightly monitored youth leagues with input from the high school staffs, and focusing on fundamentals. I was telling a D-B friend a few years ago that Maryville was beating them before those kids were even in middle school. I saw Maryville play at Science Hill in the regular season several years ago. When they were warming up, I told my wife that if you didn't know anything at all about either team, you'd pick the Toppers to win by a couple of TD. Then the game started, and Murville just throttled them. They didn't miss tackles, they didn't miss blocks, they didn't drop passes, they didn't commit foolish penalties and they didn't turn the football over. That was a really well coached football team, and they just didn't start being well coached when they got to high school.

Anderson Co was the #1 team in Region 2 and Betsy was #2 in Region 1.

St Lucie Centennial 47 Port St Lucie 30 Final Nice comeback by the Jaguars, but they ran out of gas late.

Not sure what is up with my username. Melvin was what I originally registered under years ago, and then I bought a new computer and couldn't get logged on, so I set up another account as JDHoss. Then I recently bought another computer, and I couldn't log on as JDHoss, so I sent for a password reset and it gave me this account back. WFT? I can still post from my phone as JDHoss though. Bizarre.... I'm afraid it's going to be a tough postseason for Region 1, especially in 5A & 6A. Class A : Cloudland v Greenback - Greenback is a shell of what they used to be, and that's a long ass bus ride to Roan Mtn. I'll go with the Landers in this one. Jellico v Oakdale - I know where Jellico is, and the fact that they're usually not very good. I'll go with Oakdale. Unaka v Midway - Should be a tight one. I'll go with Unaka at home. North Greene v Coalfield - Running clock to start the 2nd half for Coalfield. Class AA: South Greene v York - South Green by at least a couple of TD. Cumberland Gap v Oneida - Oneida by a bunch. Happy Valley v Rockwood - Happy Valley will lose big. Class AAA: Austin East v Unicoi - The Roadrunners have struggled this year at 2-7, but against a tough schedule. Unicoi is 9-1, but against a butter soft schedule. In their lone loss, they were throttled by Cloudland. I'll go with Unicoi in a tight one. West Greene v Pigeon Forge - Pigeon Forge in a solid 2 score win. Chokey Duck v Gatlinburg Pittman - Pittman by a couple of scores. Johnson Co v Alcoa - At least the Longhorns saved gas money by forfeiting. Class 4A: Greeneville v South Doyle - The Cherokees aren't a pushover, but Greeneville will put them away by late 3rd quarter. Elizabethton v Carter - Betsy eying another date with Greeneville. Carter won't come close. Volunteer v Fulton - Great year for Volunteer, but Fulton is another universe away in terms of overall team speed. Seymour v Anderson Co - The Mavericks own one of the best entrances in high school football, and they will own Seymour too. Class 5A: Crockett v Sevier Co - Crockett struggled to beat Richlands last week. They're not going to be the Smokey Bears Boone v Halls - Boone has played a tough schedule and lost some close games, as has Halls, but against better competition. I'll go with Halls. THS v Central - It's been a tough season for THS, and it's going to end badly against the Bobcats. Mo West v Knox West - Running clock to start the 2nd half. Class 6A: Science Hill v Farragut - The Admirals are 4-6, but against a tough schedule and 4 of those losses were by 4 points or less. The Toppers have played fairly well of late, but I'll go with Farragut. D-B v Murville - There will be a running clock at some point in the 2nd half. D-B doesn't match up well anywhere with the Rebels. Jeff Co v Bradley Central - Jeff Co's season went down the tubes about 2 or 3 weeks ago when they lose their QB. Bradly by at least 3 scores. West Ridge v Cleveland - Great inaugural season for the Wolves, but Cleveland is a tough opponent. IMO West Ridge has a puncher's chance in front of what will be a rocking crowd, but will probably come up short. The playoffs down here in Florida don't start until next week. Tomorrow night we're going to watch Port St Lucie v St Lucie West Centennial, and on Saturday, we're attending our first Muck Bowl over at Pahokee. It's Pahokee v Glades Central in one of the biggest rivalries in the entire country. There's a great documentary called 4th & Forever: Muck City that's available to stream on HBO Max and Curiosity Stream. I highly recommend it. High school football's greatest rivalry: Muck City - YouTube

Bigger and faster players.....and I'm not trying to be a smartarse about it. Football in upper East TN is nothing to write home about, but it's head and shoulders above SWVA at this time. I am also going to guess that there are a few players who would help the SWVA cause that are playing basketball and don't participate. I never got around to commenting about the BHC interview with Phil Robbins about the state of SWVA football, but yeah, it's just a shell of what it used to be.

Last Friday I watched Camden Co Georgia host Valdosta in front of around 12,000. Valdosta traveled about 140 miles to get there. Great game too, as Camden Co held on at the end for a 14-10 win. Lot of speed on display that night. Camden Co. has 2 kids who have committed to Alabama, along with one to FIU and one to Marshall.

I'm looking forward to seeing the Camden facilities. We'll catch a couple of game in Florida while we're there as well. While I love the atmosphere of football in our neck of the woods, the talent you'll see in other places like Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina is a real eye opener. I don't think I've ever been to a game in Florida where there weren't 3-4 legitimate FBS athletes on the field, and I was at a Deland - Mainland game a few years ago where there were 13 kids total who had made verbals to FBS schools.

We're stopping in Kingsland on the way to Florida on the 27th to take in the Camden Co - Valdosta game. Valdosta isn't the program it used to be (due in huge part to the emergence of Lowndes, which is about 5 miles up the road from them), but they still command respect. I'm looking forward to it. I once got a guided tour of the Valdosta facilities from a customer I was visiting in Valdosta. Truly amazing stadium (Division II Valdosta St. uses it for their home games), weight room, and even a museum. Here is a link to their website that goes into more detail thanI ever could. http://www.valdostafootball.com/

We drove over from Kingsport for this last night. The two previous weekends, we had watched Dorman (the monstrous school on the left side of I-26 below Spartanburg) take on Wade Hampton (Greenville), the following day we watched Byrnes take on Apopka, FL in the ESPN game, and last week we watched Knox Fulton go against Bearden. You could combine the squads of Richlands & Union and athletically speaking, still not be in the same universe as Dorman, Byrnes Apopka or Fulton, and they would be heavy underdogs to Bearden or Wade Hampton....but last night was hands down the most entertaining game we've seen and just maybe the best atmosphere. Great job by everyone who participated and great job by the fans for turning out.

Wonder what happened to the event that VHS has hosted the last couple of years? That was pretty convenient for me and was interesting with around 8 teams involved.

Or for that matter, who is involved besides Union and JIB?

School principle? I'll be damn. I've been to high school games all across the Southeast and he's got the calmest, smoothest call of anyone I've ever heard. I told my wife his call sounds like he's setting up a critical 25 ft. putt at Augusta.

....regular job is: * An announcer on the PGA Network. * A disc jockey on a smooth jazz radio station. If not, he should have one of those jobs. :cool:

Yep...I forgot about the 2003 Gate City title.

And those 21 (hopefully the LPD can make it 22 or 23 this year) state titles were won by 5 different teams. Amazing....

I took this one in tonight. Probably 12,000+ there. I was wrong about both teams. The SHHS defense was a little better than it was when I saw them play Morristown West earlier in the year, and DB wasn't nearly as good as I expected them to be. Great, great game to watch though with DB winning 37-34 in the closing seconds on a 35 yard FG

Pretty old? I prefer to say well seasoned. :D And yes, you'd have to include both of those legends.

I didn't realize he was still coaching. That's an amazing accomplishment.