Melvin

The TSSAA Playoffs start Friday across all 9 Divisions. There were a few surprises but none bigger than 6A Westridge being the number 2 seed out of Region 1. 47 teams with losing records made the playoff including an 0-9 team (St. Benedict in the 3A Division 2). 
I will just list the region 1 games.
In class A: Cloudland (9-1) hosts Greenback (6-3), Jellico (4-5) visits Oakdale (7-3), Midway (6-3) travels up Stoney Creek to play Unaka (7-3) and North Greene (3-7) travels Coalfield (8-2)
2A : South Greene (8-2) hosts York Institute (3-7), Cumberland Gap (4-6) travels to Oneida (7-3), Monterey (6-4) comes to Hampton (7-2) and Happy Valley (2-8) makes the long trip to Rockwood (7-3)
3A: Austin East (2-7) travels to beautiful Unicoi County (9-1), West Greene (4-6) goes to Pigeon Forge (7-2) and Chuckey Doak (6-4) travels to Gatlinburg-Pittman (6-4). Johnson County forfeited to Alcoa. 
4A: This bracket may the best in the state, it is loaded with good teams. South Doyle (6-4) travels to number 1 ranked Greeneville (10-0), Volunteer gets a tough matchup with the Fulton Falcons (7-3), Knox Carter (6-4)  goes to number 2 ranked Elizabethton (8-1) 
       And rounding out Region 1 4A Seymour (6-4) visits Anderson County (5-5)
5A: Daniel Boone (4-5) visits Knox Halls (5-5), Tennessee High (3-6) goes to Knox Central (6-3), Sevier County (7-3) hosts David Crockett (6-4) and Knox West (8-2) hosts Morristown West (5-5)  Region 2 should dominate this first round.
6A: Science Hill (7-3) host the Admirals of Farragut (4-6), Jefferson County (6-4) goes to Bradley Central (8-2), Cleveland (6-4) travels to Blountville to play Westridge (8-2), and Dobyns Bennett (7-3) is the sacrificial lamb for Maryville (10-0) .Mark on your calendar Friday 
      November 26 in Maryville for Maryville vs. Oakland.
I will keep the updates coming. Good luck to all the teams involved. I can't believe how fast the season has been.    

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.