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Hogoheegee District Football
Oct 04, 2007The Hogoheegee District schedule gets into full swing tonight with three games being contested.
The most intriguing matchup has to be Rural Retreat’s game at Holston. The winner of this game will earn a large amount of Region C, Division 1 power points and could almost surely lock up a top seed.
Rural Retreat has not had a losing season since 1985 and the Indians have relied on the trio of Justin Stoneman, Wyatte Pickett and David Harrison this fall to rack up plenty of yards this fall. Harrison actually leads the Hogoheegee District in rushing and has been an inspiring story for head coach Quinton Hensley’s team. Harrison missed almost the entire 2006 season with a gruesome hand injury, but has come back in a big way.
Holston must rebound from last week’s 21-14 loss to Patrick Henry which ended in controversy.
Chilhowie will host Smyth County rival Northwood tonight. Northwood is just 1-3 and the Panthers have struggled with their pass defense and costly penalties. If Northwood is to qualify for the playoffs for the third straight season, the team must pull off some upsets.
Chilhowie features one of the area’s top dual threats in linebacker/running back Alex Russell.
Patrick Henry hosts George Wythe in the other district matchup. GW’s Larry McCoy is another one of the district’s top running backs and he’s put up impressive numbers thus far.
Through the midway point of the Hogoheegee District season, one thing is for sure. There are some quality running backs in the six-team district. Rural Retreat’s Stoneman, Pickett and Harrison are strong, while GW has the duo of McCoy and Seth White and Holston possesses the one-two punch of Aaron Reynolds and Eric Mefford.
Oh yeah, Chilhowie has Russell and Tyler Grinstead, while Patrick Henry’s Marcus Montgomery and Northwood’s StevenEarly Spence have also put up some big numbers.
Posted by Tim Hayes ETSU Men’s Basketball – 10-04 practice and an Interview with Jacolby Davis
Oct 04, 2007The Bucs continued their preseason pick-up games on Thursday afternoon. Today’s action took place on a side court inside the Dome.
Three games of loose – but up-tempo – full-court, 5-on-5 action. First game was to 15, next two to 12. Every Buc besides freshman forward Tommy Hubbard and Greg Hamlin took part. (Hubbard was in Boston, Mass., Hamlin sat out because of a currently undiagnosed knee injury.) The two Buc squads initially played easy and free, splitting the first two games. But the final contest was for real.
Recently-signed junior-college transfer Jacolby Davis stood out.
Davis, a 6-foot-1, 165 pound junior point guard, passed well, shot straight and was tenacious on defense.
Davis – the last addition to ETSU’s 2007-08 roster – spent his first two collegiate seasons playing for Georgia Perimeter College (near Atlanta, Ga). He ranked near the top of all junior-college players in steals back-to-back years, and averaged 15.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and 5.6 assists his sophomore season.
Davis’ talent and drive were impressive. He’s quick off the dribble, has good hands, can penetrate and finish, and prides himself on his defensive abilities.
Davis is also vocal. He let out a couple good screams during the workout, and even challenged teammates when they missed an opportunity to cut through the lane or work themselves open after a screen.
Travis Strong, a 6-foot-2, 210 pound senior guard from Memphis, Tenn., also had a good outing. Strong was able to consistently create his own shot, hit the majority of his attempts from midrange and behind the arc, and had a number of athletic drives to the basket.
What follows is a short interview with Davis.
Jacolby Davis
BTS: You grew up in Meridian, Miss., and went to school the last two years in Georgia. How’d you end up here?
JD: They contacted me. I kept in contact with them. Kept in contact throughout the summer. Came on a visit, and I liked what I saw.
BTS: What did you like? What impressed you?
JD: The way the coaches handled everything. Always upbeat. They have a good program. Good winning program.
BTS: You’ve been here a little over a month. How’s everything going?
JD: Everything’s going good. I thought it’d take a while for us to get to know each other, but we’re coming along. The team’s getting together quite well. Everybody knows what we’re capable of doing if we play as a team. I’m looking forward to a great season.
BTS: What do you think of ETSU and Johnson City?
JD: It took a while to get used. Atlanta was a city, and this is sorta country. This isn’t a big city. So it took me a little while to get used to. But I’m coming around. It’s nice and quiet.
BTS: What are you working on right now?
JD: You never can be too good at anything. So I’m just working on ball handling, getting up shots in the gym, and really getting mentally prepared for the Division-I level.
BTS: Are you making progress?
JD: Everything’s going smooth. The coaches stay on me. They help me, motivate me, they keep me going.
BTS: What are you going to try to bring to the team this year?
JD: I get the team involved. I like to get assists, get the players motivated. Being a point guard, I have to keep them happy. I get the ball, get [my teammates] the ball, and play defense. I’m pass first. I like to see the ball move. If they have everything rolling, then I did my job.
BTS: What kind of feel are you getting from the coaches early on?
JD: They just want me to come in and be positive and be vocal on the court. Be motivated on the court, and keep everybody up and energized. So I bring good defense, and agitate, and I keep everybody ready to play.
BTS: Who are you connecting with right now?
JD: Courtney Pigram is a good guy. He can put the ball in the hole.
BTS: How’s the offense running? What kind of feel are you getting for it?
JD: We’re gonna be running up and down the court. Coach Bartow told us he don’t want us shooting no bad 3’s. So we’re gonna be running it and picking it. And that’s how I like to play, up and down. Old school. Get it up and down the court.
Posted by Brian T. Smith Mance tries motivational ploys, position changes
Oct 03, 2007
They did something new at Richlands a week and a half ago—practice football after a loss.
The Blue Tornadoes’ 18-13 defeat against Graham Sept. 21 was stunning, because the G-Men didn’t appear to match up that well with them on paper, yet inevitable because Richlands had played without much passion at times in the season’s first half.
So coach Greg Mance, after watching films and racking his brain to discern the problem, put his team through a test while they eyeballed the tape.
“I told them if they saw a play when they saw a teammate helping each other up or playing with emotion to raise their hand,” he said Tuesday night. “Out of [123] plays, they raised their hand four times.
“That told me they were going through the motions, playing without emotion. We challenged them to pick it up, have fun again.”
Mance also made some position changes, moving receiver Romulo Fajardo to running back and sending the season’s leading rusher, Kheven Schweingruber, to wide receiver.
In Friday night’s all-too-predictable 49-14 rout of winless Tazewell, Fajardo rushed for 93 yards, which doesn’t sound like a big deal until one realizes it’s the second-highest total for a Blues RB this season.
“Romulo’s 180 pounds and he’s been through the battles for three years now,” Mance said. “Kheven’s 140 pounds and he was getting beat up. We just wanted to find a way to get all our good athletes on the field at once.”
Fajardo perhaps becomes the team’s key player in the second half and the playoffs. If he can keep averaging 93 yards per game, it will force defenses to respect the run enough and permit improving QB Joel Elswick more opportunities to use athletes like Austin Fuller, Ben Addison, Matt Davis and Schweingruber in one-on-one matchups.
That’s how the offense was so powerful last year. Caleb Jennings’ presence at running back made defenses play seven men in the box, gIving the likes of Fuller and C.J. Arms one-on-ones which QB Justin McCracken exploited adroitly.
With a trip to Marion on the horizon for Friday night, Mance feels his team is back on the beam. What’s more, one gets a sense the loss may have lifted a huge burden off this team’s back.
“Sometimes, you can get complacent in what you’re doing,” Mance said. “Kids can take things for granted. Since the loss, they’ve practiced hard and they played extremely well at Tazewell.”
The “Nationwide” Series?
Oct 03, 2007NASCAR announced a deal with Nationwide Insurance to sponsor its No.2, formerly known as Busch, series beginning in 2008.
Chairman Brian France didn’t talk specifics, and said the deal came after “a very thorough process of trying to find the right partner, adding up what we think is important for the series and all the things that you would expect us to be thinking about.”
Exactly what would we expect NASCAR to be thinking about? Ponder things like sinking TV ratings and attendance, rising ticket prices, maybe an increasing sense of disconnect between the fans and their heroes behind the wheel, and it’s pretty easy to venture a guess as to what France and Co. were and are thinking about. Money, money and money.
Word is the sponsorship deal is worth $10-12 million a year, which reportedly is similar to what Anehuser-Busch had been paying. Not bad for a racing league that was once just a step or two from the short-track stock racers you can find at Volunteer Speedway, Wythe or Lonesome Pine Raceway. Not that anyone is pretending that the awkwardly-named Nationwide Series is any kind of minor-league system anymore. Anyone except the NASCAR big wigs, that is.
Nationwide’s representative at Wednesday’s announcement said the fact that Nextel Cup drivers who moonlight in Busch Cars - maybe NASCAR should have a contest to come up with a catchy new nickname to replace “Buschwhackers” - wasn’t a big deal to the sponsor. That’s no news flash, either. The suits aren’t likely to change much in the series, since more racing fans are likely to turn on their televisions to watch Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch drive on Saturday afternoons than Jason Keller, Danny O’Quinn and Scott Wimmer. Then again, wouldn’t 100,000 people be just as likely to pack Bristol Motor Speedway to watch less experienced drivers spin and wreck for 300 laps? Note the fact that while the drivers raved about BMS’ new surface after an alarmingly clean Sharpie 500, more than a few fans called the race “boring.”
If the death knell for the old Southern Tradition that was NASCAR hadn’t already sounded, the demise of the Busch sponsorhip ought to take care of it. Granted, the loss of alcohol and tobacco sponsors for the main series isn’t going to hurt anyone’s feelings, and we do still have the Hooters Pro Cup - unless they get a new sponsor and change that to the Bath & Body Works Pro Series.
As far as the Winston/Nextel Cup goes, that’s getting a new handle, too. From now on, call it the Sprint Cup, just don’t use an AT&T cell phone to do it. By the way, doesn’t “Sprint Cup” sound like something local drivers should be competing on dirt tracks for?
Tennessee High 3, Sullivan Central 2 – Volleyball
Oct 02, 2007Outstanding volleyball match between Tennessee High and Sullivan Central on Tuesday evening at Viking Hall.
Check Wednesday’s paper for the full write-up. Here’s a quick recap.
____
The Vikings started off Senior Night proudly celebrating the efforts of seniors Erin Hyde, Kendra Snapp and Allie Stollings.
Then Tennessee High decided to add one more lasting memory to the trio’s scrapbook.
Down 2-1 overall, and behind 18-14 in the fourth game, the Vikings battled back to defeat Sullivan Central 25-22, 21-25, 12-25, 25-19, 15-13 in a down-to-the-wire match that left Tennessee High thrilled, and both teams completely exhausted.
How tough was the win (and the loss)?
Tennessee High (24-13, 10-5 Big Nine) coach Mary Johnson had nearly lost her voice following the match, while Sullivan Central (15-15, 8-7) coach Tracy Graybeal was ghost-like minutes after the Vikings’ Erin Hyde spiked home the match’s final point.
“I had to get out of there, that really isn’t a good place for me to be right now,” said Graybeal from the Tennessee High parking lot.
Graybeal wasn’t upset. But she’d just watched her team slowly give away an emotional loss, and … losing’s never easy – especially in a match as roller coaster-like and back-and-forth as Tuesday night’s was.
“We just lost our intensity in the fourth game,” Graybeal said. “We got tight, and when we get tight, we make mistakes.”
But in the second and third game, the Cougars played fearless.
Sullivan Central senior outside hitter Lucie Jones was especially impressive. Jones’ low, slicing serve plagued the Vikings, and Tennessee High had no response.
But Hyde, Snapp, Stollings and the rest of the Vikings weren’t about to have Senior Night ruined.
After spending the second and third game looking lost and defeated, Tennessee High heeded Johnson’s fierce words and turned it around.
The Vikings’ comeback was spurred by sophomore outside hitter Mandy Hyde, who rolled off six straight service points in the fourth game, leading Tennessee High from 13-7 down to a 13-all tie.
Erin Hyde led the Vikings with a game-high 11 kills and 11 blocks, while Stollings (19 assists, nine digs), Brooke Hatcher (12 assists, nine digs) and Mandy Hyde (11 service points, 11 digs) all had big nights for Tennessee High.
Jones led the Cougars with 10 kills and nine service aces, while Holly English contributed 10 kills, Emily Boggs had six kills and Charli Caulkins had 18 assists.
