High School Football Thread 2012-13

[JonInMiddleGA]

Some nights it seems your team can do no wrong & the other team can do nothing right. We had one of those nights, a 42-7 laugher that just missed a shutout when they got a late TD pass against our freshman team.

Was 42-0 at the half, 321 yds total offense for us, had to be close to some single half school records (if anybody actually kept track of such things).

[MizzouCowboy]

Webb City (MO Class 4A) jumps out to a 48-6 halftime lead over Carthage and cruises to a 67 - 20 win for their 83rd regular season win in a row. Last week they beat Springdale Har-Ber, Class 7A, ranked #4 in Arkansas, 30-15.

Joplin has lost their last 2 games, losing last night to Springfield Hillcrest 33-21.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Today was a big day for HS football in Georgia ... the release of the first-ever "Power Rankings", which will determine playoff teams in Class A under the new split public/private bracket scheme.

They're being computed under contract by MaxPreps, who will provide the absolutely official information every Wednesday.

It took less than a half hour for the first errors to be spotted by fans, took about 90 minutes for the GHSA to pull them down for correction.

So far we've found:
-- a class AA team with a scrimmage erroneously counted as an actual game, that screwed up the SOS component for a class A team
-- schedule discrepancies for at least 3 teams compared to the "OFFICIAL" schedules released by the GHSA. That same team that had their scrimmage counted by MaxPreps is actually shown by the GHSA as having 11 regular season games (the limit is 10), and would have played 12 regular season games if the scrimmage had actually been included too.

Combined with a thorough lack of understanding on the part of the public about how these "ratings" work both in general (they're expressed as an average, not YTD) and in detail (like the point limit on what can be earned vs opponents playing non-region schedules; i.e. not playoff eligible) ... it's all a very predictable clusterfuck.

[Poli]

De Soto MO has been crushed the past two weeks while I've been gone. It won't get better with Festus coming up this week.

At least I will be there.

[JonInMiddleGA]

National #1 Grayson just got stunned by Parkview 22-7. Grayson scored on a big play on their first possession & got nothing else the rest of the night. (edit to add) 4 turnovers and 109 pen. yds killed Grayson.

And this is not the usual powerhouse Parkview team either. They lost to Norcross 20-0 last week and had beaten P'tree Ridge 3-0 in their opener.

Ain't ever easy to play in The Big Orange Jungle.

(Close observers will note the irony of Nkedimche losing to a team that pretty much looks like Clemson from head to toe)

[rjolley]

Man, I missed the Grayson/Parkview game? That sucks. My friend's son, who plays on the team that E Williams plays on, plays OG on Parkview and I wanted to see him go up against Nkedimche.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Saw an interesting comment from the peanut gallery tonight to the effect that "Dabo was at the game to keep an eye on his recruits but they played more like they had their eyes on him"

[BYU 14]

Third straight blowout win for Westview tonight 54-14 over Alhambra. We will be heavily favored in the next 2 as well, then comes a huge game against Brophy.

[Poli]

Desoto MO blown out again, 34-0, at Festus. 20 points came in less than a 2 minute spurt at the end of the first quarter. The kids folded like they were a paper airplane.

Lot of reasons for it, effort being the key.

Davin attended his first game and the word is he would fuss unless he was watching the game. Lots of former parents and players at the game. I always enjoy seeing them. That's also the reason Dav made it.

[cougarfreak]

Conner comes back from a 28-6 deficit to win 35-28. QB barker throws for over 370 yards in the comeback win.

Barker leads Conner past Campbell County | NKY.com | cincinnati.com

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Saw an interesting comment from the peanut gallery tonight to the effect that "Dabo was at the game to keep an eye on his recruits but they played more like they had their eyes on him"

Haha. Thats great. But.

Dabo was not at the game.
RB coach Tony Elliott and DE coach Marion Hobby were in Grayson.

Coach Swinney and OC Chad Morris and DC Bent Venebles had dinner together in Clemson with a local friend on Lake Keowee.

[MizzouCowboy]

Webb City extends their winning streaks to 34 overall and 85 regular season wins with a 48 - 7 win over Republic.

Joplin gets back to .500 with a 29 - 25 win over Rolla. Joplin scored a TD to take a 16 - 13 with under 9 minutes to go, five plays later Rolla is up 25-16. Joplin gets a quick 44 yd TD pass and then go on 9 play, 74 yard drive and get the winning TD with 29 seconds left.

[cartman]

An Oregon high schooler ran for 643 yards and scored 10 TDs in a game last night. Wow!

Aloha's Thomas Tyner scores 10 touchdowns, rushes for 643 yards in 84-63 win over Lakeridge - OregonLive.com

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

Haha. Thats great. But.

Dabo was not at the game.
RB coach Tony Elliott and DE coach Marion Hobby were in Grayson.

Coach Swinney and OC Chad Morris and DC Bent Venebles had dinner together in Clemson with a local friend on Lake Keowee.

Sorry 'bout that.

Us po' folks can only work with what we read from presumably decent sources.

(especially when the first one includes a picture of Sweeney purportedly taken in the parking lot at the game)
Michael Carvell
@RecruitingAJC
Dabo Swinney scouted Nkemdiche & Co. tonight MT
Photo by heys_rowan • Instagram

and

Dabo at Grayson - The Clemson Insider Forums

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Sorry 'bout that.

Us po' folks can only work with what we read from presumably decent sources.

(especially when the first one includes a picture of Sweeney purportedly taken in the parking lot at the game)
Michael Carvell
@RecruitingAJC
Dabo Swinney scouted Nkemdiche & Co. tonight MT
Photo by heys_rowan • Instagram

and

Dabo at Grayson - The Clemson Insider Forums

I hope you know my post was with my tongue stuck out
But that said Robert McRae (tci) is no friend of the program...in fact he is banned from media event s on campus.

[Matthean]

The school I went to has always been historically bad for what has to be about 25 or so years. Maybe about 5 years ago the team got decent and then the coach got hired away. For reasons I'm not sure, it looks like this year's team has forfeited two of its games and been outscored 90-0 in the other two. The town has always been a small farm town around 2K people. I don't think there has ever hardly been 30 kids on a team let alone 22 to fill out both sides of the ball. I remember a number of seasons with 15. Yet, at some point the football stands got upgraded to where it looks like a decent small town football stadium.

[CU Tiger]

Wanted to post up and take my lumps.
Just found out this AM that coach Swinney did in fact change plans late friday and go down to the Grayson game.

The aforementioned dinner plans were in place around 12p on Friday...but something caused a change of plans and Swinney and Hobby made the short ride together while Coach Elliot made a previosuly unplanned trip to see current UGA commit Trammel Terry , but dont read anything into that he is still 100% firm to UGA

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

Wanted to post up and take my lumps.
Just found out this AM that coach Swinney did in fact change plans late friday and go down to the Grayson game.

I kinda figured the pic confirmed him (not figuring anybody was bored enough to forge that pic on that AJC forum), but I appreciate you following up.

And, just FTR, I wasn't ticked or nothing. I was just providing my sourcing (so it didn't look like something I totally pulled out of my own arse or anything).

[JonInMiddleGA]

If the GHSA were a TV show the phrase "Hilarity ensues when ..." would be their hallmark.

Long story short, the GHSA Executive Committee voted Sunday to change the new power rating formula that determines Class A playoff teams DURING THE SEASON.

Note to GHSA: you are not "correcting erroneous information" when you change something that you approved 5 months ago (and that teams used when making out their schedules), you're just changing the playing field yet again. But I guess that doesn't sound so good.

So far I've found 19 (of 72) teams in the classification that are affected by the sudden change, which involves removing games against opponents that are playing non-region schedules. (this is something new/struggling programs do frequently, in order to avoid 0-10 seasons with losses of 50-70 points every week).

[JonInMiddleGA]

So for us the week brings a new challenge: how to stop an ESPN 150 prospect. Athens Academy (2-0) hosts Our Lady of Mercy (3-0). OLM feature lots of motion, lots of bodies in & out, but none of those bodies is more dangerous than Rashard Fant. The RB/WR currently has offers from: Utah, Kentucky, Florida State, Ole Miss, Georgia State, Middle Tennessee State, Western Kentucky and Penn.

You can watch live tonight, pre-game at 715p, kick off at 730p
Spartans Webcast
------
At the risk of sending viewers away from my own child, there's also a dozen games or so available at ghsa.tv, including Tucker at Dunwoody, Marist at St.Pius, Woodward at Westminster, and Lassiter at Cherokee. There's also live webcast of SD's alma mater Brookstone as they travel to Wesleyan.
----
Lot of other good games going on as well, but hey, I've probably run on long enough here

[JonInMiddleGA]

Best HS football game I've seen in at least two years.

Athens Academy beats Our Lady of Mercy 10-7, thanks to a 73 yd TD pass with 5 mins to play. Or more specifically, a 10 yard dump off and 63 YAC from Eric Williams who just outran everybody. Somehow our defense held a team averaging 40 ppg coming to nothing ... nada ... zip ... zero. Their only score was a 26 yd pick six.

Amazing game to watch, and an out of the world performance by our defense to control a D1 prospect RB all night ( frankly I think their coaching staff does a better job of controlling him than anybody's defense. Not nearly enough touches for him)

I do NOT want to see OLM again this year, we are way too evenly matched.

[rjolley]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Best HS football game I've seen in at least two years.

Athens Academy beats Our Lady of Mercy 10-7, thanks to a 73 yd TD pass with 5 mins to play. Or more specifically, a 10 yard dump off and 63 YAC from Eric Williams who just outran everybody. Somehow our defense held a team averaging 40 ppg coming to nothing ... nada ... zip ... zero. Their only score was a 26 yd pick six.

Amazing game to watch, and an out of the world performance by our defense to control a D1 prospect RB all night ( frankly I think their coaching staff does a better job of controlling him than anybody's defense. Not nearly enough touches for him)

I do NOT want to see OLM again this year, we are way too evenly matched.

Was going to ask you how Eric was doing when I saw you'd updated tonight. Nice to see him make a big play. The kid has tons of talent and athletic ability and may be able to pick his sport and college, especially if he grows a bit.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by rjolley

Was going to ask you how Eric was doing when I saw you'd updated tonight. Nice to see him make a big play. The kid has tons of talent and athletic ability and may be able to pick his sport and college, especially if he grows a bit.

Heh, I was gonna PM you in a minute to make sure you saw this. One guy missed an ankle & he set sail. Was a beauty of a play by both QB (who never looked at Eric, locked on the RB for a screen & then whipped it almost sidearm to EW about 5 yards inside of the back instead) and receiver. They did everything but catch him, he just wasn't gonna be caught.

[rjolley]

Thanks for thinking of me. I'm a big fan of all of the kids I've been fortunate enough to work with on the basketball court, and quite a few of them play football as well. When basketball season starts up, I'll be at a few AA games as I check out the guys and see if they're putting some of the things we've talked to them about to use in these games.

[cougarfreak]

Good god, Conner can't stop anyone on defense. They lost last night 63-57. Barker made a couple mistakes, and threw 2 pick sixes, but good grief, their D is embarassing.

[Poli]

DeSoto wins their 2nd game of the season last night, 35-14. Windsor took a 14-0 lead with 3 minutes to go in the first half and kicked onside...a move I'll never understand. DeSoto expected and recovered the kick...and promptly scored before the half.

They came out in the second half and scored on the next three drives...and a pick 6 before the end finished the deal.

Always weird playing Windsor as the head coach was the defensive coordinator at DeSoto my first year here.

[BYU 14]

We won over Trevor Browne 63-0 last night. The wins are great, but the level of competition the last three weeks hurts us more than helps. Starters out early and you can get by without perfect execution, which can form bad habits if you let it slide just because you are rolling. We ran for just under 400 yards and pretty much moved at well, with two backs over 100 yards and two more over 70.

Next week St Mary's who can score a little, but is less than stellar on defense. They won 73-38 last night, so at least we can avoid a running clock hopefully.

The big one for us is in two weeks against Brophy

[JonInMiddleGA]

For your Friday night viewing pleasure, here are the game available this week on GHSA Network Video Portal
* Bleckley Co. at Putnam Co. ... Blessed Trinity at Woodward ... Callaway at Jackson, Atl.
* Cartersville at Coahulla Creek ... Drew at Starr's Mill ... Heritage, Con. at Gainesville
* Lakeside, Atl. at Tucker ... Lowndes at Colquitt Co. ... Morrow at Rockdale Co.
* Mt. Vernon at Landmark ... Stephenson at SW DeKalb ... Towers at St. Pius ... Woodstock at Lassiter
Also online Athens Academy at Lakeview Academy

Here's this week's GHSA Associated Press Top 10 for each classification (AAAAAA down through A)
#1's are Camden County, Tucker, Sandy Creek, Peach County, Calhoun, and Eagle's Landing Christian. We (Athens Academy) just missed the poll, top team among those also receiving votes, so we're #11 (yay us)

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

For your Friday night viewing pleasure, here are the game available this week on GHSA Network Video Portal
* Bleckley Co. at Putnam Co. ... Blessed Trinity at Woodward ... Callaway at Jackson, Atl.
* Cartersville at Coahulla Creek ... Drew at Starr's Mill ... Heritage, Con. at Gainesville
* Lakeside, Atl. at Tucker ... Lowndes at Colquitt Co. ... Morrow at Rockdale Co.
* Mt. Vernon at Landmark ... Stephenson at SW DeKalb ... Towers at St. Pius ... Woodstock at Lassiter
Also online Athens Academy at Lakeview Academy

Here's this week's GHSA Associated Press Top 10 for each classification (AAAAAA down through A)
#1's are Camden County, Tucker, Sandy Creek, Peach County, Calhoun, and Eagle's Landing Christian. We (Athens Academy) just missed the poll, top team among those also receiving votes, so we're #11 (yay us)

Tucker-Lakeside is an old and storied rivalry. The two schools are roughly five miles apart, and if coming from LHS to THS, you don't even have to make a single turn. (From THS to LHS you take a fork in the road.) The rivalry has been a joke for the last decade-ish. Lakeside has dropped off considerably since their run to the.state title game in 1997. I just checked, and the last four meetings have an average score of Tucker 53, Lakeside 10. I'm guessing it's being shown online because of a combination of Tucker's D1 prospects, #1 rating, and the name recognition of the rivalry. If you're looking for a competitive game, I might suggest you look elsewhere. Without looking at this year's records, I'd guess that Stephenson-SW DeKalb and Lowndes-Colquitt would be the most entertaining of that list.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

I just checked, and the last four meetings have an average score of Tucker 53, Lakeside 10. I'm guessing it's being shown online because of a combination of Tucker's D1 prospects, #1 rating, and the name recognition of the rivalry. If you're looking for a competitive game, I might suggest you look elsewhere. Without looking at this year's records, I'd guess that Stephenson-SW DeKalb and Lowndes-Colquitt would be the most entertaining of that list.

Eh, it's being shown online because one school or the other is paying $3k a year to the GHSA's streaming partner & they've got a crew to do it. There are now some 75 schools paying PlayOnSports for the opportunity but only somewhere between 12-24 actually do anything substantial with it. But it's certainly provided a rapid expansion of the number of HSFB webcasts statewide, the GHSA.tv participants now significantly outnumber the schools (like us & Pace Academy to name a couple) that do their own thing, and those still (I think) outnumber the games shown live by local TV/Cable.

The quality of the webcasts vary pretty widely - from 4 camera shoots with 3-4 announcers to nothing more than a no-audio feed of a single coach-cam. Scheduling is also kind of erratic, some schools are on every week, others produce only 1 or 2 games a year (and if recent history is any indication then at least 3 or 4 of the games listed above won't actually air a thing)

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Eh, it's being shown online because one school or the other is paying $3k a year to the GHSA's streaming partner & they've got a crew to do it.

Ahhhh....I was thinking this was the old way of doing "GOTW" type broadcasts sometimes. Gotcha. If it's just $3K a year, then I can make a pretty safe guess as to where the money is coming from--actually a former LHS starting QB from the 70s, but whose kids went to Tucker, and he's probably still Tucker's biggest financial booster.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Ahhhh....I was thinking this was the old way of doing "GOTW" type broadcasts sometimes. Gotcha. If it's just $3K a year, then I can make a pretty safe guess as to where the money is coming from--actually a former LHS starting QB from the 70s, but whose kids went to Tucker, and he's probably still Tucker's biggest financial booster.

I looked it up, both school's are shown as ghsa.tv participants as a several (most? all?) of the DeKalb publics. I figure it's Tucker's deal though, since I noticed the Tucker-Dunwoody game listed previously. Wouldn't be surprised if they negotiated a package deal around the county & got quite a few on board that way.

Only reason I know the standard pricing is the annual sales pitch they've made to us for the past couple of years (happily even they admitted privately that there's really nothing they can offer other than the promotional value of their central hub that we don't already have/can't already do). Lots of systems throwing cash away on that deal though -- including Central & Cedar here locally -- paying for it and then doing nothing at all with it.

[JonInMiddleGA]

The local paper sums up most of the highlights for this week.

Athens Academy (4-0) scored its first touchdown on a 25-yard pass from Austin Schulte to Eric Williams midway through the first quarter, and Williams scored again with 8:01 before halftime on a 76-yard punt return. Williams also recorded an interception in the first half. We added another score the 3rd with a 4 yard run by our QB, gave up a TD late and won 21-6. That's the highlights.

The lowlights were quite a few. A 100% completely meaningless game (see up the thread for rule change that means this game counted not one iota in the standings nor the power ratings that determine playoff berths), we lose a DL/LB to a broken leg + broken ankle that I really don't want to describe in any detail. Suffice to say that I'm told the ankle was completely separated from the shin bone. Discovering that the ambulance & crew had left the stadium at halftime was something I've seen happen only a couple of times in my life (so a half hour or more passes before we can get that agonized young man out of there for treatment. And the asshole opponent + idiot refs tried to restart the game with the ambulance still on the field, our stands erupted with enough of a furious roar that the officials realized their mistake & sent the teams off once again.

It's a hell hole of an excuse for a stadium (8 yard end zones) and although I've criss-crossed the for football state several times in my life, it's the only recently constructed "press box" I've come across that was built without a single inch of space intended for the media. Add in some of the rudest, most ignorant, most thoroughly unlikable people I've come across in many years & it's just a miserable experience all the way round.

[JonInMiddleGA]

from the AJC.com (easier to copy/paste theirs than try to rewrite them myself. Just thought some largest classification football was worth a mention, especially with the big name taking the beating.

If anyone thought Camden was ranked No. 1 by default after 2011 champion Grayson was upended by Parkview, the Wildcats showed otherwise Friday, routing Valdosta 43-6. It was Valdosta’s most lopsided in its historic Bazemore-Hyder Stadium since 1974, when Thomasville, led by a pretty good back named William Andrews, defeated the ‘Cats 40-0. This was Camden’s first game in Region 1 after years of dominating weak 3-AAAAA. Make that 87 straight region victories for Camden. AJC Super 11 halfback/cornerback J.J. Green ran the opening kickoff back for the first of his two touchdowns. He also had two interceptions.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

The rivalry has been a joke for the last decade-ish.

And it still is.

Originally Posted by AJC

Tucker 67, Lakeside-DeKalb 7: The Tigers mixed a little pass with a running game by committee approach to cruise past neighbor Lakeside-DeKalb at Adams Stadium. Juwaan Williams and Joe Farrar combined for 115 yards and three passing scores. Chauncey Rivers caught one of Williams’ touchdown throws and added a 20-yard fumble recovery for another score. Even though no Tucker back rushed for more than 100 yards, the team totaled 397 yards on the ground.

[cougarfreak]

Barker had a big game for Conner, going 13 for 18 for 86 yards (they didn't throw down the field all night), and rushing for 140+, as Conner defeated archrival Cooper. South Carolina's OC was in attendance, as they are playing in Lexington tonight.

http://nky.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20120928/SPT0302/309280159/Big-first-half-leads-Conner-past-Cooper?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p

[BYU 14]

Beat St Marys at Homecoming last night 64-20, we made the local highlights show Friday Night Fever.

Our clips starts at 1:51

http://www.azcentral.com/video/1867285864001

[JonInMiddleGA]

AJC rankings for the week came out this afternoon and, as expected, we enter the Class A poll at #8 (I figured we'd be 9 or 10 actually). That comes just in time for us to play at big rival Prince Avenue, currently ranked #2 in the state.

Our last appearance in the top 10 was about this time last season ... just in time to get shutout by Prince Avenue at home (a win that propelled them to a 13-1 season & a trip to the final four).

Did some research at the amazing ghsfha.org site tonight, looks like our last regular season game where both teams were ranked was 2004. Oddly enough, given that it's been 8 years since it happened, that game was the 2nd straight week where it happened (beat #8 Jefferson one week after losing at #6 Lincoln County)

[JonInMiddleGA]

Thought this was a very good idea when it debuted last year, glad they repeated it this year.

Two crosstown rivals, small schools, agree on the same t-shirt design, give the game a name ("The Backyard Brawl") and sell the same shirt. Higher quantity improves the cost of the shirts, coherent message helps promote the game & builds the brand.

Wouldn't work in every case -- I'd never want to work together with my old HS hated rival for example -- but with the right relationship it seems like a winner to me. Shirt design inside spoiler tag.

Spoiler

[JonInMiddleGA]

Oh baby, what a game.

#8 Athens Academy snaps a two-year losing streak to rival and #2 ranked Prince Avenue with a 14-7 win on the road.

I've been following HS football for nearly 40 years (my earliest recollection is from 1973, at age 6) and seriously into it for some 30 years and I don't think that, as a fan, I've ever been prouder of a team than I an tonight.

I believe we used 6 linemen all night, they were blown up by late 2nd quarter but got a break from some bad clock mgmt (and a really ill-advised timeout in the final minute of the half by Prince) and survived a drive with a 7-0 lead. 3rd quarter we're trying but threw a pick at the goaline to miss a big chance, a couple of swapped punts later & they tie it up. 4th quarter was, well, ours. Screw 2nd wind, I think our kids found a third wind. 2 guys limping, another guy downright hobbling, needing to come out & knowing they couldn't. And somehow they got it done.

Our first-year QB audibled like his name was P.Manning all night (don't hold that pick against him, it was a great play by the DB), burned their blitz repeatedly, perfect reads, great progressions. 4 times tonight they came from the right side, 4 times he hits our TE over the middle for 20+. Middle 4th quarter they come from the left for the first time, he finds a senior WR (returning from injury himself) for a 23 yard TD. Defense holds the #1 scoring offense in Class A to three & out, they punt, we punt, and we hold the #1 scoring offense (before tonight anyway) to four and out. Victory formation baby.

Thank God they kept blitzing, he pwnd that shit all night long.

And, much as it feels funny to give it up to a rival, they were the epitomy of class before,during & after the game. Well wishes (and prayers in the invocation) for our player who was hurt last week, a presentation to our retiring headmaster between Q1 & Q2, and I'm told their post-game radio coaches interview was one of the classiest ever. There's a place for rivalries built on respect, this seems to be turning into one of those & that's not a bad thing at all.

[MizzouCowboy]

Webb City runs out to a 48-0 halftime lead and cruises to a 55-0 win over Neosho, extending their winning streaks to 37 overall and 88 regular season.

Joplin blows a 21 point lead on homecoming and loses to Lebanon 28-24.

[Ben E Lou]

Carter's first high school football game ended up being at my alma mater last night, as the Cougars demolished arch-rival Pacelli 48-14 in front of a standing-room only crowd. At 8:47pm, when most 3-year-olds are asleep or absolutely evil because they're not asleep, my baby girl was dancing at halftime:

Dropbox - 2012-10-05 20.47.12.mov - Simplify your life

Also, an interesting (at least to me) post mortem on a comment I made a while back, too.

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Since the mid-80s, BHS has been unapologetic and aggressive about attempting to raid the public school system for its best black students and student-athlete types, and of course over time more black people of financial means have emerged who might just send their kids there anyway. Judging from the prom pictures of their kids and kids' friends that some friends have posted on FB, the school appears to have a significantly larger black population than it did when I was there. However, with tuition approaching $15K per year, I'm guessing that they're not getting the same black demographic that traditionally goes to CHS.

So, even in light of having said this and having seen the aforementioned prom pictures, I was still quite surprised yesterday morning when I took Carter by the school to purchase some spirit wear for her and at the game last night to see in person the number of black people associated with Brookstone now. When I got back to my brother's house (a long-time teacher in the public schools in Columbus,) I commented on it. He laughed and said, "Oh yeah. If you black and got a 3.5 in Middle School, you gettin' a letter from Brookstone! And if you are a doctor or lawyer or live in a neighborhood like this {he lives in an upper middle class neighborhood near Brookstone,} they campin' out in your front yard!" It's an odd dichotomy that I found there when I was in high school, and evidently still exists today. It's a very traditional, conservative, Southern, upper-class environment in virtually every way, but for whatever reason, they go above and beyond when it comes to race. I still chuckle at the fact that we were the first school to win the local televised Academic Bowl competition with a majority-black team, and one of the first to field a majority-black team.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

It's a very traditional, conservative, Southern, upper-class environment in virtually every way, but for whatever reason, they go above and beyond when it comes to race.

A concentrated effort to avoid the segregation academy label perhaps? I know that sounds kinda cynical of me but let's just say I'm familiar with situations where image is a major motivation for a number of things.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Another Friday night, another week of HS football.

For us, it's fun to see Athens Academy (5-0) sitting atop the power ratings that will determine playoff teams and seeding. I'm pretty sure we're not the best team in Class A, but it's nice to at least be in the mix. AJC bumped us up to #6, AP poll has us at #4. Next week it's back home vs a wounded Commerce (4-2) that has suddenly lost two in a row after being shocked by also-ran Athens Christian last Friday. And it two weeks it's a potentially region championship determining Homecoming clash against #5 George Walton (5-1) ... but first we have to take care of business tonight against Pinecrest Academy (3-1) on the road. Can't sleep on a team that has avg 40+ ppg in wins over three bad teams but we should be able to handle this one IF we keep our ego in check. (Maxwell Ratings have us as a 30 point favorite) You can watch the game (and listen to my kid on at least part of the commentary) at https://sites.google.com/a/athensaca...cademywebcast/

Last night kicked off the week with a good game between the #2 (power) ranked private school hosting the #2 (power) ranked public school. Lincoln County beat Aquinas 20-13 with a TD pass in the final minute. The Lincoln's 32nd consecutive win over Aquinas, which lost by fewer than 20 points in this series for the first time since 1987.

Controversy seems to be the word for the week though.

1) At least one arrest has now been made after a brawl involving between 150-200 students after last week's Collins Hill-Peachtree Ridge game.
Gwinnett student faces charges in brawl | www.wsbradio.com

2) A combined 12 players were ejected after an end zone skirmish in last week's 37-0 win by Clarke Central over Salem. Pending review, that leaves Central without their starting QB for tonight's critical region 8-AAAAA matchup against Heritage. The problem is compounded by a broken ankle suffered this week by Central's leading rusher

3) The GHSA is investigating the skirmish that took place after last week's Northview-Cambridge game, which was shut down with 21 seconds left with the agreement of both teams. Four Cambridge players and three Northview players were ejected and face automatic sit-out penalties of at least one game.

4) Michael Pollock is officially out as head coach of Americus-Sumter. The Sumter County Board of Education voted 4-1-2 this week to terminate his contract rather than put him on unpaid suspension. Pollock was suspended beginning with the Sept. 14 game for a practice incident in which he reportedly kicked a player in the behind. Offensive coordinator Chris Wade is the team's interim coach. Americus-Sumter is 4-1 overall, 3-0 since Pollock's suspension. Pollock had led Americus-Sumter to its only winning seasons the past two years (7-5 and 6-5). The school opened in 2004 as the merger of Americus and Sumter high schools.

5) The GHSA has cleared Lowndes County of any wrongdoing in an alleged sign-stealing incident against Colquitt County earlier this year. The #3 Vikings beat Colquitt 17-14 but were accused of having a former Colquitt ass't watching the sidelines with binoculars & relaying the signs to the press box during the game. The charges were pushed (pretty hard) by Colquitt head coach Russ Probst, who you may remember as the former head coach at Hoover HS (AL) when they were featured on the cable series Two A Days. He resigned from Hoover amidst a grade changing scandal that led to Hoover forfeiting four wins and the admission of an extramarital affair (and accusations of at least two other affairs involving co-workers).
http://moultrieobserver.com/sports/x...clears-Lowndes

Games being streamed at ghsa.tv tonight include Class 5A #2 Tucker at #4 Stephenson, Clarke Central at Heritage, Class A #3 Calvary Day at #9 Savannah Christian and nearly a dozen more.

[JonInMiddleGA]

We win 27-7. Fun to watch one with my family for a change, one of the smallest press boxes I've ever seen didn't even have room for our whole webcast crew nor even the camera, much less any adults to supervise them. As it turned out my parents made the short trip over for the road game about a half hour from where I grew up, so I spent the night as a fan. Nothing fancy about the win, 3 rushing TD's & 117 yards from our RB, an 87 yd TD pass was the big play moment of the night. Pinecrest isn't terrible, their QB (son of former Pittsburgh Steeler/Georgia Tech QB Rick Strom) is decent & their undersized young LB's try awfully hard but they lack the size or depth to really be successful right now.

Next week it's long-time rival Commerce, who come to us as wounded Tigers, having lost back to back games after a 4-0 start. They got dominated tonight (just 67 yards total offense) by the same team we beat last week, who recovered with a 30-0 win.

Even more exciting perhaps was the win by my alma mater. Pickens beats Cedartown 54-35 on the road in one of the wackier sounding games I've heard of in a while. They featured the state's leading rusher, Nick Chubb, who ran for 260 yards on 11 carries with four touchdowns in the first half, then had 12 carries for 57 yards on the Bulldogs opening possession of the third quarter with Cedartown ahead 28-27. But after the Bulldogs failed to convert a fourth-and-10 at Pickens 22 yard line with 5:30 minutes left in the third, Chubb never had another rushing attempt in the game.

Meanwhile we ran the next 36 offensive plays of the game.
16 play TD drive for Pickens makes it 34-28 us with 1:06 left in Q3
99 yd KOR TD for Cedartown makes it 35-34 them
13 play TD drive for Pickens 40-35 us
Onside kick recovered
7 play TD drive for Pickens 47-35 us
They fail to convert on 4th & 30, giving us the ball at their 5
3 play TD drive ends the scoring at 54-35
Here's the full write up with quite a few outstanding performances
PrepCentralOnline - Sports News, Events, Scores and Videos - Football Pickens runs 80 plays beats Cedartown 54 35

Lowndes beat Valdosta 17-14 in the Winnersville Classic.
Stephenson upset Tucker 13-6

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

A concentrated effort to avoid the segregation academy label perhaps? I know that sounds kinda cynical of me but let's just say I'm familiar with situations where image is a major motivation for a number of things.

There is zero question that Brookstone was founded as a segregation y own story of going there is pretty straightforward: I won the state math competition in 7th grade, and an article appeared in the Ledger-Enquirer with my picture, and the article did the typical smallish town newspaper thing, something along the lines of: "Ben is the son of Robert and Esther Lewis and attends St. Thomas Episcopal Church. Mr. Lewis is a retired army officer and works for the US Postal Service, and Mrs. Lewis is a homemaker." Within two weeks, we were bombarded. It's as if Brookstone's recruitment coordinator saw the picture of a black kid winning the state and immediately called a special board meeting where they sat around the table and said "Anyone know his parents? Who do we know at St. Thomas? Who do we know at the Post Office?" In all seriousness, in those next 2-3 weeks, different people approached us at church, my dad's work, and even my freakin' orthodontist (who, it turned out, was on the Board Of Directors,) at my next appointment after the article appeared, asked my mother and me if we'd considered Brookstone. Columbus does have an evangelical subset that's sorta puritan-like in its opposition to bigotry and whatnot (that group got together and threw Jen and me a big ol' expensive wedding party, and successfully boycotted the country club over some bigotry-related issues.) But I never got the impression that they had any particular power at Brookstone. I guess I could be wrong about that and that same group's influence is behind it. (While Columbus is more medium-sized in population, it still operates like a small town, and the people I'm talking about probably represent 15-30% of the country club's membership. )

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Stephenson upset Tucker 13-6

Not a HUGE upset here. Stephenson was ranked #4, and Tucker #1. By all accounts, either team is capable of winning if there's a rematch. Tucker, I'm told, made too many mistakes.

In the "GOODNESS, I'm feeling old!" department, I overlooked who was named Head Coach at the T-U-C when the last coach departed for greener pastures. Bryan Lamar played for Tucker when I started doing YL there, and now he's Head Coach. The last several coaches have left for better high school jobs, which, given Tucker's level of success over the last couple of decades, may sound weird to outsiders. Marist, Tucker's arch-rival, has had one Head Coach since I started doing YL there 15ish years ago. Tucker, which has had very similar success over that time frame, has had six. The reality is that DeKalb County's administration is not terribly friendly to big-time football, and several places quite nearby in metro Atlanta are, so there's a lot more money and a lot more perks to be had by using Tucker as a proving ground, then moving on. I'm guessing that part of Bryan's appeal is that Tucker is home, making him more likely to stay longer.

But it still makes me feel crazy old.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

There is zero question that Brookstone was founded as a segregation y own story of going there is pretty straightforward...

Although more for the benefit of others than for yourself, I'll point out that I said "avoid ... the label" not that it was. Nearly every private school in Georgia seem to get that accusation at some point, regardless of when they were founded or why.

[Ben E Lou]

GRacious, there was some deleted stuff there that I missed. It should have read something like:

There is zero question that Brookstone was founded as a segregation academy in the 50s. But for whatever reason, from the mid-80s up to today, they have aggressively pursued black kids. My own story of going there is pretty straightforward:

[JonInMiddleGA]

It's softball, not football, but the first implementation of the new "power rating" system for playoffs didn't go too well. The 16th seed thought it was 21st, hadn't practiced in two weeks ... before getting blown out twice by the #1 seed. That #1 was also messed up, with a p.r. of 14 that was finally corrected to 18. Softball problems stemmed from an exceptionally large number of games where the results were simply never reported at all.

Similar errors of that size could absolutely destroy the football brackets.
Current Private #1 is 15.51, #8 is 12.90, #16 is 10.65, 29/last is 5.87
Current Public #1 is 14.73, #8 is 13.48, #16 is 11.66, 38/last is 5.90

Football formula really isn't that hard:
Power Points = Win 10/Loss 0 + 2 bonus pts for higher class opp + OppWinPct X 10
Power Rating is then "Total Power Points / Games Played"
So a fictional 5-5 team who played 10 5-5 same size opponents would be a 10.00 (50 p.p. from 5 wins + 50 p.p. from 10x.500 OppWinPct)

The problems at this point -- about a dozen teams that seem to clearly be wrong in the weekly release -- mostly center on the results involving teams playing non-region schedules (i.e. uncompetitive teams that are not playoff eligible because they opted to play a catch-as-can schedule instead of competing in their assigned region). Those results, by rule, do NOT count toward power ratings of their opponents ... except that MaxPreps is still counting some of them, making a helluva mess.


Here's an article that has more detail & a few quotes from the coach of that #1 softball team.
Gordon Lee No. 1 but seedings 'big mess' | timesfreepress.com

[JonInMiddleGA]

Selfless act enables high school player to honor his father
http://www.usatodayhss.com/news/arti...n-selfless-act