Saturday, August 16, 2008

High School Jamboree Report

I arrived at the end of Boyd-Buchanan's 7-0 victory over Baylor (who is quite a bit down this year from what I hear) and left before Ooltewah's 7-0 win over Rhea County. In-between, however, was some good football from Finley Stadium.

* East Ridge beat Soddy-Daisy 3-0 in an ugly exhibition. Soddy's passing offense rarely connected, eventually resulting in a tipped pass interception that set up the game-winning field goal. East Ridge's offensive line avoided contact throughout the evening which cannot be said for the quarterback and tailback behind them.

* McCallie looked extremely impressive in its 14-0 domination of Brainerd. The Blue Tornado picked about the Panthers on the ground and forced a fumble on defense. It looks like Keenon Rush has settled in as McCallie's quarterback, though his ability on the ground exceeds his passing prowess. The key for McCallie, however, might be Joey Skogen who is eligible after transferring from Tennessee Temple last year. He had a touchdown and a big run to set up another one. Brainerd looked sloppy and overwhelmed.

* Walker Valley thoroughly dominated Notre Dame. The Irish look great in their green and gold unis, but they also look small and slow. Walker Valley racked up 20 points in 20 minutes against the Irish. The Mustangs were playing at a completely different speed in this one.

* It is fun to watch the guys on the sidelines during a high school game. They never quite know how to act. When something good happens for their team - a quarterback sack for example - only about three or four will celebrate. The rest are either a) bitter about being on the sideline b) not watching the game at all or c) so terrified about actually being in the game that they are frozen in their fear.

* I'm also amused by how oblivious guys are to what they do on defense. A cornerback will dive onto a falling runner and jump up like he just de-cleated somebody. Buddy, you didn't hit him hard and didn't even make the tackle. Bring it down a little.

* Abby will not wear what I saw high school girls wearing to the jamboree last night. Even on her honeymoon.

* Remember when you never saw passing in high school football? Not anymore - everyone wants to spread it out and run some variation of the spread option. I guess it is more exciting than the old wishbone offense that dominated high school ball back in my day, but some of the quarterbacks last night lack the skills to throw the ball more than occasionally.

* Finley Stadium really is a nice place to watch a game. There was plenty of parking and plenty of seats with backs. I'm looking forward to the October 3rd McCallie/Baylor game there.

The high school football season starts for real next Friday. The football, the rivalries, the cheerleaders, the fight songs, the drunk high school kids who think you can't tell - can't wait.

1 comment:

Maximum Jack said...

Last year, I went to see Red Bank (My alma mater) play Maryville in the State semis. Two things that stood out: How big these guys are compared to when I was in high school, and how much they aired it out. Totally different game these days. Although, my sophomore year we had a great quarterback, Dan "Air" Cordell who could really sling the ball. The rest of the team was not so great, and I think Red bank lost 3 or 4 games and didn't even make the playoffs.

As for the 100m Fly last night, I've watched the replay about 60 times now, and I'm still not convinced Phelps won.