St. Frances Academy story

[Tnphil]

savannahfan said
Haaaaaaa a home body!!! There are still a few of us around!! Say do you agree with me when I speak about "exposure" of our rural west Tn areas as referring to players and their ability?


Back in day about all the coverage we had were the local small town weekly newspapers that reached a 25 mile radius....lol.. unless we were playing a Memphis or Nashville area school. We'd put 16mm film on a Greyhound bus and send them to universities that were interested in this or that player. Things have really changed since back in those days.

 

[flatiron]

Whitehaven is the new Melrose of the 90’s.

I played against one of those late-‘90s Melrose teams in the Clinic Bowl. They had the No. 1 defensive player in the nation that year, as well as Mondre Dickerson (who I had to line up against). They were loaded. We only lost by 1 though.

 

[901 Orange]

Yeah, Whitehaven has been consistently solid since around 2000.

I graduated in 93 and they weren’t as relevant then, but always had a few big time players. Curtis Alexander being one of them.

I agree with everything u said. Melrose was a mini dynasty in the 90's. U always had to respect the Haven but it feels like Coach Saulsbury took them to another level. East and Melrose got alot of work to do. I remember being at the fairgrounds for Melrose vs Whitehaven or Melrose vs East. It was always standing room only.

 

[Tnphil]

I was on the football staff at Humboldt and we played Melrose at Humboldt in the quarter finals of the state playoffs in the mid 90's.....Melrose had 6-7 charter buses of fans roll in to town, not to mention all their fans that drove. It was a packed house plus 4-5 deep standing around the track. We were 12-1 at the time and Melrose was undefeated and ranked No.1 in the state.

Cedric Wilson who was a Jr. that year was the QB....they had Lott and D1 talent out the backside. They ran the Tim Thompson wide open air raid offense which we didn't see much in rural West Tn. at that time. We kicked off to them to start the game and if IIRC they scored a TD within 6-7 plays....we thought it might be a long night. We ran the solid I offense and we pulled and trapped them into the next week all night long....Melrose wasn't use to seeing our style of offense either. They never figured out how to stop us. We played ball control smash mouth football and wound up beating them something like 35-21. The next year IIRC Melrose won the state championship.

 

[flatiron]

I agree with everything u said. Melrose was a mini dynasty in the 90's. U always had to respect the Haven but it feels like Coach Saulsbury took them to another level. East and Melrose got alot of work to do. I remember being at the fairgrounds for Melrose vs Whitehaven or Melrose vs East. It was always standing room only.

Melrose brought a crowd back then. The attendance when we played them in the 98 clinic bowl was 10,500, which was impressive for a couple of 3A teams.

 

[901 Orange]

Melrose brought a crowd back then. The attendance when we played them in the 98 clinic bowl was 10,500, which was impressive for a couple of 3A teams.

Lol thats still impressive today for a high school game attendence. We played at Melrose in 05'. That was their last really good team with Craig Cooper, Courtney Madison, Monte Wilson, Kenyatta Fullilove etc. It was standing room only. Im sure u have been to the Mound for a game so u know what i mean when i say people outside the stadium were sitting on the top of their houses it was crazy.

 

[Rasputin_Vol]

High school coaching in the state of Tennessee was atrocious for decades. I know everybody thinks their hs scool coach was one of the greatest and I won't argue with you if you sincerely believe that. Most were very good men but mediocre at best when it came to actual coaching. Up until one guy came along and changed the way it worked in the state did we see programs improving their coaching to keep up with him. Most large schools did well year in and year out due to their numbers. Private schools did well because they cherry picked, you can go back fifty years and see where Father Ryan and MBA were powerhouses for example. However not until Carlton Flatt put the entire thing together at Brentwood Academy did we see coaching begin to improve across the state IMO. It was not uncommon when he started for his competitors to hand out 2 or 3 sheets of mimeographed play sheets for the entire offense for a season to be on them. Carlton worked hard to find the best players, brought in great staff, and coached his disciplined teams to play at levels not seen before in high school. His WRs were running routes and most defenses had no clue what to call them or what they were, lot's of "What was that?" was heard in opposing stands for years. Lots of complex for high school then OL play, defensive play was always outstanding, QBs throwing on time and rhythm to a spot where no one was to suddenly a WR was under the ball to catch it. Flatt was running college level offenses and defenses routinely at the high school level before most others were. Hence he was putting a lot of kids into SEC schools routinely as well. hat made people take notice. I don't know Coach Flatt, hated him as a competitor to schools I supported back in the day. That said looking back on it, he moved the needle a long way on the level of coaching in the entire state and what it takes to win as coach as well. I'd like to thank him for that.

Interesting plot twist. I was reading this and halfway expecting you to be talking about either Gary Rankin or to a lesser extent George Quarrels as being the ones that pushed the coaching talent up.