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 Dez Turner breaks up a pass intended for Jacob Carkuff during a drill at Cascade football practice. (T-G Photo by Danny Parker) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo] |
Last season's Champs finished with a record of 10-2, good enough for most wins in school history. They also ventured into uncharted territory by earning a share of the Region 5-A title.
Lineman Nathan Armstrong and kicker/punter MoMo Stewart, both all-state performers leave giant holes to fill. Defensive back/receiver Julian Marable signed with the University of Cumberlands in Kentucky. Running back Nick Batts inked a letter of intent with Lambuth University. Linebacker Ryan Morton is at Tennessee Tech as an invited walk-on.
Quarterback Jacob Carkuff must clock in and lead the team both on and off the field. He will be placing his hands under center for the third straight year as a starter.
Replacing the production of fullback Cory Phillips was made tougher when Blake Harvey decided to give up football and concentrate on baseball earlier this summer. Thus, even more weight falls onto the shoulders of junior tailback Matt Henderson, who's rushed for roughly 1,800 yards on less than 250 carries over this first two seasons.
One more face of significance missing from the practice field is that of defensive coordinator Jeremy Austin, who left to take a coaching job at Dade County High in Trenton, Ga. He also played a pivotal role in offseason conditioning and weightroom training.
Head coach Kenny Parker had a replacement lined up several weeks ago but those plans have since fallen through and Cascade is on the lookout for a football coach.
Either way, the season opens up on Aug. 29 when the Champs head to Lynchburg to face non-region rival Moore County. Don't make the mistake of thinking the Raiders will be sympathetic for any reason whatsoever after losing the last two games by a combined score of 71-7.
Cascade's first home scrimmage is scheduled to take place this Friday versus Fairview at 5:30.
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The Champs should be in pretty good shape again this season. They have a large Junior Class that has been patiently waiting their chance to shine since a very impressive Middle School season a few years ago. As you stated, the loss of Harvey will be the largest hurdle to clear. I was expecting a big year from him.
Looking forward to the new season and the start of school, but I have one question for the "Times".... did you guys forget that there are two other highschools in Bedford Co plus some great junior high teams.
May need to think about stories on all the sports starting up this season. Community and Liberty is in their second season of Junior High Soccer. Cascade girls soccer is on the rise and their junior high program is taking off as well. SCHS has a good group of girls and HMS is trying to repeat a 16-0-2 season.
Jones normally covers Community and Johnson covers most of Shelbyville's High School Sports. At least that is the way it has been in the past. I'm guessing they each will have stories coming for their respective schools in days to come. Be patient.
You guys do a great job covering Bedford Co. sports. Congratulations on your recent awards. Thanks for all you do.
sameoldstory, I have to agree with you on the lack of coverage from the other schools. It appears that Cascade seems to get all of the attention in the sports section of the T-G. Cascade is definately blessed with some great athletes and coaches and they should get their FAIR share of the sports section. Even so, I would like to see coverage of other school teams. Also, what about some sports coverage of travel baseball, softball, and soccer teams? Is this something that the sports department can cover, or do travel teams need to submit their own information to the sports writers?
Thank you OHWELL.... I too notice that Cascade football and baseball gets most of the print. I liked the old days when other sports got coverage. We used to have two or three good pages of all the local sports. Now we seem to get one page of local and then a bunch of AP stories that we have already read in the Tennessean that morning.
I guess that's the price you pay with the TG is owned by an out of town organization that has no ties to this area.
But....it's the start of the season. Cascade, Shelbyville and Unionville have yet to win a game.
Also.... If I recall, during basketball season, you put out a spread about SCHS Girls and then a major section is divoted to Tennessee Girls. Again, The Tennessee has the college teams covered so give it a rest. And usually your college coverage is just an AP story. It's hard work cutting and making a layout for someone else's writing.
No...I'm not an SCHS person that thinks it should be all SCHS all the time. Cascade has one good girls soccer team there. I'm sure those girls love reading stories about the football team and baseball team, when the TG doesn't even bother to get the soccer teams picture in the paper.
Let me start by saying that I graduated from Cascade, and I am buddies with Danny Parker so I am a little biased on this topic, BUT... let's think about it. In the good ole days there were far fewer sports on every level to be covered. Cascade and Central had football, and all high schools had basketball (boys and girls), baseball/softball. Central has always had the secondary sports, but Community and Cascade have only recently added these other sports. By recently I mean in the past 5-10 years.
Also in the good ole days we had Bo Melson, David Melson, and sometimes Troy Harrison covering all of these sports. Now with 3 or four times the teams and sports that include travel teams, middle school teams, fall leagues, youth leagues that are growing, etc. we expect Danny, Jimmy, Gary, and sometimes Chad Tracy to cover it all. By the way, Danny is the only full time employee of the paper, the others have full time jobs if I am not mistaken. The paper needs to get them more help to cover all of these added events.
I have had numerous talks with Danny on how I wish there was more coverage on the youth leagues, and he would like to do more, but he is only allowed so much space and can only cover so many square miles for these games. I also know that if the coaches will call in the results that it would be in the paper. Many times the coach forgets to call or just does not bother. I am sure the AP stories are there to fill some space when other results are not called in. If we want more sports we need to call the owners of the paper and ask them to get more help for Danny and more space for coverage.
KParker,
Well Stated:)
By the way as usual if CASCADE gets too much publicity everyone gets upset HUM wonder why??
Sameoldstory,
There was a write up about the new soccer coach at Community just a few days ago. There are numerous stories about the local soccer teams on line and in the paper. Search soccer on this site and numerous stories pop up from the spring and last fall. I read the comment about Bo on the other story and agree he did a tremendous job, but he had far less to cover when it came to the sports in the county. There was an ad for a new sports writer in the paper the other night so maybe they will get some more help for more coverage.
I think Danny and the whole Sports Dept. do a fantastic job. I also read every Sox article. Keep up the good wok and sameoldstory....WAA WAA WAA! Cry me a stinking river, dont read something your not interested in.
I remember when the Parkers first came to Cascade. You never heard anything about Cascade. I remember the days when central football would get in the paper for how well they did in the post season and cascade would have nothing even though they went farthur. It is a nice change to see them do well and get the acknowlegement of there sucess. The Central's girls basketball has recieved enough exposer over the years for the next decade for the whole school.
Double Exposure..... if "SOX" baseball was as popular as you say, then that would mean that baseball as a whole is popular in Bedford County. It's not...that's why the Babe Ruth league is not as big as it once was. They tried to get fall ball last year and could not get it started for lack of interest. I see they are trying again this year. I really hope they get it off the ground, but that just shows there are other interest out there.
The reason that fall ball is a hard sell is that many of these kids are playing rec league soccer. I'm just saying they need to give equal exposure to all sports.
So you think the T-G sports department should quit covering Sox games because the Babe Ruth league was mismanaged? You are a moron. I have tried to put a fall league together and it never got off the ground because the park said NO. They winterized the fields in JULY and would not let anyone on the fields until the following year. There is plenty of interest and thats why so many go to Murfreesboro. Maybe you should follow my daddys advise... Its better to keep your mouth shut and people think you are an idiot than to open your mouth and remove ALL doubt.
It may be too late to throw in an opinion here, considering the last comment is almost a week old but here it goes.
Cascade deserves any and all recogniton it gets via our local press. Back in my school days, you were lucky to see a Cascade story in the TG pages. Although attending SCHS and being a proud alumni, I can say that Cascade has worked long and hard to get where they are now in athletics. My three younger children now attend Cascade Elementary and I have a Senior @ Cascade High. My Senior has been active in various sports at Cascade, youth to now high school, and I am proud of that fact. My younger children are active in various youth sports and will no doubt join their big brother in playing ball when they reach middle and then high school.
Give Cascade its credit and do not be jealous because they are successful and the "city" teams are not fairing as well and getting the praise they once were. Cascade has worked very hard to build all of its athletic programs to their successful levels and Shelbyville should take note and "get back to basics" and get out of the "good ol' boy" aspects of sports. A coach at Shelbyville does not play "Mr. Banker's" son and utilize him to the father's liking and in an a matter of months has left after being heralded as the "next BIG thing" to hit Shelbyville athletics. A prime example of this is Shelbyville's pride and glory of football past, Whit Taylor, who had what I feel is a successful tenure here and because "Dad" does not appreciate his expertise and wisdom in regards to his son, works harder to get rid of him than he did to recruit him to begin with.
As for the youth baseball programs in Bedford County, yes there are many problems. My own younger son had a terrible experience in the local league playing at the Park Complex and this was in the coach-pitch ranks, a time when it is supposed to be fun to get the boys interested in the game. His experiences in the local league has made him decide to play in an out-of-town league, that appreciates the youth for what they are, the future of sports. Although more difficult on us, his parents, he has come away with a new appreciation for sports.
It has become vey apparent that the youth programs of Bedford County, and not just the city leagues, of each sport has forgotten that these programs are for the youth and not for the glory of the parents and adults running these leagues. These adults should be heralding Little Johnny or Little Sue's feats, not gloating over how they have done this and done that for their own glory and pride not for the childrens' futures in athletics.
Let's put YOUTH back in youth sports!!!