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What alot of people have been waiting for. Trey seems to hit all the points we have all brought up in the past.

http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/default....L&ID=56596

R
And interestingly enough from also in todays paper and by Trey..

http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/default....L&ID=56595

Running these two articles side by side. Hmm something doesn't mesh.

R
You beat me to this by a minute-


ETSU athletics - Men?s soccer helps ETSU football fans see more red

By Trey Williams

East Tennessee State?s football faithful are sure to get a kick out of this: killing football ultimately led to ETSU adding men?s soccer.
Call it Title IX.9, which is how many men?s soccer scholarships ETSU will have by 2009. It was a requirement for joining the Atlantic Sun Conference.

Eliminating football after the 2003 season was billed as facing a fiscal reality which would soon come into focus at other schools. Indeed, ETSU has been ahead of the curve, it?s just that the curve?s going the other direction.

In recent years, some 15 schools have added or are considering adding football. Old Dominion, which hasn?t played since 1940, is looking at it. Coastal Carolina and Southeast Louisana have added it. Austin Peay returned to scholarship football since ETSU?s decision.

Brevard is adding football. Campbell is adding football and A-Sun neighbor Kennesaw State is considering it.


Lamar athletic director Billy Tubbs? chief objective appears to be raising money for football?s return.

When small private schools are adding football, it can?t be a foolproof financial drain. And these patterns seem to coincide with ETSU offering in-state tuition rates for out-of-state students in the immediate area beginning next fall.

Maybe former ETSU athletic directors Keener Fry, Frank Pergolizzi and Todd Stansbury were on to something when they feared paying the price of not having football more than the cost of keeping it.

Many ETSU alumni believe the football decision was more a matter of aesthetics or politics than economics. It certainly doesn?t look like a fountain of black ink at this point.

The added travel costs of life in the Atlantic Sun and a men?s soccer program must come close to washing the deficit football ran. Factor in basketball?s recruiting disadvantages in the A-Sun ? it was near the bottom in the RPI this year and has been called the gateway to Division I ? and the move is looking less and less like a gutsy step toward the future.

Longtime donors, including some heavy hitters, have said they were never alerted to football?s potential demise. Not that you can blame the folks in ETSU?s non-revenue sports for not giving them a heads-up.


Those sports have all involved shoestring budgets since at least the mid-?90s. One guy joked that former ETSU baseball coach Ken Campbell left the Pittsburgh Pirates for the New York Yankees when he left the Bucs? dugout for Walters State?s.

ETSU?s non-revenue sports are all now better funded, and ETSU?s spending more for fewer student-athletes. That was part of the strategy for eliminating football.

Heck, these days ETSU appears to have a bias toward sports that don?t sell tickets. After ETSU blew a double-digit lead to lose in the first round of the A-Sun men?s basketball tourney on its home court, one man quipped that ETSU planned to kill men?s basketball and give golf coach Fred Warren a six-figure raise.

Not to make light of the passion of all sports? athletes and coaches. Former ETSU soccer player Kristin Redfern talked Saturday about the practice field her and her teammates used to nurture, which has been buried beneath the progress of the new soccer facility.

?I?m a little sad to see that the old practice field is gone because there was a very long summer many of us spent rebuilding that field,? said Redfern, who played at ETSU from 1998-2001. ?We tore up the grass, we took rocks off the field and reseeded the field. We were mowing it, we installed a sprinkler system and we had the parents of the players out there. All of the players were out there putting the labor in.?

Redfern was speaking to a gathering there for an annoucement about the men?s soccer program and/or the women?s alumni game. You couldn?t help but realize that the tent she was standing under and the chairs of her audience were piercing the soggy turf of the old football practice fields.

Granted, from a bottom-line perspective, there was a strong case to end ETSU football. Few fans showed up for its 1996 playoff game and it was tethered to that dreary dome.

But that was assuming ETSU could stay in the Southern Conference (it didn?t help its cause with the sloppy way it broke the news) or maybe climb into a better basketball league like the Sun Belt, as former A-Sun member Troy did last year and A-Sun member Florida Atlantic is doing this year. But you can?t climb into leagues without football.

Longtime ETSU trainer Jerry Robertson intends on returning football and the marching band. He has some deep pockets lined up to meet with ETSU President Paul Stanton in early June, and Robertson believes he can get a stadium built in the Tri-Cites.

He could see the stadium going in near the airport or maybe the Gray fairgrounds. It definitely won?t go on campus, unless they expand the soccer stadium?s seating.
You beat me to it.

I agree with all of the points he made.

You take a comparison to this piece and to Avento's columns . . . well . . .

I am proud to call this guy my friend!
This just in!!! Reports are surfacing all over the Tri-Cities that a sports reporter in this area GREW TESTICLES!!!! Great job Trey!
Here is a news clip from the Kingsport Times on April 8. At least things are better at my alma mater. See you at graduation on May 6, young son finally takes the walk !!!

Date Published: April 8, 2006
UVa-Wise organizing school's first-ever marching band
Author: STEPHEN IGO
WISE - Strike up the band!</p> <p>The University of Virginia's College at Wise certainly is. Drum roll, please: The Marching Highland Cavaliers will step smartly into college lore as well as onto the field during the football season's first home game this fall.</p> <p>"We've been tossing around the idea for a marching band for a couple of years now. We just thought that the time was right to proceed with it. We are offering it as a class. We have the interest, and just think it will be a boon and add to the college experience, and to the life of the college," UVa-Wise band director and instructor of music Rick Galyean said Friday.</p> <p>Friday was also audition day for incoming freshmen, taking advantage of frosh orientation programs taking place this past week. </p> <p>Auditions for upperclassmen are scheduled for April 29 and May 13, and students who can't make those dates can contact Galyean and arrange individual auditions as well.</p> <p>"We ask them to do some basic scales, sight-read music a bit, but most have high school marching band experience," he said. "We're shooting for a goal of 40 (band members) our first year with an anticipated goal of about 100 in three years. Of course, just because we put a goal of 40 for our first year doesn't mean we won't have more than that."</p> <p>The college has already designed and ordered 45 uniforms, and they should be delivered "pretty soon," Galyean said.</p> <p> "Ours will be a marching band show probably based on the corps style. We're very excited about this, and we're hoping to see it grow, and in our second 50 years (since the college was originally established as Clinch Valley College) I just think it's a wonderful thing to happen," he said.</p> <p>A native of Galax, Galyean has been at UVa-Wise for four years. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in music education at Radford University, got his first career start as the band director at Pennington Gap High School in Lee County for one year, then spent the next 18 years at his alma mater, Galax High School.</p> <p>For many years the college has offered a minor in music, "and we're working to get a music major coming down the road," Galyean said. </p> <p>The college has long had a concert band, wind ensemble unit, pep band, jazz band and full choral program, he said, "and a marching band is just going to add to that. We're just very excited, and this will certainly add excitement to our football games and local parades and things of that nature."</p> <p></p>
So Sinch Valley has a band... But hey, we have a men's soccer team. After reading the Bristol version of the story and hearing some of Stanton's quotes, I firmly believe that man is COMPLETELY OUT OF TOUCH with anything that closely resembles reality.
Here's my take.

I'm convinced there is a three-headed monster here. Here's what it consists of-

A- A pointy-headed culture that views football as the sort of "gutter, savage ballet."

It seems so corny to put it that way, but it's often been said with their Volvos and tweed and pipes college presidents aren't real people.

Football is the everyman's sport. At a place like ETSU, which is making headlines nationally lately with that Encyclopedia on Appalachian Culture, you'd think that it would fit perfectly.

But to a pointy-headed, "try-to-inject-the-left-wing-on-the-rubes-in- Johnson City-who-don't-know-any-better" crowd, culturally it is not a fit.

Basketball is with its cultures.

Tennis is with its, as is the "international" game of soccer.

Baseball I think is headed that way. There's always been a cultural war in baseball between the sort of fans who go nuts on statistical analysis and those who appriciate good ol' fashioned country hardball.

Lately- and really I think since the Pete Rose scandal (Rose being the epitome of the good ol' fashioned country hardball culture)- that pointy-headed stats geek culture has taken over baseball. The majors now play the statistical "Earl Weaver, wait for the 3-run Homer" game that really is boring over the "play to manufacture every run" style that, say, the St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals used to play.

So baseball does have a place in a left-wing university's culture, but football does not.

This leads us to

B- The whiny "we here in golf/tennis/soccer/tiddlywinks NEVER get the attention football does!"

It's heard at every school with a football program. And it's true. You can probably name the third-string quarterback for the Big Orange but the third best track star at UT-K is not coming to mind right now.

However, it could also be argued you wouldn't give a rat's @ss ABOUT the track team if the football team didn't lure you into the culture of UT athletics.

Still, you hand the keys to the athletic dept. to a tennis coach, and don't expect him to pour attention and money into non-revenue sports at the expense of revenue ones.

C- A bad sports town. When there's apathy, you can get away with anything.

One of the reasons Pittsburgh has never lost a sports franchise worth saving (I'm not counting the USFL Maulers or the 1920s NHL Pittsburgh Pirates franchise or the Tampa Bay Storm, who started as the Pittsburgh Gladiators in the Arena Football League- I'm sticking to legitimate NHL, NFL and MLB franchises here) is because it is a good sports town. We care.

So while, let's say, the Pirates may not have drawn much in 1985 when they were in last place, consider that we did care enough to want our civic leaders to rise to the occassion and save them.

And they did. Same, really, with Cleveland (even when the Browns left- they made damn well sure another franchise was secured).

But Johnson City has never really cared about the Bucs. They never have embraced them over the Vols the way, say, so many Pitt fans embrace the Panthers over Penn State.

The best thing that can happen to this fund-raising effort is for it to be a total failure.

Don't buy tickets, don't give money, don't buy ETSU gear in the stores.

Only when their $100 million fundraising effort results in "does anyone have change for a button?" will heads roll and football come back.
Whose fault is it that fans embrace UT over ETSU? WINNING makes the difference. Don't fault Tennessee for winning games, garnering alumni support and building a solid fan base of people in Knoxville and the surrounding region.
The B thing is right on, but that's at every school. It's ETSU's fault that they appointed one of the non-revenue sport coaches as their A.D. Put in a tennis coach with an inferiority complex to the football program as the A.D. and of course it'll happen.
I just find it funny STILL how Trey pointed out all the schools that are starting football up. I just wish he had mentioned King College's desire.
Tennessee just went 5-6 in football, their basketball team is consistently mediocore, and nobody gives a darn about chick hoops.

What winning are you speaking of?
Women's basketball had 10 nationally televised games this year, averaged almost 16 thousand a game. Women's basketball at Tennessee makes money. ETSU averaged about 16 fans a game.
Men's basketball went from a fifteen win team to a 20 win plus season, averaging over 20 thouand fans a game and garnered season sweeps in the regular season over the NIT and the NATIONAL champion.
Last season baseball went to the college world series. Fannies in the seats with regional games on TV on a WEEKLY basis on CSS, granted they're AWFUL this year, but their season was made with a sweep of LSU.
Softball was also in their college world series, a non-revenue sport that garnered national attention and coverage on ESPN.
Which brings us to the 5-6 football team. When Alabama went 3-8 they were STILL being talked about, and STILL AVERAGED SELL OUTS at home games. Now granted it's hard to fill to a 102,544 seat stadium, even when you're winning, but UT fans were still coming out, still watching even though they knew how bad that team was. It had been since the 88 campaign when UT started 0-6 and finished 5-6 that they last had a losing season in football. For ETSU football fans, how many years was in between playoff appearances? Tennessee had one of the longest bowl streaks in the country, with three conference titles, a national title, and several major wins over programs like Michigan, Notre Dame, LSU, Florida... Not to mention a 9 year winning streak against Georgia, something that had NEVER been done before, and a 9 year against Alabama, again something that had NEVER been done.
But no, they're not winning... They just kept the Miami Hurricanes out of their own endzone at the Orange Bowl in a game that Tennessee was a 21 point underdog. The last time that happened was 1982.
So to say that Tennessee hasn't been winning after one bad football season, would be like saying ETSU is the Ga. Southern, Appalachian State, and Montana of I-AA football.
I hate to poor mouth ETSU here, but UT has done everything right in athletics, constantly renovating and building new facilities, making sure that the coaches, Athletic director, and other staff members are constantly in contact with alumni and students garnering support. Right now the Big Orange Caravan is going on, where coaches go out and speak to the donors. Yea it's a dog and pony show, but a pat on the back from Fulmer saying thank you for your support can open that checkbook up even more. ETSU has done NOTHING like this, hell, they don't even have their "master plan" on the website, with a downloadable application complete with contact info so you can DONATE MONEY TO GET IT DONE! Appalachian State has theirs online. UTK has theirs up... Fact is this university does a SORRY ASS job when it comes to soliciting donations, unless it serves the self-interests of Paul Stanton, Dave Mullins and Fred Warren. Those three morons could careless about the university, or the students enrolled in it. As long as Fred can have golf facility and bring the sorostitutes up for parties, Dave can have tennis matches and fondle himself over a spectacular volley, and Stanton can get more medical stuff in the college, they are happy. Meanwhile they are draining any hope of future donations from the alums of other majors on campus from ever happening, especially with so many alums coming from the Knoxville area.
I don't see why they don't understand, MTSU does, Belmont and Lipscomb get it, Austin Peay and UT-C get it, Memphis got it and I'm willing to bet money as soon as Arkansas leaves the SEC Memphis is in, they got it. So why not ETSU?
I'm not about to go through that one-sided rant championing the tiddlywinks and lacrosse teams at UT.

But the facts remain-

UT had a losing record in football and were, at best, the second best team in the state behind Vanderbilt in 2005.

Their basketball team historically has been mediocore

And despite their success in women's basketball- you yourself proved how that sport just isn't in the nation's eye when you earlier tried to make Penn State out to be less than a women's basketball power.

Hey, I love sports like college baseball and "Frozen Four" hockey. But their fan base is minimal. People aren't UT fans because of college baseball or the Ice Vols.
Tell that 40 thousand plus that attend LSU home games...
PittsburghBucs Wrote:Tennessee just went 5-6 in football, their basketball team is consistently mediocore, and nobody gives a darn about chick hoops.

What winning are you speaking of?

You asked a question and he gave you the answer then you decide you don't want to hear it. Truth is UT does win in sports, all across the spectrum, men and women, they put the time, effort and money to win and when they don't win they do something about it.

R
5-6 in football.

Consistent mediocrity in basketball.

You turning your head to these facts do not make them go away.
You're comparing history in basketball to ONE BAD YEAR IN FOOTBALL. Fact is Tennessee STILL SOLD all their season football tickets this year, with a 12 dollar increase on major home games (UF, Bama, Cal, LSU).
Historically Tennessee is competitive in football, and bottom line is THEY HAVE A FOOTBALL TEAM THAT AVERAGES 100 THOUSAND PLUS per game, ETSU when it had football averaged less than 10 thousand, and didn't draw crap when it came to actual donations to the scholarship fund.
By the way, how's high school hockey treating you these days?
PittsburghBucs Wrote:5-6 in football.

Consistent mediocrity in basketball.

You turning your head to these facts do not make them go away.

5-6 1 season. The facts are Tennessee is year and year out consider a Top 10 football team..

As for the basketball team going back over the last 9 years (3 coach's tenures)
Tennessee is 172-103 That averages out to 19-11 per season with 5 NCAA appearances and 1 NIT appearance with 5 20+ wins seasons and 2 losing seasons. Not great numbers but I think ETSU would settle for those numbers.
RodShaw2 Wrote:As for the basketball team going back over the last 9 years (3 coach's tenures)
Tennessee is 172-103 That averages out to 19-11 per season with 5 NCAA appearances and 1 NIT appearance with 5 20+ wins seasons and 2 losing seasons. Not great numbers but I think ETSU would settle for those numbers.

I'm telling everyone....you should fear what Bruce Pearl is building in Knoxville.
The jury is out on him. Jerry Green was heading in the same direction, but ran into issues keeping the team disciplined. He had a recruiting year with Vincent Yarbrough, Tony Harris, and I believe that either CJ Black or Marcus Haislip was in that group that were all phenomenal.
He got fired because he couldn't control them.
And Rod you're right, I think everyone would be happy if ETSU's average record the last ten years was 19-11.
I fear any coach that brings in a successful basketball team, because usually that means bringing in 12 thugs that will go on to fill the prisons of the community following their depature after four years and as many credits in college.
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