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The five year olds were trying hard to become accustomed to school. Their biggest problem, the teacher insisted on no baby talk. You need to use big people words. She ask what they did over the weekend, how about you John? He said, “I went to visit my Nana. No the teacher said, you visited your grandmother. Use Big Peoples words. She then ask Mitchell, he said, “We took a ride on a choo-choo”. No, you rode on a train. Remember Big Peoples words. She then ask Alan and he said,” I read a book”. Teacher say, that’s great, what did you read? Alan thought very hard about it and finally said, “Winnie the s**t”.

I contacted five state championship coaches one year when volleyball season and asked if I could meet with. I told them I would come to them and pay them for their time, but I just wanted to talk about the game and see what they were doing different than our area. One coach had just won her third in a row. The first thing she said to me was, “Coach…you are only as good as your athletes.” During our conversation the name Ryan Mitchell came up and how good of a job he was doing. She told me he was her assistant and would talk about how terrible some coaches her. She would tell him, “Ryan…that coach could be really good but you are only as good as your players.” He took a job a school and left after two or three years because he was getting his butt kicked. Humbled, he went back to being her assistant for a year or two. He then left and started the volleyball program at Lucas Lovejoy…he won five straight state championships, including moving from 4A to 5A during that five year span. Just an example how most coaches think…we are only as good as our athletes, but it is our job to maximize their talents to the best of their abilities. I also think this debate is probably as pointless as trying to change a Democratic to Republican or Republican to Democrat. You aren’t going to change anyone’s mind on how they feel.

And folks, keep it respectable. We can all agree or disagree and still talk like adults.

Can you think of a time where the SC has reversed its own self? I can’t. That’s an honest question. And do we really want to live in a country where the law of the land changed course 180 degrees every time the balance of power on the SC shifts to one side or the other. People talk about activist courts and I wouldn’t blame an administration from stacking the court to achieve their means if precedent means nothing because of partisan/activist justices. Denying a woman the right to an abortion was deemed unconstitutional in 1973. Nothing has changed since, other than the balance of power on the Supreme Court. The right way to handle the matter is to amend the constitution… not continuing to take bites at the same old apple. It’s crazy how righties blood runs cold when they think of the Supreme Court re-hearing cases on gun control, etc…. But they’re all for it on this issue. Here’s another question… what happens if the SC hears arguments and decides not to overturn Roe v Wade? Are y’all all gonna take your fetus posters home and get on with your life or continue to “fight the good fight” while completely avoiding the correct solution because you know that it’ll never fly?

hey wall. how are you wall ? wall, why wont you talk back wall ? you sure are a rude wall.

The people on the extreme left AND the extreme right both fail to realize that their views aren't guiding the party, they're driving the moderates away. It's the reason that Trump got stomped in 2020 and will also get stomped again if he wins the nomination in 2024. The public literally elected a buffoon and a black woman (because face it... that's the only reason she even got on the ticket) because they hated Trump.... nothing has changed.... they still hate him. Want to lose in 2024? Keep yelling about abortion, building walls ("send 'em back") and any other platform drives the moderates away. It amazes me how the extremists on both sides believe that they can cram their garbage down everybody's throats because THEIR flavor of crazy is "right" and the other guys' is "wrong." We've literally got rampant inflation, a possible global conflict, supply chain issues, the ongoing pandemic, a crime wave, and all Republicans want to talk about is stripping a young woman's right to an abortion. Makes perfect sense. But the babies!! Face it.... nobody cares about those unborn children. And they danged sure don't care about those children who actually survive childbirth to mothers who didn't want them. What they really want is for THEIR version of morality to be enforced on everybody. How many of y'all make annual donations for poor/needy kids? Anybody here ever adopt a stranger's kid? I didn't think so.

No, sir…. If pro lifers had the support of the states, we’d have already had the amendment ratified. But pro lifers won’t even put up a bill in the house or senate because they are well aware that they can’t even get 2/3 of legislators to agree, much less 3/4 of the states to ratify. Isn’t it crazy that those “I know my rights!” voters on the right are the ones out here trying to eliminate a right that has been legal in the us for 49 years? When you sound off about taking away someone’s right to have an abortion, you sound like those yahoos that talk about repealing the second amendment. “If you don’t like guns (abortions) don’t get one!” Isn’t that what they always say?

Thanks for the reply. So your opinion, as well as others that have no actual expertise, are no more right or wrong when it comes to other people's opinions! But making statements like you did, "That's why reagan is impossible to talk to." is saying your opinion is actually better than others. You: "your average poster on Setxsports has an above average knowledge of how sports work." That's, again, your opinion. May or may not be true. But, nothing qualifies you to make this statement. On this "sports site", unless one has the expertise in a certain sport -- then every statement you or anyone else makes is an opinion! PS -- A lot of times I'll say ,"my opinion" when stating something. A lot of times i'll try to back with what I think are facts and post them. It's funny how I don't recall you ever saying it's "my opinion!"

That's why reagan is impossible to talk to. He has it in his head that winning state is the only acceptable outcome to a football season, and that records and championships are the only thing that matter. He also thinks that having a good coach is the only thing any program needs to become a powerhouse. All this despite dozens of people disagreeing with him over the course of several different threads about several different teams. I'd advise you not to waste your time trying to explain it to him, seeing that this is an issue that you obviously care about. I just do it for fun.

Correct. Some places, more work is needed. But, since there aren’t many Elite coaches then it may not ever happen. But it doesn’t mean you stop trying. Remember, it’s process. Just because Buchanan would show up again at any school and not set the process in motion, then that fail. Do you think that some coaches can take decent athletes and through the process they can make them a whole lot better? Do you think that Dodge had anything to do with developing his QB talent at SLC and Westlake? Or, since coaching doesn’t matter, that “any” coach could have the same thing? Maybe! But my advise to you is not to make a bet on it. You talked about comparable talent. Just a note, I talk about before Buchanan, Surratt, got there. I don’t, unless you, why raw talent Tarkington has had through the years? Well, this will be a matter of opinion. Second, we don’t know what type of talent is walking the halls. It’s amazing how you usually find out if/when you start winning. Because everybody wants to be a part of winning. Why — because winning solves a whole lots of problems. PS — you ever see a less talented team beat a far better talent team? If you have, I would say they were better coached! BTW, didn’t Liberty Hill beat Crosby pretty bad in the playoffs? My opinion is that Crosby had the better overall talent. But that night, Crosby was out coached. Again, my opinion!

It's interesting if it's not about the coaching, then I can presume by those that feel this way, that all coaches are the same?! And it's their fortune or misfortune to have or not to have the talent?! So, through the previous 78 years and through 19 coaches before Briles -- why no State Titles before he got there? Talk about coaches that were unfortunate! BTW -- same goes for Aledo and Carthage. All their previous coaches, I guess, had the same bad luck as the ones at Stephenville. Why you don't see it that often -- is because their aren't that many Elite coaches out their! BTW -- I'm still mulling over statement that Danaher is an Elite but Dodge isn't. But, again, that's your opinion and this is what we do here!

the only arbitrary thing here is your intentionally (at least I hope so, for your sake) obtuse interpretation of both the site rules and my response. you: coaches aren't supposed to be bashed, but this disgraced college coach gets bashed all the time on here. me: the rule applies to local high school coaches and players. you: well, this college coach coached two years of high school 5 hours away, and sometimes people who don't know anything talk about him coaching locally. You guys don't follow your own rules.

People don’t have a clue what goes on today. I would estimate that PA and Beaumont in Jefferson County, there are probably 50 of what the FBI classifies as major crimes such as aggravated assault, murder, sexual assault, arson, burglary and robbery. That doesn’t include the 3 Mid County cities, the county jurisdiction outside of those cities and all of Orange and Hardin counties. So let’s say the immediate Golden Triangle area has 75 major crimes “each day”. That is over 500 per week. With the talk of the Internet spreading the word, how many of those 500 major crimes do we hear about? In truth a lot more crime was covered in the 80s and 90s than there is now. Anytime the police make a report, the basic information is public record and anybody can access it almost immediately. Back when the newspapers and the television stations actually had several reporters, they would show up at many of our scenes. It was common practice when I was a Night Shift patrol officer that when we had a major scene such as a bad vehicle accident, a house fire, a shooting, etc., once the scene was secured, we started looking for a place to stage the media. We knew all three television stations and both newspapers were going to show up and maybe some other people. I did many newspaper interviews and several TV interviews at that time. That was including things that happened at 2 AM. If I went to a major scene today and grabbed a couple of patrol officers and said, find a place to stage the media, they would look at me like a three headed monster and wonder what the heck I was talking about. Better yet would be me asking who wants to do the on camera interview. Even new newspaper reporters were given what is called the police beat or maybe blotter reports in large cities. On many nights they would show up at the police station about 9 PM and request all of the police reports from the previous 24 hours. We would give them a stack of maybe 100 reports in PA. They will flip through the reports and find 2-5 things that looked interesting to write stories. They would then go to the newspaper office and write their articles so they could finish them in time for the midnight printing. Good luck if you can find that in today’s Internet media reporting.

Just heard Sen. Kennedy talk about the CEO of Disney. He said, originally, the CEO told the woke crowd that Disney wasn't getting involved that they were going to remain neutral. But, the gay mafia went into high gear and the CEO folded like a wet noodle. Sen. Kennedy said he doesn't see how the CEO can stand without a spine.

you know, I've always kinda thought it was funny when people talk about how bad things are now, and how good they used to be. Looking back in our country's short history, and seeing all of the violence and lawlessness of the wild wild west and displacement of native americans, slavery and violence towards african americans, all the gangster stuff in the first half of the 20th century, the drug/gang wars of the 80s-2000s, I have a hard time figuring how things were that much better at any point in the past apart from certain people being able to openly discriminate/hate groups of people they didn't like. Now don't get me wrong, there's a lot of woke nonsense that I don't like these days, but actual violent acts are no more common or senseless than they always have been, and our behavior as a society doesn't really seem much worse either.

There was a lot more to it. I went to several games and witnessed several things. Even asked why he was leaving a player in with 3 fouls in tart of second Qtr, he turned and said are you serious I didn’t realize he had 3 fouls and called time out to get him out. The call to remove him was made right after the season started because of some things that were said to the team players and him having someone else come in at practice and talk to them and somewhat coach them. Several complaints were made and it was addressed with him. Also lost several of the older players because of it, why we finished with several underclass man playing. There is something to say about a coach that has been with several teams in a very short time and most of them for 1 season. He seemed like a very nice guy but I have been around basketball all my life and I told my wife after the second game he will never make it as a coach. To win district wasn’t that hard considering most of the other schools lost players and district was weak other than West Hardin and Evadale had enough talent to pull it out.

So you think Chief Hoskins embraces a race-based double standard? Interesting theory. Here's the reality. It's politically untenable for him to change the mascot. Most Cherokee citizens support the mascot, and if you do a little googling, you'll find articles indicating as much. Much like PN-G, the lion's share of the locals, students and alumni up there love their mascot. Remember, Oklahoma is staunchly conservative, Republican territory. The average Cherokee voter's views are very similar to the average white Oklahoman's. By and in large, they don't take issue with Indian mascots any more than your average Republican. Believe me, I know. My quarter-Cherokee great grandfather lived out the rest of his days up there after he couldn't find work in Texas. Though he never sought citizenship, he frequently travelled the Nation to talk with friends who were Cherokee citizens and participate in Cherokee events. My father spent his summers up there through high school. I went as a kid. Now, new question. If Hoskins can't go after the Indian mascot at the school he runs because his people like the Indian mascot, why's he so focused on a high school hundreds of miles away in Texas that most of those citizens don't even know exist?

There's been a lot talk about what makes a successful football program: Is the athletes or the coach. Let's look at this: Can anyone reasonably doubt that after continuing to combine schools, and now down to 2, that United has the athletes? Since they have moved up to 6A, they have population growth in their favor. In the last 4 years they are 15-25. So, has it been the athletes or the coaching? Thoughts?!

This. Tbh this draft could be one they talk about for years to come… kinda like the 03

bullets13, Calling Tarkington's kids or the people that live there names doesn't bother me. I'm not a part of the "offended" crowd. What gets me is the people on here that think or run their mouths like they truly know anything about the team or community. People that think that a certain coach was "run off" when they don't have a clue. I love how the group consensus is that ALL of Tarkington thinks their kids are D1 kids or that Tarkington parents are running coaches off in general. First off, every school and I mean EVERY from Chester to Duncanville has that one parent or set of parents that think the coach there is doing a horrible job. They could have won state last year, but wouldn't have lost that 1 game during the season if their kid would have played more downs, minutes, innings, etc. Even the guy that supposedly worked with Snelson in the 90's using him as the rarest example possible to prove that Tarkington parents from then didn't have a clue. I was around then and if there was anybody there that said that, I never heard it. The one thing I can tell you is I believe that was one of his early gigs and although I haven't had the chance to talk to him in forever, I promise you that the 2022 parents and kids could not handle a 90's Coach Snelson. He's a great man and I have nothing but respect for him, but I guarantee you even back then he rubbed somebody the wrong way and they were popping off at the mouth. If you guys want to have a discussion about things that are wrong at Tarkington, no problem, I'm in line to air my grievances as I've already done. But doesn't mean I going to sit idly by and watch some dude run his mouth about how they will never win and that they better schedule whatever school to ever get a victory just so he can get his jab in, then you are mistaken. I'm going to defend it EVERY time when it comes to that kind of thoughtless chatter (post).

I just read this whole thread, and there was literally one comment on the very first page like the ones you're describing that was completely out of line, and that poster had already received a warning from another moderator. The problem with threads like this is that some people can't handle any negativity about their communities and programs. This thread contains a lot of truths surrounding the shortcomings ofTarkington football (which would also hold true to several other struggling programs in the area, including my alma mater), and some folks get defensive and don't want to hear it. Apart from the one comment about inbreeding, for which the poster had already received a warning (I went back and just deleted the post), there's very little on here that criticizes the community or the school beyond issues pertaining to the football field. I couldn't find a single post about an individual player or coach that was out of line, and just the one about the community as a whole that crossed the line. Tarkington has averaged about 2 wins a year for the last decade. Honest talk about the program, and what they've done (and haven't done) to improve that is not "downgrading the kids and community".

For what it's worth, the rules about bashing coaches and players only apply to local high school coaches and players. Nobody cares if you want to talk crap about college or pro coaches and players.

I see what you are trying to say. Let's look at a few things; 2001, Jerry Vance shows up. 1913 to 2000, Tarkington type-ish record. In other words no State Titles. In 6 years, Vance has a State Title. Has another one the next year. OK, you talk about population growth causing this. Through the previous 87 years before Vance got there, don't you think maybe sometime towards the latter part of those 87 years, that there was population growth going on? I would think so. Hummm, but no State Titles. OK, Vance shows up with 2 State Titles. Later on, 2017 shows a new coach. The next 4 years -- still no State Titles. Let me ask you this: With everything you think that brings a State Title, what -- did all of this just stop after Vance was no longer the coach?! And if it was population, or whatever you think it was, then WHY was no other coach, except Vance, able to take advantage of this and win a State Title?

Wait for it 😂😂 [Hidden Content]

Back in the early 70’s older guys used to talk about it. I thought they were a little out there but after a few years I started to see this stuff unfolding. A little reference here, a slip of the tongue there. Yep, it’s the plan. I still contend that the X-Files was so close to the truth it’s scary. A small group of elites controlling/manipulating the western world. Most of our politicians are their puppets. I’m convinced the DNC is under their control, and they have influence in the RNC. Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, they’re nothing but tools. Those elites are the same ones who took care of Hillary’s problems. I’m sure many will think I’m “out there”, as I did of those older folks, but just hang on. The NWO/OWG is coming down the road.