Tigers to face familiar foes during 2009 season
By Brent Arnold
Times Sports Editor
The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) has shaken up the classification of some schools, thus realigning some teams back to their old competition schedule and making, for example, DeKalb County High School football compete against most of the same schools that DCHS already competes against in basketball, baseball, etc.
Many says it all comes back to simplifying the football playoffs. The TSSAA's "Z-plan" calls for three classes of 16 districts for football, basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball. Furthermore in football, the classes will split to create six state championship brackets.
The football bracket for the newly-aligned 3A, 4A, 5A and 6A brackets will have 32 teams with 1A and 2A fielding 24 teams. In this, the 32 teams are placed into four quadrants of eight teams, while the 24 are in quadrants of six with the top two teams drawing a bye. The top two finishers in each district claim an automatic bid, with finishing in the top half in the district as the other method.
It's all perhaps a little confusing. Essentially, DeKalb County would face the same schools in the football season as they already do in most other sports. As it stands, DeKalb County would be in District 8-AA along with Jackson County, Cannon County, Smith County, York Institute, Livingston Academy and Macon County.
In laymen's terms, DCHS Head Football Coach Steve Trapp broke it down. "Basically, you have realignment every four years. A big issue with a lot of teams, much like us over the last few years, the increase in travel time that you have to endure to reach people to play in your region. It's the "Z Plan" that they talked about four years ago when they realigned, but it never passed." (The realignment plan was voted down 7-2 in 2004) "Last year, there were five classes in the playoffs, they gave away five championships. With this plan, there will be six State Champions in football now. During the regular season, there will be just the three classes, but when the playoffs begin, they will divide into six classes based on school size and other factors to determine who goes where during the state playoffs."
"Nothing is set in stone yet," Coach Trapp explained. "They gave out a projection as to what your district could look like. Looking at ours, it's what it used to be in the 1980's and early 90's. They've got us broken down into District 8 - which will be a mixture of 3A teams and 4A teams - we are labeled as a 4A team so any playoff appearances that we make, we will be playing in 4A for playoff purposes. But, as far as the regular season, we will be playing in District 8AA, and then AA, for playoff purposes, will break back into 3A and 4A. And, the same thing will happen for regular season 3A - it will break into 5A and 6A, regular season 1A will break into 1A and 2A and that's how you get the six championships."
"We're going to take care of business this year," Coach Trapp told The Times. "That's what we're focused on. But, you know, you do look ahead and I am kinda ready to get back to playing those we play in all the other sports. Now, basically, we'll be playing the same teams that our basketball play, softball, baseball, and I think that's gonna rebuild a lot of those close rivalries that we had back in the late 80's, early 90's."
Coach Trapp went on to say, "I think it's going to do good things for the football program as far as financially. I mean we’re doing OK there now, we're not exactly where we want to be or need to be to keep building, but I think this is going to help financially as well." Coach Trapp went on to explain that with the games now being much closer to home, regardless of opponent, more people will follow the team to the games. And, not just our fans, but chances are more likely fans from Carthage will follow the Smith County team to Smithville, thus generating more money for our local program.
"As far as competition level," Trapp went on, "that's one of the big things people have said for years is that we're not able to compete against the teams we're playing against. I don't believe that. I think we've competed; we've not won a whole lot of games, but you also gotta remember we basically started from scratch and we're on the right track now. But, I think it will help in that regard too. It's going to feel a lot better where we don't have to travel as much."
One could only imagine, after playing in a region filled with the stiff competition as we have the past four years, that jumping into a district with the competition field more evenly developed, we might have a slight advantage. Coach Trapp agreed, saying, "After playing in that tough region, hopefully we will be prepared to take on anything this new alignment throws our way. I'm really excited. We've had a really, really, good spring, and I hope that carries over into the Fall. I think overall that this whole program has gotten just a lot smarter over the years. As far as coaches teaching the guys what to do, I think it really fits who we've got. They're having fun with it. On both sides of the ball this spring, we really executed well. Now, who we played might not have been up to the competition, but right now I know we can execute what we do. We're excited, the players are excited and we're gonna take care of this fall and worry about next year when it rolls around."
Right now the Board plans to use fall 2008 enrollments of schools to determine classification for 2009-2013. If they are unable to get fall enrollment figures from the State Department of Education, they would use 2007-2008 enrollment figures.
DWS Cheerleaders receive honors
 The DeKalb West School Bulldog Cheerleaders completed at UCA (Universal Cheerleading Association) camp. During the four-day camp, they learned cheers, chants, and dances. The squad earned a Superior trophy for their outstanding cheer ability.
The Superior trophy is the highest award presented to a squad. Several individual cheerleaders also earned awards. Crystal Vickers earned a Superior award for jumps, Erin Cantrell-Pryor and Morgan Vickers earned an Excellent award for jumps. Katie Turner earned the Most Spirited award. Kelsey Hale earned the Most Improved award.
Two cheerleaders were selected for the All-Star UCA Cheer Squad. They tried out and, based on outstanding dance, cheer, and jumping ability, they earned a place on the All-Star squad. Erin Cantrell-Pryor and Rosa Payne were chosen for the All-Star squad and were invited to attend the Thanksgiving Day parade at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The All-Star squad will perform for the opening parade on Thanksgiving. The Bulldogs are coached by Mrs. Tammy Payne.
Denman, Sullivan compete in School Days Golf Tourney
By Brent Arnold
Times Sports Editor
Two local DeKalb County High School golfers participated in the 84th Annual Tennessean/Metro Parks Schooldays Golf Tournament at the McCabe Golf Course. Shay Sullivan surprised quite a few in the field of 42 women, the largest to date, while all eyes were on local standout Payne Denman amongst the 183 young men participating.
 Tennessean Sports Writer Mike Organ told The Middle Tennessee Times that this year's competition was "a strong field with two guys that had been at the Championship before, which was unusual, to have two guys that had been in the Championship - Lexus Keoninh, who won it in 2006, and Steven Lee, who was runner-up last year. So, we had two that had been in the Championship round, so that made it a very competitive field."
"Payne Denman from DeKalb County has always done well in our Tournament, even though he's still got a year left to compete. So, he was a guy that everyone was keeping an eye on as well. So, it was a strong field, as strong as it's been in maybe two or three years."
"Payne played well all the way through, including the Championship round. He probably surprised some people in getting up on Steven Lee," Organ admitted. "Steven Lee is the older golfer and, like I said, he had been in the Championship last year."
Payne hung with Lee until around the 14th hole, when Lee started to make a comeback, finally tying the match at the 16th where the two would battle from there on out. Lee stuck his drive on the 17th about four feet from the pin, whereas Denman's rolled about 40 feet out. Lee sunk the putt, winning the hole to put him up one with only the 18th remaining. "It was a very good match," said Organ.
On the girls side, Sullivan was unfortunate to go up against one of the top golfers, Stephanie Smith, who eventually made it to the Championships and won it all. "Shay Sullivan was one that, I had not seen her name before this year, but I did see that she made it into match play. It's usually a process for many of these players just to make it into match play. For many of them, it's their first time to play in match play, and that can be tough, it's a learning experience, which is originally what the Tournament was designed to do."
Sullivan finished in the quarterfinals against Smith, earning a spot among the top eight. Smith went on to defeat Blake Childress for the Title.
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