Tarkington Open

[Guest mrtomcat]

11 minutes ago, oldschool2 said:

It's not difficult to go undefeated in 7th or 8th grade with one standout skill player (relative to the competition) and a few role players.  Having a good player will often make the other kids play up and/or want to do well.  Many teams do well during a junior high year only to find out that 9-12 is a much different animal than 7th only or 8th only.  Kids mature differently, kids improve at different rates, kids move out or move in, kids quit, classification changes, and several other variables.

Winning an undefeated district championship during a junior high year has zero bearing on what may or may not happen during the upper classmen years.  Just like doing poorly in junior high doesn't mean that'll happen when they get to high school. 

you act like hardin has went undefeated and won a district championship before in junior high football........please do tell me when that has EVER happened because no team in hardin has ever won anything in football and i have been in warren for over 23 years and we have always been in the same district as hardin until this coming year.

[oldschool2]

1 minute ago, mrtomcat said:

hardin does poorly in junior high and has ever since i can remember and then they do poorly in high school, which seems relatives to their ability to be poor during the earlier years.  but if a coach, in this case has a son who is THE star, stays at the school, he must know that either A) we are going to be good and change things around or b) he dont care about getting his son to the next level because he's content enough with hardin and mediocrity.

Time will tell.  I do know this.. if that kid is the best option for quarterback as a freshman, he'll still be running for his life for two years.  The upper classmen at EC, Anahuac, Woodville, Orangefield, or any other school.. will not care that he led his 8th grade team to a district championship.  And if he can't lead them to some wins as a fresh/soph, then the coach will get blamed (typical Hardin fashion) and be run off.  Which will deny them from the kid's best two years anyway.  Might as well go somewhere where the kid can grow as a JV quarterback in a school with a decent program. 

[oldschool2]

8 minutes ago, mrtomcat said:

you act like hardin has went undefeated and won a district championship before in junior high football........please do tell me when that has EVER happened because no team in hardin has ever won anything in football and i have been in warren for over 23 years and we have always been in the same district as hardin until this coming year.

There's a coach on staff at Carthage right now that left Hardin to go there.  The kid of this coach had a pretty stellar last two years of high school winning multiple state titles.

I have no clue but I was told that this coach's kid pretty much didn't lose in anything while playing junior high ball in Hardin. That's what I was told one time.. I'll need confirmation from some Hardin people but that's my understanding. 

[Guest mrtomcat]

3 minutes ago, oldschool2 said:

Time will tell.  I do know this.. if that kid is the best option for quarterback as a freshman, he'll still be running for his life for two years.  The upper classmen at EC, Anahuac, Woodville, Orangefield, or any other school.. will not care that he led his 8th grade team to a district championship.  And if he can't lead them to some wins as a fresh/soph, then the coach will get blamed (typical Hardin fashion) and be run off.  Which will deny them from the kid's best two years anyway.  Might as well go somewhere where the kid can grow as a JV quarterback in a school with a decent program. 

thats exactly what i think.....he's going to risk getting hurt there being thrown into the fire

[Guest mrtomcat]

2 minutes ago, oldschool2 said:

There's a coach on staff at Carthage right now that left Hardin to go there.  The kid of this coach had a pretty stellar last two years of high school winning multiple state titles.

I have no clue but I was told that this coach's kid pretty much didn't lose in anything while playing junior high ball in Hardin. That's what I was told one time.. I'll need confirmation from some Hardin people but that's my understanding. 

i must have just missed these years

[Guest mrtomcat]

but back to tarkington........sure is late in the year to get coaches to come with you to a small school like tarkington.  hopefully they can get him (taylor) some help

[oldschool2]

1 minute ago, mrtomcat said:

i must have just missed these years

Or you didn't care.. which.. let's be honest, who really cares about the dealings of junior high success other than the kids or parents of those kids.  I'm not trying to be ugly or anything.  I just know that in reality, the successes/failures of the junior high doesn't always equate to what will happen in high school.

[PrairieMan]

50 minutes ago, oldschool2 said:

It's not difficult to go undefeated in 7th or 8th grade with one standout skill player (relative to the competition) and a few role players.  Having a good player will often make the other kids play up and/or want to do well.  Many teams do well during a junior high year only to find out that 9-12 is a much different animal than 7th only or 8th only.  Kids mature differently, kids improve at different rates, kids move out or move in, kids quit, classification changes, and several other variables.

Winning an undefeated district championship during a junior high year has zero bearing on what may or may not happen during the upper classmen years.  Just like doing poorly in junior high doesn't mean that'll happen when they get to high school. 

The other thing is from my understanding (from Hardin people), he is already 15. If that's bad information then my apologies. But lets be honest that 13 to 14 and 14 to 15 development from a physical standpoint can be pretty big depending on the kid. Not to downplay the kids abilities, but lets say he's more developed and he's playing against 13 and 14 year olds who haven't yet, it can be a substantial advantage. I watched him throw, he was pretty good. He hit open targets and the game I was at there was plenty of them. Let's just say he wasn't having to thread the needle at any point. There were plenty of plays were nobody was within 5 yards of receivers. 

[PrairieMan]

Also as this is a Tarkington thread. Coach Taylor has already made a great hire for the school. Yesterday the school announced that Coach Kennedy, who previously coached at Liberty and recently was hired as head coach at a 6A school near the hill country has taken the Head volleyball coach position at Tarkington. He is a young guy with lots of knowledge and energy, this will be great for upcoming girls and people that want to see the volleyball program return to its Glory days that they had under Coach Johnson. 

[oldschool2]

31 minutes ago, PrairieMan said:

The other thing is from my understanding (from Hardin people), he is already 15. If that's bad information then my apologies. But lets be honest that 13 to 14 and 14 to 15 development from a physical standpoint can be pretty big depending on the kid. Not to downplay the kids abilities, but lets say he's more developed and he's playing against 13 and 14 year olds who haven't yet, it can be a substantial advantage. I watched him throw, he was pretty good. He hit open targets and the game I was at there was plenty of them. Let's just say he wasn't having to thread the needle at any point. There were plenty of plays were nobody was within 5 yards of receivers. 

I heard that too.  And yes, that has to factor into the success he had.  Being a year older makes a difference.  Does that mean he's not a good player or have potential? Absolutely not.  Next year he'll be on the other end of that age thing being a 15 year old being chased by 17/18 year olds. 

[Guest mrtomcat]

52 minutes ago, PrairieMan said:

Also as this is a Tarkington thread. Coach Taylor has already made a great hire for the school. Yesterday the school announced that Coach Kennedy, who previously coached at Liberty and recently was hired as head coach at a 6A school near the hill country has taken the Head volleyball coach position at Tarkington. He is a young guy with lots of knowledge and energy, this will be great for upcoming girls and people that want to see the volleyball program return to its Glory days that they had under Coach Johnson. 

great job tarkington isd

[2wedge]

2 hours ago, oldschool2 said:

That's not a new concept.  If we're being honest, who would blame either of them?  Nobody. 

Matter of fact.. it's happened at Hardin before.  

The biggest fish that ever got out of the pond at Hardin was Anthony Morgan, and he had to go because the dummies at Hardin ran his dad out of town on a rail. He ended up winning multiple state championships at Carthage and the rest was history. 

Barrier has a significantly higher ceiling than Morgan. 

[2wedge]

1 hour ago, PrairieMan said:

The other thing is from my understanding (from Hardin people), he is already 15. If that's bad information then my apologies. But lets be honest that 13 to 14 and 14 to 15 development from a physical standpoint can be pretty big depending on the kid. Not to downplay the kids abilities, but lets say he's more developed and he's playing against 13 and 14 year olds who haven't yet, it can be a substantial advantage. I watched him throw, he was pretty good. He hit open targets and the game I was at there was plenty of them. Let's just say he wasn't having to thread the needle at any point. There were plenty of plays were nobody was within 5 yards of receivers. 

Threading the needle will come as he continues to develop. The mechanics are off the charts for an 8th grader, he's a coaches kid so he has that working in his favor, and he absolutely loves the game so he works harder than anyone else in the room during the offseason. He has all the ingredients of a big time player. Will it all pan out? Who knows. But it will be fun to keep an eye on. 

[Guest mrtomcat]

36 minutes ago, 2wedge said:

The biggest fish that ever got out of the pond at Hardin was Anthony Morgan, and he had to go because the dummies at Hardin ran his dad out of town on a rail. He ended up winning multiple state championships at Carthage and the rest was history. 

Barrier has a significantly higher ceiling than Morgan. 

how did i not know this?  anthony morgan was from hardin?  when i worked in panola county, they talked about that young man like he was a football god.  i did get to watch him play vs coldspring in the title one year. cant remember when exactly.  he was the best under 6'0 qb i had seen at that time.  how in the world did hardin run off the morgan knowing they had a kid like that coming up.  good lord have mercy

[Guest mrtomcat]

who will quarterback for the tarkington longhorns next year?  we play hardin in week 1 this year, it was going to be against tarkington but we landed hardin instead

[2wedge]

1 hour ago, mrtomcat said:

how did i not know this?  anthony morgan was from hardin?  when i worked in panola county, they talked about that young man like he was a football god.  i did get to watch him play vs coldspring in the title one year. cant remember when exactly.  he was the best under 6'0 qb i had seen at that time.  how in the world did hardin run off the morgan knowing they had a kid like that coming up.  good lord have mercy

Yes, the Morgan Family is from Hardin and the surrounding area and Anthony's dad was the AD/HC in Hardin for a couple of years. I believe Anthony was in JH during that time. He didn't get Hardin to the promised land soon enough to his dad was sent packing and took a job on staff in Carthage. The rest is history. I believe Anthony is actually living in Hardin now working in the oil and gas industry. He was very fun to watch and was a heck of a football player. 

How did the people in Hardin let this happen? Well, that question could be asked about many things over the years. I didn't see Anthony play in JH so I don't know if he looked like he was going to be as good as he ended up being or not. 

[PrairieMan]

1 hour ago, mrtomcat said:

who will quarterback for the tarkington longhorns next year?  we play hardin in week 1 this year, it was going to be against tarkington but we landed hardin instead

Well the off and on varsity starter from last year was a sofphmore, Pavlat, he will likely be the day 1 starter. The JV QB, Johnson, should be moving up as well, as he was a sophmore also. The JV will likely start a next year sophmore, Edwards, that played some on JV last year and was that groups starter in middle school. 

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

I think a better question for Tarkington is: how good are the returning OL and RBs? 

 

 

[Eagles12]

1 hour ago, PrairieMan said:

Well the off and on varsity starter from last year was a sofphmore, Pavlat, he will likely be the day 1 starter. The JV QB, Johnson, should be moving up as well, as he was a sophmore also. The JV will likely start a next year sophmore, Edwards, that played some on JV last year and was that groups starter in middle school. 

Heard Pavlat was moving to Splendora.

[PrairieMan]

54 minutes ago, Eagles12 said:

Heard Pavlat was moving to Splendora.

I'm not so sure that I'd be putting kids business on the street (message board) on the "I heard". 

That's just me though. 

[Eagles12]

3 minutes ago, PrairieMan said:

I'm not so sure that I'd be putting kids business on the street (message board) on the "I heard". 

That's just me though. 

Sorry thought it was common knowledge in that area. 

[2wedge]

19 hours ago, Eagles12 said:

Heard Pavlat was moving to Splendora.

From one dumpster fire to another. 

[PrairieMan]

On 5/17/2022 at 9:43 AM, 2wedge said:

From one dumpster fire to another. 

Ouch! Maybe from a football standpoint. But you can't say the same about basketball and baseball. He is a three sport athlete at Tarkington and you can't really argue with the success that the baseball and basketball programs at Tarkington have had compared to Splendora. Don't get me wrong, they haven't won any state titles but they both made it two deep in the playoffs for how many years in a row? Splendora boy's sports didn't make the playoffs in ANYTHING. 

[2wedge]

2 hours ago, PrairieMan said:

Ouch! Maybe from a football standpoint. But you can't say the same about basketball and baseball. He is a three sport athlete at Tarkington and you can't really argue with the success that the baseball and basketball programs at Tarkington have had compared to Splendora. Don't get me wrong, they haven't won any state titles but they both made it two deep in the playoffs for how many years in a row? Splendora boy's sports didn't make the playoffs in ANYTHING. 

This is true. No argument from me.