Upon Further Review: Success comes quickly for some teams

Becoming a state high school champion in any sport is very difficult. It usually takes many years of hard work and dedication from coaches and players, especially if you’re a new program just getting started.

High schools in the state of Tennessee do a very good job of building successful programs and producing quality athletes.

But this is a process that usually take several years. Some programs are blessed with having an endless talent pool to pull athletes from. Others have no choice but to take what they have and mold these young men and women into champions. Either way the road to success is usually a long and painful one.

But there are some high school programs which for some reason seem to be able to jump to the top in only a few years.

Wilson Central for example, the team Warren County went head-to-head with in the first round of the playoffs this season, found success in just five years.

Wilson Central has pulled talent from the Lebanon area and for the last two years have found a spot in the playoffs.

This year’s State 5-A title went to the Ravenwood Raptors, who defeated Oak Ridge in the finals.

Now Ravenwood is a school with not very much history in athletics, since they have only been around for three years. The school opened in 2002 with 32 teachers, seven staff members and approximately 540 students.

In just three years this high school has leaped to the top of the charts with 1350 students and a state football championship.

Now in most cases schools start out with just a couple of sports, which might include, basketball, baseball and sometimes a football team.

But in just three years the school has a complete athletic program, which includes, basketball, football, baseball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, track and field, wrestling, volleyball, softball, swimming and lacrosse, not bad for just getting started.

Now you might ask where am I going with this?

The one thing I see most common with the success of these new programs and for established programs is a continues growth of the communities. These towns are growing everyday and not only have the finances available to support athletic programs, but they have the key ingredient to make them prosper. An endless supply of kids to refill their programs each year.

It’s very simple, as the communities grow with new industries, so do the school’s and the availability of athletes.

People ask the question why we have trouble competing with Murfrees-boro schools. It’s got to be the coaching right? Wrong.

It’s all about the availability of jobs, which brings in new families to the community or keeps the ones, which are all ready there from leaving.

The closing of plants and the loss of jobs affects more than the economy in small towns. It affects every little aspect of a community and it hits hard when it comes to athletic programs.

More factories mean more jobs and more families. More families mean better schools and better athletic teams.

We all need to work together in order to improve our community with new jobs in order to bring more and more families to this wonderful community.