BD Newsletter

Letter to the Editor:

Jeffery Simmons mischaracterizes the TSSAA in his column, “TSSAA” doesn’t care,” and he uses several inaccuracies to support his false descriptions of the TSSAA. Dr. Grant Swallows, the Director of Schools for Warren County, is on the TSSAA Board of Control, which is one of the governing bodies of the TSSAA. The Legislative Council, which is the other governing body, is responsible for changes to the organization’s Constitution & Bylaws.  Both bodies are made up of administrators of member schools who are elected by the schools to represent their respective athletic districts. It is difficult to understand how one is supposed to believe the Director of Warren County schools sits on a board of an association that is corrupted by cash and does not care about Warren County athletics. 

In reality, the TSSAA is not corrupted by cash, and neither should Warren County’s citizens believe that the TSSAA does not care about its high school teams. The sad truth is that Warren County High School’s football team has struggled for decades to win more games than it has lost. Anyone who knows Dr. Swallows knows that he has a passion for Warren County athletics and has represented Warren County well during his tenure on the Board of Control.

Below is a definition of the TSSAA from its website:

The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association is a voluntary, nonprofit, self-supported organization, conceived by school people (teachers, principals, superintendents) and administered by individuals carefully chosen to lead the program. The Association belongs to the member schools and it serves them well in a very worthy purpose.

The following are a few of the factual inaccuracies in Simmons’ column in bold with my responses in plain text:

“The state obviously doesn’t care about pushing the Pioneers around the state.”

It is not the “state” but an association comprised of people to lead the agency chosen by administrators (including Dr. Swallows). Furthermore, there is no evidence that the TSSAA is moving Warren County to new regions more than the majority of the teams in the TSSAA. 

“The squads crossed time zones into Rhea County, headed up to Crossville, battled “Boro schools and duked it out at the Alabama border with Lincoln County.”

Those schools are not all over the state; they are within 60 miles of Warren County – with the exception of Rhea County (76 miles).

Warren County went 10-0 in 1973 playing teams in Lincoln County, Murfreesboro, Crossville, Lebanon, Shelbyville, Tullahoma, etc. These are essentially the same teams Warren County has played against since the beginning of the high school over 40 years ago.

“The football and volleyball teams will get their mileage in going to Murfreesboro, while the basketball, baseball and softball teams will get to make 200 mile round trips to Columbia a couple times a season.” 

It is actually a 150-mile roundtrip to Columbia, and it is about 96-mile roundtrip to Rockvale in Rutherford County. (For comparison — Lincoln County travels 116 miles roundtrip to traditional rival Lawrence County for games.)

“Well, the TSSAA would say it is because of our school size, but I say it’s because the state values cash more than competitiveness. It has been proven over and over too.”

Once again, it is not the “state” but an association comprised of leaders chosen by school administrators such as Dr. Swallows.

Every school in Tennessee that is a member of the TSSAA is placed into classifications because of school size and geography. For example, Oakland (1,971 students) and Eagleville (335 students) are not in the same classification and region because of school size, although they are in the same county. Are Eagleville and Oakland being moved around because the TSSAA values cash over competitiveness? Or is it simply common sense for schools to be separated by size, not by location?

Warren County went 8-2 three seasons ago in a region with Rutherford County schools. By any metric that was a competitive season. The subsequent two years the TSSAA placed Warren County football in a region without Rutherford County teams. How did that work out? Is it the TSSAA’s fault Warren County had losing seasons the past two years?

“There’s really no reason for our state to have six classifications in football (nine when adding in private institutions), other than the TSSAA gets to add 32 more playoff teams, get the gate for 31 more games and have an extra championship game to sell to the highest bidder.”

The objective of the classifications is to create as level of a playing field as possible for teams. Historically, the vast majority of coaches and administrators have wanted more classifications so that their teams could make the playoffs. The private school classifications were created to separate private schools who give scholarships (financial aid) to student-athletes. 

Because of school size, many small rural public schools were in classifications and regions with private schools, which were often not competitive matchups for multiple reasons. That was one factor that led to increased classifications.

Recently the public-private split became complete, and to make the competition as fair as possible, the TSSAA moved forward with six public classifications and three private classifications.

If schools want to be in districts and regions with more teams and less travel, the compromise is fewer classifications.

Warren County played Cookeville, Shelbyville, Coffee County, and Lebanon in their region this past season and went 0-4. Out of region games included DeKalb County, White County, Mt. Juliet and Siegel…all losses to smaller schools. The only game Warren County won during 2022 was a non-region game at Memphis Ridgeway which was four hours away and 540 miles roundtrip.

The reality is that Warren County High School’s football program has historically lost to schools of any size, regardless of location. The Pioneers lost to Cannon County in 2019 (7-20). In 2011, Warren County lost to DeKalb County (7-26), Moore County (27-31) and Smith County (0-51).

Cannon County has 516 students, Moore County has 289 students, Smith County has 503 students and DeKalb County has 822 students. Warren County has 1,899 students which is 2.3 times the size of DeKalb County’s enrollment. 

There is no data that supports playing whomever Warren County wants to play will make the games more competitive. Warren County has been beaten consistently by both non-region and region teams. Significantly smaller schools have beaten the Pioneers an alarming number of times in the history of Warren County High School. 

The TSSAA is not the reason Warren County High School’s football team has a problem being competitive. The problem with the Pioneer’s numerous losing seasons and ability to be competitive is inside Warren County, not inside or outside a region.

P.S.  Repeatedly stating that the TSSAA is more concerned about cash than the competitive nature of high school athletics is a dangerous accusation that has not been proven over and over. Nor did Jeffrey Simmons provide any evidence of it whatsoever in his column.