REgular season Highschool Football Sell-out

[GrantDawg]

Linky

Need a ticket for Brookwood-Parkview? Don't dawdle

By BILL SANDERS
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer




So when do you need to get tickets to Friday's big Parkview-Brookwood game? Uh, pretty soon.

The game has never sold out in advance, but according to athletics directors at both schools, the hype of No. 1 vs. No. 2 might eclipse last year's state title game between the two -- at least in ticket demand.

Brookwood sold about 600 tickets Tuesday -- and it normally doesn't even put tickets on sale until Wednesday.

"We'll sell ours," Brookwood AD Dave Hunter said. "I'm sure of that."

"It'll get harried by Friday," said Parkview's AD, Karl Bostick. "The adults will start worrying about a sellout before that, but by Friday, things will be wild here."

Both schools have 4,000 tickets to sell, at $7 each. Parkview's Big Orange Jungle in Lilburn seats 8,000, but can cram in another 1,000 or so in standing-room tickets, many of which are given to school officials and college scouts. What's left may be sold before Friday night's 7:30 game.

Unlike last year's state championship game, Parkview will not bring in extra seating for this game, Bostick said.

"If we sell 4,000 and they sell 4,000, they're going to be jammed in like sardines," Hunter said.

Tickets are available daily at the Brookwood fieldhouse from 7:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. and at Parkview from 6-8 p.m. tonight and 5:30-8 p.m. Thursday.

Gates open at 5:30 p.m. Friday. The parking lots open an hour earlier.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I thought about trying to go see this one but figured it'd be tough to manage a 5 y/o in an outdoor sardine can.

[GrantDawg]

Originally posted by JonInMiddleGA
I thought about trying to go see this one but figured it'd be tough to manage a 5 y/o in an outdoor sardine can.

Imagine it would.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by JonInMiddleGA
I thought about trying to go see this one but figured it'd be tough to manage a 5 y/o in an outdoor sardine can.

Then come to Tucker-Marist!!!

Apparently the AJC forgot that two other teams who happen to be in metro Atlanta and happen to be among the best in the state and happen to be arch-rivals are also doing battle this Friday night.

[GrantDawg]

Originally posted by SkyDog
Then come to Tucker-Marist!!!

Apparently the AJC forgot that two other teams who happen to be in metro Atlanta and happen to be among the best in the state and happen to be arch-rivals are also doing battle this Friday night.

Are they going to sell 8,000+ tickets?

[cuervo72]

No but they might make your....

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by GrantDawg
Are they going to sell 8,000+ tickets?

Probably not, but probably at least 5,000.

[Ben E Lou]

Dola--

I know Brookwood-Parkview is the marquee game, but does it warrant TWO articles every day this week to none so far for Tucker-Marist? It is a continual frustration with the AJC. Parkview is unquestionably their darling of darlings, but in all likelihood there will be more D-1 players on the field in the Tucker-Marist game.

[GrantDawg]

Originally posted by SkyDog
Dola--

I know Brookwood-Parkview is the marquee game, but does it warrant TWO articles every day this week to none so far for Tucker-Marist? It is a continual frustration with the AJC. Parkview is unquestionably their darling of darlings, but in all likelihood there will be more D-1 players on the field in the Tucker-Marist game.

Imagine if either of those teams were in say Alpharretta? They would be the headline.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by GrantDawg
Imagine if either of those teams were in say Alpharretta? They would be the headline.

I'm not 100% sure what you're getting at. Are you thinking it is partially latent racism? (I'm not trying to play the race card here, but I can't think of another reason to suggest that Alpharetta teams would get more coverage than the near-the-Perimeter teams.)

[GrantDawg]

Originally posted by SkyDog
I'm not 100% sure what you're getting at. Are you thinking it is partially latent racism? (I'm not trying to play the race card here, but I can't think of another reason to suggest that Alpharetta teams would get more coverage than the near-the-Perimeter teams.)

Not racism. I'd say 80% of the writer/editoral staff lives north of 285. Everything is a little more important if it happens up there.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Plus there's the "in the business of selling newspapers" factor.
Every remotely objective football fan in Georgia seems to agree that things like the AJC Top 10s are biased towards their sales area instead of trying for legitimate rankings.

Same thing applies here I think. It's not racism, it's business.

[Ben E Lou]

Hmmmmm...interesting theory. One problem though. Who is more interested in the high school football rankings: the more traditional Southern blacks and whites in Tucker or the Yankees in Alpharetta???

Side note: It cracks me up on the gavsv board and the AJC vent when folks from, say, LaGrange, complain about not getting enough coverage in the AJC. LAGRANGE IS OVER SIXTY MILES AWAY PEOPLE!!! The Columbus paper should, and does, cover LaGrange. (And Jon, please note that this is coming from the Columbus native in me, not the transplant into metro Atlanta. We never expected the AJC to cover our high schools.)

[GrantDawg]

Originally posted by SkyDog
Hmmmmm...interesting theory. One problem though. Who is more interested in the high school football rankings: the more traditional Southern blacks and whites in Tucker or the Yankees in Alpharetta???

I agree, but your perception is not the same as the Yankees in Alpharetta that actually run the paper.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by GrantDawg
I agree, but your perception is not the same as the Yankees in Alpharetta that actually run the paper.

If only they'd do things my way, the world would be SUCH a better place.


Well, for the first time this week, the Tucker-Marist game will be mentioned in tomorrow's paper: http://www.ajc.com/highschool/conten...1dekagame.html

[JonInMiddleGA]

I don't know SD, I've been to Brookwood & I've seen Parkview, they're about as rabid as any metro area fans I've ever seen. And most importantly (in this context) they pull out their ample wallets to show it. The AJC simply stands to make more money by kissing Gwinnett butts than they do from kissing most anyone else's.

As for the more general coverage thing, I can see the LaGrange et al complaints to a point. The AJC does, after all, insinuate their polls are statewide rather than metro-wide. And it wouldn't shock me if there were as many AJC readers in LaGrange as there are LaGrangeLocalNewspaper (whatever it's called) readers. It sort of becomes the "local" paper in their minds to some degree.

And LaGrange vs Columbus is a pretty unfair comparison. After all, LaGrange is LaGrange (when it comes to football), I believe Columbus is pretty much Shaw & the dwarves

[scooper]

Is 8000 considered a big crowd there?

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by JonInMiddleGA
I don't know SD, I've been to Brookwood & I've seen Parkview, they're about as rabid as any metro area fans I've ever seen. And most importantly (in this context) they pull out their ample wallets to show it. The AJC simply stands to make more money by kissing Gwinnett butts than they do from kissing most anyone else's.

As for the more general coverage thing, I can see the LaGrange et al complaints to a point. The AJC does, after all, insinuate their polls are statewide rather than metro-wide. And it wouldn't shock me if there were as many AJC readers in LaGrange as there are LaGrangeLocalNewspaper (whatever it's called) readers. It sort of becomes the "local" paper in their minds to some degree.

And LaGrange vs Columbus is a pretty unfair comparison. After all, LaGrange is LaGrange (when it comes to football), I believe Columbus is pretty much Shaw & the dwarves

Jon:

I agree with you on the Brookwood and Parkview fans being rabid, but I'm saying that the demographic is VERY VERY different from the Alpharetta crowd that G-dawg mentioned. Parkview is only 8 or 9 miles from Tucker, and very similar. This little swath of land in NE DeKalb and SW Gwinnett counties is actually a throwback bastion of traditional Georgia, buried in the suburbanism of metro Atlanta.

As far as LaGrange, I understand where you're coming from, but for them to expect the AJC to treat them as a local team is just a bit unfair. Sure, the AJC readers in LaGrange probably outnumber the local paper readers, but looking at the overall readership of the AJC, a VERY small percentage of them consider LaGrange to be a "local" team.

The AJC doesn't even cover Forsyth County teams as local (which is somewhat frustrating considering they are in the region with very much local teams such as Tucker, Chamblee, Marist, Dunwoody, etc.) They have a MUCH better case than LaGrange.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by scooper
Is 8000 considered a big crowd there?

For a regular season game in metro Atlanta, that's probably the biggest crowd you'll get. Now, in Valdosta's heyday, they'd draw 10,000+ pretty much every week.

The state semi-finals in the Georgia Dome have drawn 40,000+, but that is for multiple games.

[scooper]

Gotcha. I played for a program that generally draws 10-12K for big games, 6-8 if the other team's following is not that large. Played in Massilon, OH a couple times in front of 20,000. That blew my mind. High school football. Good times.

[VPI97]

Originally posted by scooper
I played for a program that generally draws 10-12K for big games, 6-8 if the other team's following is not that large.

Me too. The funny thing is that the town I'm from has about 5 to 6,000 people, but we'd get 10,000 for games.

Here's where I played:

[vex]

Tulsa Union/Jenks sells out nearly, if not every year.

[tucker342]

That's crazy..... At the Iowa State Championship game that my High School was in a couple of years ago, I think it drew 12 thousand or so.....

Our side was completely full(8 thousand), but the otherside wasn't

[FrogMan]

You want to have an idea how lucky you guys South of the border are with all the nice football programs and everything, and how in a different kind of world I live up North??

My alma mater, the Université Laval started its football program about 6-7 years ago only. They won the Vanier Cup, which is the College Football Championship in Canada, in 1999, only 4 years after starting the program. Well, Laval is one of the schools nationwide that draws the best crowds, its average: 15,000 or so...

You guys get 10k for a high school football game, wow!

All of this to say I'm a weirdo up here, as a football freak living in a hockey country... oh well...

FM

[MrBug708]

De La Salle-Long Beach Poly get's a huge attendance number

[Buzzbee]

SD - I can think of 5 reasons that the AJC would cater to Brookwood-Parkview over Marist-Tucker.

AAAAA

It is the largest classification so it is the one that "most" people will see as "the big game". Is that necessarily true? Of course not.

Another reason (ok, I should have put 6 reasons up above) is because this is the "rematch" of last years AAAAA state championship game. Neither Tucker, nor Marist made it to the finals. Parkview has what, a thirty something game winning streak? And Brookwood is a team that might possibly break that. That's better copy than Marist-Tucker. No doubt.

BUT, does that mean that Marist-Tucker should be ignored. Absolutely not. Tucker probably gets little respect because they are AAAA, and because they haven't won the big one.

Just my $0.02.

[scooper]

Originally posted by MrBug708
De La Salle-Long Beach Poly get's a huge attendance number

Go Freddie Parish!

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by Buzzbee
SD - I can think of 5 reasons that the AJC would cater to Brookwood-Parkview over Marist-Tucker.

AAAAA

It is the largest classification so it is the one that "most" people will see as "the big game". Is that necessarily true? Of course not.

Another reason (ok, I should have put 6 reasons up above) is because this is the "rematch" of last years AAAAA state championship game. Neither Tucker, nor Marist made it to the finals. Parkview has what, a thirty something game winning streak? And Brookwood is a team that might possibly break that. That's better copy than Marist-Tucker. No doubt.

BUT, does that mean that Marist-Tucker should be ignored. Absolutely not. Tucker probably gets little respect because they are AAAA, and because they haven't won the big one.

Just my $0.02.

Buzz:

I hear ya there. The coverage just seems disproportional. There have been two articles every day this week in the main sports section of the AJC about Brookwood-Parkview, but no mention apart from the DeKalb-only extra of Tucker-Marist. I fully believe that Brookwood-Parkview deserves the "marquee" title this week, but it just sucks that the AJC is treating it like the only big game in the city this week. Putting Tucker-Marist in the DeKalb-only section is relegating it to just a county-wide game, when in reality it is a game with state championship implications.

It is an ongoing frustration in Tucker, because the two games have fallen on the same week the last four years running.

[tucker342]

Originally posted by MrBug708
De La Salle-Long Beach Poly get's a huge attendance number

Well De La Salle should knowing that they've won so many in a row....

[Easy Mac]

I thought Marist was a private school? oR am I thinking of something else?

[JonInMiddleGA]

The mission of Marist School is to form the whole person in the image of Christ through instruction grounded in religious values, the teachings of the Catholic Church and the spirit of the Society of Mary. This mission is advanced through communal pursuit of excellence in academic, religious, extracurricular, leadership, and service programs.


from http://www.marist.com

[JonInMiddleGA]

And in case anyone happens to be curious ...

Tuition for 2002-2003 is $10,400, payable in August and November. Other expenses include a nonrefundable $400 registration fee, approximately $500 for books and supplies, and the usual cost for lunch, transportation, and school uniforms.

[digamma]

Originally posted by Easy Mac
I thought Marist was a private school? oR am I thinking of something else?

Marist is very much a private school, but they participate in the GHSA with most other private schools and all public schools.

Marist has quite the athletic tradition, with I guess their most recent notable alum being Matt Harpring of the Utah Jazz. As far as football talent, it's usally their linemen and linebackers that move on to the college ranks. The run the 'bone, so their skill position players are usually tremendously disciplined, but perhaps not as athletically gifted as other schools. (If I'm not mistaken, Harping played quarterback there when he was in high school.)

[Easy Mac]

Interesting. IN your neighbor state Catholics schools normally stick together in their own division. I think one school tried real sports a few years ago, but backed out to go to easier competiotion.

[Easy Mac]

Ah, I know a few kids from there, and my girlfriends cousin goes there.

[JonInMiddleGA]

EM - It's different in Georgia for several private schools, compared to other places. Here, the biggest concern has been that the private schools were too dominant in too many activities. That led to the GHSA adopting something urged by state House speak Tom Murphy (who's daughter always lost region debate competitions to a pvt school). It penalizes the private schools by multiplying enrollment by 1.5, forcing them artificially into a higher classification.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by JonInMiddleGA
EM - It's different in Georgia for several private schools, compared to other places. Here, the biggest concern has been that the private schools were too dominant in too many activities. That led to the GHSA adopting something urged by state House speak Tom Murphy (who's daughter always lost region debate competitions to a pvt school). It penalizes the private schools by multiplying enrollment by 1.5, forcing them artificially into a higher classification.

...and I believe Marist is the only one that plays up ANOTHER classification beyond Murphy's Law. Their real size is AA. Their "multiplied" size is AAA. They petition to play up to AAAA. Considering they go deep into the playoffs every year in football, baseball and basketball, and wipe up in the traditional private school sports like golf and tennis, I shudder to think how much they'd dominate if they played at AA.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by digamma
Marist has quite the athletic tradition, with I guess their most recent notable alum being Matt Harpring of the Utah Jazz.

You want to talk about someone who dominated in high school? His sister, Megan, was a force.

[Easy Mac]

hmmm, I guess private schools just aren't big deals in SC. Most normally specialize in 1 or 2 sports (normally baseball, golf or tennis) and get known for just that.

[The Afoci]

I don't know if it is the same there, but in Minnesota and North Dakota, private schools recruit and usually dominate in a few or all sports.

[digamma]

Originally posted by SkyDog
You want to talk about someone who dominated in high school? His sister, Megan, was a force.

She had a great freshman year at Georgia Tech also.

[Ben E Lou]

First article in the main AJC today. It is about all of Tucker's major-college talent: Link

Big-time talent gives Tucker 'unfair' edge
Tigers to play Marist for early lead in Region 6-AAAA

By MICHAEL CARVELL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Tucker is the school to watch for die-hard followers of college football recruiting.

The Tigers (2-0), who play at Marist (2-0) tonight at 7:30, have four players who are big-time prospects and a half-dozen more who are being scouted by smaller colleges.

"It just seems unfair," Marist coach Alan Chadwick said with a laugh. "It's one thing to have some college prospects, but for one school to have that many players at skill positions that are being recruited so highly . . . that's remarkable."

Tucker's Thomas Brown, who is considered one of the top tailbacks in the nation, has committed to Georgia; quarterback D.T. McDowell said he intends to sign with Nebraska; receiver James Swinton has committed to Auburn; and Brandon Lang, who plays tight end and defensive end, is deciding among offers from Georgia, Florida State and others.

"We've definitely got some talent, no doubt about it," Tucker coach Bill Ballard said. "Last spring was crazy as we had more than 100 major colleges in here to look at our kids.

"Some people think with all this talent, you don't have to coach or anything. But like Miami coach Larry Coker says, 'Talent gives you an opportunity to be successful.' If we don't work hard and do the things we need to do together as a team, then that talent will be wasted."

Marist's top college prospect is quarterback Sean McVay, who has been offered a scholarship by Miami of Ohio. McVay also has been getting phone calls from Maryland, Georgia Tech, Tulane, Rice and Duke.

Tucker and Marist are considered to be among the state's elite in Class AAAA, and some say tonight's game may be a preview of the state championship. The winner of the game between the DeKalb County powers has gone on to capture the Region 6 championship in each of the past five seasons.

"You can have all the talent in the world, but it doesn't mean anything if you don't play together," Brown said.

Brown (5 feet 10, 180 pounds) is mentioned as one of the country's top prospects by virtually every national recruiting publication. He traveled to Georgia, Florida State and Maryland during the summer and picked the Bulldogs with the blessings of his father, who is a minister.

McDowell (6-1, 194) committed to Nebraska after returning from football camp with the Cornhuskers. McDowell, who is also a pro baseball prospect, also had scholarship offers from Auburn and Louisiana State.

Swinton (6-1, 180) is the most unheralded of the foursome but perhaps has the most potential. The speedster has been clocked in the 40-yard dash at 4.35 seconds and in the 100 meters at 10.6 seconds. Auburn was the first school to offer, and Swinton committed because he felt like it was the perfect fit, but Ballard said more offers were on the way.

Lang (6-5, 220) says he will wait until the season is over before he makes a decision.

"All I'm worried about right now is the season," Lang said. "Everything else will take care of itself later on."

[Ben E Lou]

The AJC is reporting this morning that tickets for Brookwood-Parkview were being scalped for as high as $25. They didn't give a crowd estimate for that game.

They did, however, give an estimate for Tucker-Marist of 7,000.

[GrantDawg]

Sorry about the loss, Dog. What happened?

[The Afoci]

QB was sick and they couldn't stop big plays from what I have seen.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by GrantDawg
Sorry about the loss, Dog. What happened?

Check this thread for a full update, but the bottom line is that Marist made some key plays when they had to.

[GrantDawg]

Yeah, just looked over at the dynasty report. Sad, but that RB coming to UGA looks good.