Rigsby has done admirable job coaching Lions

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Cannon County boys basketball coach Matt Rigsby was not voted the District 8-AA Coach of the Year and that’s a shame.
Don’t get me wrong. It is hard to argue with Livingston Academy Head Coach Jimmy Miller, who won the award. Miller
lost a wealth of talent from last year’s championship team.

But the Wildcats also returned Player of the Year Wade Eldridge and senior guard Trent Nivens who teamed to help lead the Wildcats to the previous title.

After back-to-back losing seasons generated by growing pains after losing a bulk of talent from its Substate team four
years ago, the Lions stormed back with a vengeance in 2013-14. They ended the regular season with 24 wins, a share of
the District 8-AA championship for the first time since 1998 and a No. 6 ranking in the Associated Press Class AA poll.
Kudos to Rigsby for his patience in building this team over the past two seasons. This year has been in the making
for the last two seasons as Rigsby developed the skills of talented younger players and built for this season.

The Lions delivered. Rigsby deserves praise because he has one of, if not, the toughest jobs in District 8-AA. Unlike other teams throughout the district, Cannon County does not have a middle school to feed its high school program. Cannon County’s enrollment is also one of the smallest amongst teams in District 8-AA.

Despite limited numbers and lack of a quality feeder program, Rigsby has succeeded in building a solid program and championship contender at CCHS.

This is not said to knock quality coaches at grammar schools throughout the county. These coaches do an admirable
job as evidenced by the number that arrive at the high school level with fundamentals as part of their base. The fact remains; however, that most grammar school programs don’t even have enough players to scrimmage. Because of the
system in Cannon County it will always take time for players to develop chemistry once they reach high school. Rigsby has done a good job accelerating the process through his work with AAU programs throughout the county.

In his time as coach at Cannon County Rigsby has done as good of a job as can be expected and has turned in two
monster seasons, including this one.

Given his situation you would think intelligent coaches in 8-AA would realize his plight and honor him with Coach of
the Year honors.

Then again, one has to ponder what league coaches really know or if they at least do their homework. Cannon County is one of the top defensive teams in Tennessee, regardless of classificiaton, allowing less than 50 points per contest. The Lions easily have some of the top defensive leaders in the league yet not one Lion was represented on the All-Defensive team. One must ponder how Tommy Mitchell, Jacob Nave and Tanner Larson were not included.

As far as Larson. He was named third team all-district. To be regarded as one of the top 15 players in the league is an
honor but third team?

Larson easily should have been on the second team. His rebounding and post defense alone should have earned him
that but he is also a double-figure scoring threat.

Defense wins championships and Rigsby has his team in position entering the postseason.

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Members Opinions:
February 13, 2014 at 6:14am
Could not agree more with Coach Rigsby for Coach of the Year. All sports suffer from lack of a middle school.
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February 13, 2014 at 10:40am
Ironically, both HS teams are successful because we have six K-8 schools instead of one middle school. The K-8 schools get to introduce many more kids to the game of basketball instead of just a few. Yes, you only need a few good ones to put on the HS teams however, as students mature and develop, it is easy for the "diamond in the rough" player to get left out in 6th grade if they haven't matured yet. With the K-8 schools, the HS coaches get to choose from a pool of 15-20 potential players instead of just 5. That is why Cannon has been so successful. No I don't want to argue for or against a Middle School, been there done that and now moved on and Cannon should see what its assests are instead of trying to be like other schools who struggle. Enough of that, kudos to both Coach Rigsby and Dodgen. Our boys have an outstanding team this year, but just wait and see....they will be even better next year! Go Lions!
February 14, 2014 at 8:33am
Marshall McReynolds should have been included in the All Defensive Team. That was a major oversite.
February 14, 2014 at 10:19am
Tony, while I agree with much that you have said, the only problem that I have is that you are a little late to the ballgame.
At the last home game I sat near some people from Murfreesboro who had come to watch the girls game. When I pointed out to them that the boys team was ranked first in our district and sixth on the AP poll they had no idea our boys team was so good.
No doubt I am biased toward the boys team being Tommy Mitchell's grandfather, but I think the main reason our boys don't get the proper respect and recognition they deserve in the district voting or in the general public is due to the lack of reporting of their accomplishments. There was very little reporting on the sucess of the boys team locally with the exception of what we got from Keith on WBRY. I saw almost no reporting in the Daily News Journal of Murfreesboro.
I in no way mean to denigrate or take anything away from our exceptional girls team, however, they are only half of Cannon County High School's basketball program. I am for one every bit as proud of our boys team as I am of the girls team.
Jack





February 14, 2014 at 1:51pm
And while Tony does a great job of reporting, I agree with Jack. Well said.
February 15, 2014 at 7:37am
With a middle school concept you could have a 8th grade team ,a 7th grade team and a 6th grade team and the K-5 schools could still play 4th and 5th grade teams .Nobody would be left out. All other sports would get a boost. I admit that I am dreaming because it will never happen and if it ever did some folks would never be happy. Poll the high school coaches for the answer they are the ones affected. Rock on Cannon Nation.
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