2011 Fall Sports Review

By: Lee Ramsey
lee@seymourherald.com
When one thinks of cool crisp autumn evenings after a hot, humid summer, the first sport that comes to mind is football.
Football and fall are synonymous, especially in Seymour. It’s not only a football game it’s a social happening on Friday nights for the whole community.
The Seymour Eagles have struggled since moving to the IMAC under the leadership of Coach Jim Moore who took over the year Seymour moved into the IMAC.
It’s hard to compete against schools twice your size. The more students a school has the more speed, size and talent that school has to choose from. It takes 22 (offense and defense) players to make a football team as opposed to basketball for example with 5 on baseball with 9.
Seymour struggled again this season with only two wins. The team never gave up and kept fighting. One reason for that was leadership by three players; Corey Todd, Eric White and Jonathan Hurst who made the 2-AAA All IMAC district team. Todd was a top running back, White a defensive lineman and Hurst a punter.
The biggest story of the fall was the Lady Eagles soccer team winning the IMAC district regular season championship.
They sealed the championship the last game at home against Morristown West 2-1 in a rain soaked classic on Senior Night.
That was the upside to their season. The down side was losing their first district game to Jefferson County and an early exit from post season play.
The Lady Eagles Soccer Team ended the outstanding season 11-7 overall and undefeated in the IMAC.
Individual coaching honors went to coach Drew Payne for IMAC Coach of the Year. Eight Lady Eagles were selected All-IMAC. Five seniors were selected; Shelby Clark, Kristie Bridges, Ashley Solomon, Kelsy Hurst and Lauren Aucoin. Three sophomores were selected; Erin Thomas, Courtney Dyer and Sarah Brewer.
It was definitely a season for the history books for this Lady Eagle soccer team.
Lady Eagle Volleyball was full of ups and downs this past season and beyond.
Perhaps the highlight was earning the top seed in the district by defeating arch rival Sevier County in the final game of the regular season led by Coach Ed Irvin. Coach Irvin is a coaching legend in the sport of volleyball as he picked up his 700th win this past season.
Seymour tied Sevier County for the IMAC 2-AAA regular season championship with a 7-3 record. The Lady Eagle’s overall record was 26-13.
Three girls made the All IMAC team; Madison Coker, Nicole Warner and Kasey Norman.
The huge down of the season actually came at the end. Coach Irvin resigned as coach of the Lady Eagles volleyball team. This was a tremendous loss for the Seymour Volleyball program.
Golf is classified as a fall sport in high school but actually starts in the summer before school opens.
The Seymour golf teams both boys and girls surprised a lot of people as they put more trophies in the school display case.
The boys continued their dominance in the Sevier County Tournament as they won the championship once again. They have pretty much dominated the last 7 years and this year wasn’t any different as the Eagles placed 5 in the top 11 places. They were as follows: Ryan Burnett, Parker Rudder, Justice Murphy, Michael Bennett and Peyton Pressley.
The girls finished runner-up which was quite an accomplishment. Shelby Stinnett took second place as an individual which had a huge impact on the team finish.
In the 2-AAA IMAC district tournament Rudder and Murphy advanced to the region as they made the top 5 individual places.
From the region Seymour had one golfer, Murphy, to advance to the TSSAA state tournament. He shot a 1 over par 73 at Millstone Golf Club. He joined an elite group of Eagles who has made it to the state.
The state wasn’t his best performance shooting 85-86 and placing 60th but it was a tremendous accomplishment just to get there. He will have another shot next year.
Seymour Cross County also had one of its better years as both boys and girls advance to the regional held at Daniel Boone High School.
For the first time since moving to the IMAC, the Eagles advanced a runner to the state meet. In the region, Owen Schumacher qualified for the state by finishing 10th out of 100 runners with a time of 17:14. The Eagles finished 14th as a team.
In the state meet, Schumacher placed 64th out of 189 with a time of 17:44.
On the girls’ side in the region, Samantha Ferguson finished 42nd with a time of 23:35 out of 81 runners. The Lady Eagles team finished 11th as a team.