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I think you confused the word “brave” with the word “stupid.” lol. No one is kicking to Cam on purpose.

It's that kinda arrogance, mixed in at the very end of a very rational, logical post that paint a target on GC. Most of the posters here are from places like Richlands, Graham, Union, places that can (and absolutely have) competed with and beaten GC during their glory years. It's not a lot of Wise fans or Lee fans, and those are the schools who benefit the most from GC being down. I know from a Union perspective, I WISH GC was good again! You get way more points from being a 7-8 win team as opposed to a one or two win team and it's better for the M7 as a whole if more schools are good.

Central Woodstock is on the “watch list”. However, barring any injuries, East Rock is at the top of my list. Their defense has improved dramatically. The offense is top shelf.

Nobody wants to go to Gate City...'cept Chris Akers....

Bluefield has open offers to Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Giles, and Tennessee High that I know of to schedule games. They have always been turned down. Do they play a weak schedule? I think so but it is because there is no one strong to play. Graham is pretty good most of the time. Same for Richlands. James Monroe is pretty decent. Who else are you gonna play? I'm sure if Union called Bluefield and the dates lined up Bluefield would play Union.

People who say Bluefield plays a "weak" schedule obviously don't know how hard it is for the Beavers to schedule local competition. Teams in the area don't want to play Bluefield because they not only lose but get embarrassed. People always give Coach Simon hell for running up the score on teams but what is he supposed to do? Take a knee the entire second half? People don't like Bluefield for the same reason people don't like Richlands, they win all the time. If your team has dropped the Beavers off of their schedule, then you have no right at all to accuse them of playing weak competition. Especially when Bluefield has had to schedule teams like Charlotte Country Day School in the past because they couldn't get anyone around here to play them.

There sure is more to life, you're right. Maybe you should heed your own advice? You've been barking up Akers' tree for over a year now, and all it's done is begin to turn SWVA against GC's fan base. Which is unfortunate, because I've always had wonderful interactions with their actual fans. If you believe what you say, then does it matter if Akers is the coach anymore? Afterall, there's so much more to be worried about out there, right?

LOL...please...

I think the big schools in Georgia, Florida and California would disagree

Praying

I could have gotten you a deal on those!

Last 5 champs 2013 Giles 2014 glenvar 2015 appo 2016 appo 2017 appo

In 2004, R4D3 had probably its weakest year ever. You had a 9-1 Grundy team that was the victim of one of the biggest screw jobs in SWVA history against a 4-6 Virginia High team in Round 1. You had two mediocre (putting it kindly) Tazewell and Graham teams sitting at 6-4 and 5-5 respectively in the #2 and #3 spots. Tazewell beat Graham 19-13 in a very poorly played game in Round 1 (also known as Carlock’s last game). Tazewell then beat Virginia High 26-7 in another poorly played game in Round 2. Tazewell won R4D3 and got boatraced by a Gretna team that obviously overlooked them yet still won handily. Tazewell ended up making it to December by playing 2 playoff teams with a combined record of 10-13. And that Tazewell team was 6-4, winning 3 games by 2 points or fewer (Carroll County, Graham [1st game], VHS [1st game]). 2013 was not AS weak, but it was pretty much Giles, Gate City, and everyone else.

A foolish post that was derogatory towards Bluefield and WV football warrants a truthful response, so I’m just going to going post an accurate story about Beaver history from online. Merille Gainer “Football Coach. Thru the 1960s he headed a number of nationally ranked high school teams. A 1940 graduate from Shepherd College, he served in the U.S. Navy during World War II prior to starting a long coaching career. He first gained renown at Big Creek High School in War, West Virginia but earned a national reputation at Bluefield High School in Bluefield, West Virginia. Taking over a chronically losing program in 1959, he won a state championship; over nine seasons, his teams had a record of 87-6-1 and won four Class AAA state titles, with three of the losses and the tie coming in 1963. During his Bluefield years he coached several nationally ranked teams and turned down offers from a number of major colleges. Following the Beavers' fourth championship in 1967, Coach Gainer retired, though his retirement was to be short-lived as he accepted an offer from Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia in 1969. The school had won one game in the previous three seasons but Coach Gainer immediately had them winning and the Patriots captured the Virginia state championship in 1973. The coach retired for good in 1978 but over the years was a highly sought after instructor for coaching seminars throughout the country. He was inducted into the National High School Athletics Hall of Fame in 1979 and the West Virginia Sports Writers Hall of Fame in 1986. Coach Gainer was the high school coach of "Rocket Boy" Homer Hickam at Big Creek and was portrayed in the movie "October Sky" by David Copeland. Today the stadium at Patrick Henry High School carries his name.

I have no clue if any communication has taken place between Union and Bluefield, but I'm not sure if that would be good. I like the idea of playing Bluefield from a competitive standpoint. It would give the Bears a great glimpse into the speed that some of the teams, they may see in the playoffs, possess. The same with playing Graham over the next cycle. However, I do not like playing out of district teams that your district OR other out of district opponents also play. This hurts the amount of bonus points you can accumulate. Hypothetical #1.....This year for instance, we have Richlands, Letcher Co, and Mo West on our OOD schedule. We have beaten all 3, and we are heading into the final 3 weeks of the year. All 3 of our opponents win their last 2 games. That's a possibility of 18 bonus points. Hypothetical #2....We have Richlands, Bluefield and Graham on our OOD schedule. We have beaten all 3, and are heading into the final 3 weeks of the year. This time, our OOD opponents play each other. Richlands/Graham, Richlands/Bluefield, Graham/Bluefield, Graham/Opponent, Bluefield/Opponent, Richlands/Opponent. That's only a possibility of 12 pts. That 6 pts could be the difference in a 26.5 rating and a 27.1 and cost your team the #1 seed or the opportunity to host a semi-final game. Maybe the experience and preparation are more valuable than home field advantage. Maybe they're not. I would rather not take the chance.

I have not seen a single GC person say that GC will be back on top immediately when a coaching change is made. IT’S A START!!!! I have made the comment, “it’s a step in the right direction”. Nobody said that GC will go 8-2, 9-1, or 10-0 under Reed in 2019. If a GC fan believes that garbage, he/she is a fool. We have 3 years of BS fundamentals (or lack of) to purge from the kids memory from Varsity to Little League. It’s a huge process. But a change, the right change, is a step toward fixing this mess. I don’t understand how that sounds like 2019 playoff berth, M7 champs, and State champs. But hey, I get all the hate, it would suck to be 2nd fiddle to Gate City for a few more decades. I can’t blame y’all for wanting to continue to see GC down for the count. That’s why you all want to continue to see Akers at GC. It would suck for other schools if Akers was no longer at GC killing the program. Enjoy it while you can because we’ll be back. And hell, we don’t know if the SB is gonna fire Akers yet. If not, I hope it’s remembered by the fans come election time.

Last time Abingdon played a game they were in a dog fight with a bad VA High team. Ridgeview got their wake up call against Battle. Wolfpack wins by 2 TDs, maybe more. The Falcons don't like smash mouth football.

Vanilla is an insult to the entire frosty history! Don't know about all the Wendy's but at least the one in Tazewell was selling the books for $1 that gets you something like 5 free frostys...

Burton is a passing team for the most part Chilhowie by 50+

I like chocolate on top and vanilla on the bottom

Fred Simon has been coaching Bluefield since the Challenger explosion. Greg Mance has been coaching Richlands since the Clinton administration. Those are two coaches who have seen almost everything; adjusted to almost everything; and have won almost everything. In order to be playing in December (unless you luck up in a year like 2004 or 2013), you have to go through the Greg Mances and the Travis Turners of the world to get there. Palmer’s not at that level...yet. I’ve seen nothing to suggest that he can’t get there. However, I would like to see more even-headed and consistent play. The Union game last year was disappointing not for the loss, but the manner in which the loss happened. Same for the Richlands games in 2016. Those are program-defining moments. Again, I have the faith he can get there.

I can understand the frustration from the Gate City faithful concerning their football team losing as much as they have lately. Sometimes when you are inside a situation like this you don't always see things the same way as someone on the outside looking in. In this case those of us on the outside see a handful of Gate City fans bashing the coach for the past year and a half. When you watch the video that was posted that isn't a team that has given up on their coaching staff or the game of football. Whether the fans, coaches, parents, or kids want to admit to it or not the talent simply isn't on the field. Are the "athletes" not playing because of Chris Akers? Possibly. I'm gonna say it has to do with a lot of kids walking around with a basketball in their hands hoping to be the next McClung. I'm not saying that's a bad thing but it is what it is. I'm sure back in the day kids were wanting to be the next Houseright. I may be reading the few of you wrong but it seems there is a perception that when Reed or whoever takes over Gate City football will return immediately to its glory days. That may very well be the case but just in case it doesn't happen then what?

Good luck to the Pioneers as well! Your nephew and the band do a great job, week in and week out.

I think this could be a bit of a trap game for Virginia High. Their depth has been an obstacle all season and with injuries it gets worse. They definitely have enough talent to win it. Lebanon looked better against Castlewood, the offense finally started clicking running and passing. The defense finally showed some toughness. Again it was against Castlewood, VHS is another beast entirely. I hope VHS can make the playoffs, I enjoyed watching them last year against Marion, even though it was freezing. On a nonfootball note I can't wait to watch my nephew come to LHS as a drum major for the Bearcats this Friday. Good luck the rest of the season

I appreciate the response. I wasn’t going to dignify his classless personal attack with any sort of response, but this is pretty much on the ball. When a person enjoys a community and desires to be an active part of it, it’s not particularly hard to rack up 10K posts over a 15-year period. It’s particularly easy when i used to be the one that would provide Graham score updates on Friday night for years prior to (1) having kids and (2) the Kicks Country broadcasts being unlistenable. But I appreciate him showing his true colors. It’s a shame to see so many of that type affiliated with Gate City. I’m sure there are enough reasonable folks there (and a few of them do post here).

Game should be A+, though.

Bluefield would likely win the 2A title in VA this year by a couple scores, but the comparisons to a team like Greeneville were, optimstic, to say the least. A school with less than 700 kids is gonna have a hard time beating a school with 1500+ kids and takes their football seriously.

Awesome Post!!

Very well written...you still don’t know what you are talking about though.

Graham has been “through it”, insofar as we had to endure two coaches back-to-back who routinely squandered talent; who were abrasive to the point their teams quit on them; and did unconscionable things like giving away a home game (and the gate revenue that went with it) so he could watch his son be the 3rd string long snapper (this is not a joke; this literally happened) at UNC. Now, unless there’s something happening at Gate City that hasn’t been leaked by the Columbos of this board, nothing of this magnitude is happening at Gate City. What’s going on there is (1) a below-average, but not incompetent, football coach is (2) working with a severe shortage of talent that is beyond his control yet (3) gets them to play hard every week while (4) an indifferent leadership is resting on its basketball laurels. That is nowhere near the level of what happened at Graham during “the lost decade”. Not even close. And I barely scratched the surface. This is exacerbated by the Roman Empire-like arrogance of a not insignificant number of your “fans”, claiming that a coach who hasn’t won anything without his hand being held by Colobro is going to miraculously fix the dysfunctional Gate City feeder program while simultaneously Merlining the talent currently on the roster into a state championship caliber team in 0.024 seconds. It’s straight delusion, and let’s just say it pretty closely matches the reputation given to me by dozens of M7 fans regarding Gate City before you all ever dreamed of posting on this site. I know I’m wasting my time. But since you summoned Graham as a comparison, you had this one coming.

Thanks again to everyone for their kind words. Aaron was diagnosed with a pretty severe concussion. We did receive great news though. Aaron was born with what’s called a Porencephalic Cyst on his brain. Doctors have called him a “Wonder Kid” because an overwhelming majority of kids that are born with this affliction have Cerebral Palsy and generally do not live past their early 20s. They usually have really bad health issues their entire lives. Not only has Aaron been blessed with great health, but has been able to be a standout athlete and is being recruited by some colleges in both baseball and football. He was diagnosed with the concussion, but the doctor said that there was no change with his lesion. The power of prayer really works! We have been contacted by so many coaches, players, and parents from teams all over the region, and prayers were even asked for during the Tennessee High football game radio broadcast. There are too many to thank individually, so again, his mother and I would like to thank everyone in our SWVA football family. He has had a good weekend and hopes to be back on the field soon. God bless!

There has to be a $.50 Frosty day coming up at some point.

The announcer you reference would be the ubiquitous Paul "Slick" Cook -- local legend and former Mayor of Richlands. And although I can understand the consternation of opposing fans, I have nothing but love for the man. He even gave me a public shout out during the 2005 playoff game between Richlands and Liberty -- gained me a bit of grief from my Bedford neighbors, but I still appreciate the gesture. Oh, and I was present back in 1978 for Marion's victory over the Blues (along with Ernie Hicks and a few thousand other folks). I was all of seven years old, but I remember the shared sense of community disappointment in yet another 3 win season. Bright spots were few and far between for Richlands football back then. Truly these are the "good old days."

Fuller would start at any other school in the area, not a bad backup option to have.

Mance said Mono after the game. Someone who know someone Fle said the Flu. Not sure which is correct. Either way, I thought Fuller was doing a fine job on the punts and kickoffs in Fle’s absence.

If they hold Bluefield to 6 points at home I’ll buy everyone on here a frosty

Burton 8th grader badly injured vs. Union had to be taken on ambulance. Either head of neck injury.