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Bearcat Dad

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Bearcat Dad last won the day on July 28 2019

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  1. I haven’t posted in a while, so I figured I would get on here and congratulate coach Palmer and the GMen...... Also, watching grown men talking **** to each other about high school football, like some on this thread, never fails in entertainment value.
  2. Actually, you hit the nail on the head, for current times. VHS has always had low numbers, but now there are just fewer kids playing sports. We even fell to what we consider “1A” a few years back. As I was growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, Bristol did have a thriving manufacturing setting for non college bound kids to start working in immediately after high school, but never much else. That is no longer the case. The young Bristol families had to move away to find work that pays enough to stay off of government assistance. With the loss of good paying jobs coupled with the recent retail boom in Bristol, young families have been replaced by retirees, so the population hasn’t seen a tremendous change, but the enrollment at VHS has managed to stay fairly similar over the decades. I graduated from VHS in 97, and the enrollment was pretty close to what it is now, but we constantly had 50+ kids on the football team every year. Part of the problem at VHS is culture. Bristol has always been a baseball town. Numbers have declined in baseball the last couple of years, but not too long ago, we would have to cut 2-3 times as many kids that tried out for baseball, as the number of kids that made the team. Until 2 seasons ago, we regularly had well over 20 kids on the Varsity baseball team because kids wanted to be part of a winning culture. With that said, VHS has always had kids leave to go to Battle, Abingdon, Damascus, Patrick Henry, and the big one, Tn. High. Kids from other areas only transfer to VHS to play baseball. EDIT; I didn’t quite finish my thought, so here goes.... There has always been a lot of older people that have lived in Bristol. There are just more, now. Numerous people from the coalfields, my parents included, who didn’t want their children to go underground, saw Bristol as their “escape” so to speak. My dad moved us from Coeburn to Bristol in 1984, just in time for me to start kindergarten. That generation and the one before have either retired, or are close to retiring. Couple those retirees, with the number of married people who don’t have kids, (my little brother, a 2001 VHS grad, and his wife, a 2003 VHS grad, are examples of this, along with many others) explains some of why Bristol has a decent size population, but a low high school enrollment. Sometimes numbers are also just funny like that. I watched a piece on WCYB a few weeks ago about Abingdon. They have a population of 10,000, yet have the biggest high school enrollment in SWVA.
  3. Good point! Too bad the current AD didn’t bring any of the winning ways from the school he came from.
  4. I couldn’t agree more. The football heads in Bristol were ecstatic when he came back for a second time, to set the program up for his son to take over. An unfortunate incident with a well connected player, caused Wheeler to be run out of town. I was very disappointed, as my son was in elementary school when Wheeler came back and I had hoped he would get the chance to play for him or his son. It wasn’t meant to be, I guess.
  5. Unfortunately for Bearcat fans, you’re off base here. You can’t compare VHS and Tazewell. VHS is not that young. Four of their top players, all skill players, are either freshmen or sophomores. Their linemen, which is the team’s glaring weakness(outside of the head coach), are all upperclassmen. There are no big bodies behind those upperclassmen, to take their place next year, or they would already be playing, to take their lumps with the young skills. @FoxTrot hit the nail on the head. I can personally vouch for VHS football over the last 30+ years. Outside of the tenures of Paul Wheeler and Mike Locke (a Wheeler disciple) VHS has had over a century of mediocrity. Mostly, because Bristol always has been, and always will be, a baseball town. It really is as simple as that. The school and the community just doesn’t care about football, like they do baseball. Until another Wheeler or Locke type comes in, with not only the testicular fortitude to buck the system, but also with a good football IQ and the ability to actually care about more than themselves, VHS will stay mired in this century-long trip of being average......period.
  6. I think they returned like 8 starters from last year. I know they lost a player that’s playing defense in the Big 10 now, but as impactful as Cam could be on defense last year, he was even more impactful on offense. Their defense was so good later in the season, Cam didn’t have to be “The Guy” on that side of the ball. To me, if they stay healthy, Graham’s defense may rival the defense of Appomattox in 2016, which I saw in person, by season’s end. They. Are. Nasty.
  7. Out of respect for the fact that you make the rules around here, I will leave the discussion with this. Nothing I stated had anything to do with “facts”. I have no recorded numbers to turn this into a “facts” discussion. It’s been my opinion from the beginning. Time will tell if anyone Graham faces the rest of the way, has more team speed than Tazewell. This is my final statement on the matter. No disrespect intended, but if this gets me in trouble here, then so be it. We have a difference of opinion.
  8. You guys may have the only defense on the rest of their regular season schedule that can keep the team in it. Their defense is just crazy good lol
  9. Do you have some bone to pick with me? I know this is your site, but for years I’ve given you credit for being smarter than this. I said they were fast. I’ve also said numerous times that Graham would win the game. How hard is that to understand? By the way, yes, Graham should have an easy road the rest of the way.
  10. Pulaski Co. Abingdon Grayson Co. George Wythe Giles Central Battle Ridgeview Graham Narrows Galax Grundy Honaker Hurley Twin Valley Patrick Henry Holston Rural Retreat Bluefield Virginia Boise St. Virginia Tech West Virginia Clemson Tennessee LSU North Carolina Cleveland Washington Kansas City Los Angeles Chargers New England G(s)otW Union - 53 JI Burton - 64
  11. That’s exactly why I pick Graham to win the game. The push that Graham’s defense can provide, may be too much for any offensive line in our region to handle.
  12. I knew about and mentioned Bluefield’s QB and RB and their massive O-line. I did not know about House. But, like you used the word “likely”, I used “may be”. My meaning was not certain, but there’s a good chance. Lester is probably a bit faster than anyone for Tazewell too, but not by much. I could be wrong, but I don’t believe any of these boys have the elite speed that, say, Cooke had for Graham, 2 years ago. I’m talking elite, 4.3 speed. Lester, Harris, and Jordan are all really fast. The Dawg’s new QB looked like he could fly as well. My whole point was that Tazewell has a lot of speed on their offense. I’ve stated more than once, that even though that speed puts Tazewell back into the upper echelon of teams in Region D, Graham is still in a league of their own, overall, in the region. My initial post that @GMan quoted, was talking about the offenses that Graham will face this season. Bluefield may very well have more team speed, but when you have everything else that program has, all aspects of the team are magnified, immeasurably. The kids that will be responsible for the overwhelming majority of offensive touches for Tazewell have a lot of speed. That’s all my post meant. I didn’t forget anyone, nor am I trying to slight anyone. That’s the only meaning.
  13. Nope. I didn’t forget. I stand by what I said. What/who gives Bluefield more overall offensive speed? I know they have a mammoth O-line. I know their RB and QB are really, really good. I admit that you have more knowledge about Bluefield than I do, and I may be wrong, but Tazewell has a ton of speed. They don’t have the size that Bluefield has, or the long tenured head coach, or the state championship pedigree. I’m not saying Tazewell is even near the same league, overall, as Bluefield. I’m just saying that Tazewell may be the fastest offense Graham sees, with Harris, Jordan, and the new QB. Again, this is not a talent comparison on my part. Bluefield is without a doubt, the class of our coverage area. I’m just talking about strictly speed from the starting skills. I don’t even mean that the speed gives Tazewell an advantage this Friday. Lord Botetourt proved against Bluefield last year, that a speed advantage doesn’t always produce a win.
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