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sup_rbeast

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sup_rbeast last won the day on October 27 2015

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  1. Thing is, state law now requires a student to get 13 years of public education before they can drop out. There are ways around having to do two years of college after high school though. Dual enrollment classes allowed my youngest daughter to graduate from MECC before she graduated from Union High School, which also resulted in a full ride to UVA in Charlottesville. Her entire education including books didn’t cost us a dime. Actually she had money from other scholarships and grants that allowed her to have living and spending money the entire 4 years she was there. (Technically 3 thanks to COVID). But back to the point, I’ve worked in the public school system for nearly 24 years, teaching everything from dual enrollment to ISAEP, computer based classes & GED, and believe me there are kids who would be better suited to be out of school at 16 for positive and negative reasons. That’s just not how the system works now. In top of that, it’s currently much easier to get a high school diploma than a GED. For one, the GED has been ramped up to include junior and senior level math skills. Also, all the other subject areas have included higher level knowledge over the past 8-10 years. For most high school kids incapable of getting a diploma, a GED is usually pretty much out of the question. Now, responding to the reasons why it’s hard to get young people into coaching, I have some insight on that, too. When I started teaching in 2001, one of the main reasons I had decided to teach was to coach. That desire lasted 4 years. For one, if you divide up the compensation for the time you spend on a football staff, you make about 35 cents an hour. In top of that, unless you live in the community, you have late nights and early mornings. I used to get up at 6AM and get home about 10PM nightly. On game nights, 2-3AM was more like it. In addition to coaching as a varsity assistant, I was the head JV coach. So, on random Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, I would get home close to midnight. Then you have the parents, 50% or so who think their kid can be or already is a D1 prospect. You combine that with your duties as a teacher, and it leaves you with no home life. If you have kids, that’s not something you want to sacrifice to that extent. Four years of that was plenty for me, but had the HC I was working under kept going, I would’ve wanted to do the same because as a staff we had practically built a team from the ground up into a playoff team. Looking back though, I’m glad I got out when I did because it led to other after school opportunities like Jail GED, night school, homebound, etc that actually compensated you for your work to the tune of $25 per hour. During a given year, I actually made double doing after school programs than I did coaching both football and track. So, the bottom line is this: for most young people coming in as teachers, coaching just isn’t worth the time and effort, especially with the changes in kids and parents over the last couple decades. When people say that kids don’t want to do the work required to be great, by and large they are correct. That’s no myth. There are several reasons for that, mostly all going back to politicians dipping their fingers into the educational process and unreasonable court rulings enabling and empowering parents to stir, but that’s another post for another day.
  2. If the truth is that players weren’t going to play if Taylor remained the coach, the truth is they don’t love the sport. Anyone would be crazy to look at this situation and want to be the next guy the players didn’t want to play for “because he gets them hurt”. I don’t even know the guy but that’s ridiculous. I can remember a time when Lebanon actually had a legit program, (I played vs them in the 1990 Semis when they dropped to 1A D2), and those guys were in no way soft and their commitment to the sport was unquestionable. If Lebanon ever want to be at that level again, it will take a change in the players, not in the coach.
  3. In 88, it was Pennington and Jonesville. In 87 it was Pennington and Appalachia. In 1988, Appy went into the PV game ranked #1 in the state. The upset loss to PV took all the steam out of them and imo the carry over resulted in the loss to Jonesville the following week, but they were probably the best team in Division 1 or 2. They had beaten Pennington earlier in the year and unless in mistaken, Jonesville too. 1988 Appy is one of the best teams ever from SWVA not to win a state title. They were loaded.
  4. Adjustments go both ways. This one will be a close game and I think a lot of who wins it comes down to who shows up ready to play fundamentally sound and disciplined football and who doesn’t. IMO, based on the game last week, TS has to play their best game to beat RC. It’s doable, but I don’t know that 14 days makes that much of a difference. RC is just much more battle tested…it’s as simple as that.
  5. If the PH game plan is the same as the one they used in the regular season, I don’t see them beating Honaker. One kid running the ball 50 times isn’t going to get it done. I do think the winner of this game is the team to beat in 1D, though, regardless of which one it is.
  6. While there’s no trophy for getting in, having a first round bracket including teams who don’t have excellent (or at least very good) records lessens the accomplishment for those who do. I’ve seen and remember in the past 8 and 9 win teams failing to get in. Thing is, before those seasons ever started, every team in the region knew how high the bar to get in was…and that turned several games per year into must win games. IMO it gave the season more meaning and gave the playoffs a lot more meaning. I’m not saying it has to go back to that, but I wouldn’t mind it, either. The way it sits right now (especially in 2D where there are only 2 districts) 4 is plenty, 6 is a tad much, and 8 is just making teams who deserve to be there beat several who don’t. I think everyone understands the VHSL gets an extra round of ticket sales, but that’s just part of the problem.
  7. Is there any rule against that now?
  8. Regardless of the number of teams that get in, imo they should at least have to have a minimum 5-5 record or else the region could reduce the number of teams to those with eligible records…kinda like being bowl eligible in college football. Give byes to the top teams starting with the top seed for every spot without an eligible team.
  9. Thing is, there’s only 15 or so teams each in 1D and 2D…4 teams is over 25% of the teams..6 would be nearly half. The playoffs should be for the very good to elite teams…and they shouldn’t have to take a chance losing players to injury playing fair to middling teams before they actually got down to business. Region 2C is the most obvious example this year that you need at least 4, but I don’t see a case there where there should be even 5. In 2D this year 4 would have been plenty, as well.
  10. I think the results of the Region D playoffs top to bottom showed that. Everyone talks up this team or that team as having a chance at an upset and then 1-4 advances. IMO 4 is the right number, but I could live with 6 to satisfy the give em a trophy crowd.
  11. More than anything, Eastside’s failure to be able to execute a free kick after a safety did them in. They were in pretty good shape up 6-2…but that changes quickly when you end up kicking off from your own 5 yard line because you can’t figure out how to kick a ball straight. Hell, punt it like normal people do.
  12. Radford is never a safe bet when anything is on the line.
  13. That’s a lot of ifs when you consider it’s high school football.
  14. How did Rural Retreat go into this week at 4-5 and end up at 5-5 with a loss?
  15. They’ve played at least twice, IIRC. (Just checked, they have only played once besides jamborees etc, and that was the opening round of the 2014 playoffs with Union winning 30-20 at the park)
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