sup_rbeast

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Is there any rule against that now?

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.

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.

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.

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.

Radford is never a safe bet when anything is on the line.

That’s a lot of ifs when you consider it’s high school football.

How did Rural Retreat go into this week at 4-5 and end up at 5-5 with a loss?

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)

So, with one week to go, what are the possible outcomes for seeds 3-8 in 1D and 2D? I figure the top two in 2D are pretty safe bets to be Union and Graham. In 1D, I’m pretty confident that Honaker is 1, but there could be a lot of movement from 2 on down depending on the TS/RC outcome. If RC wins that game, what’s the possibility of having an 8-2 TS team have to travel for the first round? (I know that is a distinct possibility for an 9-1 Bath County team in 1C due to a super weak schedule, and besides the Union game, TS may have played the weakest out of district schedule any team in the region has played in a long long time. Seriously, Hancock County, Northwood, Cumberland Gap, and Unaka? At this point, the combined record of those 4 teams is going to end up being 6-34) What are the most likely seedings in the bottom half of the 2D bracket? What are the seeding ranges for the teams in the bottom half of the 1D bracket? etc. etc.

Don’t have to have a chance to go out there and play your best and give it hell…besides, that’s what the running clock is for.

That looked like a choke slam when it happened. I know one thing, after that run the defenders from Abingdon weren’t too keen on tackling that kid anymore. Ha

The situation at the end of the half was this: Union got a first down at the 2 and that stopped the clock until the chains were set. The ref was holding the play and clock until the marker was set. The clock operator ran the clock without the ref’s signal because he was still waiting on the yard marker. Union should have had 4 seconds to spike the ball. Because the clock had ran and expired before the ref wound the clock, they gave Union a play and the line judge ruled Abingdon offsides when Union snapped the ball during all the confusion. Actually the clock should have been set back to 4 seconds with the ball at the 2. So they got it kinda right. Union got 1 play and scored, had it been done correctly, the only difference in the way it turned out was the clock wasn’t reset and the yard on the Abingdon penalty.

I’m not sure Union has the on field discipline or the special teams play to go very far in the playoffs. You only get away with those kinds of mistakes so many times before they cost you a game.

Unless I’m mistaken, PV’s first ever playoff appearance was in 1982. That coincided with their first state title. Prior to that PV was considered a good program, but not elite in any sense of the word. The P-Nut program had been in place since 1970…I think (but may be mistaken) that it was started under Cecil Maddux’s watch. But, besides1984 and 1991, I can’t remember a single year Phil missed the playoffs. The second title in 1985 was a team completely built by Phil because all of Bolling’s guys were gone. Phil gets undercut a lot with people claiming he had this and that without knowing exactly what he had. One thing he DID have was the ability to prepare players to play at an elite level. You were never on the field in a PV uniform not knowing what to do or not knowing exactly what your assignments and adjustments were. That’s where he excelled. He was a cerebral coach with a great ability to teach the game and scenarios. He was also second to none in assessing and knowing where each player would help the team the most. There have been a lot of great coaches in SWVA over the years, but it ain’t like Phil was handed the keys to a Cadillac that autopiloted itself for 30 years. The man knew what he was doing.

Try around 1986…lol

I’d argue that if both staffs were swapped, you’d have the same result because I never once saw either coach make a single play for PV or Appy either one. All I ever saw was them standing on the sidelines coaching the runs of talent they both had.

The people who argue that PV had better facilities than anyone else have no clue what PV had prior to the 1990s. Until 1991, there was no field house. The players dressed in the basketball locker room, in the hall, in the JV locker room or the PE locker room. There was a sled, a chute, some boards, a few dummies a practice field with an old crossbar, and a weight room in the old health class room, and that was it…and 4 State Championships were won before the field house or any of that ever come along. Hell, Appalachia had a field house years before PV did.

In 1989, PV had 60 players and 2 coaches at practice everyday. That was Phil Robbins and Barry Jones. On game days, and maybe once or twice a week there was another coach who worked with RBs, and that was Jim Kelly. The following year, Kelly was out there full time and Coach Huff began his tenure coaching O Line at PV.