sixcat

It's far more common for kids in P5 or G5 schools to end up on a path similar to this when entering the Transfer Portal. Should be a cautionary tale but all we see from ESPN is Cody Shrader puff pieces. Young people that haven't developed critical thinking skills yet, see those pieces and think everyone is doing it. So they leap and end up falling out of sight.

I'm not a fan of turf at any level. We have well over 20 years of data that strongly suggests increased injury, especially in younger people who haven't fully developed. But it's the trend and I don't see it going away anytime soon.

Copied from NFHS............ Art. 7. It is traveling when a player falls to the playing court while holding the ball without maintaining a pivot foot. It's impossible to maintain a pivot foot while sliding down the floor.

I was told by some college coaches back during the fall golf season, local kids have a reputation of not staying in school. If they pick one up by default, great but they aren’t going to waste too many resources going after many of them. It is what it is.

I just found out, Tazewell already has stormwater in place below the existing grass. That makes the process much simpler. Still requires DEQ approval but from a design and construction perspective, much quicker turnaround. They should have no problem finishing construction by August.

I misunderstood you earlier. TCPS awarded contracts in the fall to contractors, not contracts to a design firm. If construction has begun at Graham and the project has a competent contractor, work should be completed by summer unless we experience something biblical weather wise. That doesn't mean Graham, Tazewell and Richlands were designed simultaneously and doesn't mean they will be constructed simultaneously either. Each school will be submitted to DEQ as a separate project for review. Each will have a different and unique timeline through that process. Graham is obviously past that process but the other two may very well not be. Especially if DEQ requested changes to the original design, which would begin the clock all over again for a second review. DEQ could grant TCPS permission to bid each of the three projects based on initial design with the caveat, no construction shall begin prior to certain changes being approved through DEQ for the other two schools. That could explain why Tazewell and Richlands have approved a contractor but work hasn't begun. If no public funds are being used for the projects, TCPS would be free to hire whomever they choose without having to go through competitive bids. Which could also explain why contractors have been hired but work hasn't commenced. Either way, it's a much more lengthy process than most people realize.

EPA is called DEQ in Virginia. Department of Environmental Quality. No project over 10,000 square feet involving disturbance of existing ground conditions in Virginia can go to construction without a permit from them. If school board just approved the contracts for design and construction last fall, design has barely even begun at this point. The engineers have barely had enough time to get survey data back to begin design. If this is indeed the case, construction will not begin before 2025. What was once a 6-month process to get from field survey to construction is now 18-months. Especially considering most state agencies in charge of review and issuance of necessary permits to go to construction are still working from home. I'm not involved in the Tazewell County projects but I've been directly involved in a number of turf installations over the years in other localities.

I applaud your enthusiasm but my 25+ years of experience in the engineering world tell me, everything reasonable goes out the window when design and construction involve state and federal agencies. Tree removal, sediment basins, and retaining walls all require DEQ permits before construction can begin. DEQ review of construction plans is a minimum, 9-month process. More often than not, it's longer. If they require changes to the plans, the calendar starts all over again.

Nevada has a "None Of These Candidates" option on primary ballots. Nikki Haley lost to "None Of These Candidates" making her the first candidate to lose to nobody since that option was added to the ballot in Nevada in 1975. It's getting harder and harder to tell actual politics from satire these days. https://www.13abc.com/2024/02/06/nevada-will-hold-presidential-primaries-caucuses-creating-voter-confusion-little-suspense/

"Possibilities" and "endless possibilities" are two completely different things. Is it possible for a kid such as Clements to go to D2, develop over a couple of seasons and transfer into D1? Absolutely. Are those possibilities "endless?" Absolutely not.

GW and Auburn played 6 times last year with GW winning 4 of those games. Every game was close. I see that being similar this season. GW is as talented as any Class 1 team I’ve ever seen. Auburn is the best coached team in the western part of the state regardless of classification now that Rick Cormany is retired. Some kind of matchup. Narrows was unfortunate to catch GW the day after losing a heartbreaker to Auburn 55-50.

Just start referring to her by her given name at birth. Nimarata Randhawa makes her wholly unelectable in this country.

Yeah, I still disagree with the premise that "possibilities are endless." Of the 2,053 players that entered the transfer portal in FBS and FCS last year, one (Cody Shrader - Missouri) went from D2 to P5 while 987 found themselves with nowhere to play or attend class. That doesn't rise to the level of "possibilities are endless" in my view. To put it another way, 52% of players that entered the transfer portal last year found a new opportunity while 48% found themselves on the outside looking in wondering what the hell happened. How many of those kids are just like Clements? I'd wager, most!

I'm a bit of an odd duck in more ways than I'd like to admit. I don't eat red meat so, these kinds of places aren't front-of-mind for me. Which is probably why I've never heard of them. I'm the guy that goes to the award winning steakhouse and orders Salmon.

HA, look at that. Hoss Cartwright started the restaurant chain. I was being facetious.

I couldn't disagree more. There are way more kids entering the portal than are being picked up by other schools. According to the NCAA Transfer Portal Database, 1,427 FBS players entered the portal in 2022. Of those, 599 did not get picked up by a new school and found themselves out of college. Of the 828 that did find a new home, 108 wound up below the FCS level, i.e. DII or lower. FCS players found the going much worse. Of the 626 FCS players that entered the portal in 2022, only 238 found a new home with only 86 of those being in FCS or FBS. Meaning, 155 wound up in DII or lower. 388 of those 626 wound up out of college.

Honestly never heard of Bonanza before this thread. The only time I ever remember hearing of a Ponderosa was when the DC Sniper killed someone at the Ashland Ponderosa right down the street from my wife's sorority sisters house.

Am I the only person in this thread to have never eaten at, or even heard of, Bonanza? Do Hoss and Little Joe help serve?

The teacher shortage we see today will bleed into the coaching ranks in a few more years. We have never steered our kids into any specific direction. Provided them with as many avenues as possible to help them choose their path. A few professions we hoped they would avoid. Teaching was one of them.

How many guys qualified to coach/teach QB's are available in the whole state? Especially when you consider many would have to be classroom teachers also. Given what teachers earn these days, with the added pressures of dealing with Facebook politics surrounding our screwed up education system, I couldn't imagine that number would be very high. Single digits? Maybe a dozen?

From the homepage, scroll to the very bottom and change the THEME to default. That worked for me some time ago.

Yeah, I meant "March" to imply working all year. It's hard to compete on a state level if you're not in the weight room all year long. That's why so many schools are replacing traditional gym classes with weight training. But you can't force kids into it. They either want to or they don't. I overheard a decently famous golf instructor tell a dad one time, "if he's not doing this on his own, dragging you out of the house to hit balls everyday, he's never going anywhere in this game. You can't do it for him and you can't force desire!"

If the kids aren't willing to put the work in for football, baseball and basketball is all they will have. Football just isn't a seasonal sport anymore. Without exception, the teams that play in December are the teams working in March.