Here is Oak Hills Soccer schedule.  Hopefully this will help cut the travel costs for some local teams.  

1. Blacksburg

2. Radford

3. Galax

4. Graham

5. Gate City

West Point 8, Honaker 0

Galax 2, Northampton 1 (OT)

2A Boys Soccer:

Radford 3, Clarke County 2 (PK's)

1A Girls Soccer:

Honaker 0, Northumberland 0 end of OT currently

Tazewell is returning all starters but 1 this season after making the playoffs last season. Loaded with several seniors this year who have played varsity as freshman. With at least two committed to play at the next level. Excited to see my son play his final season as a Bulldog. 

I know Graham girls are undefeated for the year. Anybody had a chance to see them play?

I think Virginia High is leading the boys side with a few stud players from what I've heard.

Anything else?

  Started out a pre season jamboree @ a very cold 🥶 Ridgeview on March 10th. with wins against Lee, Central and Ridgeview. I think most of the parents came away with frostbite lol  

  First game of the season March 16th @Marion was a real nail biter, ending in a 1-1 Tie. Marion plays their games at Oak Point Elementary School, the field has no lighting whatsoever and of course everything started late. It was very hard to see anything the last 10 minutes or so 😂. 

 Next up we had Richlands @home Monday March 20th which ended in a 7-0 win allowing everyone to get some playing time. 

 Last night we traveled to Richlands for the second matchup of the week with them. It ended in an 8-0 Win. I think Richlands was the most surprising since they have always been a tough team for us. 
 

Monday night 3/27 we host Graham, which should be an interesting matchup against a team we have had trouble with in the past  

"I bet the angels sang and the children danced when heaven opened up its door" 

MISS YOU BUDDY!!!!  

A warm, wet night at Lincolnshire represents T.J. Rasnick’s essence | Sports Columns | bdtonline.com

2023 Schedule for the Lebanon Pioneers Varsity Soccer Team  

1. 3/16@ Marion Hurricanes 
2. 3/20 @ Central Warriors 
3. 3/23 @ Richlands Tornadoes 
4. 3/27  vs Graham G-Men 
5. 3/28 vs Richlands Tornadoes 
6. 3/30 vs Marion Hurricanes 
7. 4/4 @ Graham G-Men 
8. 4/6 vs Central Warriors 
9. 4/18 @ Honaker Tigers 
10. 4/21 @ Rural Retreat Indians  
11. 4/25 vs Holston Cavaliers 
12. 4/28 @ Patrick Henry Rebels 
13. 5/2 vs Honaker Tigers 
14. 5/9 vs Rural Retreat Indians 
15. 5/12 @ Holston Cavaliers 
16. 5/16 vs Patrick Henry Rebels 

  Hopefully we will see some great soccer out of these young men this year. Last year was really amazing !!

    My heads about to explode 🤯 with financial aid applications and trying to figure out recruitment videos and ways to help him navigate this mess. Seems we are way behind the normal timeline for doing all this stuff 😂.
  Hopefully this will help take the focus off the financials and possibility of him moving away from home  😅

All three of my boys are pretty gifted physically.  But #2 is the best athlete among them by far.  He also wrestles (won three event medals in his first year) and played pretty much every down on the JV football team this spring season.

Kid has also suffered mightily this past year due to the various shutdowns.  So this good news is certainly welcome and I just can't help but crow about it.

Liberty (Bedford) was positioned to have one of its most competitive teams in the history of the program.  A large contributing factor was the presence of three exchange students (two from Italy and one from Germany).  One of the Italians played within the youth program of Juventus FC.  The German kid played aggressively on offense -- in a manner that apparently not many opposing players see around these parts.  All three exchange students had demonstrated some flashes of brilliance over the course of the past several months.  They were supplemented by a group of upperclassmen (including my son and his senior classmates) who have been playing together pretty much since they were four years old -- and who had experienced some decent success in travel ball over the years.  The level of chemistry of this team was pretty amazing -- both on offense and defense.  They really seemed to intuitively know where and how to play positions and formations at any given time.

In the fall our local club organization played friendlies against several private schools in our area and up around Charlottesville and went undefeated against them all.  Same was true in a showcase event played in January.  Before things were scuttled, LHS played two scrimmages on the road.  We beat William Byrd and tied Martinsville.  Fact of the matter is that the Minutemen likely would have crushed them both in matches that had any real meaning.  (And the German kid broke his foot in the first scrimmage at Byrd -- so we played at Martinsville without him.)

The Seminole District is pretty well stocked with good teams -- including many perennial contenders at the 4A level.  But by all conservative estimates we felt like we had a chance to make a pretty deep run within the 3A level (where we play as the smallest district school in terms of enrollment).  Western Albemarle would have been our biggest obstacle at the regional level -- but playing at our best and firing on all cylinders, we thought we could at least hang with them.

Of course, this is all just my opinion.  The fact that we'll never know just how good this team could have been is a bitter pill.

I apologize for venting.  The Seminole District isn't even within the geographic focus of this site.  Just felt the need to get this off my chest.

What other teams had high aspirations that were denied?

Sorry to brag about my kid, but I'm posting this with the thought that I can share some of what we experience in this process (which is new to me) and I'd also be interested in the opinions and guidance of folks who have been through it themselves.

I was hoping to get some conformation about some Class 1A schools that will be fielding soccer teams this spring.

I have been looking at schedules and it appears the following schools will compete in 1A Soccer in Region D on the boys side this year.

• Grundy
• Honaker
• Patrick Henry (Glade Spring) - This has been a Coed team in the past
• Rural Retreat - Competed as a JV team last year - Listed on several teams Varsity Schedules
• Holston - They are listed on Patrick Henry GS's Varsity schedule and Honaker's JV Schedule 

I was wondering if anyone can confirm if Rural Retreat is competing at the Varsity or JV level this year? And whether or not Holston is fielding a team at the Varsity or JV level? Also are their any other teams competing in 1A for boys soccer that were not on the list above.

Also the only girls team I have competing out of Region D in Class 1A is Honaker? Does anyone know of any other girls teams compete in Region D? 

Thanks so much for any info.

Richlands 3-0 over Virginia High

Graham 2-0 Over Tazewell

SWD Boys:

Richlands 3-0 over Marion

Graham 6-0 over Lebanon

Title games on Thursday.  

Beginning with an understatement -- overcoming this Martinsville team is not going to be easy.  But it can be done.

They are very talented -- and they know it.  But the main portions of their game plan are largely psychological.  Generally speaking they are aggressive, physical, and do their best to be intimidating.  It's the way they are coached from the time they start playing travel ball for PYSL and they execute it very well.  They are also very well disciplined.  Although they may push the limits, they generally are not a "chippy" team.  But they have an uncanny ability to push their opponents to play that way -- and once inside another team's head, their talent is usually enough to resolve the issue definitively and in fairly short order.  It's not quite "shock and awe" but it's not far from it.

It's important for an opponent to understand that going in (particularly teams that may be experiencing it for the first time).  But if your players can be confident in their own ability, play their own game plan, and deliberately ignore the "bait" in terms of the mental aspect of the match that will dramatically increase your odds of success (and by "dramatically" I mean that it still mostly raises your odds to being closer to even).  If it's possible to score on them early, then keep pressing that advantage to the greatest possible extent.  Since they don't find themselves in a position of playing from behind very often, it's even possible that an opposing team can flip the psychological aspect against them if you can build a lead of at least 3 goals.  But it's very difficult to ever put them away.  Even though it doesn't happen to them often, as a team they are designed to recover and overcome negative margins that most other teams cannot.

Some opponents (like Giles in VHSL and a couple of clubs in travel) have gained familiarity over the years and figured out how to compete against them.  But even those teams haven't had a high level of success against this particular group of players.  Along with their outstanding facilities in the Smith River complex, Martinsville is blessed by an outstanding program overall in terms of their school and travel teams.  Really great coaching and genuinely good folks overall.  Like most folks in the area, I have a tremendous amount of respect for what they are doing there.

Sharing this mainly due to my lifelong allegiance to Richlands as my alma mater -- not because I have an axe to grind or harbor any ill will toward Martinsville.  (Quite the contrary, actually.)

Here's hoping for a great match and congratulations to both sides for making it this far.