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Phield of Dreams

I'm now an administrator at one of the middle schools in Charlotte and one of our kids did that this week at our game. The young man had to write one apology letter to the principal of that school and another letter to the team that our school played. He is also suspended for the next game.

This guy is snitching on underage drinking at Pocahontas 16 years later 🤦‍♂️

3 givens in life: 1. We will die 2. If we work for a living, Uncle Sam is going to fleece us in taxes 3. Betty Sue is gonna be screaming " HE'S HOLDING REF!!!" at all RV games.

As simple as it may sound. This country was a better place when each family had a dinner table and they ate at it everyday.

Youth football should focus on fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. What you put into a kid at that age will more than likely stick with them for their career. Good or bad. The youth football model that Jeff Gee and Danny Mullins had going in Tazewell several years back has helped not just Tazewell but Graham, Montcalm, and Mt. View. It focused on fundamentals and playing time for all kids.

The main problem with the Richlands football program at the moment is that there are no longer 5 to 6 pee wee and midget teams in town. The high school program did well when Richlands had a solid pee wee program. A few folks thought it was beneficial for kids to win instead of develop, so the program was diminished to two teams. With more kids on the sidelines and not getting the reps, it's fairly easy to see why kids on Friday nights have no real feel for the game. Anyone who has ever been around sports knows that sometimes, the 'studs' at age ten don't pan out to be that type of dominating player at the varsity level. Likewise, kids who may be undersized or underdeveloped in their early years grow into their bodies by high school and become D1-type players (i.e., Austin Fuller) Until the powers that be in Richlands realize that more teams allow more kids to participate, learn, and grow in football, the Blue Tornado program will continue the trend that no one really thought we would see.

Photo from article by ALLEN GREGORY, BRISTOL HERALD COURIER, Keith Chandler continues Union family tradition Aug 11, 2023

Marion's opponents almost never punt, so I think it's working.

If police are depending on Dook for clues, Unk Vern's a goner.

I've been saying it for years. Tazewell has no emotion to them at all. Harris has changed the culture of Tazewell kids transferring to other local schools. I will give him credit on that. The mindset of that football program prior to Harris taking over was terrible. What he inherited was a mess. Now they need to find someone that will light a fire under those kids. It starts at practice. Absolutely zero energy at practice and that shows on Friday nights. I've been to church services with way more intensity than Tazewell plays with on Friday nights. With all that being said. You would be hard pressed to find a better group of parents and kids in a community. Will you have the occasional teenage ignorance? Yes. But, for the most part those kids are as respectful as they come. They just need to find a different gear on Friday night.

Carrying a TV around takes lots of manpower. I don't know how Union can balance all of their duties with such a limited staff.

Speak of the devil 😂. Long story. Check your messages.

It isn't Dook is it?

NATIONAL RECORD: Imagine throwing for 817 yards, throwing for 8 TDs, running for 2 TDs .. and losing. An amazing night for Peyton Houston of Evangel Christian Academy (Shreveport, La) who completed 53 of 68 passes, but lost 77-76 to Captain Shreve last night. The previous NFHS record for passing was 787 yards in 2015. More here ~> https://www.facebook.com/share/p/QH16DT3fSjeyQFi7/?mibextid=WC7FNe

There are several conundrums associated with the history of the Richlands varsity football program. One of which is a theme of individual teams which were very competitive on the field but that somehow managed to finish with subpar records overall. A good example is the 1986 season. Tazewell won the state championship that year (in the first iteration of a six classification alignment) but only beat Richlands by a score of 9-6 in an absolute slugfest. That same year Graham advanced to the regional championship game but only beat Richlands 14-13 in the regular season. "And how did that scrappy Richlands team fare that particular year?" you may ask. The Blues finished 4-6 in what proved to be the last year of Bruce Evans' five year run as head coach. I have always found it perplexing that Richlands has possessed what could rightfully be considered as great advantages throughout its football history but most of the time those never translated to success on the field. The former midget league system is honestly only one example. Even in its six team heyday -- during which almost every able bodied kid in the Richlands "metro area" played at some point -- the varsity team was still struggling to hit .500 or stay above that mark. Not likely to be a popular opinion here, but on paper the overall history of the Richlands football program plays something along the lines of "fair to middling." And the successful run from 2001 to 2016 during Greg Mance's tenure is a statistical anomaly. But don't take my word for it. Check out Bluefield Researcher's excellent online resource at https://fourseasonsfootball.com/Website/Richlands.htm and let me know if I'm mistaken.

We call her Big Shirley up this way.

I’ll be the guy on visitors side fence screaming please run a different play

People are quick to point the finger at the coaching staff. I've been guilty of it myself but Union_Fan nailed it saying it starts at home. After a game the last thing on a coach's mind is that one of his players is going to be whipping another team in the handshake line with a towel. What are the chances that a 50+ year old coach is even aware of a Tik Tok trend such as this until it's too late. I guess the flip side to saying that would be there are some coaches or coaching staffs you know dang good and well you better not even think about pulling such a stunt like that on.

This seems to be a common theme for most youth football leagues, but youth sports in general. Many parents think that their kid has the potential to turn pro before or during middle school. Even when some don't grow over 5'9 and never reach that 5.0 40-yard dash. And many dads and parents live their dreams thru their children so they sacrifice building skills for winning trophies. I would just like to meet the fella who puts the youth football championships on his tombstone, so I could laugh at him.

DinwiddieProud posted this on VaPreps.... I’m posting this to the Class 1 and 2 threads because there are a lot more schools in these classes in SWV than elsewhere across the state. There are an untold number of people putting together relief efforts for our neighbors in the affected areas of VA and NC. Today, my wife learned of a neighbor that was loading a trailer and headed to Damascus soon. She had read that some things get overlooked when considering what to send. A couple of items she saw that were needed where flat point shovels and heavy garden rakes. Also, 5 gallon plastic buckets. So she bought a bunch of these items and took them to our neighbor. This brought me to ask you folks that are most closely associated with the disaster, what is needed that is being overlooked. Suggest it here and I’ll spread the word.

I'm sure that will be civil and reasonable.

Another angle is that kids are not willing to put in the work to play. My nephew started playing this year, once the contact started, it was easier to stay home and play video games. Another issue is that when the ones that are playing make a mistake, they'll have the coach in their face. I've seen this happen time after time. I wonder how many young men play 1 year then quit because of this. Not saying all coaches are like this but there's enough of them out there.

I agree with every thing you wrote Chip and your premise is spot on EXCEPT the word "Every." That implies ALL officials in the US or 100% of them. That's not the way life works my friend. I think it applies to 99 percent or more officials, but not ALL or EVERY. Look, we have men and women that cheat on their husband's and wives regularly in humanity across the world and we have humans that drink and drive daily and we have humans that tell lies. We have humans that cheat yearly on taxes. Every human profession or skill has the above including doctors, lawyers, judges police, military, preachers, airline pilots that fly intoxicated etc.......but somehow, someway.....when Every official in the USA that walks onto the field, he regains 100 percent moral clarity for those 2 hours and absolutely complies with 100 percent moral decency? That's not the way human nature works and statistically its impossible. I agree with everything you wrote except the implication that ALL officials act with moral clarity and intentional decency. Like the professions above, most people overwhelmingly do the right thing including officials, but there is always that 1% in every profession and that's a conservative estimate. As for the Grundy play. Missed call, bad decision, but zero intent, not on purpose.

Thing that makes my ass wanna chew tobacco, why the hell don’t we send someone back on punt returns? Maybe the special teams coach will join the conversation!

Not a fan of Legion Field myself. I'm sure a lot of history has happened there, but most of my memories are of GC fans sitting on the visitor side talking crap and being total jack holes.

Been to a lot of places over the years. By far my favorite is Bullitt Park, and nothing is close. Great enviorment.

Thanks for the suggestion, @S10SQUAREBODY4LIFE

A regional approach would be best. Maybe Union could pick up some students from Lee. Not that Union ever needs any Lee kids, but just to antagonize Joey Carroll

Like Ralph Cummins once said, “Jesus Christ couldn’t coach at Wise because of the parents.”

Shouldn't be a ref shortage....we all know going over there the refs are all relatives of the JM coaching staff

"Wonder why these kids nowadays are so soft?" This is why.

One thing I quickly noticed at a Princeton scrimmage with Richlands....Princeton absolutely has some of "those" types of coaches on their staff. I heard a couple of their assistants yelling at the Richlands players directly "You need to get in the gym, boy". If that was college I wouldn't care as everyone is an adult.....in high school...completely unnecessary especially when the other team is so obviously overmatched.

Graham scored 1 TD, Idk if the Defense is the problem

Without a doubt, head football coach at Union is the hardest job in Wise Co, and the one with the most pressure and under the greatest microscope. I hope Travis accepting full responsibility in the paper is a start in the right direction. As for any player criticism, I don't think that was meant as a direct insult to Bostic or how hard he plays, but more indictive of coaching. He should be coached to throw the ball away in those situations to the point it becomes automatic. It's the fine details of the game that has resulted in losses for the Bears over the years. The plan coming into Friday's game was to play tough bend don't break defense and force Graham into sustaining long drives. That worked. Graham couldn't do it. They scored on the drive that started at the 29 yard line, and they just barely pulled that one off. The plan on offense was to ground and pound Graham into submission by the end of the game. That worked too... until it didn't. Union was getting good yards in the first half and the 2nd half until a flag came in. THIS is where the failure in coaching came in. Once Union faced 1st and 15 or 20 or 2nd/3rd and 10, the plan fell apart and desperation set in because there was no plan B. It was being made up as they went. No short or immediate passing on 1st and 20. It was run, run and pass for 20 or 30 yards. The no yards in the 2nd half is misleading. Chandler had plenty of yards to keep the chains moving. Bostic even had a 15 yard or so run, but the flags and bad snaps resulted in the desperation passing which resulted in the huge sacks that, statistically speaking, negated the positive rushing yards of Chandler. It just snowballed. It's the finer points of the game that continue to elude the Bears in big games. It's possible to try your best, work your hardest and still come up short. How many friends, kids, or family members have you seen do all their classwork, homework and study for the test to only get a B or C, with the A almost always alluding them. I think that's what's going on at Union. There are 90 and 95 performances, but that elusive 100 is out of reach. Tony Palmer's staff has achieved at least 2 100s and a couple of 98s. They seem to get better by game 10 each and every year. Union gets worse. The difference is more glaring in some years than others. Anything less than 100 is not going to be acceptable to the vast majority of Appy/BSG people. It is what it is. I may not be fully on the "fire him yesterday" bandwagon, but it's hard to see that 100 ever being achieved with the current coaching staff. I just don't think even their best is capable of getting it.

My last thoughts on this game. I you ask anybody in the coaching position to run a team that wins 90% of their games and always a decent shot of going deep into the playoffs, Its not hard to imagine that you ask around the area right now you, would have nearly 100% of coaches and fans take that team. And this is what Union has. Great teams year in and year out. And Its hard to read folks beating up on players and coaches who absolutely gave every ounce of their energy and body to try to beat a team that was one step faster or just a bit stronger in the end. The more you put into something the harder it hurts when it doesn't go your way. Their complete exhaustion at the end created these "mistakes" and the other teams help create them. If Union QB would have thrown that ball on the run, then he just played into one of Grahams greatest strength sand most likely an interception. I have great respect for your teams and love to come to your house for the game. One of the best places to play in my opinion. The fans, the atmosphere and i even like they loud a** train horns Let it go and support these guys. It could be a whole lot worse than losing a game. Disclaimer: No offense to anyone

What a beautiful obituary. Men search their entire lives, great philosophers making life out to be a complicated affair, trying to define the purpose of this life when the truth is so simple. The purpose of life is to live a life of purpose. It is very clear that this man done just that. Well done sir.