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Been trying to avoid committing this major act of heresy, but.... I have never been a tremendous fan of Ernie Hicks Stadium. Not sure how many people remember just how bad the field was before the turf was installed. But it was awful. I'm not sure how the Emats stuff works in terms of drainage, but I don't think any civil engineer ever figured out how to address that issue with grass and dirt. One notable attempt was the crown in the middle of the field (between the sidelines) running its full length in the very early 1980's. As a midget league participant, my recollection is that I couldn't see the opposing sideline when standing on my own. Although I did learn to make use of the effects of gravity when blocking near the middle of the field. The visitors bleachers have always bugged me. And I'm not even addressing the relative quality -- it's the scale that I find aggravating (I'm kind of OCD when it comes to symmetry in architecture). As impressive as the brick and mortar home side is, it just makes the visitors' side seem that much more wretched. And I realize it's due to site constraints and the tightness created by the presence of the world's ugliest middle school building. But I've always thought that it would have been preferable to construct a brick and mortar visitors side to at least match the homestand -- or to even have some kind of wraparound structure on the Jones Chapel end to create a horseshoe. But that's obviously not cost effective on any planet. Just from an aesthetic standpoint, I've got to think that the visitors experience to Richlands is pretty bad. But maybe that's somewhat by design.

C'mon now. You can't say that Ernie Hicks is a dump and then say Sandlick is your favorite... That place, although served it's purpose, was a dump.

Yeah, that may be true ..but where else do you get victory tacos?

I'll be the first to admit that Ernie Hicks needs an upgrade on the visitor side. One of my all time favorites was Ralph Cummins Stadium. That place during a big game was right up there with those already mentioned. Ernie Hicks and Mitchell are 1 and 2 for me. A big game at either place is hard to beat.

Never been to Mitchell, played at Hicks once when it was grass and the end zone out to the 5 yard line was flooded (scrimmage). For myself I need to separate the list between played and watched. "Home" will almost always be your favorite. With that said; Northwood (home) good field, great home side stands, a lot of history in that venue. Football has been played on that field since 1920 and the Saltville Alkalies semi-pro baseball team played there. (picture taken in March of 1967) Played (in no real order) Watched George Wythe John S. Battle (hated playing on the field) Marion (before they moved the field the baseball infield came out to around the 8 yard line it was pretty cool) Abingdon St. Paul (just different, felt like the crowd was right on top of you) Gate City (it kinda wowed me with the home side filling half the visitors bleachers and their GC chant) Chilhowie - Because most of the home side thinks their $h!t don't stink and the visitors don't like them, it makes for a great aptmosphere

Stupid auto correct...but yes they would be a long game lol

The reason probably has something to do with the fact that Graham has historically been pummeling both Tazewell and Richlands and/or they've been too preoccupied with Beaver to give a lot of thought to other rivalries. The Blues-Dawgies rivalry has lost some of its luster since the two programs took on such radically different trajectories this century. It was a fun level of hatred once upon a time. For instance, we started the 1984 football season 1-5 but a lot of folks weren't terribly upset because the one win was against Tazewell. The long drought in the series immediately thereafter is a stain that three different graduating classes (including mine) bear shamefully. And on a personal note, one of my best friends just married a Tazewell grad. She's a lovely gal, I'm happy for them, and I certainly wish them all the best. But I've got to be honest in that I'm struggling more than a little bit with accepting this "mixed marriage." And I still have a general aversion to green as a primary color for any athletic team.

Bluefield - Graham is the best. Played every year since 1938. Come to see it. Party starts at 10 a.m. Tailgating, live music, radio station remote broadcasts. When any other game can claim that then come talk. Great rivalries that are just a cut below but still great. Richlands-Tazewell: I know it hasn't meant much lately but this goes back to 1926. Played every year but 1943 when the war caused the board to drop teams at Tazewell and Richlands. For whatever reason Tazewell has always put more emphasis on the Richlands game than Graham. Bluefield - Princeton - goes back to 1924. How many schools can say that they were actually banned from playing each other in any sport for four full years? Bluefield and Princeton were not allowed to play anything from 1966-1969 due to the intense rivalry with misbehavior on the field/court and in the stands. Virginia High - Tennessee High - Goes back to about 1915? This would be right there with Bluefield-Graham if the Bearcats were better and if the festivities were there. There was a time when they shared the same field until Gene Malcolm came along. Honaker - Lebanon - I attended one of these once and it surprised me the level of animosity towards each other. Got a lot better when Honaker got better. Abingdon - Marion - played every year usually at the end of the season and the series is very close. Some other good ones. Twin Springs - Rye Cove Narrows - Giles Galax - Grayson George Wythe - Radford Giles - Blacksburg And then those that have died. Appalachia - Powell Valley - every bit as good as Bluefield-Graham. Such a shame it is gone. Welch - Gary - The battle for the barrel. Always played on Thanksgiving in the early days and Veterans Day in later days. Bands, Cheerleaders ,etc were in the parade and then went to the game. J. J. Kelly - J. I. Burton. Again such a shame it is gone Haysi - Clintwood

Also very true. And I think I've sat on both sides as the visiting team on multiple occasions. They like to flip it around a lot.

Want to talk about asymmetry...look no further than Lebanon. I have to rate it as the weirdest stadium to go to.

I've heard complaints from Tazewell visitor section as well but never been over there so I can't verify that either.

I hate stories with links, I clicked on the story and read it and spent the next 15 minutes reading the behind the scenes secrets of the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson.

Pocahontas was a typical 1950's era gym, constructed at an appropriately small scale. Guessing that there were only about 10-12 rows of bleachers on each side. Either way, the exterior entry doors were pretty close to the boundaries of the court. The middle school county tournament was played there when I was in sixth grade. During warm-ups I went to chase a ball near the side and end lines. I wound up sliding on melted snow and mud that had been tracked in and my feet went out from under me. We were the home team, so we were in our "all white" uniforms. I was the exception that night -- wearing a two-tone of white in front and sopping brown along the entire back of my jersey and shorts. Until we changed clothes after the game, I had to constantly make the point of, "It's mud. I swear." Not an interesting anecdote, but that was my immediate thought about Pocahontas.

Think you mean basketball... Lol 1. Clinchco (Haysi/Ervinton) -- Seen many a classic Region D tournament game over the years, as well as quite a few of the Haysi/Council games in the peak of the rivalry. 2. Lebanon -- Very nice gym, plenty of seating. 3. Lee High -- This gym was a pleasant surprise when I visited for the first time last year... something about the murals painted on the wall was a nice touch. Very spacious also. Plenty of seating. 4. Castlewood -- Another gym which delivered very raucous atmospheres back in the good ole Region D tournament days. 5. Bearcat Den (Virginia High) -- Seats on all four sides of the court. Love the very NBA like player intros especially with the Undertaker theme playing for the home team intros.

And I'll start off with a long and rambling list of my own.... 1. Whitewood. If there's a better example of the "crackerbox" cliche, I'd like to hear about it. How many other places could have been so small that they lacked a centerline? My recollection is that we actually had to pass the ball down the court and back across the overlapping lines when we played there once -- but that might have been the carsickness talking (yet another interesting aspect of playing there). 2. Cleveland (Lebanon). Nothing really special about the gym itself, but heading up and over into the hollow to play there was always kind of interesting. 3. Virginia High (current). Probably the single best high school venue in SW Virginia, IMO. The "in the round" design makes it stand out and made us feel kind of special playing there when it first opened. Although I will also admit to having a soft spot in my heart for the old gym at the Euclid Avenue school. 4. Richlands Middle School (original pre-renovation). Beyond the fact that I spent a significant portion of my indoor life there between the ages of 10 and 18, this is on my personal list just because I know how aggravating it must have been for opposing teams to come play there. The lighting was never really adequate, and when the lights would go out unexpectedly (which happened during games more often than one would hope), they took forever to come back on. The roof leaked. The rubberized floor was kind of slick even when it was dry. Ahh....good times.

I figured that was coming. Lol. You Richlands folk like Ernie because it's home. I like Sandlick because it was home. Sandlick was awesome because you had a little bit of a grass berm between the seats and the field where you could stand right down by the fence and watch the game. Also, dat MUD! I think all of us are going to list our home stadium first. The home seats at Ernie look like they could cave in on you at anytime when you're under them trying to grab a bite to eat.

Realizing that my previous response in this thread either stretched the limits of "area" or disregarded it outright, here's my amended list (in no particular order): - Vic Nystrom Stadium (suburban Welch). Admittedly, not stellar in terms of the quality of the facilities. But it's the field my dad played on and I am a sucker for personal nostagia. - Falcon Stadium (Abingdon). Have to hand it to the designers -- they made brilliant use of existing topography there. (Same is true of George Wythe, Pulaski County and -- albeit it to a lesser extent -- John Battle.) - Legion Field (Gate City). In addition to the great tradition and typically great football, they also usually had pretty good eats. - Marion. Don't know why, but I always found it kind of cool that they had a combination football/baseball layout. It was also one of the furthest away games in the old SWD (if you went around the ridges to Abingdon and then up 81), which made it seem kind of exotic. This post brought to mind several neat basketball venues. So if nobody objects, I think I'll plagiarize this idea and throw something up over on the hoops board as well.

Richlands / Union and Richlands / Graham, both should be great games and will be very meaningful in region D !

There is only one rivalry game in our area, Bluefield vs Graham lol

Can I put Richlands @ Union 138 times? Lol

Richlands vs. Union Richlands vs Graham Richlands vs Blacksburg (not really a rivalry) Graham vs Bluefield Richlands vs Gate City Union vs Gate City

Union of course, a classic Blacksburg this year, not a rivalry per se, but certainly a lot of hype with Coach Wells being from the 'Lands.

My top 3 would be Ernie Hicks, Mitchell and Bullitt. Richlands is fairly obvious. It's home. It also has great facilities other than bathrooms. Mitchell kind of sells itself. Massive stadium. Great sight lines. Good food. And the two Richlands/Graham games this year were rockin. I'd love to see a Bluefield/Graham game one day. Bullitt has so much history that it's hard not to enjoy the place. Parking sucks, but that's the case at most places. Richlands and Union also have the best rivalry in the state for the last 6 years, so that helps in my book as well.

I posted all 5 teams and scores 3 posts above.

Good, Good. It is about time some of the lost sheep come home!