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jarhead...I think I may have accidentally removed one of your posts...very sorry, please forgive me.

Riverview is not nearly as bad as Big Creek was, but the watering down of community pride in McDowell and Riverview being a doormat's doormat since its opening in virtually every sport tends to damper the redneckosity of the vocal minority.

Well said, I hope you like standing at Bullet

The year that happened was 2005 on 9/30. Tazewell scored a FG to make final score 27-3 Richlands Football Date Opponent Score Yards 8/26 Gate City 35-0 78 09/02 Honaker 37-0 37 09/09 Grundy 48-0 57 09/16 Abingdon 36-0 48 09/23 Graham 30-0 40 09/30 Tazewell 27-3 110 10/07 Marion 47-3 5 10/21 Va High 44-0 121 10/28 Carroll Co 7-6 160 (CC scored TD with 1 minute in game) 11/11 Lebanon 54-14 395

It's not "running the score up" when it's the 3rd team. If you can't stop them then that's on you.

Bluefield, WV kids did that...

They also call them, "state champions". The VHSL didn't make them forfeit because common sense was used. There are concrete rules that must be followed, but concrete thinking in the face of common sense shouldn't always be the case. What I am getting at is........1/8th of a difference would not have made a difference in the way Richlands dominated the game after the first quarter, and the VHSL knew that. Additionally, one must realize that if Richlands were to win that game (and they did) there was going to be an excuse REGARDLESS of whether there were cleats involved and that's exactly happened. Before Richlands was found out regarding the cleats, the talks of "a needed investigation" into the Richlands fire department and watering down the field was already the first thing to come out of Salem. It would NOT have ended whether cleats were involved or not. There was going to be an excuse if Salem lost. Now certainly, the clear-cut cheating made the scandal bigger and it should have, but you can better believe, there was going to be a scandal regardless, if Salem were to lose that game. Final example, Salem went to Lee High a few years earlier and lost in the state semi's. They petitioned the VHSL to investigate Lee High into "muddying up" their field. If Salem would have traveled to Amherst or Blacksburg and lost, it would have been chalked up as a loss and nothing more, but when losing in far SWVA, they simply couldn't stand it, and yes, there was exactly that, an excuse made for the loss. With all of this written, that no way justifies what Richlands did. That was a boneheaded move, but I don't call every player on Richlands team from 92 a cheater. They had no clue about another 8th of an inch being in violation of cleats. I call them players, state champions. I was at that game and Richlands was clearly better. P.S. A little know fact many forget about is what the VHSL did to Richlands the next season. Richlands was banned from the playoffs. The 93 team in my opinion was equally as good as the 92 team by seasons end. They were 7-3, but all three losses were close and nail bitingly close. By season's end, that team was rolling. Richlands in fact, did receive punishment for their actions, and many fail to bring up the 1993 team and what may have been when discussing the cleats scandal. If that 93 team could have made the playoffs, they could have made some noise and been trouble. They dramatically improved from game 1 through 10.

There wasn't suppose to be anybody in lowly SWVA that could hold a candle to them. They thought they would come down here and walk all over us. It's called an excuse.

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.

No one besides Burton will ever win the district until the school shuts down in the next 2 or 3 years

Health Miller, class of 2001 had some big offers if I'm not mistaken. I don't know if that's internet era or not. Coleman Thomas of Fort Chiswell had offers from Tennessee, Florida State, WVU, VT, UVA, and Maryland. Florida State is certainly big time football, but he was still a 3 star on Rivals. James Mitchell is a 3 star on 247 sports and a 4 star on Rivals. Since the early 2000's, he would be ranked higher than anyone in SWVA that I can think of regarding recruiting ranking and offers, etc. However, Jake Houseright was ranked higher out of Gate City than both Jones brothers and was the 31st ranked player in the United States by SuperPrep, but this was before the boom of the internet (internet was already around though). Houseright and both Jones Brothers were on at least one High School American list. Both Jones bro's were honorable mention USA Today All-Americans, but Houseright was an All American on most of them including Prepstar, NRA (no longer around, former recruiting ranking service), and Superprep. In the last 25 years, if going by recruiting ranking only (not future success in NCAA or NFL) but by recruiting ranking out of High School only, Jake Houseright would be the highest ranked recruit out of SWVA slightly ahead of both Jones Brothers.

I spoke to James a few days ago. He mentioned Clemson had their eyes on another tight end. My personal thought is that he will be a Hokie. I could be wrong. He did get an offer from Georgia and his older sister attends college there....