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Saw this Sam Dixon photo on Coalfieldprogress.com and thought it was very indicative of the mutual respect between Richlands and Union. Always like seeing sportsmanship like this.

This is what it should be about with sportsmanship. As a whole this year I have been impressed by what I have seen from our games son sportsmanship and hope that I continue to see it with all teams in the area!

So sorry Bears fans about Turner ! My thoughts and prayers go out for the young man and hope for a quick and full recovery ! I lost my Soph season due to a serious knee injury so I have an idea out what he and his family are feeling and I hate it sooooo much for him, and also his teammates ! Good luck with the rest of your season. The Bears are well coached and talented so I'm sure the next man up will do a good job for them !

Bluefield 14 Woodrow Wilson 0 4:41 in the 1st

Gmen up 21-0

Don't worry, Narrows has scored more than enough to win this one.

I bet that hurt a little, huh?

Lester INT for Gmen inside own1 yd line

Very happy to have been wrong about this one so far.

GW 14 Marion 13 2nd

Giles may need some crutches for all these broken ankles!!

14-0 Graham

After 1Q Giles 0 Graham 7

I can't rightly judge pre-1990, but since I wouldn't hesitate to place Powell Valley first, Appalachia second, and Gate City third. I will admit during my era, Graham was the team to beat in the SWD, but Richlands began to do so more often beginning in the 90s. I will defer to Bluefield researcher for the exact numbers, but I remember 92, 93, and 1998 being championship years (1993 was playoff ineligible due to cleatgate). I'd have no issues having Richlands, Graham, Giles, and George Wythe on the next tier. I will admit the 1998 Powell Valley team was the best I had seen or played against over that stretch.

Here is the first episode of the podcast! I did as best I could without any cohost or guest. Looking forward to having weekly guests from this point on to help spice it up and whatnot. Let me know what you like, don't like, any ideas for segments or guests you may have. It's all fair game. Enjoy! https://m.soundcloud.com/swvasportspod/swva-sports-pod-s1e1-week-1

Richlands certainly doesn't belong anywhere near top 3 over those schools since 70.

Prayers for that young man. Hopefully he will be back sooner rather than later.

Right. You promote the product intending for the listener to listen to the whole show. Lol.

I also seen this in case any Tazewell fans going to the game want to participate. "Per Principal Frazier McGuire: River View High School would ask that each fan bring a non perishable food item tomorrow night for RVHS / Tazewell football game tomorrow night. Each item will be donated to the community food box at Bradshaw Elementary. Donations can be made at the front gate. Thank you."

I think so. Ideally, that mindset would encourage Graham to test itself against stronger teams in 2A-6A. However, as good as GC/PV were, he had all the competition he needed at home. I think he scheduled to get the most ratings points he could, honestly. Graham missed the playoffs 1 time from 1989 until his death (and that 1 time was a Magna Vista screw job to help a rival opponent sneak in).

The KY officiating is horrible. I went to the first PV - Breathitt game in Jackson. I have a buddy who played for Belfry in the early 90's who told me that PV would need to be at least 2 TD better to get a win over there, and he was right. I'd rather pick up a game against a North Carolina team than head into KY again, or at least some upper ET teams like East, Boone, Betsy, etc.

100% correct. Carlock would NEVER play down, regardless of strength of opponent.

My and my Buddy from Pennington Gap watched that Lee High game. Lee High outplayed Tabb and the officials. Lee High was jobbed in my opinion. They should have won that game, and competed against the officials and Tabb. This thread is fun and there are tons of variables and its hard to say who has been the best, since 1970, since 1950, etc? I still think much is to be said for playing up. The last 6 titles for PV as one poster mentioned, GC was 1-5. If Graham is single A, Graham gets 1 of those 6 titles as well, at least 1. No question, PV with a great run, but in my opinion, 6 titles would be no more than 4, and that's the point I am making for GC ahead of PV, not just because GC was playing up, but Graham was playing up, so PV avoided both schools come playoff time which without question, helped PV. There is no way in the world anyone can convince me that of all those state titles, if Graham and GC were playing where they should have been (at PVs class) PV today would have 2 less titles and that's being generous, maybe 3-4 more. Only my opinion. Is there anyway to tell? Nope. GC/Shoemakers Record Against Powell Valley was 26-17-1 with a .602 winning %. GC/Shoemakers Record Against Graham has been 20-15 and a much closer series here with only a .572 winning %. GC/Shoemakers Record Against Appalachia was 24-20-1, an even tighter series and a winning % of only .544. The numbers above are from Bluefield Researchers Thread and his numbers. The above is another supporting reason why I put GC first in this discussion and Appalachia 2nd. I still can't figure out how Appalachia got all those wins in its history, not just against GC, but just wins overalls and state titles with the enrollment numbers they have had. One could have made the argument that they should have been like Council or Whitewood and simply should have not had a football team with their numbers. It still blows me away how much talent they put on the field and how competitive they were. I have PV still third because of the volume of state titles, but again, if Gate City and Graham are playing in PVs classification since 1970 as they should have been, Powell Valleys state titles are cut by a third in my opinion. PV's accomplishments are still incredible, and one can easily make the case for them being the best program historically in SWVA. I would disagree, but definitely respect that opinion because it's certainly a valid one. Rings are rings and PV demolished its competition more times than not. One can certainly make the case for the Vikings and I respect that. There is just no way to tell, other than reaching the conclusion that PV, Appy, GC, Graham, and Giles have been very, very good for a long, long time. Of course, no more Appy and PV, it's Union's turn to carry the torch.

Sure did. The smallest school would have gave D4 fits and maybe could have won it.

Not to mention, in one of GCs state titles, 97, they would've been the third best LPD team. Lost to both PV and AHS.

I was just referring to Coach Carlocks scheduling philosophy only.

Has nothing to do with Graham/Giles...

Definitely prayers, hate to see any player injured especially out for the season.

I would say that is probably inaccurate because I was always told Coach Carlock would not schedule anyone below the division he was playing in. It was one of the bad things about Gate City dropping to A in the early 00s because that ended the GC/Graham series if my memory is correct.

This post is in regards to the "Claiming state titles" before 1970 remark while referring to Narrows. In the 1920's and 1930's there were three classes in Virginia. A, B, C. The only class that had an organized system for a state champion was the A class which was the biggest schools. The VHSL record book lists those. In 1954 the "A" class greatly expanded as a lot of the B Class teams joined A. The future SW District teams of Graham, Tazewell, Richlands, Grundy and Va High joined class A. Covington was another team that joined class A. Class A rules stated that you must play a certain number of games vs other class A schools so SW schools started playing the Roanoke area Class A schools such as Fleming, Patrick Henry Roanoke and Jefferson. Grundy was even playing E. C. Glass in the 1960's. The schools from Roanoke were happy because they no longer had to travel to Richmond, Tidewater and NOVA to get class A games. But in the 1920's and 1930's the smaller classes would play regional and state class playoff games if both champions could work it out. There was no requirement to play these games. They were optional and many times schools declined. In 1939 Narrows was champions of their district and Bedford champion of their District. They played a playoff game and Narrows won. The Class C team from the Eastern Shore declined to travel to Narrows to play so Narrows claims a championship. In 1938 all the Class C teams declined to play so again Narrows claims a championship. There were very few years that these games went the full playoff rounds. Other examples: 1928 Big Stone Gap defeated Christiansburg and South Boston in Class B playoff games. Could probably claim a state championship 1929 Big Stone Gap tied Saltville in a class B playoff game and advanced on a coin flip and then tied Washington - Lee from Arlington. Washington - Lee traveled all the way to Big Stone Gap in 1929. There are lots of these games I have found but since I am still working on many Eastern class B and C teams I don't have a clear picture of what all went on.

Hate that hes hurt but the Bear offense will be better going forward, wait and see

I'm sorry to hear the news on Turner. They work so hard and put there heart and soul into it. Praying for a complete recovery. Best of luck to the Union Bears the rest of the season.

In the game of message board moderation, troll loses to hammer every time!!!

Why? The schools in the SWVASports.com coverage area are clearly marked on the logo on the top of every page, with the exception of Radford. Blacksburg isn't on that map.

The troll game is strong with this one. Willing to bet a dollar to a donut this person has the same IP as another poster already.

Immature or not, there are rules here. Don't like them...you know the rest.

Without turnovers the last two games would have been much closer with even a chance to have won one of them.

Just stop at Bud's and get you a bucket of chicken before heading over the mountain. Or one of those incredible corn dogs. Makes me hungry thinking about Bud's deli.

FOR THE LAST TIME... BLACKSBURG IS NOT IN SWVASPORTS.COM COVERAGE AREA... NEXT ONE TO POST THEM IN A TOP 5/TOP 10 ON HERE IS BANNED...TRY ME...

GC continues with the turnovers then South wins.