Leaderboard

Athletics are a privilege, not a right within any public school system. While music is still a requirement every school system must offer in some form or fashion. I have two daughters in marching band at Galax. My oldest plays 7 instruments (guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, ukulele, piano and saxophone). She has performed on stage since the age of four with recording artists such as Zach Brown, Kacey Musgraves, Vince Gill, Rhiannon Giddens, Rhonda Vincent, and Old Crow Medicine Show. Most of these band kids put as much work and effort into their craft as any athlete would put into theirs. To dismiss that would be a death-nail to athletics within a public school setting. Be careful what you wish for!

Someone holler at @OldTakesExposed. Lol

True...then the other 5% stay thru halftime the watch their kid perform then immediately leave and couldn't care less about the game.....ive witnessed this many times....those 95% do other things during halftime like restroom,get something to eat or just stand around shooting the bull with buddies

not sure about this one. been wrong all year so lets go CC 26 GW 14! reverse mojo

Pillage from other schools??? Dafuq you talkin ‘bout Willis? If kids move to your school district because they want to play for a different school, I’m assuming you tell those kids no? “We have our teams set, so please do not move to our community and want to play sports!” Is that your motto? Nope, Tazewell motto is “We will hold you back in 8th grade and hopefully we can beat 15-17 year olds when we’re 19-20!” Tazewell is the only HS I know of that needs to declare if their players are “True Freshmen” or “Redshirt Seniors” People want to play for winning teams and winning coaches, e.g., Appo, LB, etc. Coach Palmer and Graham are no different now. When you set the tone with a tradition of winning, kids want to come and be part of winning and competing annually. Might explain why kids don’t transfer into Tazewell.

I agree with you, Tony is a great coach with an excellent support staff, is Graham undisciplined at times, yes. Poor clock management that last possession of 1st half last night, yes. Leave points on the board sometimes, yes. In the grand scheme of things , most programs have those issues from time to time. You can have all the talent in the world but a bad coach doesn’t have that kind of record and doubtful a truly bad coach wins state championship. His coaching style may not appeal to some but I’d put him & his staff up against any other staff in SWVA. He’s got quality people working with him. I’m by no means a Palmer “fanatic” but I think Graham has definitely benefited with him at the helm. He is a genuinely nice guy/class act & our boys love him.

As a fan , I’d have to say a big no to that concept. Band, cheerleaders… all add to the atmosphere. Truthfully, Union’s fans were louder than our band when we were calling cadence. 😂😂😂😂 I wish Graham’s fans were as exuberant. Thank goodness we at least have the student section & band to make some noise.

That's what happens when a coach wins a state championship...been a long time for Tazewell to understand that...

Obviously did not want to see us lose this game, but if we play twice I'd rather lose this one than the next. Were there a lot of penalties? Yep. Were a couple bogus? Yep. Did they affect the outcome? Nope. 3 plays lost this game... the bad snap/fake, whatever it was on the punt... the fumble, when we had all the momentum, about to go up 2 scores... and the ultra conservative play calls on the possession before Graham scored the go ahead TD. If the Bears can make it through Richlands, Ridgeview, Abingdon and Central unscathed, we'll definitely meet again. Congratulations to the GMen!

No way, Union lost? Check this out. Union and Graham had the same number of total yds, the same number of passing yds, the same number of rush yds. I've never heard of that on the history of football at any level on all time. Exact same rush, pass, total yds. Has to be some kind of a record that would hold up likely a Ross the entire country.

Graham and Union DEAD EVEN in total yards dead even in passing yards dead even in rushing yds. That has to be a first on any football game in the history of football in the USA. Chances of that are 1 in 17 billion. It a tually happened.

I swear Union only loss this game cause of of that busted waterline. Stupid H2O.

I’m sorry you were saying?

Jeff, you left your keys in the women's reatrrom. We found them.

Did you just call a group of high school band members dumbasses? 😞

“We call him “LOADMAX” because he’s a load to bring down” - Chris Berman

I knock the coach, not the kid. His behavior is Tolerated. His behavior could be modified. It's not. It's tolerated. That's coaching and that's why Graham so often comes up short in big games. The little things matter.

Mentality, mental toughness, self awareness and situation awareness. That is all about Coaching. Or.....lack of it.

Missed PAT is going to hurt

Correct me if I'm wrong but the last 2 time these two have played it's come down to a field goal with no time remaining and a walk off touchdown run last year. That missed xp could be the difference. I have a feeling it's going to come down to the team that has the ball last.

Rank Team Points LW 1 Union (11) 204 1 2 Graham (7) 201 2 3 Ridgeview (1) 140 9 4 Bluefield 135 4 5 Princeton (3) 119 7 6 Virginia High 105 8 7 Abingdon 85 6 8 Pulaski County (1) 80 5 9 Wise Central 67 3 10 Galax 33 NR Also receiving votes: Radford (29), Richlands (25), Grundy (9), Giles (8), Chilhowie (7), Patrick Henry (4), George Wythe (3), Bland County (2), Carroll County (2), Holston (2), River View (2), Honaker (1), Tazewell (1), Twin Valley (1)

Men, excuse me if I got some typos in this message. My wife is driving while I'm riding shotgun and typin. Just wanted to say those boys on the field tonight were studs. Two great teams with great coaches and great fans. Men, there is no way I'm handing Appo a title yet. That's one of the better High School games I've seen in a while with that ending. It was just knock out blow after knock out blow. The fans at Mitchell were nice. I met a bunch of Bluefield Beaver fans and got to see a few from Giles and Narrows (Giles County was in the house up there). Great atmosphere. Oh yea, my car (vehicle) was a near miss. My wife is much faster than me and she got that puppy out of there before the "tide" came in. I always love the tip to Bluefield. We did Trents Grocery this time, which for you folks in Bluefield that used to hang out or party on Wilderness Road, that's the little Grocery/Grill that's known as one of the key locations related to murder on the Appalachian trail and for the somewhat recent shooting of the two guys from Bluefield in 2008 by Randall Lee Smith. Trent's was one of his hangouts, and if you are really old like me, Trents was also the hangout of suspected Serial Killer George Bird, the psychopath from Bland County that did his damage in the 70's. Anyway, Trents has some darn good pizza and Trents is still open, after all these years. Hats off to both Union and Graham. That was quite a show. I don't think I will be voting the Bobcats over either one of you guys very soon in the top 10 poll. Both teams are light years ahead of Radford right now and both teams, whether they know it or not, are actually right there with Appo, and I'm talking about the healthy Appo, not the injured one.

BOOM 90 yd KO return from Tester and were tied at 7 at Central.

Thats they way i saw it also, about 4 plays with two of them just plain out being bad play calls. That one passing play deep with two recievers open and the QB throws it to the furthest down field was a bone head. The closer reciever would have had blocks into the endzone and no coverage on him at all.

Just a little off lol

I'm going to disagree. Tony is a great coach. He turned a program around which had been decimated in no time flat. What is his record? Something like 65-10? That is insanely good. He has surrounded himself with an excellent staff also.

This is wrong according to the BDT. Union had 304 yards rushing to Graham's 172. Graham had 162 yards passing. Union had 98 yards passing. Not saying the BDT is the bastion of accuracy, but it sounds as if it wasn't even close to being even. Do you know how to speak the truth?

Bad juju are those yellow uniforms. 😂😂😂

They won a state title in 2018. Would you consider that accepting success?

If it was a fake punt it's 100% on coach...if not then no it isn't on coach...I didn't see it...most here said fake punt I was going off that...one person said bobbled snap...I don't know

Fake punt inside your own 10 looking kinda dumb now

I literally texted a group of friends…Union’s gonna go super conservative and Graham’s gonna hit a big play.

Maybe so but bands, ours included, need to learn DO NOT PLAY when you have the ball!

What Lomax is about to do to this clock.

Best player on the field is Lomax, by a lot.

I see what you did there lol

Maybe...a team called Appomattox may have something to say about that

Refs taking over I feel like I'm in Letcher KY

Bradshaw is a hell of an athlete when he has the ball but he puts in no effort on defense. I’d pull him and put someone back there that would contribute.

Yes. The refs initially pointed to Union but it was clearly Graham. Had 12 on the field with 1 running off last second. The PA announcer even clarified it was on Graham a few minutes later.

To easy. Just outflank Graham. Dive off tackle right and quick pitch left.

Correct about the QB but Union imo is more patient with the run. Graham seemed to bail early on the run. Other than the clock mismanagement by Graham the last series, the series before that when Graham got to the Union 11 and did their usual self destruction with a chance to go up 21-14 was huge.

Union is playing with help on Bradshaw and begging Graham to throw deep simply playing center field. Graham might be able to exploit Union in the second half with sending Bradshaw on some shallower type routes. Instead of running seems and flags, look for Bradshaw to run some sitdown routes to get him the ball.

Sounded like horrible clock management by Graham there letting all that time run off on that one play

Huh. Cant hear ya for the band playing

Hey, there’s enough Candace Cameron Bure for all of us!

You make your statement sound as if there is Zero, Nada, Zilch we can do to prevent Covid's assault on any team it chooses simply by chance. Therefore, I AM Not beating a dead horse, I am simply saying, if you want to play bad enough, get the needle in your arm. Gazillionith time....if you get the shot, u do not need to quarantine if you've been exposed. This means, if the entire team gets the shot, you will not have one game cancelled. Why bring it up? Because people continue to post as if we are powerless with Covid cancelling games and that's untrue. We actually do have a method to prevent cancelled games. It is ok and fine, nothing wrong with a person's choice to get or not get the vaccine. It's their decision. But, it's pretty clear if you don't get vaxd, the odds are high your team will shut down at some point. Because a person chose to make that decision to not get vaxd, is it really ok to complain when Covid cancels your game? I have no pity on any team that is cancelled because of Covid. They made their choice not to get the vax.

I can assure you, not a single player has COVID! And the Coach is the only one that has tested positive! There are two other coaches that do not have vaccines, and players who haven't been vaccined were sent home!!

None of the protocols make any sense, every health department seems to be different. It seems like they make it up as they go. If he was in quarantine & not even at practice last week that seems a bit overkill. That’s just me!