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Guess they left early

Also. Every coach that I have EVER read about that interupted their coaching responsibilities to serve in WWII, whether drafted on enlisted on their own, got that job back (if they wanted it) when they returned.

Interesting enough that Giles J.V. success has a very low translation rate to varsity?!?! At J.V age its about natural talent and once they get passed by every other school that has emplemented an actual off-season program, the excuses get made about the kids, the parents, the weather, etc etc etc.....it shouldn't be that hard to figure out what Giles problem is at this point

Wow, this is a lot to take in as I'm late to the conversation. My experiences with Giles is the following and I'm a fairly trusted source as I have talked to numerous players in my living room for 5 years now along with my own personal observations. My first observation was the off-season workouts were almost non-existent compared to our competition and was told "it's a family" thing or whatever excuse they used to not have a decent off-season program which hasn't really improved in 5 years. Thing's progressed through j.v. and I have zero negative to say about the AD or his staff during the JV years. J.v. years didn't exactly last long as ...varsity was really struggling with numbers and talent. Varsity football is a train wreck at Giles. Here's the list of problems that I know personally exists... off-season program is terrible and nobody on staff is willing to take charge and hold kids accountable, the kids don't like or respect a coach that doesn't coach but only belittles them, Xs and Os are not as good as they once were, kids play different positions every single week and are yelled at because they don't always know what to do or have practiced the position. These are my opinions.. participation is probably held back by the fact that the kids don't like the coach and Giles has losing records for the last 5 out of 6 years. Losing breeds losing and it's a vicious cycle. Once the culture changes it's impossible without a major change to right the ship. I've read on FB the senior spotlights for players for years and they all mention every coach making an impact on them except the head coach?! It's no secret which coaches the players respect. Play calling has become exceptionally bad and it's telegraphed at this point, Clock management is terrible, and plays are called it seems to give certain players the ball regardless of whether they have the "hot hand" or not. Not sure what the parents have to do with anything as all I've seen is unwaivering support for a busted program. The only thing negative I would say about the AD is the scheduling absolutely puts Giles at a disadvantage scheduling teams year after year we have absolutely no business playing. Giles needs a hungry coach that wants to win above all things and plain and simply we don't have. In fact, the believe he handcuffs some of his staff that wants these things. RIP for a long standing dominant program that was once envied by the entire state.

Virginia High beat Richlands last season

A little known fact about Harry Fry is people from BSG approached him about setting up a youth football league in BSG. He was more that happy to oblige, and in 1970, BSG's "P-Nut" league was created as an emulation of GC's. That says a lot about the person Harry Fry was.

Tailgating is probably better than the product VT is putting on the field.

I'm sure common names like Frye, Carlock, Ragsdale, Cummins, Turner, Robbins are there, but some to not be missed that many may forget are Merle Gainer of the Bluefield Beavers, (my argument as Numero Uno, the Dean of HS football in the Appalachians, the Michaelangelo as far as I'm concerned and if you look at the coaching true that sprang from him and the success that the guys under him had not just locally, but in multiple states, he's my pick for number 1), but others like Chmara, Fred Simon, Joel Hicks of Pulaski, Lineburg of Radford were all solid, don't forget about Dave Ryder of Tazewell, Greg Mance of Richlands. Most Unpopular historically, but the best On Field Tactical X's and O's guy to come out of the coverage area in my opinion. Dennis Vaught. He saw things on the field that 99.9 percent of his peers didn't see, His in game and mid game adjustments were foolishly good. But, things like smart decisions off the field, temper, leadership prevents him from being viewed in the elite and that's fair, but on the field wise, on a completely other level. Just my opinions

Diddly and Squat.

Narrows plays nobody in their district....pioneer is pretty much over once the first day of practice starts

Just takes 1 good class to turn it around so you never know

The denial is strong in here

Where to start? I'm sadden to see the Blues season with no wins. I think the 2nd half at Tazewell broke their spirit. The season with Virginia High shows the Cats with improvement, but still work to do. The Blues team needs to prove they aren't cellar material. They need to dig deep within themselves and come away with a win Friday. It won't be an easy task. Task calls for a deep down effort, beyond what has transpired this season, and a reckoning of will to walk away with the win Friday night. GO BLUES!!!

Rye Cove ran the jet in 96 but didnt stick to it after a coaching change in 97. Coach Wampler brought it in after watching Cumberland College I believe it was running it. That was a tricky hand off to learn at first after being used to the traditional Wing T sweeps.

Yes he did. He was replaced as head coach in 1943 and 1944 and 1945. Actually left in the middle of the 1942 football season.

Excellent summary of three great coaches, @redtiger

There is a good coach nearby if Ginn does decide to get out at Marion. Former PH coach Mark Palmer is teaching in the same county at Northwood. He would be a good candidate if the job comes open. I'm pretty sure he wants to be a head coach again. Not saying Ginn will leave but if he does then there's your man.

Colley was a great Xs and Os guy, knew offense and defense inside and out. Imo he comes up short in terms of building a program but was WAY ahead of his time in terms of figuring out how to utilize basketball type kids on the football field. There was a realization that basketball and baseball kids will never commit to a hardcore offseason weight program and Haysi was always competitive in all sports, but they could be game changers if used properly. Its hard to line the Small Forward or 3rd Baseman up at Tight End but they make pretty dang good WRs. One of my favorite stories about him is how his offense came to be, basically after a early season, maybe game 1, loss to Honaker where both teams were running the Wishbone Coach set down on a Saturday with a notepad and was trying to figure out how to beat teams that were bigger and stronger. On TV that day was FSU, they were in the gun and throwing the football. He had a eureka moment and thought "we can do that". He draws up a handful of plays and that became the offense. I believe Haysi rolled off 10 consecutive wins before falling in the Regional title game. That was the late 80s, Shotgun "spread" offense wouldnt be a thing in SWVA for another decade and a half(RIchlands and soon after PV) and wouldnt be common for 2 decades. To set aside what YOU WANT TO DO and adapt to what YOUR PLAYERS CAN DO is what separates good coaches from great ones. In the list of great coaches without rings Doug Hubbard is near the top. Honaker was ALWAYS competitive and as a program was as physical as anyone. I think Hubbard had 2 or 3 state title appearances, that doesn't just happen. His great flaw may have been utilization of talent, Heath Miller under center in a Power-I/Wishbone offense??? Jimbo Adams is at the very top of the same list. Burton had a tremendous run of talent in the 2000s but he maximized it by being on the cutting edge of the Double Wing Jet Sweep Offense. No one around here ran Jet before JIB, and he had the guys to do it. His great drawback, total reliance on speed and when they ran into other fast teams they didnt have much success but them man coach multiple teams to the state title game and would have won 1 if it weren't for being robbed by the refs. All three would have benefited greatly from a more equitable playoff system. That change would have put both coaches in the overall discussion imo.

https://www.wvva.com/2023/08/22/montcalm-girls-break-boundaries-members-football-team/?fbclid=IwAR08iWtgcY-gxz2d0HSg8Kq1vs3MobegPHpqx5ACh7z-sF_f4mWIduAa0Ck_aem_AfOT5Jv23w62lXVhrdR3mJFWa-xC-nkrZgbDNRWo_GhMGiTQES41S1y6xKm-goNXxTo&mibextid=9R9pXO#lnl4thqvxfd4x2f4b2g https://www.wvnstv.com/news/crime/mercer-county-crime/man-arrested-for-murder-of-bluefield-woman/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=facebook.com&fbclid=IwAR1HpvvBAG5W2ZepdNwxFHe7HhbGwIV8x9n7aWCWGM_b7TM72bM_DRyW7DU_aem_AfONH1RQCcOn1gKPx1XIPF6qYRO5_G7XZZD38EkoEJpTolMFKFiX05ZX8gB97nULyeE&mibextid=9R9pXO I hope they go 10-0 too!

They have two female players I believe. One who lost her mother this past week…sad situation.

I hope Montcalm gets in the playoffs. I'm rooting for them.

Amongst others......

Bullbutter

I get it man, reading comprehension can be a bitch sometimes. Hearing from various places, some of which are longtime coaches in the region, isn’t the same thing as “making a comment” but you do you boss.

Oh we've had many that didn't play over the year because of the AD/JV coach...and a bunch could have helped us....and parents are part of the problem too

Well I use the same sources that you guys do for current scores and often get conflicting reports. I am going to change it to 50-6 cause that is wha the KHSSA has on the Phelps page at this time. The game was in KY so what KY says goes. https://scoreboard.12dt.com/scoreboard/khsaa/kyfb23/89887

you’re saying you don’t want to come to that friendly, welcoming facility up there??

It's a coach who believes that he is reinventing the wheel thing.

OK, a lot to take in there. So my question is, where do you begin to turn the situation around? You can't bring in 50 different players each year You can't bring in 100 new parents each year. My theory, based on the handfull of players I've known and talked to over the past few years is, the head coach is not very well liked or respected by the players. He doesn't seem to inspire kids to come out for football, or keep the one's participating in middle school or jv to continue their football careers. Participation numbers have been declining for years, and not wholly a factor of declining enrollment. Other area schools of near equal enrollments as Giles are not seeing these low turnout numbers for football, just check across the river. I'm going to throw this out as an example, Chilhowie. I know very little about that program. But I did catch one of their games this year. I believe they went 0-10 last year. They had over 50 kids dressed for their varsity team. What has happened there. They brought in a new Coach. I didn't look up enrollment numbers, but I'd say Giles and Chilhowie are fairly close. If you're satisfied to just let things go and hope they turn around someday, that's on you. Good luck with that. I got a patch in my yard that grass has quit growing. I can wait a couple more years and see if the grass magically starts growing again, or I can make a change and try something different to see if I can get that patch pretty again.

And it all starts with Kenny Wayne who played at ETSU or LMU one I believe.

Great topic. But everyone is talking about state championship coaches. I believe there has been some great coaches in our area that were at smaller schools and didn't have the resources or numbers to win a state championship but doesn't take away from what they put on the field. As an example with not any disrespect intended, Coach Robbins before PV did not have a great deal of success with W and L. Coach Colobro left and went 0-10 at East. Coach Cummins built a dynasty at Clintwood but could he have done that at Ervinton? I just wonder who through the years were great coaches that are not being mentioned in this diccussion. To me James Colley, Don Williams, Jimbo Adams, Kevin Saunders, Roger Rife, John Adams, Steve Wright is a just a few that I can think of off the top of my head that always produced great teams and played hard. Just food for thought.

If Richlands loses to Virginia High on Friday, it will be its ninth consecutive loss. The longest losing streak for the Blues since they opened the 1969 season with nine consecutive losses. Really appreciate @Bluefield researcher's handiwork in making all this info so accessible.

Three area teams remain undefeated: Radford (7-0) Grayson Co. (6-0) Montcalm (5-0) Side note - Montcalm has scored 244 points this season and have only given up 6. They are averaging 49 ppg on offense & 1 ppg on defense. If you’re wondering why they have only played 5 games so far it’s because they have a game scheduled against Craig Co. later in the season on a Monday. They will play 10/20,10/23, & 10/27.

Unless I’m mistaken, PV’s first ever playoff appearance was in 1982. That coincided with their first state title. Prior to that PV was considered a good program, but not elite in any sense of the word. The P-Nut program had been in place since 1970…I think (but may be mistaken) that it was started under Cecil Maddux’s watch. But, besides1984 and 1991, I can’t remember a single year Phil missed the playoffs. The second title in 1985 was a team completely built by Phil because all of Bolling’s guys were gone. Phil gets undercut a lot with people claiming he had this and that without knowing exactly what he had. One thing he DID have was the ability to prepare players to play at an elite level. You were never on the field in a PV uniform not knowing what to do or not knowing exactly what your assignments and adjustments were. That’s where he excelled. He was a cerebral coach with a great ability to teach the game and scenarios. He was also second to none in assessing and knowing where each player would help the team the most. There have been a lot of great coaches in SWVA over the years, but it ain’t like Phil was handed the keys to a Cadillac that autopiloted itself for 30 years. The man knew what he was doing.

Gainer also 79-16-4 at Big Creek and lost championship to Grafton

He got his team the tools they needed to get the job done. Can't fault a man for that lol