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Hello everybody. It’s been quite a while since I’ve been on the boards. Nearly 5 months now. While I won’t go into exact details — I felt it necessary to get away and take a break from most forms of social media. I left the board and also left Facebook for over 2 months. I used that time to look inward, instead of always looking outward and trying to find the negative around me. Through it all, I feel like I’ve started to turn a corner in my mental health. My family has went through the gauntlet this fall and winter. Multiple deaths — many due to Covid — have taken away people I loved dearly. Rifts with family and friends. Personal health and financial hardships. We’ve been through it all and come out (so far) stronger. Over the last several years, I’ve become unnecessarily combative to those around me — and that includes many of you here. For that, I am sorry. I’ve seen the pattern of who I was as a human, and continue to strive to correct that flaw on a daily basis. I don’t always win the battle — but I am determined to win this war. I hope that you can forgive me for things I may have said or done in the past that were out of line and unnecessary. If not — I understand that as well and truly respect where you’re coming from. I did years of damage to relationships and friendships that aren’t easily repaired. In any case, I am excited to get back and talk local sports with all of you. We are so lucky to be alive and healthy and able to talk about our amazing athletes from Radford to Ewing (hey Brady). Also, a huge thank you to GMan for checking in on me in what was a low point. I really do appreciate it.

We shouldn't just focus on the negatives. I remember the Richlands' community graciously opening their doors for a family from Big Creek, WV after their high school closed.

I think if any school is looking for any kind of coach in any sport they need to come to Eastman in Kingsport because there are probably around 2000 of the 8000 that work here that believe they can coach any sport and they would do it for free because they already have a day job!

The only buses getting lost at Riverheads are the Augusta County school buses on the days VHSL counts Average Daily Membership!

Well my years as a "Raiders Football Dad" have come to an end. Kind of a big pill to swallow for sure! My oldest son graduated in 2018 and finished his years as a Raider with a 54-3 record and accumulated three championship rings along the way. My youngest son will graduate this year. He finished his years as a Raider with a 47-5 record (senior year only had 6 games) and accumulated three championship rings along the way. As a Raider Dad over the past 6 years I've watched my boys be part of a program that has gone 77-5!! What a blessing!! Even more so than the record is the fact that they got to play under Coach Smith and his staff (Coach Stephan Castello serving as interim HC this year). They pushed these kids to be their best and spent countless hours preparing to help their teams be ready to compete. Coach Smith has gone well beyond football with the boys and for many of them (mine included) is a pillar for them to have faith in for the future. During this time I've enjoy two trips to Big Stone Gap and had the privilege of witnessing an awesome OT game against Richlands in 2015.

I know when my wife ( at the time ) and I decided to have our first child back in the early 80's that if we had a son ( had a beautiful girl ) that I would not push him to play football, and in fact, try to nudge him toward a more none contact sport ( if he decided to play sports ) because of what I have had to deal with, which has gotten worse as I get older. ( now 61 turn 62 in July ). But if he really wanted to play, then of course I would help him any way I could. I started playing football when I was 7 in Maryland and continued through high school at Richlands. I transferred here back in the mid 70's. My parents were from Richlands and moved to Aberdeen Md in 58 after they got married for work but would get homesick every time we came back to visit family, anyway I digress, I also played baseball and had a couple of small injuries, but most of my issues have come from the sport I absolutely love........football. I have had 3 knee surgeries, 1 ACL, 1 MCL and 1 to remove the meniscus from my right knee, I am now told that I will have to have a total knee replacement on my left knee. I recently had a total shoulder replacement done to my right shoulder ( done by Dr Hommel in Bristol - highly recommend him ) because of 2 shoulder separations and 1 dislocation on my right shoulder, and I suffer from migraines and vision issues that the Dr's at UVA say are more than likely from the concussions I "probably" had from football. I say probably because back in the days I played, ( and I am sure a lot of you old guys on here know about this } they were simply called "getting your bell rung " and you were very often told to "suck it up and get back in there" which is what I wanted to do. I don't blame my coaches because they did not have the info back then of course that they have now. Now let me say this, I still would not change my years of playing football ! I learned so much about life and how to push myself and made some fantastic friends because of football and still have a love for the sport, but I do understand why some parents do not want their kids playing and maybe nudge them in a different direction or to flag football. I also think that maybe flag football for the younger kids is a good idea. One of my knee injuries and I of my shoulder separations were during youth football. I just would not want my son ( if I had one) to have to deal with the pain and surgeries and other issues that I have to deal with, and will probably have to deal with for the rest of my life. But I guess each parent has to make that decision for them selves. But you know, saying all of that..........if I had do it over again, as I sit here and think about this, I think I would still want to play ! God I loved being on that field with my teammates ! Sorry about the long post just wanted to give my perspective.

Where you went wrong is trying to use logic to understand one of Ralph's decisions. You will never be able to arrive at a logical answer for anything he does.

I know we aren't SW team but I also know there are some prayer warriors down there that would be willing to lift our head coach, Doug Smith up in your prayers. Coach had been dealing with what he thought was a pulled muscle for some time in his core area and last week found out it actually was a tumor. He's been told he has bone cancer in his spine and a biopsy was done yesterday to find out more. For those that have knowledge of the Raiders know that coach leads this team with an extreme amount of faith and love for his Savior Jesus Christ. We've played some of y'all in the past and you may have witnessed the prayer circle that our team does an hour before each game. That's the kind of commitment he has for the Lord and he tries to instill in his players. Here is just a small paragraph that he wrote to the football family, "Please know I am OK. Many people have had much worse. I am trusting God all the way through this. He has been my ROCK all my life. Anything I can do to bring glory to Him is good with me." I've said many times that I feel very blessed to have a man like this coach my boys and that statement just solidifies that more. Our team mottos over the past 5 years have been: PO1 (Power of One) scripturally based BELIEVE FAITH STRONG JOY FOCUS All of these he has pulled from a verse in the Bible somewhere. Now these "mottos" are being applied to his fight. Thanks for your prayers. We look forward to an opportunity to cross paths with one of y'all this year.

So, to all who like to sheepishly follow our faithful leaders in government, and to those who thought that voting at some point was not your problem, I hope your happy with yourselves. This Covid-19 isn't even 10% as dangerous at the "experts" said it would be back in February (thankfully). Everyone needs to see the situation for what it is in this country, buffoonery combined with a power grab. And for all those hiding under the bed (yeah that goes for the ones "afraid" for your family to), well, got a surprise for you; every one's gonna die sometime, and for 99+% of the world's population, Coronavirus WON'T be what sends you to Heaven or Hell. Oh yeah, for those who think that was too brash, I know a couple people with the Covid right now, in my own family in fact (they social distanced and wore masks to, didn't work). Guess what, they're gonna make it. Even if God forbid, they weren't, I'd still feel this way. Grow a pair, and start fighting those that have been neutering America for years!

& CMT Sporting Goods in Salem 😏

And so it is decreed that, each year, the various districts of Class 1 Region C and D would offer up, in tribute, one team of brave young men to battle the Riverheads Gladiators in a pageant of honor, courage and sacrifice.

I think he did that in the first half last week in Radford.

40 games, a high school player has the opportunity to play in 40 games. For the kids in high school now that's been cut to 36. Every one after that is precious and should be viewed as such. For those teams that are struggling, that's the beauty of +1. They don't have to play a dominant team that will physically beat them down and embarrass them, they can play a competitive game with a team facing similar issues.

Keep going strong boys. We are going to have 10 pages of trash talk on the game that never was.

To be fair that was the school's single greatest football victory in March

If anything was proven today it's that there's a lot of distance between Tazewell County and the rest of the SWD, both literally and figuratively.

At the end of the day, who ever scores the most points in the time allotted will win.

Nobody wins. Somebody will be elected. But nobody wins.

Disagree 100 percent. The grape flavor is something to avoid, but the cherry flavor is something I was raised on. Other than Diabetes, Heart Disease, a few rotten teeth, and a near death experience at a religious gathering in a jungle in South America, I've had no issues with it and I love the taste

I realize that this includes examples other than football, but given recent discussions on this board centering on an apparent fascination with this particular school I offer this as a therapeutic exercise for all board participants. In no particular order... 1. The cleat thing, because…..well…..just because. 2. At one time Blue Tornado basketball players used Stick-Um to assist in dunking the ball during pregame layup drills. 3. Placing the WGTH broadcast table for basketball games next to the “Krazy Korner” fan section. (And subjecting the fine God fearin’ clientele of that station to the occasional off color cheer and/or naughty comment caught and broadcast over the air waves.) 4. Certain members of the golf team “requisitioned” range balls at Fincastle during the SWD tournament event held there once. 5. In the mid 1980’s half the student body of Richlands perpetuated a rumor of rampant Satan worship among Tazewell students. (The other half of the Richlands folks pestered their Tazewell counterparts for several months thereafter in an effort to get them to use their “special relationship” to provide an advantage in securing Ozzy Osbourne concert tickets.) 6. It has long been suspected that the trombone slides used by the multiple year award-winning Virginia honor marching band are at least 1/8” too long. 7. On one occasion the visiting Richlands fans apparently provoked members of the normally docile and hospitable Big Creek crowd into firing shots at the school bus transporting the Blue Tornado marching band. 8. Holding up dollar bills as opposing basketball cheerleaders performed on the court during timeout breaks. 9. During the 1972 football playoff against Radford, Richlands players apparently spit tobacco on Bobcat players. Thus providing complete justification for Saint Norman Lineburg to run up the score on that occasion. 10. In a section of 9th grade Physical Education, members of the class organized and began a softball game prior to the arrival (and without the expressed permission) of teacher/coach Bruce Sizemore. 11. During the 1970’s the school experimented with a color scheme that included a garish shade of light blue accented by red. (When everyone knows that Powell Valley is the only school that ever came close to making that a decent look.) 12. The visitor side bleachers of Ernie Hicks Stadium. 13. During a stint which saw the program win one game over two years in the early 1970’s, the head basketball coach at the time burned all of the written records associated with the entire athletic department. 14. A Dennis Vaught-led football team once wore uniforms that bore more than a passing resemblance to the Dallas Cowboys. (A bigger travesty than the cleat thing in certain circles.) 15. One senior class was so lackadaisical in its approach to the tradition of painting the water tank above the school campus complex that they left it painted blank white over the course of a week. This invited someone to spray paint “F--- You!” on the face of the tank in large black letters. Despite efforts to allow it to remain as an unofficial class motto, administration called certain Seniors out of class to immediately correct the issue. 16. A large green banner depicting the demonic Bulldog mascot mysteriously disappeared from Tazewell High School the week before the 1987 football game against Richlands. It reappeared during the fourth quarter of the game in the student section, where it was subsequently torn to shreds. 17. A Model UN delegation from RHS once pushed a unanimous resolution through the Security Council which condemned the United States. 18. The “crown” in the middle of the old natural turf field of Ernie Hicks Stadium (which varied in height from apparently 3 to 12 feet at any given time). 19. Male middle school students used to leave visible notes on their lockers for visiting teams which used them for football and basketball. Many of these contained speculative comments about certain physical abilities of the female relatives of visiting players (although they could also be construed as oddly complimentary). 20. A member of the RHS golf team once carried 15 clubs in his bag in a match played against Giles at Castle Rock golf course. Oddly enough, this example of cheating apparently escaped the attention of the usually vigilant Spartan fan base. Feel free to add to this list and/or edit as you may see fit. Personally, I know I feel a whole lot better after posting this.

The prominent Lee County businessman:

Watching some of their games this year I noticed their sportsmanship several times. Pretty impressive. Appomattox Football kinda reminds me of Grundy Wrestling. When you go to Grundy for the Aggie Skeens or a dual there's not a person there that doesn't treat you like family. By the time you get back to Oakwood you realize everyone on the team got pinned in the first or second round and you somehow have a smile on your face because of how nice they are.

My second born son was just named to the varsity soccer team at Liberty-Bedford. Pretty sure he is the only freshman that was taken. They had good numbers at tryouts and it's a very deep pool in terms of talent. All three of my boys are pretty gifted physically. But #2 is the best athlete among them by far. He also wrestles (won three event medals in his first year) and played pretty much every down on the JV football team this spring season. Kid has also suffered mightily this past year due to the various shutdowns. So this good news is certainly welcome and I just can't help but crow about it.

To be fair, Thomas Chambliss Williams was a pretty despicable human being. He even went so far as to ensure the use of “Eminent Domain” displaced only black families in order to build a new high school.....that would ultimately bear his name!

SWD leading the M7 2-0 in the SWD-M7 postseason challenge with 4 games to go 😆

On video he looks, 6' 7 1/2" max. I refuse to believe anything else

You have 8 posts on this site and 2 of them are bashing a teenager. You are likely the parent/relative of one of the backup QBs....but if you aren’t, then you seriously need to re-evaluate your priorities in life.

I heard from a reliable source (my imagination) that they were all going to let Richland’s in until Union reminded everyone about the Blue Tornados trampling their band in 2017. All the principals started chanting “Remember the Band” and changed their vote to Union. It was the classy thing to do.

You’re 6 times less likely to get infected at a Chris Stapleton concert than a high school football game. It’s science.

I was disappointed the Blues didn't win. In my local newspaper this morning they had a picture of Chancellor Harris running down the field after the win. Seeing the joy on this young man's face took the sting of the loss away. 17 years they waited, a long time. How some can fault a town wanting to celebrate a win for these young men, I don't understand. In the story line, Josh Herndon talked about the middle school coach of these young men, and how the Dawgs went undefeated that year. That coach was Stevie Mitchem, now deceased. I knew Stevie well, we went to church together. On Sunday morning during football season, because of my Richlands football ties, he was always ribbing me about the Blues. I remember his funeral service and a group of young men in their football jerseys. This was the young men that won yesterday. I looked back at Stevie's obituary card and saw the date of his funeral was March 11th. Four years and two days after honoring their middle school coach, their dream came true. If Stevie had been here, he would have been cheering the loudest for these young men.

If I go to work sober for the first time in 10 years this week, can I get a parade on my way home?

TazewellBulldogRadio.com

I don't bother trying to discuss anything even remotely political anymore, and these days, that's nearly everything, because I found myself making everyone mad. No political party has a monopoly on ignorance. If Republicans passed a resolution that the sky was blue, Democrats would oppose it, and if Democrats passed a resolution that grass was green, Republicans would oppose that. I miss the days when people did what was right, NOT what is right for THEM. If people are so stubborn/ignorant that they will not believe the very truth that is before them because it doesn't align with their private "reality", then that only leaves us with a cleaner gene pool. Might be harsh, but you can't fix stupid.

Without wandering too far into a political discussion, I also like the idea of honoring local folks who made a direct contribution to the community. Much better than generic names referencing directional quadrants and/or landscape features IMO.

Say what you want, at least Virginia actually had championship games though.

I don't believe in superstars Organic food and foreign cars I don't believe the price of gold The certainty of growing old That right is right and left is wrong That north and south can't get along That east is east and west is west And being first is always best But I believe in Lee I believe in Coach Carroll too I believe in "five years and see" And I believe in you

Every Richlands Blue Tornado Head Football Coach is given a Gold Card to show to Richlands area business. Free Meals, Free Booze... Hell, I think you can even have a funeral for free with that card. That has to be well over 6 figures in worth.

*getting educated on my home county and school....

I keep seeing the word “dominant”, but I’m not sure it’s being used correctly.

It's all about the money...

The only reason they offered it to you was I declined it. I have an ex -girlfriend that lives in Raven and I can't afford 4 new tires every evening:)

Simple truth is, COVID kills the dying. Based on CDC data, weakened immune systems, pneumonia, type 2 Diabetes, weakened systems due to old age, and other poor health factors are the most common reasons for Covid deaths. Covid alone rarely kills, the youngest and most healthy among us are not as impacted by it. This is not my opinion, this is based on statistical data. *Rarely (adverb) -not often or seldom ** I included the definition of rarely so those suggest that say I am arguing that Covid only kills sick people can brush up on their vocabulary. Only -(adverb) and no one or nothing more besides; solely or exclusively. BTW, the virtue signalling in this thread is sickening.

West Tazewell Kudzu and the East Tazewell Stink Bugs.

Go G-MENS!!!

Did Graham get Covid on purpose? Of course not. And I hope those kids recover quickly. Did this &@$! Richlands out of even having a chance? Absolutely. The SWD got what they wanted. Moved the goalposts all season. Hope they can sleep better tonight. If I was in charge of Richlands athletics, I’d be leaving the district at the first possible moment.

Congrats to Tazewell for the win. Hope they go far into the playoffs. Those young men deserve some good things to happen. Most of those players have taken a beating over the last few years, and many started as freshmen. It pleases this old Richlands "Blues" fan to see these young men have success, just hate it came by beating the Blues. I had previously stated that I though the score would be 21 - 20 with the Blues winning, so I was close on the score, just picked the wrong winner. Hat's off the the Bulldawgs, if ever a team deserves this win, it's this team.

Kids playing was goal #1 Goal #2 let's get attendance up It's not about complaining, it's about not depriving people of something they enjoy or preventing them from supporting our youth in their endeavors. Especially when that decision isn't based on logic, science, or really anything else

Being in healthcare for 33+ years the one thing I can say for sure is you cannot stop a highly contagious virus. No paper or cloth mask or amount of social distancing is going to stop us from getting it. You will either get it and not know you had it, get it and be sick for awhile, get it and die, or hopefully be lucky enough to not be exposed.

Oh I follow that advice closely. We are certainly not rich. And I could probably do more to make some more money on the side. But I’d rather spend my time with family and friends. Memories mean more than money.