Plywood_King

Based on the criteria that GMan gave for a toxic program, Abingdon was in the exact same situation five years ago. Historically, I can't think of a school that has done less with more than Abingdon, and it was due to having a culture issue. I'm sure no one in Abingdon would like to admit it, but they didn't suddenly get good because they found a new coach with a better playbook. Reed's staff has changed the culture of Abingdon's football team and given them a hardnosed, winning mentality, something that had been lacking from the school for as long as I can remember.

I'm inclined to agree with you, but then I think, if Abingdon can do it, any one can.

You could rephrase the question by asking "how many points will Richlands beat the other guys by?"

http://www.southwestdistrictva.org/public/genie/307/school/4/date/2017-11-01/view/month/ It could be a misprint, but that's from the Richlands athletic department. VA High at Richlands would also give the Naders 6 home games, which wouldn't be too unusual, but typically schools try and avoid it.

Marion and Graham rejoining has really thrown off district scheduling for the SWD. Lots of home-away sequences are cattywampered as a result. Good news for Richlands is that despite the schedule difficulty, with the exception of Union and the Beavs, most of the tougher games are at Ernie.

Aug 11 - vs Belfry, GW, Heritage (Jamboree) Aug 17 - vs Grundy (Benefit) Oct 13 - vs Marion Oct 27 - at Lebanon Nov 3 - at VA High

You can't kill something that was never alive in the first place.

I just woke up from a five year coma and this comment confuses the crap out of me.

VA High is certainly not Abingdon, but this is VA High's passing stat line last night from last night's game against Marion: Passing Yards: VHS 79 Comp.Att.-Int: VHS 3-25-2 Yes, that is 3 completions on 25 attempts.

I would say that postponement is very unlikely, unless Ridgeview would rather have it moved. I can't ever remember a Marion game being postponed for weather. Don't know if that has to do with the amount of Emory grads involved in the program or what. Marion runs a college style spread and a 3-4 base defense. Typically a one-featured-back system, although they rotate Marston and Ford at RB. They occasionally run split-backs with both. They haven't run a lot of jet sweep this year (usually once or twice per game), and they've been running less trap over the past couple of years, but it's still a bog part of the offense. They used to be H-back oriented, but they've been using mainly just a traditional tight end this year.

So, like a flexbone out of the shotgun, or are the inside receivers split further out in the slot? How about defense?

Winning time of possession has to be key for PH. Sustain drives and keep Marion's offense off of the field. Hold on to the ball, wear down Marion's D, and get Humphrey to the outside. Marion's got a very good front seven that predicates itself on taking away the inside run. PH's FB is very good, but running between the tackles will not be easy against Marion front seven, which makes winning TOP difficult. Marion is talented, but very young and not immune to mental errors. GW and RR both beat the Canes by sustaining drives, winning TOP, and forcing Marion into making silly mistakes (i.e. lots of penalties). Marion's coming off a bye week, with memories still fresh from PH's win last year, which may have been Marion's most hearbreaking loss. I think that it will be a good game regardless, but Marion is going to be very motivated and PH is going to need to play flawlessly.

Seriously. I'm still waiting for clarification on that un-timed down that was blown dead but called a touchdown, which was followed by a 2-pt conversion for 6 points.

But, but, but... if Marion > Chilhowie > Tazewell, then Marion > Tazewell. Also, Marion is 29 points better than Chilhowie, and Chilhowie is 12 points better than Tazewell, then Marion will win by 41 points. Am I transitiving right, guys?

I understand the politics and what not in regards to Tazewell County not being represented, but let's honest with ourselves, WCYB needs ratings, and nothing creates ratings better than controversy, but it's challenging the credibility of their sports coverage. It's not a new thing, but for example: because they lost last week, Marion And Central fell out of the Top 5 and were replaced by Lee And Grundy. Take nothing away from Lee and Grundy, they have solid teams, but I'm willing to bet that if they were to play, WCYB would pick Central and Marion to beat either team, and possibly even PH. Now, if they considered their top 5 to be a power ranking, it would make perfect sense, but to my knowledge, they don't and never have.

Hopefully it's nothing serious. That young man can play some football. If history has taught us anything, if this game is competitive, it will be low scoring and defensive, and I have a feeling it will be again. I get a feeling that a big play on defense or special teams will be the difference in the game.

For whatever reason, Marion's field house is no longer equipped for two teams to dress and hasn't been for a couple seasons, so the away team uses the locker rooms in the gym. That's why they came down on the bus five minutes before game time, otherwise they would have had to walk down the hill through the home bleachers. My understanding is that they warmed up on the grass field between the high school, intermediate school, and gym. Regardless, Chilhowie was a better team than they showed. Marion was better prepared, did a better job of adjusting, and just played better. Chilhowie has to learn how to win again. Tonight, they got down by a couple scores and it seemed like it was just business as usual. I'm a firm believer that there are more important things in life than football. Winning is good, but on the high school level, that's only a fraction of the coach's job. But my goodness, Chilhowie will not dig out of this hole without an attitude change, and that falls back on the coaches.

That's true, but if a college athlete is charged with a felony, you can bet they will be suspended until the issue is resolved. Even Jameis Winston was suspended during his issues at FSU, as ridiculous and slimy as FSU was in regards to dealing with that. At the same time, high school isn't college, and if they were tried as juveniles, things get even murkier when you are running the risk of jeopardizing their anonymity. But, if GC's hands were really tied on the situation, that scares me a little bit. Again, the article raised a lot of questions regarding who to blame (except with the Clerk's office, who really, really screwed up).

It doesn't have a lot of information, and I'm not sure exactly how the law works on this type of thing (maybe UVAO could clear things up) but is the clerk required to inform the school when the charges were filed, and if so, did she do it? Obviously, there was a HUGE error made when it was not reported that two students plead guilty to a felonious sex crime, but if it was reported that they were being charged, Gate City is very much at fault (in my opinion) for considering two students who were awaiting trial for a crime of that magnitude to be considered in good standing. Again, I'm very ignorant on the subject, and the article raises more questions than it answers, but I'm not willing to jump to GC's defense yet.

Apparently heck with da enrollment differences too. You would need two Marion teams, and two Giles teams, to get them into the same enrollment classifications as the rest of the teams.

Those numbers look about right to me, SWVAFB. What's scariest about that is that it wasnt so long ago that Chilhowie was around three hundred students and Marion had around a thousand. Studying Chilhowie in this rivalry is the perfect example of how to be successful as an underdog. Sure Marion typically has more raw talent, and they have won more games than they've lost in the series, but it's very rarely a lopsided score going either way. Even when Marion won 10 games a couple of years back and Chilhowie only won one, the game was closer than most of Marion's matchups with high ranked 2A teams that year. The Warriors always come into it with a "showing up your big brother" mentality, and the results speak for themselves. It's a very balanced rivalry.

I saw both teams scrimmage last week against Lebanon and Honaker... the results were both extremely one sided in favor of the Smyth County teams. I saw Marion and Lebanon before the rain delay, and during the 1s vs 1s, I would be surprised if Lebanon mustered 15 yards of offense. I saw Chilhowie vs Honaker while the #2s were on the field, and if the #1s were anywhere near being similar, it had to be a long night for the Tigers. Long story short, both teams are vastly improved and should contribute to a pretty talented Hogo this year. If recent history has taught us anything, it's that if it's a low scoring game, put your money on Chilhowie; if it's high scoring, put it on Marion. I like Marion's home field advantage, but I like Chilhowie's athleticism. I think if the Warriors win, it will be because of superior talent, and if Marion wins, it will be because of superior coaching. It's a coin toss for me right now.

Fewer district games to provide more space to play 3A teams? At the time they started the appeal, they were probably under the impression that the SWD would be an 8 team district. That's the only way that I can rationalize the decision.

That's a very good question that I don't know the answer to. It's certainly not to fill the trophy case; they won a lot more titles in the Hogo than SWD, but if I were to provide some conjecture: A) Gate profits didn't increase. The increased revenue from Chilhowie and GW couldn't make up for the lack revenue from playing Holston and PH instead of Richlands and Graham. B) Political pressure from GW and RR leaving. Being the only 2A team in a 1A district is harder to defend when 2 of the other 4 teams are under 250 students. C (and this one's the interesting one) Marion's principal is the chairman of the 2A West region. Maybe he knows something about the new playoff structure that we don't, i.e. the return of a postseason district tournament?

Shortest trip in the SWD was a thirty minute drive, longest in the Hogo was twenty five. Gate revenue from the out of district Hogo games were better than the in district games in the SWD. They anticipated increases in gates from the Chilhowie, Northwood, and George Wythe rivalries once those games "meant something." All that within a school district that hasn't given their teachers a cost of living pay raise in a decade and has closed two schools in the last three years because they can't afford to keep them open/make the improvements necessary to keep them from being condemned. At least that's the reasoning that the VHSL used to approve their switch after it had previously been denied.