Plywood_King

My guess is that it will be fairly similar to last year. Tazewell will provide a challenge, and the Cats could surprise some people, but Richlands knows what it takes to win. I wouldn't pick anyone to win the SWD other than Richlands. I will give Haysi the edge right now in the BDD, but that could change. I was late on the bandwagon last year, so I feel like I owe it to them not to doubt the Tigers again. I wouldn't even venture a guess on the Hogo. I figured for sure that GW was a lock following last season, but with instability and a fresh set of coaches, who may or may not change up the system, I'm not so sure anymore. Northwood looks good, but I doubt they will keep their confidence against Marion and the 'Roons. Marion's inexperienced up front, Chilhowie is inexperienced in the backfield, and Holston was hit hard by graduation. And now... for my way-too-early bold prediction (don't quote me, but I've got a feeling)... No one in the Mountain will come within ten points of Gate City. Of course Battle would have been rebuilding with or without a new coaching staff, Union graduated quite a bit, and I'm guessing Lee will be the best competition for GC, but not enough to pose a threat. I could be wrong, that's just my gut feeling. Does anyone know anything about Graham or Grayson? Will the MED be competitive this year, or is it a foregone conclusion that Fort has it locked? Without Coach James, I find it hard that Fort is favored very heavily.

It's never too early to start talking about football. In my household, especially regarding college ball, there is no "football season". It's pre-season, regular season, post-season, and off-season.

Ironically, Battle's last coach, Steve Wright, won the Highlands District Championship in 2000 and 2001, posting 9 and 10 win seasons, respectably, and visiting the state-semis. Meanwhile, his successor, Brian Lee, was busy going 3-14 at Lee, in the same less-than-stellar District, with the benefit of coalfield talent. Comparing apples to apples, the track records speak for themselves. We'll see what happens, but on paper, this is a pretty big step down.

I just heard about that whole ordeal a few minutes ago. Here's to hoping that the Canes can right the ship and get back on track.

Funny story involving "The Back of the Dragon". A buddy and I were driving to Wytheville one day and stopped off in Marion to fuel up, and there was a Lambo with temporary tags parked on the parking lot asking for directions to Highway 16. Of course, it's not very often that you see a six-figure value import in this part of Virginia, so we asked him after we gave him directions what his story was. He explained that he was from Waynesboro, and he had heard about the Back of the Dragon and wanted to drive his brand new car across it. I, half-jokingly and half-serious, asked him if he had his brakes checked. He laughed, and said something along the lines of "I just drove it off the lot last week, I don't think I need to worry about it," to which I responded, "Oh, I think you do." We gave him our cell phone number, in case he got lost or needed help from a local and went about our way. About thirty minutes later he called to tell us that he made it to Tazewell, but he was parked waiting for his brakes to cool before he headed back out. He said that it did him a lot of good to bring a Lambo, when he couldn't make anything higher than 15 MPH on the backside of Clinch Mountain. It is a gorgeous drive, but if you wanted to explore that section of Clinch Mountain, I would advise heading down Poor Valley in Saltville (once the fire goes out), and head up Tumbling Creek to Laurel Bed. It's part of the Clinch Mountain Management Area, so I believe you need to have either a fishing license or an access permit to go up there, but there really may not be a more beautiful spot in SWVA.

Alright, the final verdict from my friends in Atkins and Meadowview: Atkins - Bulldogs - Navy Meadowview - Blue Devils - Navy Glade Spring - Shorthorns - Maroon

Unfortunately, that's the way things are everywhere, not just Washington County. You look at the business in Wytheville, and realize that times have changed (that's probably not the best example, considering that there should have been disciplinary actions taken, but no one should have lost their job IMO).You can argue that good coaches lose their jobs because of parents, but every coach in the country has to deal with that. Back in the day, the best coaches were coaches who the players respected, enjoyed playing for, and won championships with, but now you have to have the skill to appease parents and fans. When a parent doesn't like the way a coach is coaching, the people who have to hear about it the most are the kids, who in turn, lose confidence in their coach and the team suffers. As Coach Wright, himself, said in the Bristol paper today, "I do think we're not as tough as a society as we once were. We seem to have lost some of that blue-collar mentality."

Coach Wright came pretty close to getting there, but Rome wasn't built in a day, and that's the risk you take hiring a coach that already had the experience that he had; sure, you know you're going to get a good coach, but how long will he be there? However, assuming that it is true, I'm not so sure that Coach Wright is done. I feel pretty sure that his allegiances were always closer to wrestling than football, and he also has AD experience, so it could be that he was just tired of the sport. Regardless, if he does move on down the road or packs it up completely, he left Battle in a better position than he found it, and the head football position is much more desirable than it was before he got there.

I believe it was navy, but that is based on a combination of old black and white newspaper clippings and the Hogoheegee.com helmet history feature. It's probable that Glade was a powder blue, which would explain the two-tone blue scheme that Patrick Henry has used through the years, but again, I'm not 100% on that. After talking to some friends, they say that Atkins was definitely navy blue and white. I don't know why exactly the current Atkins school is green, unless the paint was cheaper, or they were just trying to be difficult.

I believe so. I know that the modern Atkins Elementary School, which still prides itself on being the Bulldogs, is motif-ed in green and white. I could ask some friends of mine though who are from the area and find out for sure if that was the case. I'm not sure what Meadowview's mascot was, but I have seen pictures of their football uniforms and they were definitely blue. Again, I could probably do a little digging and see what I can come up with. Stay tuned.

Cool stuff, indeed. To clarify something that was mentioned on the other thread, the combination of Sugar Grove High School with Marion was "technically" a consolidation, rather than an absorption. Sugar Grove High School was consolidated with the old Marion High School, creating the new Marion Senior High School. In fact, as I understand it, the word "Senior" was added to the name for the sole purpose of appeasing Sugar Grove community members, ensuring that it was different school. The new school was built and the old Marion High School became Marion Junior High, now Marion Middle. There was quite a bit of backlash from old timers in the Grove, because while it was a consolidation from a technical standpoint, it was handled more as an absorption, with the school retaining the "Marion" name, as well as the Scarlet Hurricane moniker, the goat as a mascot, the Marion fight song, all the cheers, and most of the traditions of Marion High. In fact, Marion's primary cheer still refers to itself as "M-H-S", and the words to the fight song say, "We'll win this game for 'Marion High'". Obviously you can see how this would have offended some of the older folks in the Grove, who still remembered a very intense basketball rivalry between the Canes and the Leafs before VHSL Hall of Fame Coach Charlie Harkins began coaching for Marion, and Sugar Grove could no longer stay competitive. Before the consolidation of Marion and Sugar Grove, there was another high school in Smyth County that was absorbed by Marion in Atkins. I believe that the Atkins High School Bulldogs were green and white, but don't quote me on that. I'm not completely sure about the mascots for Liberty Hall and Damascus, although I am familiar with both schools, as the school buildings are fixtures in their respective communities. Liberty Hall has fallen into quite a state of disrepair, being used to store hay. It's really a shame because it's a gorgeous building and quite a point of pride for the community of Lodi. Upon researching Damascus High School, it's easiest to find by looking for references to "The Rock School", a very common nickname for the school. I was also able to find a picture of the Damascus High baseball team from the 20s at this address: http://www.vacreepertrail.us/images/smith06.jpg I'm not 100% positive on this, but I believe that Glade Spring High School were the Rebels, the nickname taken by Patrick Henry after consolidation. I can remember my grandfather telling stories about playing basketball versus Glade back in the 40s at Emory & Henry, and the stands emptying onto the court after the officials called a disputable technical against Glade. Of course, if you listened to any of my grandfather's stories, apparently every athletic competition that he ever competed in ended in a big fight. He had been ejected from the famous Marion/Wytheville football game of 1949, three minutes before the stands emptied onto the field, killing a drunk who fell off the back of the bleachers. It caused the VHSL to ban Marion and Wytheville from playing each other in football, which continued until 2011.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/10677763/northwestern-wildcats-football-players-win-bid-unionize The ruling is in from NLRB and the Northwestern Wildcats football team has been permitted the right to unionize, the logic being that the athletes play football in exchange for an athletic scholarship, making them employees of the University. The board also determined that the athletes on the team were "athletes first" and "students second", because of the amount of time spent participating in their sport. It's hard to tell what kind of far-reaching impact this will have on the world of college sports, but one way or another it could be a major game-changer for the NCAA. Thoughts?

That is very true, and competition is the biggest issue with Ridgeview being in either the BDD or the Cumberland. However, the bigger question is what Ridgeview wants. I think that if Ridgeview wants to go into the Mountain District, that's where they'll be, and if they want to go into the Cumberland, there won't be much arguing from the folks in Charlottesville. The BDD is a different story, just because of Council. That is an enrollment difference that would be hard to overlook. However, if I were to continue building on the comparison to Marion, they didn't have much trouble competing in the Southwest and Highlands Districts for the seventy years prior to this year's realignment, at times playing Grundy (2 hour drive) and Lee (1h 50min) for district games. However, Marion asked to be moved to the Hogo, using the argument of less travel equals more money. The thought was that Marion had established rivalries with Chilhowie, Northwood, and George Wythe, which were much easier to get a big crowd for than Tazewell or Richlands because of travel issues; the Walker and Clinch Mountain lines will do that for you. If they were district opponents with Chilhowie, Northwood, and GW, those rivalries would have room to grow, and the revenue off of ticket sales would be higher. Of course they could continue playing Abingdon and Tazewell (their main SWD rivals) as non-district opponents, but building strong rivalries among schools within thirty minutes driving distance yields a higher gate revenue. That's what makes it seem to me that the folks at Ridgeview would choose either the BBD or Cumberland, considering that there would be more built in rivalries within close proximity. While I can't imagine that Ridgeview would have trouble building rivalries in the MD stemming from pure competition and LPD memories (Clintwood has had some great games with Union here recently), it would be a little bit more automatic in a district that the fans (the ticket buyers) have a history with. Plus, it could help prevent a "consolidation hangover" if they aren't playing top competition immediately. Not that I think that Ridgeview wouldn't be competitive right off the bat, but more often than not, consolidated schools don't reach their full potential in their first few years. Of course, while we debate this, it's highly possible that the district system won't even exist by the time the RHS opens its doors, so I guess we'll just have to wait and find out.

Well, it's really not a matter of what the other schools want, it's what makes things easiest. The precedent is that under the newest VHSL classification system, a school's district will be decided solely on it's geographic location, with no regard for enrollment differences. For example, if a school has 250 students more than the next highest enrollment in the district, and 450 students more than the lowest enrollment school, and they have twice the amount of students as half of the other schools, they will still be placed in that district as long as it is a geographic fit. Even if all the other schools protest and vote unanimously to block that school's addition. It's what I like to call, "The Scarlet Hurricane Rule".

Mountain District: Wise Central - 31min Union - 48min Gate City - 1h 14min Lee - 1h 16 min John Battle - 1h 30min Southwest District: Lebanon - 1h 13min Abingdon - 1h 27min Richlands - 1h 31min Virginia - 1h 35min Tazewell - 1h 52min If one of those two were used, it would definitely be the Mountain District, however, it's unlikely that either will. The VHSL doesn't care about enrollment numbers in regards to districts in the new system; it's all based on where you fit in geographically, hence why Marion is in the Hogo (249 students more than second highest enrollment), Grundy is in the Black Diamond (191 more students), and Abingdon is in the SWD (157 more students). I would be highly surprised if Ridgeview isn't placed in either the Cumberland or the Black Diamond. Now if a problem arises that Ridgeview is dominating virtually every sport in the district, they might take a look at it, but otherwise, I wouldn't expect to see them move anywhere else.

I think that would be a great pick for Abingdon. I know a lot of folks at Marion aren't fond of him, but I always thought he kind of got the short end of the stick, working with a tough hand near the end of his run. All things considered, when you look at where they had been for several years before he moved into the head coach job, he really turned the program around. The state tournament run of 2001 was a distant memory by that point and while the 3-8 record in his last season wasn't something that the fans wanted to see, there were a lot of off-field issues that caused that. Like BigO said, he's a "I guarantee you nothing but hard work" type coach, which is exactly the type of leadership that Abingdon needs. He could be a very good asset for the Falcons.

Agreed. It would help to know who the other player was, but I would imagine that the honor was deserving. Its tough to ask a player to carry a whole team, but it frequently happens on teams that are filled with less-than-all-star players. In addition, if that player can continue performing on a high level, despite their opponents knowing that all they have to do is shut down that player, it really speaks volumes for the caliber of play that they perform with. Take Erick Green for example. Virginia Tech may have finished last in the ACC last year, but that didn't take away from his accomplishments. The opposing teams knew that all they had to do was stop Green and they could stop the Hokies, but he continued playing well, despite not having much help. At the end of the season, he was ACC co-Player of the Year. Now of course, I'm speaking generally here. I don't know who the other player was, but my guess is that it was a similar situation. There's no doubt that Miss Allen was/is a fantastic player, more than deserving of the honor and I feel certain she will earn many more down the road, but it's pretty conceited for a Richlands fan to think that someone from a team that didn't finish very high in the standings doesn't deserve recognition for their accomplishments.

Who was the other player?

Curious about your thoughts on the the new proposed rule change regarding defensive substitutions in college football. The "10 Second Rule" or as the Ol' Head Ball Coach calls it, "The Saban Rule", would prevent offenses from being able to snap the ball within ten seconds of the playclock beginning to run (so it has to be at 29 seconds or lower). The logic behind this is that up-tempo offenses trap defensive players on the field and potentially puts their health at risk, however, no research at this point has proven that is the case. My biggest concern is that if the proposed rule is adopted, how will it effect the two-minute drill? Will you have to wait ten seconds to snap the ball when time is a factor? Will there be an exception to the rule when the clock drops below two minutes in a half, similar to the "out-of-bounds-stops-the-clock" rule? I'm an old fashioned kind of guy who likes the traditional football that we tend to see around here. I could take or leave the "spread era" schemes and I'm not really a big proponent of no-huddle, as I think that it slows the team-aspect of the game. Bearing that in mind, I am of the opinion that if an offense can be conditioned to run up-tempo, a defense can be conditioned to defend it. Thoughts? http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20140213/rule-change-no-huddle-ncaa/

Is Wytheville in Russia? But in all seriousness, how ironic is it that a person rear-ends someone while listening to "Don't Stop Me Now"?

With potential job openings at George Wythe, it's not like they don't have other options. Of course, I don't think I would rely on a "potential" situation when my livelihood was on the line.

Shane Milhorne and Seth Davenport

If my math is correct, and it quite frequently is not, the Commonwealth Cup game is the night of the state quarterfinal games. Not particularly happy about that.

My apologies, they also both played Wise-Central, but considering that they both won by a pretty sizeable margin, it's not a good method of comparison either.

Not sure about this one. Gate City hasn't had that many games yet, and several of them were Arby's Classic Matchups (hardly the best estimation of a team's merit). I think I have to look at how they performed against their only common opponent, Abingdon. Based on that, I'd have to say Devils by an eyelash. But having not seen Gate City play this year, mine is far from an expert opinion. Should be a great game.