Not saying he isn't, Boggs took that team to where they had never been last year. They done him dirty. It's Wise, so that answers that. I agree 1A is no match for 2A.
That was Appy's home field and the "home" side goalposts. Visitors either used the side entrance on the fence or the other goalposts.
The disrespect came with Wise using the home goalposts for their entrance. PV never even did that.
Back in the day, you did not disrespect Appy at their place. One very, very proud community and yet another reason why Wise is the perpetual villain in every male sport.
Elite coaches redefine expectations, build dynasties, regularly win district and regional titles over many years, win state title(s)
Great coaches exceed expectations, win multiple district titles, regional titles, play in Salem in December
Average coaches meet expectations, field competitive teams most seasons
Marion 8 seasons (2011-18)
OVERALL RECORD: 48-41 (.539)
PLAYOFF RECORD: 3-6 (.333)
HOGOHEEGEE DISTRICT TITLES (6 seasons): 1
SOUTHWEST DISTRICT TITLES (2 seasons) 0
WINNING SEASONS: 5 of 8
BEST RECORD: 10-2 (2015)
WORST RECORD: 1-9 (2016)
WINS WHEN UNDERDOG : 1
1. 2011 Carroll Co 30-8
LOSSES WHEN FAVORED: 5
1. 2012 Graham 21-20
2. 2013 Chilhowie 13-7
3. 2023 George Wythe 27-20
4. 2014 Northwood 36-13
5. 2016 Rural Retreat 20-19
His two biggest advantages at Marion were:
1. An excellent run of athletes including Marshall Wagner, Ethan Richardson, Sam Wagner, Trey Crook, Kelby Ford, Hunter Lefler, Riley Blevins, Mazoff brothers, etc..
2. An easier schedule, playing 6 of his 8 seasons in Hogoheegee
W-L since leaving Marion:
Person, NC (7-11)
Lee (23-32)
His Marion record was slightly above his predecessor and clearly better than his successors, who inherited the program after the talent well ran dry. To his credit, he improved morale, got kids in the weight room and out for track, and at Lee took a winless program back to respectability.
But there's nothing on Joey’s résumé to suggest he's a "great" coach. IMHO, he’s an average coach who's not in the same stratosphere as Gary Collier.
Another season in the books, and the state championships provided three massive upsets and two bizarre, heart stopping, Hollywood movielike endings...
Rural Class - Hawthorne 24 Blountstown 8
A slight upset, but the final margin was a surprise. Blountstown had crushed everyone on their schedule except for a 33-32 win over perineal power Madison Co. These schools are in the Rural Class, but they would be 2A in VA. In Florida, schools can be asked to be put in this class if they are isolated from populated areas. I think it's BS, but the FHSAA is even worse than the VHSL when it comes to an organization.
Class A - West Palm Beach Cardinal Newman 17 Hollywood Chaminade-Madonna 14
Huge upset here. Chaminade is a private school, and perineal national power that recruits the Miami-Dade/Broward Co and Palm Beach Co area as well as anyone. Newman is a private as well, but mostly recruits in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast (where we live). Newman is a great program, but Chaminade has always been a mountain for them to climb to a state title. This year, Newman used a stout defense to shut down Chaminade's 5 star RB that's headed to Texas, and a couple of big runs from their WVU bound QB, as well as tough running between the tackles from JMU bound RB Phoenix "The Donger" Donghia to come away with the upset. This game was marred slightly (or maybe more than slightly) by one of the most egregious officiating errors I've ever seen. With Newman up 14-7 with around 4 minutes to go and the football on the Chaminade 20 on 3rd down, they threw into the end zone. The pass was incomplete....and the officials didn't stop the clock. The guys on TV caught it, the Chaminade staff caught it, tried to get the officials attention to no avail (in hindsight, they should have burned a timeout), and well over 30 seconds ran off the clock from the time the ball was incomplete until the time the FG went through the uprights to extend the lead to 17-7. Chaminade put together a quick scoring drive to cut it to 17-14 with a little over a minute to go, but couldn't come up with the onside kick. They used a couple of timeouts and were able to get the football back with maybe 25 seconds to go, but with no timeouts, a freshman QB who had struggled all day and 75 yards to go, it was too much to overcome. If the officials don't blow that call, they get the ball back with a little over a minute to go. Would it have made a difference? Maybe, maybe not. What I want to know is how does an ENTIRE officiating crew blow that in ANY game, let alone a state title game?
Class 2A - Sarasota Cardinal Mooney 52 Jacksonville Bolles 28
Yet another private school matchup. No surprise here. It was a tight game for 2 1/2 quarters, but Mooney had too much talent for Bolles to stay with them. A side note is that Bolles RB Xander Edwards is a 6'2 215 lb. RB that is the son of former longtime NFL fullback Marc Edwards. Xander Edwards led the entire state in rushing for nearly 2700 yards and 44 TD. This kid is a STUDD!1!!!
Class 3A - Jacksonville Raines 23 Miami Northwestern 22
Finally a public school matchup. If Vegas made odds for this game, it would have been something like Northwestern -24.5. NW crushed Raines in last year's title game 44-0 and rolled into this one undefeated rolling past everybody with ease except for one fairly tight game with arch rival Miami Central. Raines was undefeated and unchallenged as well, and on a mission. The story of the game was Northwestern moving the ball at will all night, but settling for 3 short FG after having 1st and goals, and that enabled Raines to hang around. Trailing 17-16 with 2 minutes to go, the NW QB hit 4 star WR Nick Lennear with a 62 yard TD pass. The try for 2 failed, and NW led 23-22 with under 2 minutes to go. Raines then went on a wild 79 yard drive where they converted three 4th and longs, and with 10 seconds to go, threw an 18 yard TD pass where the WR caught it at the 7, and a NW DB put a lick on him, but didn't wrap up, and he staggered into the end zone for the TD. They converted the PAT and that was it. Just a MASSIVE upset.
Class 4A - American Heritage (Plantation campus) 33 Orlando Jones 28
A private v public matchup in this one. AHP has been another state and national powerhouse program. Depending on your athletic ability, tuition here is nearly $43K a year. Using a kid who started out the season as Miami Northwestern's starting QB, but lost his starting job before transferring to AHP, the Patriots broke away from a 7-7 tie at the half against a scrappy Jones team with Miami (FL) four star QB signee Dereon Coleman shouldering the load, to lead 26-7 after 3 quarters. They had to hold on for dear life as Jones mounted a 4th quarter comeback and they were getting the football back with a minute to go after forcing AHP to punt, but the return man fumbled and that was it. Great game and hats off to Jones for not folding.
Class 5A - St Thomas Aquinas 29 Lakeland 0
Another public v private that didn't end well for the public school. STA rode a dominating defense and a Sportscenter top 10 highlight worthy, long one handed catch by Julius Jones Jr to cruise by a Lakeland team that couldn't get anything going at all. Unlike just about every other high school in any given state, STA doesn't gamble much on offense. Three times they faced 4th and short on the Lakeland side between the 38 and 45, and chose to punt and put all three punts out between the 10 and 2 yard lines. Every time Lakeland got the football, it seemed like they had 80+ yards to go.
Class 6A - West Boca 31 West Broward 0
Public v public in this one, although to be fair to West Broward, West Boca supposedly has 30+ players on their team who are "online" students through the Rise Prep program and come from all over South Florida, including a couple of our local kids. When we first moved here 8 years ago, W Boca was who you wanted to schedule for homecoming. It's a nice school located in an affluent section of Boca Raton out next to the Everglades. They have great facilities, and in the four years that Coach Dylan Potts took over, they have gone from 3-37 doormat to 44-8 and back to back state titles. Their only loss this year was 21-14 to national power Bergen (NJ) Catholic in a game we saw. West Boca dominated this game from start to finish with their massive OL and DL and their skill people. They are led by 4 star junior DT Jeron Thompson who is 6'3 305 and has offers from everybody, and 4 star Miami (FL) RB signee Javian Mallory, and they just ground an athletic, but undersized West Broward team into the turf over 4 quarters. It was one of those games that just felt like it was over when W Boca got the first score. West Broward has a lot of great young athletes back next year. It'll be interesting to see how many of them are poached by Chaminade, West Boca and others.
Class 7A - Lake Mary 28 Vero Beach 27
Public v public in this one and the final (and craziest) game of the weekend. Vero came in at 14-0 and Lake Mary at 11-3. Lake Mary opened the game with a long drive that ended in a FG for a 3-0 lead, but Vero immediately responded behind sophomore STUDD!1!! QB Wonderful Terrific (yes, that's his actual name) "Champ" Monds as he hit 4 star FSU signee EJ White on a beautiful 80 TD pass down the sidelines. Vero tacked on 2 more TD with 79 and 50 yards scoring strikes to take a 21-3 halftime lead. Late in the 3rd, Lake Mary QB and Notre Dame signee Noah Grubbs threw a 35 yard TD pass to cut it to 21-11 with a 2 point PAT. Vero quickly responded with a 72 yard catch and run by RB Jonathan Hillsman to set up a one yard TD by EJ White out of the Wildcat. They missed the PAT, but led 27-11 after three quarters. What had been on and off sprinkles that became a light drizzle had now become a downpour at the start of the 4th. Lake Mary puts together a quick drive with a couple of long passes and a short TD throw and 2 point PAT to cut it to 27-19 with 10 minutes to go. Vero drove down, but missed a 39 yard FG off the upright. After that, Vero went EXTREMELY conservative, and the teams traded possessions twice before LM started to dive. With 1:19 left, Vero picked off a Grubbs pass at the Vero 40 that should have sealed the game, but.....
* LM had two timeouts left.
* Vero Coach Lenny Jankowski decided he'd take three straight knees with Monds 7 yards behind the LOS in the shotgun.
* LM stopped the clock quickly with 2 timeouts, and it only ran about 10 seconds off the clock, while backing up Vero to their own 30.
* After the 3rd knee took them back to their own 23, the clock continued to run.
*Vero then took a delay of game penalty to put the ball at the 18 with 20 seconds left.
* Vero then decided to GIVE UP their EIGHT POINT LEAD by having EJ White come in and take a shotgun snap and run through the back of the end zone instead of punting, making it 27-21.
* There are 12 seconds left and Vero has to kick from the 20.
* It's a squib kick, but fielded cleanly and returned 5 yards to the Vero 43 with 8 seconds to go.
* Grubbs throws a Hail Mary that 5 Vero DB tried to bat down at the goal line, but instead bat it to a LM WR who catches it around the 5. Vero wraps him up and looks like they are going to get him on the ground....but he's able to hand it off to a teammate who is within arms reach, and he takes it into the end zone for the tying TD, and they kick the PAT with no time left for the win.
I've never coached, but here is how I saw this from a spectator standpoint....
* You have the football, a first down at your own 40, an 8 point lead, and 1:19 to go.
* Your RB has 238 yards on the night. You run him three straight times, stressing ball security and staying in bounds. Or, you run him a couple of times, then have Monds run a keeper after faking a handoff the the RB. If you don't pickup ANY yards, you still have the football between the 35-40 or more, and 18 seconds to go when you punt it away, there's probably still around 12 seconds to go when LM gets the ball, but they likely have 60+ yards to go instead of 43. You CAN'T lose 17 yards of field position on three kneel downs.
* In the worst case scenario, you fumble or the punt is blocked and it's a scoop and score or fielded and returned for a TD, they still have to convert a 2 point PAT to get it to OT.
* What you COULDN'T DO was hand LM 2 points and give them a shot at a Hail Mary. Their QB is going to Notre Dame, and the WR he targeted was a 6'5 kid who is going to FIU. ANYTHING could happen, and it did.....
On the field or the sideline, Gary Collier rises above the rest.
At Pennington, he was the best 1A QB in the State. At Emory & Henry, he was the best D3 QB in America. And now, he may be the best 1A coach in Virginia.
When he took over in 2022, The small school was beyond rock bottom: a 13-game losing streak before ending 2021 with four forfeits due to a shortage of players. What followed has been nothing short of miraculous.
In 2022, Rye Cove went 7–3 and earned a playoff berth.
In 2023, the Eagles posted the best season in school history, finishing 11–2 as Region D runner-up.
In 2024, they went 13–1, winning the program’s first regional championship.
In 2025, despite an injury-riddled roster, Rye Cove finished the regular season 7–3 , avenged two losses in the playoffs, repeated as regional champions, and earned a trip to the state championship game.
And while the Eagles ultimately fell short of a state title, the result does nothing to diminish what Gary Collier has built—a sustained winner, a transformed culture, and one of the most remarkable turnarounds in Virginia HS football history.
Union may have lost but I can’t fathom they’d have allowed the game to spiral like that and give up 49 points. Union can grind a game to a halt, eat up clock so it may have been more of a 28-14 type of game imo
Union may have lost but I can’t fathom they’d have allowed the game to spiral like that and give up 49 points. Union can grind a game to a halt, eat up clock so it may have been more of a 28-14 type of game imo
Ok ok I’ve got it figured out…. Liam Mcpoyle- Athletic Director Real Sasquatch- Head Coach. Jeffro (me)- Offensive Coach Big winners- OL Coach. SwvaOG- Defense Coach. Westisthebest- Defensive backs Unchained- security detail. Union fan- player personnel. Gridiron60- Telecommunications Director. CPF - Parent Control Stella- Scheduling . BobSmith-Transportation Observer- Ummm watching We have 37 more open positions available. Please submit qualifications to Athletic Director. All applicants subject to rejection
Union had open WRs whenever they did throw the ball, so I’d imagine a similar situation this week if Strasburg can run the ball effectively.
Interesting matchup in my mind is the Strasburg secondary against the Glenvar WRs. Glenvar will be missing a key weapon, 6, but I’m not sure if the opposing secondary can limit the open throws as much has last week. Unions front seven got a lot of love but the back end is very, very good for a HS team. They did a very good job limiting big plays most of the game and made a lot of throws turn into check downs or easy outside breaking routes.
You and I both. I just knew leaving at least seven points, if not 14 points, on the field against that offense would end up being the difference. No offense to any 2D teams but Union could afford to leave those points against the other teams. Against that offense and that physical defense on Saturday, they could not make up the gap. The defense did their job, to hold Glenvar to 21 points and 155 yards you have to think you’re winning in that case. That last scramble by Dawyot, on third and long, to get in the end zone was just gigantic. If you can force a FG there, you win the game. But the fumble on the first trip at the end of the half was just bad execution and I don’t love Chandler taking the wildcat snap. The last two times they tried that, against RV then last week, it was a fumble. Id rather see them let Bostic take the snap and hand it off, same as the 2pt attempt. I don’t hate the decision at the end or the call at all, just wish it played out differently.
Going for 2 was gutsy. The blocked fg earlier may have played into that decision too. Holding Glenvar to 21 was a great effort by the defense. Glenvar made the most of the few opportunities they had....but I thought Union was the better team. Hate it for thise kids, but they still accomplished a lot and had a great season
You and I both. I just knew leaving at least seven points, if not 14 points, on the field against that offense would end up being the difference. No offense to any 2D teams but Union could afford to leave those points against the other teams. Against that offense and that physical defense on Saturday, they could not make up the gap. The defense did their job, to hold Glenvar to 21 points and 155 yards you have to think you’re winning in that case. That last scramble by Dawyot, on third and long, to get in the end zone was just gigantic. If you can force a FG there, you win the game. But the fumble on the first trip at the end of the half was just bad execution and I don’t love Chandler taking the wildcat snap. The last two times they tried that, against RV then last week, it was a fumble. Id rather see them let Bostic take the snap and hand it off, same as the 2pt attempt. I don’t hate the decision at the end or the call at all, just wish it played out differently.
BigWinners got a reaction from Wildcat/Chanticleer in 2A All State Team
BigWinners got a reaction from djr4hurleyfb in Rye Cove vs Rappahannock
BigWinners got a reaction from sup_rbeast in Glenvar vs Strasburg
BigWinners got a reaction from Ttitans2020 in Glenvar vs Strasburg
BigWinners got a reaction from Mountain Football in Union coaching search
BigWinners got a reaction from jeffro in Union coaching search
BigWinners got a reaction from Fairlawncat in Glenvar vs Strasburg
BigWinners got a reaction from BoBob in Glenvar vs Strasburg
BigWinners got a reaction from Real Sasquatch in Glenvar vs Strasburg