HM3-8404

Thanks G-man I thought there had to be more to it. I didn't know if it was a new direction or just a one time thing.

UVAobserver you know I love you. After hearing that today I just got excited thinking about how much motivation that would give our boys if it was true. I wasn't there just kind of feeling it out to see if it was true or not. Football is like NASCAR if you know what look for it makes it more exciting. Like I said nothing wrong with it. I would be glad to see a little attitude from the G-men.

Spoke with a Tazewell parent today and they said Graham's pre game activity was very lets just say alot like the U of Miami used to do during the 80's. I was just wondering if it was just blown out of proportion or if that was the real deal. Can't wait to see tonight's pre game. Richlands always gets super hyped up when another team comes to Ernie and tries to intimidate them. Graham always lays the wood and plays cleanly, this game will have some pads popping, nothing wrong with a little pre game gamesmanship as long as you can tote the mailbag.

Richlands by 21

I have one more comment about this game, I know you guys are tired of hearing from me. Am I just to old school or was there alot of celebrating mostly from Richlands. After almost every play there was a dance off going on, I know the players on the field did alot more dancing and fist pumping and chest bumping and so on than the cheerleaders did LOL. When I played the coach said if you score act like you've been their before. Back in my day the coach would have took you out and then Dad would have came down on the sideline and jerked a knot in my rearend. Union saved their celebrating until after the game as it should be. When you make a great play and then hurt yourself or get a cramp from all that bull crap It makes you look pretty silly. So am I just behind times or what? I know I prefer to actually talk to a real person on the phone instead of text and I don't post my bathroom habits on facebook but jeez I'm just 40 not 90, has it really changed that much?

I'm a Richlands fan and I think Union should be number 1 and Richlands should be around number 5 or so.

My post was not meant to "piss off " any Union fans, I sang their praises quite a bit. Last year we played Bluefield and were big underdogs, we beat them by 2-TDs, at the end of the day I thought they were the better team. I felt like if we played 100 times they would have beat us 70 times. On that night we were the better team I feel like we got lucky, first of all we played them at home which most people think that equals 1 score, secondly we played an almost mistake free game and had a few bounces go our way. I also think I said Union was a great team and that they would be very hard to beat, and they were a well oiled and polished machine and so on. I have nothing but respect for Unions program no one except maybe Hampton in the state of Virginia has more of a winning tradition than Union/PV/Appy. Union did not make mistakes and we did and 75% of those were unforced either misreads or just bonehead mistakes that Union literally had nothing to do with. I think I gave credit were credit was do. I said 1-INT was a great play by Union's DB the other 2 had zero pressure they were just QB/WR disconnects and the DB had them right in the numbers. The missed FG was just a miss not much pressure either. Those are just the facts and not meant to belittle Union in any way, nor is it meant to blame Richlands players either, crap happens you have alot of moving parts in all plays and if one small piece isn't working it all falls apart. I have also in my earlier posts said I may not know what I'm talking about and my wife will swear to that in court LOL. I thought that might be so. I spoke with about 6 or 7 other folks today about the game 3 of which are recent RHS players ( and believe me they are the worst critics no team was as good as they were ) and they all agreed with me and as a matter of fact my "if they played 100 times" question, my 60-65 times was the most conservative. My post was not meant to take anything away from Union as a matter of fact I took up for Union on the BSG thread.

Like I said on here before every fan base has its resident jacknuts (jacka$$ combo nutjob). I'm a Richlands fan and I've met most of ours. Last night the young folks that were selling the half and half tickets were wonderful very polite and respectful. I've never ran into a GC jacknut but 2 years ago I saw a couple of Union's but they were teenagers. Over the years I've been around between 20,000 to 30,000 Union/PV fans and have met a total of 2 or 3 jacknuts. That's a very good ratio in my book. I've have more jacknuts in my own family LOL. If you ever have a run in with a police officer get their badge number and file a complaint and also record the interaction if at all possible.

Congrats to Union on a hard fought win. This is my take on the game: 1) The targeting call was a bad call the ball carrier was stumbling and struggling and his head also lowered it should have been a no call sometimes when a tackle is made and the ball carrier stumbles it changes the position of his head the defender has already started his angle of tackle. That call in my opinion didn't change the game that much. Even though it probably kept a scoring drive alive that may not have been a scoring drive otherwise. It was just one call and it happened early in the game no excuses. The only reason I bring it up is because it was already mentioned. They could have called the same call 3 or 4 more times on each team. 2) Union was the best team last night. 3) Union was a well oiled well polished machine. They made no major mistakes ( no unforced mistakes, or bone head penalties). 4) Richlands was the most physical team 5) Richlands made at least 5 major mistakes. Missed FG, 2-INTs that were unforced, a blown coverage that went for a TD, and an attempted strip of the ball with 7 sec left in the half instead of a tackle. That's not counting the other INT that was a good play by the Union player, or the fumble that was mostly unforced (I gave him the benefit of the doubt) in the red zone, and the missed extra point that had pretty good pressure on it. 6) Union played a mistake free (mostly) game and beat a mistake prone Richlands team by one point in OT. Part of being a great team is playing mistake free Union has that part down, that is why I say Union had the better team last night and that is why they will be very hard for anyone to beat. They are also loaded with talent, speed, size and they are hard workers, they are already a great team. 7) Richlands like I said before was more physical, has at least as much talent, speed, size and work ethic, we just don't have the small things worked out yet, I feel about Union this year the same as I did about Gate City last year and that is " if we meet again this year I like our chances". I just can't imagine Union playing any better than they did last night but Richlands has alot of work to do and so much room for improvement. 8) Union had the best team and played better last night. Richlands I feel has the best team overall and has the most upside, If they played and both teams played mistake free I think Richlands beats them by 10-15 points, But Richlands has it to do, if they played again and Richlands makes a few major mistakes then Union wins again. This is just my feeling after watching this game along with about 300 other Richlands games over the years. I've watched games before and I know if we played a team that we lost to 100 times we would lose 100 times( mostly in the 80's lol ) and watched games we lost that we would beat them 90 times (state game 2010) if we played last night's game 100 times we would win 60-65 of them.

I heard from a Tazewell mom today that the twitter war between Graham and Tazewell was getting pretty nasty. What happened to the good ole days when you let your play on the field do all the talking? Now-a-days you talk trash on twitter, facebook, instagram, snap chat, text, SWVA sports forum (LOL), by the time the game rolls around their fingers are so sore that can't even pick up a football. Back in our day you had to write a letter and by the time it got there hell the game was over two days ago.

Have you ever played at Buefield? They get the normal 1-score home field advantage that most teams get plus a 2-scores ref advantage and late in the season if they are on the bubble to make playoffs the ref advantage is literally infinite. The clock can go from 2 minutes left to 0 with no official plays being ran with 3- timeouts used, I think the year was 2002 or 2003.

Gate City 28 Abingdon 21

We have all done some boneheaded things before it's part of growing up. If I had been caught doing some things when I was young my Dad would have put the smack down on me big time. The team has to treat it like they would an injury. This stuff happens every year on almost every team at different levels of boneheadedness. The team will grow from this and the young will also in the long run. Best of luck just a bump in the road hopefully.

SWVA looks to have a strong presence in the top ten this week maybe ole Rod has taken us seriously. They had a photo of a Richlands player on VaPreps today. I fell out of my chair at work a coworker thought I was having a stroke. I would like to give Rod a chance, if he will listen to G-man and Ryan I might would join VaPreps just for S&G's.

First off my son played on the 2010 team. I think they are the best team we've had. This team this year would give them a run for their money. My top 5 all time are in order 2010, 1992, 2015, 2005 and 2006. I watched all of those, while each are different if I was coaching that is the order I would choose them. This team this year has the ability to be great but they still have a few bugs to work out. I know Mance is really putting alot of work in on this game. This game has a late playoff game feel to it. As a fan I can only hope for a game #15 or #14 rematch. The only weakness I can see from this team is a problem with the reads from the QB and WR which will get better as the season goes on. I think the only chance Union has is if they can get a couple of INT's from this. If not it will be a long night for Union. OR I could be wrong which according to my wife I'm wrong about 99.9% of the time.

That ref comment wasn't funny we still have to play Bluefield at Bluefield. lol. Can I get an amen?

Did someone hack bigwinners page did I read that right RHS 35 - UHS 7, lol.

Most: Union Richlands Va High Galax Graham Least: Marion Burton George Wythe Glenvar Tazewell In no order. Union and Richlands did well as expected, Va High/Galax/Graham all did better than I expected. The 5 on my least list did way worse than I could have believed, George Wythe and Tazewell I was really pulling for along with Graham and Galax.

Richlands- 35 Union- 27

Did anyone on here watch both games? If someone did I would be interested in how they feel about this. I know Norton has a good football tradition but not quite as good as GC plus GC is AA. GC will win at least 6 games this season even with a tough schedule. I feel better about our win over GC more so than if we had beaten Norton by the score Union did. On the other hand the last 2 years I really felt like we had a better team than Union and lost, so you never know. Do any of the Richlands fan agree that this is one of our top 5 teams we've ever had? I can't wait to travel to Bullett Park it is my favorite road trip, very classy fans.

I hope all of you guys have a safe trip home tonight. GC will play more than 10 games this year and I wouldn't want to play them late in the season. The Richlands team you played tonight is in the top 5 teams we've ever had IMHO. Good luck the rest of the season.

I remember coming back from a GC game and we stopped at a pizza place on the way back about 8 or 10 miles from Legion Field. We had lost that night and a guy working there was a GC fan and of course we all had our Navy blue on so the guy says rough game tonight. I said yep you guys were better tonight. That was the first time we had lost to them in I think maybe three years. The guy was so humble he talked more about the previous few years than that night. He sat down with us and shot the bull for a while, that's just one example of why I think GC has the best fans. Every fan base has a few jacknuts ( the meaning of Jacknut is a mix between a jack-ss and a nut job), but I can honestly say I have never met GC's resident Jacknut. I've met some from everywhere else, Union don't have many either. Some teams are blessed with an over abundance, and yes Richlands has them also they seem to always set near me at away games LOL.

My stance on this is I don't believe in slavery in any way it's wrong period, I don't uphold it in any context including Biblical accounts it really upsets me. I truly believe all men and women are created equal, each individual should be afforded the same opportunities by how they apply themselves and how hard they work. People should not be treated differently by their race, religion so on and so on. At the same time you should be able to respectfully honor your forefathers for the sacrifices they have made and the duty they carried out in good faith to there country and families. I'm not proud of our country's legacy of slavery, and by country I mean some folks forget that slavery was every where in the country at one time and in some northern states during the Civil War ie Kentucky and parts of Maryland and West Virginia. The south had alot to be proud of they had the best Generals, the best sharp shooters the average southern trooper was equal to a northern sniper, we had the best minds, ever hear of the Gatling gun, and put up a very good fight 9,000,000 vs 21,000,000. Because you like facts so much parsons here's one for you. During the Civil War the south sent an envoy to France with a deal that said if France would officially recognize the Confederate States as it's own country and sell arms to us that we would release all slaves as part of the deal. And another is have you noticed that hardly any of the newly freed slaves moved up north? That's because laws were put in to place to keep that from happening. You see the northern states had plenty of "slave labor" the newly arrived Irish, Scottish, and Germans.

So parsons I will take your baited statements and build on them. First of all I fought for my country, which by your reasoning I'm going to go out on a limb and say you probably haven't. If you did then thank you for your service. Secondly I have a strong Native American pedigree, so with your reasoning I should have a big gripe with the U.S. government since between the years of roughly 1776-1900 my people were wiped out mostly, ever hear of the trail of tears? So to take your reasoning, every soldier from those years which includes the Union army 1861-1865 are all murders, they treated my people way worse than the southern soldiers did slaves. This reasoning has zero logic, neither Sheldon Cooper nor Spock could stand on it. I don't run around telling them to take the American flag down because it could offend me because all those years ago those horrible things happened. There is a reason only those folks in high places Generals and such were hung after WWII. Did they hang every German who fought in the war? No or course not only those responsible you know the ones in charge. Look I have friends from Iraq, Iran, Colombia, Russia from working in the DC area. As a matter of fact the nicest person I've ever met is a Muslim from Iraq, she talks the talk and walks the walk, alot of my Christian friends could learn how to treat people from her. She knows I was in the military during the Iraq conflicts and still treated me like family. Like I said before, you support the troops. Will history judge me as an oil hungry killer who went to the Middle East to kill people for oil, because they never found those weapons of mass destruction, am I to blame for that, was I able to say "no dude count me out on this one until you find proof". I will go ahead and answer that H_LL no. I joined the military voluntarily with the intent to defend my family and country once you're in you don't have any say so. If you refuse to do what you are told they put you in prison or just shoot you. I don't own any oil companies, oil wells, heck I'm not even sure I have a can of oil in the garage. Just like 95% of the southern soldiers didn't own slaves, most of those folks either joined thinking they were doing the right thing to defend their families or were drafted and had no choice. They got bad or at least misleading info much like I did. I'm not ready to judge every rebel or German, or Russian ,or Muslim as evil because some have done bad things. The Two main reasons that the Civil War was started and this really is a fact is. 1. The north wanted to charge tariffs on the south's cotton to ship it to the factories in the north for the making of textiles. The south threatened to ship directly to England as a away around this. So greed for #1 2. The south wanted the slave vote to be 3/5 ths of a white vote for election purposes, and the north wanted it to be 2/5 ths of a white vote. Which just so happened to tip the election process one way or the other. So power of the nation for #2 Myself and UVAobserver have both quoted Lincoln for you in a pretty damning light. Oh and here is another fact for you African Americans could only be cooks on U.S. Naval vessels even up after WWII. So I guess all U.S. Sailors are evil also. If you have served our great country I would be floored.

UVAobserver is very well educated on this subject as am I, while in the military I was often speaking of this subject with some of my African American friends one of whom was from South Carolina and very proud of being a southerner. He was up on his Civil War history, had numerous books and copies of documents which he was very proud of and showed to all of us Gray Boys as he called us" uneducated white friends from the south". We would all just accept what the history books told us so he would say " you should be proud of your heritage and don't let those Yankees tell you there version of the Civil War, he said it's called history because who ever wins writes HIS sTORY. He brought this to my attention Abraham Lincoln September 18, 1858 Charleston " I am not in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office.... I am not in favor of Negro citizenship." Now that does not sound like the Lincoln I read about in school. That sounds alot like the jacknut politicians we have in charge today. The Civil War was not cut and dry good guys vs. bad guys. Parsons gave three examples of speeches by politicians from that era, now I can remember at least three speeches by politicians from the second gulf war that said Bush started the war just so his family could take their oil. Back then just as now 90% of politicians spend more time trying to divide the country Dem vs. Rep then trying to unite it. If you asked 99% of southern solders who were in the trenches fighting, slavery would not be mentioned. The Civil War began at Fort Sumter in April 1861, the Emancipation Proclamation wasn't given until January 1, 1863. To me that alone proves the war was not only about slavery. During Biblical times slavery was common place and the Bible even gives rules for slavery different rules for Jewish slaves than Gentile slaves. Thankfully we as a civilization have grown ethically in our view toward the evil of slavery, and others things such as womens rights. Unfortunately some racists have hijacked the flag and thus what it stands for. I had family members who fought in the Civil War for the south for sure and also like most of us from this area the north most likely, but I can say for sure that my family did not own slaves and my grandfather showed me a cave that his grandmother used to hide runaway slaves in to help them escape to freedom. The same Lady who had brothers and sons fighting for Virginia and the south. Then just like now solders fought for their families' safety and to defender their country. Politicians find reasons to fight and solders pay the price, that's why we should always back our troops even if you don't believe in why we are fighting. That feels like what most proud southerns are doing with rebel flags they are just supporting those family members who answered the call to duty. My intent in writing this was not to offend anyone. The quote from Lincoln has a word in it twice that may not be PC today and I would NEVER use it myself, it is a quote and in the time period it was used in it was the official word used for African Americans. If anyone is offended please let me know and I will take it down. The reason I used it to begin with was to show just how muddy the water was on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line leading up to the war.