UniON_FoOtBaLL

Good read here!  
Appo fan and dad of two boys on the team.  Want to take a second to shout out a thanks for all the support thrown Appomattox's way.  The program has flourished over the past three-four years under Coach Smith.  What a great Richalnds team we played in 15 and the Union and Richlands teams of 16 were good too.  That Raiders team of 16 was jjsut something special.  One the likes Union knows from back in their split days.  LOTS of respect up here for both of those programs!  You don't make the deep run they both have without good athletes, feeder programs, and coaching.
Also thanks for the respect given to Coach Smith.  Not in the matter of what he has done football wise for Appomattox but for what he has done "character" wise for the young men in Appomattox.  He goes so far beyond being a football coach to these boys!  I feel very blessed to have him coaching my boys and experiencing the love of Christ he exudes. 
 
Don't think we are all the "axis powers" over here.  :) 
 
GO RAIDERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This article proves that Union is more than just James. I guess it must me hard to on an island thinking that Union only has 1 good player when literally everybody else knows that Union has a monster backfield made up of different young men who can and has made more plays than Mitchell. Prime example, Marion game. Union put up 49 points in which 0 were scored by Mitchell. Im proud as can be of James. Not many young men would have been willing to sacrifice their position just to help the team. James not only sacrificed being a fulltime wide out/tight end to be a playmaker in the backfield, but he done it knowing that it could hurt his recruiting. Don't get me wrong, James is still going D1 at a wide out/Tight end, but he was not able to pad those position specific stats this season due to injury. Instead, James stepped up as a team player and has lead the Bears to an undefeated number 1 seed team that every single coach that has faced them fears. No couch out there that has stepped on the turf against Union would say that the Bears are a one man show that can't win without that one man. IMO, Owens is by far a better back than James. Qualls is right there at James' level on as a defensive back. and Zirkel is tougher than James between the tackles. With that said, James has the magic touch that makes him special. Hes not the fastest. He cant jump the highest. Hes not the shiftiest. Hes not the strongest. But he is head and shoulders above most because he embodies all of these attributes at a high level. Those that can out jump him may not be able to catch as good as him, or may not be as strong as him. Those who are stronger may not be able to out run him or be as football smart as him. those who are better in coverage on defense may not be able to out jump him or out catch him. James brings a high level, maybe not the highest but high level of everything it takes to be a good ball player. Now you combine James' high level of everything mixed with the other young men's high level in specific areas and you have an offense that cant be stopped. James makes the other player better. He brings competitiveness and drive that all the other players feed off of. You can hate on the bears all you want but I promise you that both Big Stone Gap and Appalachia are proud as can be of James and the Bears.
Not many small towns like we have in our area can boast like region d on the number of athletes we have sent on to the next level. Not many 2A schools can brag about the athletes they have like region d can. We have put people in the pros out of 700 student schools multiple times and placed numerous young men and women into college level sports. Im proud to say that these old dirty abandoned forgotten coalfield towns can make some of the best well rounded athletes in Virginia.

Guys They are adding aluminum bleachers on each end zone!! That will give son extra seating.  

I will go live from the Podcast Facebook page. 
So if y’all want to see the Bears entrance and crowd, go like this page and be ready around 10 min before the game starts. 
 
https://m.facebook.com/SWVASportsPod/

As someone who’s seen both, they do. 

Congrats to the Bears on a great game today !  Hope you guys take it to Appo and play for the ring !  Be pulling for ya !  Congrats to Graham on another good season !

Union loses a lot of seniors and talent next season, unless it's an early round game I don't know if Bears will make a run like this next year. It's possible, there's def talent coming up but it's hard to be this good for three straight years, much less four. Union has lost three games in three years. That's an incredible stat. 13-0 this year, 11-2 in 2016 and 13-1 in 2015. Have to come back down to Earth sometime lol. It'd sure be nice to Cap of this run w a state title tho, these kids work incredibly hard and have stayed out of trouble, got grades, etc... I wanna see them rewarded. 

Congrats to Union, you guys had the better team today.  Now, go kick Appomattox's ass and play for that trophy in two weeks!!!

Man please do il save ya a seat brother!!

So...uh...who’s saving me a seat and a spot at the fire? I’ll be there with bells on, and I’m bringing two of my Richlands cowbells to help make sure Appo hates what they’re about to be a part of. 

It’s not an extremely likely scenario, but I hope Union absolutely runs Appo out of the stadium. Many of there fans are arrogant and didn’t give a flip about football three years ago. It’s time to knock em off the bandwagon. Show them what true southwest va football fans are and give em hell bears.

WTF, Graham is not or ever was overrated this season. That's disrespectful to Union & Graham to say that. Union beat the speediest offensive team in SWVA today, and impressively too. Yes, Union flat-out outplayed Graham on both sides of the ball, but that's just a testament to how skilled the players are & how well coached they are to shut down a fast Graham team. If Union plays the same way next week against Appomattox, they'll win the same way they did against Graham. No team that makes it this far is overrated.

Complete domination!!! Unions defense is legit best in the STATE IMO. They just showed it Graham is a high octane offense. Da U shut them down physically wasn't even fair.  Graham is a good team union shut them down.  Hope we can keep it up!!

VT has had Taymon Cooke on the sidelines a few times between the last 2 seasons. They've showed interest but I know he'd love to get an offer from them. 

I’m so tired of hearing how Union is automatically going to win and the trash talk about Graham coaches and players.  Coach Palmer has been head coach for 3 years - who else has brought a program that far that quickly.  Sick of the bashing of the Graham kids hell I bet Graham has more 4.0 kids on the football team than anyone in the area.  Graham kids are a good hard working bunch.  Let’s stop the trash talk and let these teams play it out.  I highly doubt Coach Palmer was boasting at a meeting if anything he is one of the most humble coaches I know.  He would never say graham is going to go to the next round he takes it week by week no matter who they play.  Saturday can’t get her quick enough no doubt to shut this negative speculation up!!  I’m excited to see an evenly matched football game.  Strength of schedule points scored points scored on Union and Graham match up better than anyone.  See ya at Bullit and will be there with more Cowbell!

I'm not sure what they think about grass but graham has only played 2 games all year on grass at Lebanon and Fort Chiswell. The other 10 were on turf. 
* but the $60,000 Tazewell County paid for Graham to play at Mitchell Stadium doesn't include practice time so Graham does practice everyday on grass next To the high school. 

Well have a good time an be safe we will keep you updated!!

No way!! Lol

I was talking about running the ball.only one at a time can run the ball

I think it’s RUDE to ask for a seat after rejecting a couple of open invites to join us. I’m sure the graham folks will save him a spot. 

As much as I hate to say it I think the weather will be more of a factor in that than what day the game is played. 

The QB from Letcher was by far the best passing QB Union has seen this year. The kid could throw it 50 yards and put it right in the hands of his receiver. He was the best scrambling QB also. That was all in the first half. Adjustments were made and he wasn't a factor at all in the 2nd half.
Battle's QB was the best running QB we've seen. Marion's QB looked great in warm-ups, but was a non-factor in the game.
According to Battle's coach, they didn't have any trouble moving the ball on Graham, but turnovers killed them.
Have only seen video of Graham. Obviously, they have lots of athletes and speed. Hard to judge that speed from film. Union is in for a tough game. They HAVE to control the line and conduct time consuming drives to win. They CAN'T allow Graham to get 2 or 3 scores ahead. We're simply not built for comebacks unless we miraculously find a passing game. 
We will need to pressure Allen without giving him lanes to escape the pocket.
Going to be a fun game, and I really think the pressure is on Graham more than Union. Not sure how many of Graham's current team came to BSG in 2015, but I remember this quote from Palmer in the BDT..
“We play in the Bluefield and Graham game so they can’t bring nothing that we haven’t seen before as far as a crowd goes,” Graham head coach Tony Palmer said. “We could care less about what their crowd is going to be like, we are just concerned with what happens on the field...
But after some communication issues, false starts and time outs the environment did make a difference. Maybe not in the outcome of the game per se, but it did on some plays. Maybe those plays turn out to be key plays and then affect the outcome. Just hope The Park is as lively on a Sat afternoon as it is on Friday night.

That was my thoughts too.. but I don't think people were going to take my word for it. Thanks for backing that up. 
 
It's amazing to see the progression that Allen has made from game one until now. There were many that questioned who the starter should be, especially after the Bluefied loss and after Lester started and played well at QB when Allen was hurt two games. Since coming back from the sprained ankle Allen has literally put Graham on his back every week. Everyone knows about Cooke and how good he is but Cam has taken over the games lately. He's the only reason Graham pulled it out against Richlands. Richlands limited Cooke and Lester but they couldn't stop Allen. The next week he accounted for 7 touchdowns against Fort Chiswell. Last night he threw 4 touchdowns, ran for 1, and had a pick6 on defense. He's an awesome athlete. If union wants to win then you need to dedicate the defense to stopping Allen more so than Cooke. 

Yeah they did.. but that was kind of my point. Richlands controlled the ball for the most part and held Grahams offense in check for most of the game and Graham pulled it out in overtime. They did the same thing in overtime vs Giles. I wasn't saying because they beat Richlands they should beat Union.. I'm saying that Graham has been Battle tested for games like this. 

I haven't seen Letchers QB but you're wrong on your other two statements. I don't hold that against you because I know you haven't watched Cam Allen because if you have you wouldn't compare Marion's QB to him. And Battles QB is good but, again, not on Allen's level when it comes to throwing the ball and definitely a step behind when it comes to scrambling as speed. 
I would agree mostly with everything else you've said. Control the ball and shut Graham's offense down and you win. That seems obvious. A few teams have controlled the ball against them already but other than Bluefield there hasn't been a team to shut down their big play ability.