JDHoss

Bulls Gap HS were the Bulldogs. I couldn't remember their colors, but I looked up to see if they still had a middle school in BG, and sure enough, they are the Bulldogs and the colors are orange, black & white.

Rogersville & Bulls Gap formed Cherokee. Not sure, but I believe they were the Bulldogs. Not sure about the school colors.

That they were. I've never understood why Volunteer has struggled so badly over the years. I know they didn't get much in consolidation with Surgoinsville, but neither did Cherokee with Bulls Gap, but they have been at least competitive at times.

Quincy is correct. Navy Blue & Gold. Only old people like us would remember that.

PV state title team: Barry Hamler Jimmy Mitchell Robin Pleasant Jerry Meyers Dennis Davis Grayland "Catbird" Jackson....hero of the state title game.

The competition in the Middle TN area wasn't why he left, but it's a true statement about the rising talent. The Nashville Metro area is absolutely exploding in terms of growth right now.

And on rare occasion, a great DE or nice TE......as in Oliver Fredrick (sp) and his brother Timmy. But yeah, mostly kickers.

I guess when I think of "recruiting", I think of it like Dobyns-Bennett does here when they will have a few kids who otherwise would be going to South/Central/Volunteer/North. I used to work with a lady who had a son at Volunteer that was a nice football player and good at track. She said D-B coaches approached him on more than one occasion when he was a freshman and sophomore.

Spent the night in Farmville when we went to see Union vs Appomattox. Very nice town.

I'd have to question the intelligence of anyone who would truck their kid that far just to play for a state title contender.

Again, bring them in from where? From what I saw, Appomattox is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Granted it's 25 miles from Lynchburg, but there are several nice schools in Lynchburg to choose from. Makes zero sense to truck your kid 50+ miles a day to play Group AA football.

Edd Clark.....everyone else is a step below. Trust me on this.

Recruit from where? And to what? Don't recall seeing much industry to speak of in Appomattox. I'm guessing that a lot of the people there may work in Lynchburg, My guess is that they are just having a good run of athletes right now.

Been to the TSSAA finals several times, as well as the Florida championships. Really wish the VHSL would do the same.

I saw Union 3 times, Richlands twice, Graham twice, and Gate City once this year. I have to say that there is no comparison to the vintage PV/Appy/Graham/GC/Richlands teams in terms of sheer physicality. Those teams were just so big and physical up front on both sides of the football that it more than made up for any lack of athleticism in the skill positions. I remember Lunnenburg's Chippie Chapple (at least I think that was his name) explaining why he went for two and the win instead of kicking and getting to OT when he said "they (PV) had 4 and 5 yarded us to death all day long, and I didn't think we could win a battle of 10 yard shootouts with them, so we went for the win."

Have tried the Smokehouse, which was good. How is the food at Creek Bottom, particularly the smoked wings?

Yep....I remember how BC was scoring at a 60+ ppg clip and destroying everyone. I also remember looking at the starting lineups in the Kingsport paper (back when they used to actually cover high school football) and seeing how Appy had a huge size advantage up front and thinking that Appy could win the game if they just avoid turnovers. Two weeks ago, Fulton beat a Knox Catholic team that many considered to be the best team in Tennessee regardless of classification. Fulton had also lost to them by 27 and gave up 69 points in their 1st meeting. In the playoffs, despite losing their all state LB to injury, Fulton won 46-25. So yeah, the games do need to be played.

In addition, Barry's wife still works at the USPS in Kingsport, and she and Barry are Kingsport natives. At this point in their lives, I doubt they would be interested in pulling up stakes to move to Tazewell.

Clintwood lost to Madison Co. in the finals at The Park. Whale of a game that the Wave really should have won.

Took me about 10 1/2 hours to make the drive. Went up a day early to do some sightseeing. Went out to Assateague Island, and to this day it's still the only time I've ever seen snow on a beach.

Went to the Abingdon - Richlands game, and we were wondering about those pooch kickoffs. Thanks for explaining that. We couldn't understand why they were willing to concede Richlands great field position. Great game though. This was our 14th game we've been to this year, and the first one that wasn't a blowout, or at least over halfway through the 4th quarter.

Unaka is shown with 395 by the TSSAA for this year.

Yep, it's been many moons, but I'm pretty sure Appalachia's Ron Davis took one back 100+ yards against Madison Co. in the state title game.

Thanks for the recommendation. I saw that on Tripadvisor and it looked pretty good.

We may drive up from Kingsport for this. Any recommendations for supper in Galax or Hillsville?