JDHoss

Can't imagine attending a game with so few fans. Has to take some of the fun out of it.

Don’t forget 2012 against Stuarts Draft. How many onside or squibs did Stuarts Draft recover?
 
 
It is way too early to think about state anyway. 

I'll go with The Cove by 2 TD.

Watched THE Benjamin School from West Palm Beach take on Jensen Beach last night in a battle of undefeated, top 5 teams in their divisions in front of a crowd of 500 or so. THE Benjamin School had two 4 star kids, including a RB committed to UGA , 3 star OT headed to UCF and a 3 star WR headed to Wake Forest. THE Benjamin School won 24-0 in a game that took 1 hour and 49 minutes to complete. In old time Tom Turner fashion, TBS kept the football for over 10 minutes in the first quarter and Jensen ran only 22 plays for the entire game. 
 
 

Watched THE Benjamin School from West Palm Beach take on Jensen Beach last night in a battle of undefeated, top 5 teams in their divisions in front of a crowd of 500 or so. THE Benjamin School had two 4 star kids, including a RB committed to UGA , 3 star OT headed to UCF and a 3 star WR headed to Wake Forest. THE Benjamin School won 24-0 in a game that took 1 hour and 49 minutes to complete. In old time Tom Turner fashion, TBS kept the football for over 10 minutes in the first quarter and Jensen ran only 22 plays for the entire game. 
 
 

Graham-Does our bus driver remember how to get to BSG?
Union-Can we forfeit homefield advantage and just play at Mitchell?
Ridgeview-Are we sure these injuries are season-ending?
Grayson Co-Can we appeal to drop to .5A for the playoffs?
Bland Co-How awesome is it just to be playing football?
Narrows-We’re undefeated and County Champs! Is this what Heaven’s like?
Giles-Is there anything more hideous than the color green?
Twin Springs-Who predicted we’d be the last unbeaten team in Scott Co?
Thomas Walker-Are you willing to play in Ewing? No? Then stick your cupcake joke up…
Lee-Can we build a wall at the Wise Co border?
Twin Valley-Can we schedule more KY teams like Phelps?
JI Burton-Can we get Phelps on OUR schedule?
Central-Can we just start basketball already? Also, who has the number for Phelps’ AD?
Galax-Are we 100% sure we can’t get Dixon back?
Hurley-Are we 100% sure we can’t get Tester back?
Tazewell-Can we just win a game without all the drama?
Chilhowie-Doesn't all teams have 12 coaches?
Northwood-When do we get to play Castlewood?
Castlewood-When do we get play Northwood?
Marion-Who took Northwood off our schedule?
Richlands-We play Lebanon this week, right?
Lebanon-Have we mentioned how awesome our QB is?
Grundy- Are we good? Are we bad? Yeah, we don’t know either.
George Wythe- See “Grundy”
Rural Retreat- See “Grundy”
Patrick Henry- See “Grundy”
Fort Chiswell-Can we have a do-over against Tazewell?
Rye Cove-Can we have a do-over against Honaker?
John Battle- Can we have a do-over against Holston?
Gate City-Can we have a do-over against Abingdon?
Abingdon-Can we have do-over against Battle?
Eastside-Can we have a do-over against Chilhowie?
Holston-Who invited Honaker to the Hogoheegee? Also, can we have a do over against Narrows?
Radford-What Region C heartbreak awaits us this year?
Virginia High-What happened to all our talent?
Pulaski Co-Forget Botty, did you see where we almost beat Princeton!?!
Carroll Co- We’re 1-3 against 1A schools. Is that bad if we’re 3A?
Honaker-Can anybody recommend a good hotel in Salem?
 

My only push-back to this is Dixon encouraged kids to play multiple sports. Almost demanded it. He was even the varsity boys head basketball coach for a year and assistant coach for the duration of his time at Galax.
When Dixon came to Galax in 2010, Galax only had state championships in Golf and boys Tennis. Within short order, Galax won state championships in baseball (2012), basketball (2011 & 2012), Cross Country (2013 & 2014), Football (2015) and Soccer (2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022). In large part, because Dixon implemented a weight and exercise program throughout the school and encouraged kids to be active and participate in anything and everything they could. Numbers rose in virtually every sport. That's all gone now. Coaches are now infighting to keep kids off other sports.

These are the excellent points. My only explanation for some places (like Riverheads) would be prioritization. I can’t speak to Riverheads’ other sports, but compared to Galax under Dixon, compared to now, but in each case of a smaller school football was or is the primary focus. 
In many schools with travel sports, baseball/softball appears to be the primary focus with many SWVA schools. In others, it may be basketball. 
Redtiger, Sixcat, and Cousin Hoyt are correct on all accounts. Some are blessed with good athletes to cross over somewhat and have success, but generally with football, which is more dependent upon numbers is emphasized primarily in communities such as Bluefield, Big Stone Gap/Appalachia, and Clintwood/Haysi. Everywhere else, results are cyclical.

Probably been around a lot longer than most of you. Seen a lot of changes in high school sports. Matter of fact, I’ve seen 31 high school football teams play that no longer exist due to consolidation. We can also add a few basketball teams to that number like G.W. Carver. In ways, Consolidation has hurt numbers due to increased travel for some kids. However there are several other things also.
Redtiger hit the nail on the head with this year round practice. A lot of Coaches only want kids playing their sport. Also travel ball, I know someone who has one kid on 2 travel teams and their other kid on another travel team (3 different sports). My opinion, this travel ball leads to burnout for some kids and parents with all the practice, travel, and expense.
Another problem down through the years and some of you have probably seen it also, is Little League or Daddy Ball. Do I need to really explain this? There is a need to better organize youth leagues and make it fun for all not for a few. I’ve seen this Daddy Ball carry over into high school and what problems it can cause, especially with the numbers of players. 
Another problem today, kids have more things to do, lack dedication, and lose interest quickly. They are not as physically fit, they are softer and are use to an easier life. When some of us were growing up, high school athletics was the biggest thing in our lives, that not the case with a lot of today’s kids. So numbers are going to be low and will slowly continue to decrease for a lot of schools. 
 
Just our opinion.
 
 

Hubris among high school coaches these days is something to behold. Or at least, that's been my experience in the dealings I've had with them. Almost unanimously, they can't understand why kids, parents, administrators don't have the same burning passion for their sport they do. And should a kid have a "first love" other than the sport that coach wants them to have a burning passion for, that hubris leds the coaches to try to force the issue. Which in turn, drives the kid away from that coach and his hubris. 
I've told this story before but it's worth telling again. The basketball coach at Galax wanted a good friend of mine to talk his son into quitting golf to play travel basketball all summer. This kid is not your dads golfer. He's 6'-3" and weighs close to 200 pounds. He can stand flat-footed under the basket and two-hand dunk a basketball. But his passion since he was in diapers is golf. He is literally at Blue Ridge Country Club until dark every day. He's the #7 ranked junior in Virginia, has won several junior tournaments across North Carolina and Virginia, and is the reigning VHSL Class 1 state champion. This coach began pressuring the kid since the dad wouldn't do his bidding for him. So the kid finally told the coach, "I'm here to stay active when it's too cold to play golf."
Still, the hubris of the coach still wouldn't allow him to understand why anyone would choose golf over basketball so he persisted in harrassing this kid. So the dad ripped the coach a new asshole, in the middle of the gym after a game, in front of the stands full of parents and fans, and told him to never speak to his son again about the subject. 

Im a firm believer that football practice, or practice for every sports shouldn't be a year round thing. The VHSL allowing it has virtually eliminated kids playing multiple sports and those that do end up grinding themselves to a frazzle, and I wonder if its worth it. I know theyre young and physically are fine but mentally its a lot imo. Multiple practices a day, 6-7 practices a week, etc. It becomes a grind and sports are supposed to be fun.
For coaches, its a keeping up with the Joneses situation. If a coach cuts back because he doesnt believe its right but the next program practices all the time he looks like a slacker and adds to the criticism on him. That leads to coaches encouraging players to specialize in only 1 sport. Its just a mess.

Your situation is much different in that soccer and lacrosse have eaten into football numbers directly.  Additionally, the good baseball talent in FL aren't spending time on the football fields.  I coached youth in Florida and struggled to get kids while being surrounded by overflowing soccer fields.
I also think part of the problem is the brand of football this generation wants to play.  They want to play spread and pass-oriented offense.  The good athletes are often 6', 170 and don't want to be a Wing in a Wing-T.  They want to throw and catch the ball.  Gone are the days of Power-I and lining up and running your 5'10, 215 pocket muscle RB 25+ times a game.  Look at Honaker, Graham and Ridgeview and Union is going that way.  They, at least conceptually, are using their athletes.  In the past football didn't need the baseball and basketball players....they do now and need to promote a culture of multi-sport athletes.  A good AD goes a long way in smoothing this over.  It also helps if the head football coach isn't an ego-driven blow-hard and is open to "sharing" athletes during the winter and spring sports. 

11:10 left 
Honaker 20
Rye Cove 18

Gate City holds on with a batdown on the final defensive play after mistakes, etc. helped spot the Jackets two touchdowns early:
 
Blue Devils        24
Yellowjackets    18
 
 
 

In Fort Pierce tonight...
Fort Pierce Westwood 18
Stuart South Fork 16
South Fork missed a FG to take the lead with under a minute to go. 
Tomorrow night is Tampa Jesuit at Treasure Coast, and we get a rare Wednesday night game next week with Palm Beach Gardens & Vero Beach, which was postponed tomorrow night because of a COVID outbreak at PBGHS. Hopefully, next week will deliver 3 games for us. 

Great coach, even better man. He’ll be missed and not just because of sports.  

Longtime GW coach Donnie Pruitt has passed.
Pruitt arrived at GW in 1977 where he spent 23 years as an assistant coach for the Maroons. In 2000, he was promoted to Head Coach where he compiled a 79-24 record winning 6 Hogo Championships, 2 Region C Championships, and the 2002 1A D2 State Championship.
Coach Pruitt touched a great many lives in Wytheville, and he will surely be missed. 

Loris 27-21 double overtime win over North Merle Beach

If ya'll want to see a finish. Flip over to NFHS and watch Central of Woodstock vs Riverheads in the final 1.5 minutes.  Central is down 7-0 and has the ball at their own 16 yard line.  Central drives the length of the field in about 1.5 minutes and scores to make it 7 to 6 with under 10 seconds left in the game.  Central is going to kick the extra point and take it to overtime, right?  Nope, the Sons of Bitches go for 2 and the get it!!  Won it 8-7

Battle picks off Abingdon with 1 min left
They're going to beat the Falcons for the first time in 10 years

John Battle 20
Abingdon 14
10:23 4th
 
Could have a shocker on our hands 

In Vero Beach tonight for Miami Northwestern v Vero. It's 86 degrees at kickoff, but a nice breeze off the Atlantic makes it manageable. 

It was 84 at kickoff, and that was with a thunderstorm rolling through to "cool" it down. Really muggy though, with no air stirring. Western went on to a 14 - 10 win on a poorly drained saturated field that made the footing tough. Western has a lot of talent with three 4 star guys and two 3 star guts. Their QB (Davi Balfourt) is committed to VA Tech. 

I graduated with Huff and he was a helluva athlete but his kid may be better 

Watched the Tom Taylor broadcast. Gives a different perspective to the scrimmage. I'm paraphrasing, but 2 interesting quotes.
Union looks like a more athletic Daniel Boone and will help us prepare for that game.
We won't see a better athlete next week (Science Hill) than Unions #4.
Assuming the announcers know what they're talking about, it would seem that Betsy is expected to compete for a state championship appearance. They also repeatedly talked about how they crushed West Ridge last week in their 1st scrimmage. Maybe after some adjustments, the Bears' performance wasn't half bad.