JDHoss

You all can watch it on the Tom Taylor show on Facebook he recorded the whole game. 

It's not always as simple as "find the best game." It has to be 2 teams from within WCYB's coverage area playing against one another. So those big matchups of a Union/Graham, Narrows/Holston or Richlands/GC from back in the day wouldn't work. So that eliminates several good games by itself. And then the school has to actually agree to it. There are more than a half-dozen schools that will not let them come because they don't want to lose the gate money. They think it will actively hurt attendance. 

It's a super complicated process they go through, having seen it behind the scenes for many years. 

Just getting back from the scrimmage and thought I’d share what happened and some of my armchair opinions. 
 
Varsity ones v ones was a 7-7 draw. Elizabethton scored on a very long pass where Union was in good coverage but the WR was extremely fast and outran everyone. Fair play to him! Union scored after a long pass to huff and then a few good plays inside the 10. 
 
Pros for the Bears is the defense once again looks to be in a good spot to start the season. The front 7 contained the run game very well against a much bigger Betsy front 5. Anderson ran the ball well and made a couple quick, decisive decisions through the air. He’s primed for a great year I think. Bears fans will be happy to hear that they only ran one play out of the T, with the rest being a spread out/pistol game. 
 
 
looking forward to a fun year! 
 
 
 

Great article, and makes me appreciate the fan passion back home, unlike down here where outside of a couple of schools, most games will be attended by 500 or less, no matter how good the teams are. 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=790838369708019&id=100063455891584

I'm going to tell you about the "old" field at King and Queen Central. Before I start let me say the current facility is located on the same property but runs north to south, while the "old" field ran east to west. Central is scheduled to upgrade its lighting system to college level quality in time for the 2023 home opener. Now, Central didn't have a home field the first 2 or 3 years they played football so their "home" games were at West Point. When they finally got a stadium, it was a combo/field with the lighting system supporting the baseball field which had no outfield fence. The football field continuously had mole problems resulting in twisted ankles and turf-monster tackles. One time a running back was en route to a long distance TD run when he tripped over the pitching rubber that had been left on te field! Seating at the stadium was sparse. I'd say it could accommodate no more than 250 so there was a whole lot of standing going on. The scoreboard was just large enough to display the score, the time and had 4 dots below the time to indicate what quarter the game was in. The clock operator sat in a school desk just below the clock. The console was on the desk and had a wire running to the scoreboard. The stadium lighting was equipped with incandescent bulbs which meant the field was dimly lit. I recall a game played there in the rain and you could hear the light bulbs exploding from contact with the rain!

Worth another share as the season gets ready to kick off! 
 
http://coalfieldsports.com/2018/07/23/swva-where-high-school-football-is-king/
 

Union @ Elizabethton was originally scheduled for Monday but has been moved to Tuesday at 6:30.

61 for Union, give or take a couple.
Media day is Saturday, so we'll see how many are in the pic. Also, we'll see how close we are on the 1 to 1 coach/player initiative. Haha 

Yes. He will be a freshman this year. 

If you can get away with it I wouldn’t play the starting QB both ways

Even though I have migrated to Tennessee high school sports in the last several years as that's where I live now, I still keep up with and follow the Virginia side on a regular basis as well.  This site gave me the idea to create the Mountain Empire High School Sports group on Facebook as a way to talk high school sports in Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia.  Well, as it turns out, most of, if not all of the 368 members are mostly SWVA folks anyway, including some of the folks from here, so if y'all want a place to come and chat sports, the door is open over there as well.  Just send me or the wife a request.  We'd be glad to have you.
Thank you @GMan for everything you've done to maintain this site and for being a friend outside of this site too over the years.  I'm sure we'll continue to have the occasional chat over on Facebook as well.

Everyone involved in the fight should face a lifetime ban from attending VHSL activities and be forced to perform many, many hours of community service while handcuffed to each other. 

Gate City and Appalachia game in 93 was probably the best game I’ve seen.  Appy scores late on a hook and ladder 

Probably the loudest crowd reaction to a play I’ve heard at a high school game in SWVA.

Baker is the only GC football player in the VHSL HOF...he was a man among boys!

Whitewood and Council did that in the 90's.

Back to games we'd like to see, I'd like to see some more out of state matchups. We had a local team (Port St Lucie) play a team from Colorado last year, but it was one of the Kickoff Classic games and I'd guess corporate sponsors and TV probably footed the bill for most of the travel. A friend of mine is the OL coach at Pensacola Catholic and they hosted a team from Oklahoma. My buddy said the team from Oklahoma footed their own travel expenses including charter buses, hotels and meals for the 770 mile trip. I realize no teams from SWVA are ever going to participate in anything like that, but it would be interesting to see some more games scheduled with TN teams besides Union, Gate City and Abingdon. I remember when Graham played Greeneville a couple of times. 

"Can't crush a Crabber." I know you are referring to Hampton in Tennessee. As for the bunch in Virginia down east, this has been their chant/slogan for decades.  I've never seen such speed and athleticism in all my life for a High School game watching some of those mid 90s Hampton teams. 

I highly recommend retirement. We've been all over the southeast watching games, and when we moved to south Florida it enabled us to catch 2 games a week because some of the schools here share city stadiums, so we wind up with a lot of Thursday games. An added bonus is finding some good hole in the wall restaurants when we go to games, like Dixie Fried Chicken in Belle Glade, which reminds me of the chicken they used to serve at the Patio in Pennington Gap. As for games I'd like to see, the Muck Bowl is still on my list. We could've went this year, but it was a mismatch and Pahokee smoked Glades Central. I'm hoping it'll be more competitive next year. 

I highly recommend retirement. We've been all over the southeast watching games, and when we moved to south Florida it enabled us to catch 2 games a week because some of the schools here share city stadiums, so we wind up with a lot of Thursday games. An added bonus is finding some good hole in the wall restaurants when we go to games, like Dixie Fried Chicken in Belle Glade, which reminds me of the chicken they used to serve at the Patio in Pennington Gap. As for games I'd like to see, the Muck Bowl is still on my list. We could've went this year, but it was a mismatch and Pahokee smoked Glades Central. I'm hoping it'll be more competitive next year. 

If I ever get to retire I'd like to watch random games like JDHoss does on here. I enjoy his updates. HS football is hard to beat.
 
 

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Finally got it to come up about 5 minutes after I posted it. Didn't want to make the drive up from Kingsport without a ticket.  Sitting in the stands now. I miss Florida. 😕

Yes, but the VHSL has also sent a couple of card readers to the game.  GHS posted that if you are unable to buy tickets on GoFan or don't want to use GoFan, that you can purchase tickets at the gate with a credit card or debit card (home side only).