Graham might be coming but, remember they got shut down last game. And if Booker is corner and Howie is safety 5 and 17 better have their laces tied up tight!
Once again, Graham has too many weapons for Narrows to handle. Graham will come in focused and most likely get this one over with rather quickly. When the season began I truly expected the G-Men to finish the regular season at best 7-3 but more likely 6-4. Truly a turn around and I have certainly enjoyed the ride.
Graham 45
Narrows 21
I really thought they would go 6-4 as well. Cooke and Allen have really come a long ways from last year. Allen made a catch against Fort over the middle that was a tough ball and he got hit pretty good. Last year I'm not sure that ball would've been caught. The O line has probably impressed me the most. They're not the biggest or the most physical but Austin has brought them a long ways. He did the same thing with last year's group as well. I look forward to seeing how far these young men can go.
I don't know the issues other communities are having but several local kids are being placed in 2 or even 3 sandlot leagues at the same time by their idiot fathers. I can give you a dozen or more example by name and the dad's think they are doing these kids a favor.
We have several kids that play little league football and travel baseball or travel soccer during the fall season. This creates an absolute nightmare when you only have 13-14 kids on a team. Come Saturday little Johnny may decide he wants to play baseball that weekend instead of football. Sometimes the coach gets a call from the mom and sometimes he doesn't. Practices are the same way. I have seen kids this year finish a little league football game in one league and go to the parking lot change uniforms and drive to another game for a different team in another league. That's entirely too much football for any kid IMO. Unfortunately in our area it seems parents are chasing the dream of their child becoming the next Ahmad Bradshaw. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having dreams but let that 8 year old child have a little fun and stop giving his little league coach/dad a hard time for not developing him into the next Bradshaw at 8 years of age. Happens all the time.
I'm sure the enrollment numbers for the schools in Tazewell county are probably down and in some ways that is having an effect on the level of talent in our area. From a football standpoint the option for kids to play different sports in the fall to me is hurting the numbers and talent the most. When I was a kid when August rolled around it was time for football. Today a kid can play travel baseball, soccer, join the swim team at the Y, or just stay at home and play the XBOX. The number of kids in the 5-12 year old age group that are playing football in the fall has drastically declined over the past 6 or 7 years.
Didn't mean to sit JLA all year just bring him out if he's struggling and not able to get anything going and let someone else give the team a spark! JLA is a good qb just need to it more focus before playoffs!
Boys I'm afraid Cupid has shot JLA right in the butt. That will take a young man's focus off of many things.
Funny you bring this up. I work with a guy his boy played on the team last year and we had this very same discussion this morning. The team from last year was a much better team. Mostly because of the senior leadership at the time was much better. Those guys were a really tight knit group that worked together on and off the field. The leadership of Mance, Wade, Addison, Blankenship, Waldron, and many more is hard to replace. The group this year seems to lack some of that. Just my opinion from the outside looking in. I'm not saying this year's team isn't good just not where they were last year.
Fluffing up Richlands haha. So putting 2 players from Richlands in the Top 5 is fluffing them up and asking what other schools has a good big man. Right, for all these people talking about Richlands schedule, so outside of Richlands, Bluefield, and possibly Honaker who exactly does graham have thats a good quality team. Bland, Narrows, Shaddy Springs, Fort Chiswell? As I recall last year, Richlands tried to work around the snow multiple times to play Graham at the end of the year, but Graham wanted nothing to do with it as well as Bluefield. Say what you want but its ture. Richlands plays in a tournament at the start of the year which is going to host many good quality teams.
I also said Gate City is the best team in SWVA. I also said Graham was in the top 3. So don't get you feathers ruffled to much.
There's really no need to get worked up about basketball in SWVA!!
Did y'all notice they put wheelchair accessible seating on the visitor side at Ernie last week?
If they put wheelchair accessible seating on the visitor side at Ernie the credit goes to George Brown. I have spoken to Mr. Brown on a couple of occasions about the need for wheelchair accessible seating at Ernie and Tazewell. There are some things we all take for granted in life, myself included, having to sit on the track to watch a game by yourself isn't any fun. Mr. Brown told me he'd do everything he could to make it happen. Obviously he stayed true to his word.
I'd like to thank Mr. Brown and the staff at Richlands for making this happen. Thanks for giving the update Ryan, I will call and thank him. It's not too often you find people that do what they say.
I knew one of the coaches. He played at Tazewell. Was he the one they didn't ask to come back? Seems odd given how they won last year and the bottom fell out this year.
Yes he was the one they didn't ask to come back. Why? I have no idea. The coaches that were brought in this year were hired the day before practice started. So to be fair to them I wasn't a whole lot of time to prepare. I'm not sure if they would've had 2 years to prepare things would've been different though. I guess we'll see what happens next year.
What happened to the coaches from the year before? Didn't they win some ball games?
Yes they did win some games and the kids improved as the year went on. Unfortunately, the head coach from last year got married and moved to Roanoke. It's my understanding one of the assistants from last year didn't want to coach again and the other wasn't asked to come back.
Gotta see the Bulldogs play and came away overly impresseed. Strongly believe the future of Tazewell football has plenty of light at the end of the tunnel. See this being a team starting several freshmen next year as they were dominant for eighth graders.
I'm not convinced playing several freshmen next year will help Tazewell out in the long run. For the past several years Richlands has played their JV team in part of the 3rd and 4th quarters for most of their games. In each of these games the score is obviously one sided, therefore the pressure of getting a "W" is not on their back. This has helped them out tremendously in the long run. In Tazewell's case over the next couple of years the pressure will be on the back of those freshmen to get a win. Which will amount to a lot of pressure over time. People that don't understand the game automatically assume their success in the 8th grade will follow them directly into HS. Expecting 9th and 10th graders to play with varsity kids week in and week out is setting the bar pretty high. Given Tazewell's recent history of kids transferring to other schools, coaching changes, etc. Wouldn't they benefit more from gradually working their way into the HS system? No matter what I would like to see these kids get a taste of winning and bringing some pride back to their community.
Is the Harris kid still playing or is he hurt? I listened to some of the game against Grundy on the radio on my way home from Bland. Seemed like every play was TJ Kitts up the middle.
Richlands loses 1 close game and people are like it's time to piss on the fire and call in the dogs cause this hunt is over!! That's a good problem to have. There are many teams out there that would like to be in this situation. I'm sure if you talked to those boys this evening when they walked out of Ernie Hicks Stadium they'd probably tell you Mance wore them out. He'll have them ready come playoff time.
Tazewell's 8th grade team went 8-0 and from what I heard they didn't have a close game all season. Anybody get to see them?
Yes I got to see them on a couple of occasions. Once when they beat Graham in a blow out and when they beat Richlands. Tazewell's 8th grade team is made up of several very talented hold backs. Their coach has worked tirelessly with this team in the weight room and on the field. They go to 7 on 7's during the preseason and are attending a big tournament near Nashville in a couple of weeks. If they stay together and continue to grow they should be the best thing Tazewell has produced in many years. Unfortunately for Tazewell I just don't see the whole group staying together. Their HS program is in the toilet and isn't showing any signs of life.
Graham's 7/8 team won their first game of the season against Marion. Then got smacked in the mouth every game after that. If the principal decides to bring back the same two coaches again next year Greg Mance will have several "recruits" headed his way.
Proverbs 16:18-19 - Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be lowly in spirit along with the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud.
While I may be agnostic today I was raised in church. In my humble opinion, we will be looking back on this series of incidents in a few years as the beginning of the end for this program.
I hope you are wrong sixcat. It would be a shame for the community and the kids to finally get a great coach that's actually building a good program only to be ruined by the actions of a few. But in the end it only takes a few or one in some cases to ruin a good thing. After talking to Dixon last year at Mitchell Stadium I feel confident he would do the right thing if he has the backing of the administration and community.
Biggest surprise for me is Graham's defense. If someone would've told me they would be playing defense this well there's no way I would've believed them. Their offense isn't a surprise at all to me.
Let down would have to be Bluefield. They have the two fastest kids in the state of WV, a very capable QB, and an absolute horse of a fullback.
All the arguing and speculation right now is useless, win your games, control what you can. The VHSL will tell you if you get in the playoffs or not and when your have to play and more importantly who! Way to much time gets wasted on this every year, just play and let the geeks figure out the numbers.
I'm pretty sure that all the high school teams in the state have a clear understanding they have to finish out their schedule. Thanks to all the individuals who take the time and crunch the numbers for the rest of us......INCLUDING the scenarios.
I don't know who to pick in this game. If Galax is having off the field issues again that certainly doesn't play in their favor. I really wish they hadn't lost to Chiswell. I'd say we are heading for a hornet ' s nest. Graham's line is going to have to step up. Cut out the stupid very costly penalties. That's a discipline issue the coaching staff needs to work on. I'm definitely going to try and make the trip.
Coach Mance, passed Coach Ernie Hicks for most wins at Richlands last year, so in my opinion, he is the best (at the very least) that Richlands has had. The time that coach Mance has been here has been the best in our football history ( arguably ). More wins, more playoffs appearances and deeper runs, with 1 state championship and several state runner up finishes..........again this is my opinion, but I doubt you will find many........at least in Richlands, that would disagree. I think many that are not from here would agree, even if you hate the blues, the numbers don't lie.
I know someone will bring up the transfer thing, but I bet if your being honest, most on here would love to have him as their coach. I just hope we are lucky enough to have him many more years to come.
There's no doubt that Coach Mance has built a program in which kids and parents like to be a part of. I know a kid that transferred to Richlands last year from another school within the county. After seeing the way the coaching staff and parents club(boosters) treat these kids and their parents I can understand a kid wanting to transfer there if they have the means to do so. Their entire program ranks very high on the list in SWVA. Unfortunately for the rest of us in the county we have went through some growing pains with different coaches, staff, etc. that probably hasn't helped our cause in keeping kids home so to speak. We still are losing kids to Richlands at the MS level due to the lack of a decent program. I personally don't think Mance is the best coach in SWVA. I'd have to put Dixon and Williams above him. I can certainly see why kids from across the mountain at RVHS(WV) would want to attend Richlands. Their program, if you want to call it a program, is in the toilet. With that being said I hope Mance settles into his AD position decides that is what he wants to do full time and gives up coaching. It wouldn't bother me at all to see him hang it up. LOL.
OH man, that's good stuff right there ! I keep a can handy at all times...... : )
I had poison ivy from head to toe one time when I was a kid. An elderly lady at our church told us that bag balm was real good for poison ivy. The only thing it helped with was I was greased so much I couldn't begin to scratch it. Bag Balm 0 Poison Ivy 1.
Will be ugly.... When you practice half ass you will play half ass... When you've only wore full gear during practice 2 or 3 times your not going to accomplish damn thing.... Now I understand why they can't tackle....
I get a glimpse of Tazewell's practice on a regular basis. So I can see where you get frustrated. I don't think I have ever seen them practice in anything other than shorts and pads. Looks like a Thursday walk-thru every day of the week.
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Richlands last year vs. this year
in SWVA Football
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Thanks for the advice Marla!!