SXSW

Any new news?

This topic has been addressed here on many occasions, if coal doesn't come back everything north of a line from Gate City to Abingdon is going to die a slow painful death. The closer you are to Tennessee the better you will fair. GC is just a suburb of Kingsport and 75% of the population of Scott County lives within 10 miles of Gate City. Abingdon is close enough to Bristol to benefit from it's explosive growth. Wise, Lee, Buchanan, Dickenson, Russell, Tazewell counties and the City of Norton are all endangered species if something radical doesn't happen soon.

There is talk of consolidation in Carter County, Elizabethton is an independent school system and Unaka, Cloudland, Hampton, and Happy Valley are county schools. The combined Carter Co. system of those four school is around 1500. The Sullivan County consolidation is now rolling along full speed ahead, there is suppose to be a name for the new school released soon. Carter Co and Greene County are the only two school systems in Northeast Tennessee that haven't had some form of consolidation. 6A is going to be a hard place for Sullivan County to live in football. South and Central both are in the crapper and North doesn't offer to much help, it is going to be a long hard slog out od mediocrity in football.

P.M me and I will give you my number sometime and we can text and meet up for dinner sometime. My gosh all the memories. I think we lived the same life just a few years apart.

We grew up well, didn't we. We were there long enough to soak up the culture and the area but not long enough to let it jade us. We would take Sunday rides to Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and we thought it was normal. We went back and spent some time at Conowingo Dam and Peach Bottom, Pa. My mom's favorite place was Longwood Garden's in Longwood, Pa. The 4th of July Fireworks over the Chesapeake Bay at Havre De Grace was and is still awesome. The Ripken Family sponsored our Little League team in the Aberdeen Little League met their Cal, Sr. a couple of times. The trip down memory lane has been fantastic. I am a railroad nut and the trains there were awesome to me the Northeast Corridor of Amtrak was is a sight to behold trains zooming by at 100 mph plus. The big rail gun at the Proving Ground everyone should see.

My dad was a maintenance supervisor for Bata, and my mom worked there too, we lived in the company houses at Belcamp and I spent hours playing in Bush Bay and the Gunpowder River, truly a wonderful place to live. We were there from 1969 until the spring of 1979. I have a brother and sister that were born there. We would go to Havre De Grace and buy shrimp and crabs from the fisherman as they came into dock. Bata made the hockey pucks for the NHL and got to go see the Capitals play a lot in Landover, Grew up a huge Colts fan and still am, my allegiance to the Orioles has faded, now a Braves fan. It really is a small world, our next door neighbor at the time moved to Lebanon, Va. And my best friend Chad moved to Oregon. Mom and dad just returned from a trip there (five weeks ago) they were saddened to find out that the Musical Inn had closed, it was dad's hangout. Our barber we used to go to pitched for the Orioles in the sixties, he lived in Bel Air. Good times. I am sure the Aberdeen Proving Ground kept you alert.

I too, went to elementary school in Maryland, (Hillsdale Elementary in Aberdeen) we had the most awesome lunches, we had shrimp, pizza, and philly cheesesteak sandwiches, crab cakes and apple pies. we came back to Scott Co. in sixth grade and the cook at Yuma Elementary School was fantastic she made homemade rolls that were to die for and her hot dog chili was homemade. Soup Beans and cornbread with real butter, turkey and dressing. man the memories. I was glad to partake in the hijacking of this thread just for nostalgia's sake!

I think that culture has always been the problem, I know a few times that some of their best athletes have ended up at D-B. That school system as a whole stays messed up, The principal and head coach they have now will make headway but they are now stuck in 5A football, the hardest class in the state. I wish coach Jones success but it is still Volunteer.

Maybe GC can beat South this year, from all accounts this years South squad could be the worst in school history. Boone will be a hard game, they are big and very physical and play pretty solid D. and have a very good head coach.

I have no doubt that if Mance leaves Richlands, that the school will hire the best recruiter to replace him...just kidding. It is in reality a two edge sword, you hate to see him go but coach's burn out and you have to follow what your heart tells you to do. I also hate it for S.W. Va. because the coaching cupboard is kind of bare after Mance, he is the last in a long line great coaches from our area. Turner, Robbins, Colobro, Fry, Cummins, Carlock, men like these don't come along to often and we were blessed to have them overlap each other for all those years. If he does retire I wish him well, but if he doesn't I predict another top five recruiting class and top five finish in the state.

From Hurley to anywhere is a long trip...I don't see your point, maybe you could just close up Hurley and say move it to Richlands...just a crazy notion, but one worth considering.

The Cumberland and Black Diamond just need to merge and be done with it. The combined district would have Burton, Castlewood, Eastside, Rye Cove, Twin Springs, Thomas Walker, Grundy, Honaker, Hurley and Twin Valley. A perfect ten team district with competitive balance. Call it the Cumberdiamond District. nine district games and one non-district.

Any news on GC coaching staff.

DB was very mediocre during Fry's tenure. DB is the most overrated high school in the State of Tennessee in sports, academics is another issue, but very, very average on a state level in sports.

I don't know of a single football player Harry Fry had that transferred just to play football, all his talent was home grown! His teams relied on defense and running the football and those kids learned that in little league. Most Tennessee kids couldn't take the strictness and conformity that was the GC program until a few years ago,

Scott County does not charge tuition, any student that want's to come to Scott Co. can. You must understand the geography of the area Yuma Elementary School is five minutes from Carter's Valley Road and is closer for every student on the east end of the valley than Carter's Valley Elementary. The parent's don't rent homes for the student's most of them drive them to school or the student drives themselves and sleeps in there own bed, It is no different than the kids in Jasper, or Dryden or even Duffield area that want to go to Union. transfers that come to Scott County schools after the season starts are ineligible for one grading period (used to be six weeks) I don't know now. The last best Tennessee resident Caleb Herron never lived in Virginia but started kindergarten at Weber City, I currently have two nephews and a niece in the Scott County school system who will never live in Virginia, one comes from Rock Springs the other two from Carter's Valley. A student who starts school there isn't a transfer and I don't know of any playing there that is a transfer. I hope I shed some light on this or I just made the water muddier. Scott County will take anybody!

Poor Hurley, they can't catch a break. Poor schedule, bad attitudes and now fleeing players. What's next an earthquake at the Cliff and it slides away into Kentucky. Honestly I don't know if the fans can take much more.

Georgia does indeed have a tradition of winning football, they have the third most SEC titles (behind Alabama's 26 and Tennessee's 13 and one ahead of LSU) with 12. They just have never been a National contender. If the state of Georgia's flagship university can't win nine games a year with all the talent within 200 miles of that campus, they never will. I think Georgia fans and the administration are struck on themselves a little, they ran off one of the best men ever to coach football, for an unknown commodity. Karma will not be good for Georgia going forward.

Virginia High needed Gate City more than Gate City needed Va. High.

So back to the original topic, Have any of the vacancies been filled on the staff.

Nick was Darren's firewall, without him a crash and burn is coming.

Bulldogs52 really, that maroon Kool-aid must be good stuff, have you seen Clemson and Florida State's classes this year. Tech will be lucky to respectable in the ACC next year and will have zero chance in an ACC title game against either for a while.

This should have happened as LHL said last season, you can't leave a bunch of butt hurt coaches on a staff with the new guy, the cancer from two years ago was still there. Until he brings in his own guys nothing will change.

Nick=stability. Tazewell needs stability. This does two things quickly for the Bulldogs, it buys time for the development and should give the fan base and parents hope and trust. I'm not saying that he will win a state title, but we all know he can coach good enough to do that. If he gets interfered with or ran off then Tazewell should just quit playing football. Good luck Coach Colobro, you are going to need it.

Consolidation is hard enough by itself, but when one team has all the hardware in the trophy case things aren't so easy. Clintwood had all the athletic success except for a few years in football and Haysi is trying to find their most significant moment in a "sea of above averageness" I hope my grandchildren do not have to go through a school consolation because once that happens the pride and sense of community is washed away like our recent snow is in the rain. Oh and the dark side isn't so bad...we are like a church we will take anybody!..well most folks anyway.