Bearcat Dad

I have to disagree with this one. VHS has won the last four against Tazewell, but this year’s Bearcat roster has been completely turned over just since two years ago, when this current core group of Dawgs were freshmen and sophomores. From last year’s VHS team, there is one starter returning on defense and 2-3 on offense. There is a big talent and experience gap between the Dawgs and VHS this year, but it now favors Tazewell. I would imagine Vegas would have the Dawgs as -17, even on the road.

Sounds good to me. I’ve met some pretty cool people because of this board and coalfieldsports.com. I’ll send you a PM.

Yes sir, I will be there!

I was not at the game, but it’s my understanding that VHS had -17 yards of total offense and 3 turnovers in the first half. No offense to Union, because they will be in the mix this year in 2D, but the 2017 Bears put 40 points up in the first half against this year’s Bearcat team. The 2018 Bears would have put up 30 in the first half. I’ve been told by more than one Union fan, whose assessments of high school football I trust, that the 2019 Bears are a little different than we’ve grown accustomed to over the last few years. Not to say they they are bad by any stretch of the imagination. Quite the opposite on defense. I hear the defense will be quite good. I’ve also been told that the offense has quite a few kinks to work out. I’ve had a relationship with VHS sports for over 30 years as a fan, a player, and as a dad of two athletes. I hope every year that the football program becomes relevant in the region like the baseball program has been for over 4 decades. Even though VHS has been competitive in 3 of the last 4 years, this is going to be one of those really tough years, record-wise. The kids will fight hard every game, but sometimes a team just has a lot of cards stacked against it. This is one of those teams. Nobody hopes I’m wrong more than I do, but I guess time will tell.

Agreed! When he came back, he was trying to set the program up for his son to take over. One day at practice, he got a little “Old School” with one of his players. The only problem was that this particular player had a horrible attitude that was enabled by his dad, who was on the school board. The rest is history!

Ahh, ok. I misinterpreted that line. My bad. Yes, I do believe kids will start going elsewhere. Transferring is an epidemic that is here to stay, unfortunately. I know for a fact that a couple of the top young players for VHS are already talking about being unhappy and are wanting to transfer. Right now it’s just talk, but if they have the season I think they will, things will get pretty ugly. Coaching has been an issue at VHS for many decades. Outside of Mike Locke and Paul Wheeler, there has been a revolving door of unsuccessful football coaches. That’s the big reason why a school that traditionally has good athletes, is rarely good at football. This current coach, who, along with most other 2A head coaches in our region, knows exactly who I am on here. This current coach avoided my usually reliable BS radar for 3 years. His true colors were exposed last year. Just compare the football program at VHS with the baseball program. In the last 45 years, 11 head coaches vs. 2 head coaches. Zero state title game appearances vs. 12 appearances with 7 wins.

I’m not in the same business as your Union friends in calling kids a “joke”, but yes, this will be a very long year for the Bearcats for a few reasons. Now calling certain coaches a joke, I’m all for that! I no longer have a horse in the race in SWVA football, other than just being a lifelong football fan. If I could change my name from Bearcat Dad, I would, as that moniker is no longer true. My kids are now collegiate athletes. I will always be a VHS fan, but I am a realist. This board is littered with my posts from the last few years, with both positive and negative outlooks on VHS sports. I’m far from perfect on my predictions, but I am right more than I’m wrong. VHS will finish between 0-10 and 3-7 this year for a few reasons, which are...... 1) They have a great group of assistant coaches, that are handcuffed by a head coach who is secretly an egomaniac. He says all the right “Coachspeak” to the media and whatnot, but does not practice what he preaches. 2) The numbers are BAD again for VHS. So much so, that this year, they don’t have a JV team, because they need those bodies to dress out on Friday nights. 3) I love and cheer for those VHS boys, but the fact of the matter is, is that the Jimmies and Joes are just not there to have a successful season this year. They have a few athletes, most of which are very young and very inexperienced in Varsity football. They could potentially be pretty strong in two years. 4) This infusion of youth is in part because, in my opinion, their 3 top returning players are not there. Two because of injury, and one because of a young man’s decision to focus on baseball. I believe that your prediction, @Counts, is very possible. There is a very big talent gap between VHS and most of the teams on their schedule this year.

I’m VHS for life, but does everyone realize that in 2017 and 2018, VHS scored 72 combined first half points against the Dawgs? The talent gap is there for the Dawgs to flip the script and do that to the Bearcats this year. It will come down to coaching. Will Tazewell exploit the glaring weakness of the VHS defense, which is up the middle? VHS has some young speed on the outside of the defense, but they can be hurt up the middle. The VHS offense will struggle mightily this year. Too much youth, not enough size or depth in the trenches, no stability at QB. VHS will bounce back in two years, but this Friday could be a massacre if the Tazewell coaches do their jobs.

Speaking for young families in areas like Bristol, Va and Scott County, they head next door, across the state line to NETN to work in cities like Bristol, Tn, Johnson City, Piney Flats, Kingsport, and others, where there are a plethora of opportunities in the world of manufacturing. I turn 40 in a couple of weeks, I live in Bristol, Va, and in all of my working years, I’ve only spent four of those years working in Virginia. One year of which I worked in Va. Beach, when my kids were little, where I found out that I wasn’t made for living in a big city. There are just more opportunities in NETN, than in SWVA. Definitely true about the competition for jobs in the rest of Virginia. Even with the Hampton Roads area housing 1/4 of the state’s entire population, there is always work available, but there are plenty of people looking for work.

My vote for “Post of the Year”. This is exactly why VHS has been mediocre for a century. Very rarely do we have a coach that can do this. We usually have the athletes, we usually DON’T have the HC.

That is a good idea. If I’m not mistaken, Abingdon has a very big Special Ed. program that affects their enrollment total as well. I haven’t actually researched that, but I have been told that by more than one Abingdon resident.

I believe something will eventually happen in Bristol/Washington County as well. Abingdon sorta makes any kind of consolidation tricky, because they are one of those spots of resistance that you mentioned. Bristol is already working to consolidate all four elementary schools into one school. I’m not exactly sure how Holston or PH would/could factor in, but some sort of consolation is going to happen one day.

There aren’t many at all. SWVA is really becoming one of the poorest regions in the country.

I believe it will be a good game. VHS has a kid in the backfield with a ton of potential, but the O-Line won’t have the size, depth, or experience to give him room to work. Their top few athletes come from the freshman and sophomore class, nearly all of whom have little to no reps at the varsity level. Unfortunately for VHS, this previous senior class as a whole did a lot of heavy lifting in most girls and boys sports. The 2019-2020 school year will be rough for VHS athletics.

If VHS wins 4 games, Crist will deserve Coach of the Year, and unless we’re talking about somewhere deep in the MCU Multiverse, he will never win COY. This year’s team has lost almost everything from the last two years that saw the Bearcats be competitive with everyone on their schedule from Union, to Abingdon, to Tn. High, and even for 3 quarters at Mitchell in the playoffs last year. VHS has a great group of assistant coaches(who are handcuffed) and very few athletes this season. They had 20 kids at team camp last week. Plus, their most experienced senior O-lineman is out for the year due to a back injury, their top skill is not playing this year due to a back injury that cut his baseball season short in the Spring, and their best returning D-lineman is not playing as he is focusing on baseball. VHS scored over 70 points combined the last 2 seasons against Tazewell. The Dawgs have a GREAT shot at revenge next month. To me, the Bearcats are between 0-10 and 2-8 this season, seriously.

The Bulldogs will be able to name the score against VHS. Gonna be a really tough year for the Bearcats. I believe the Dawgs will challenge Richlands for 2nd place in the SWD. I’m not sure if they can actually get over that hump, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they finally did.

Confirmed today

Thanks!

I couldn’t have said it better myself. The other poster took a shot with the “perennial powerhouse” comment, which is hilarious. I have posts all over this board, admitting that VHS is the poster boy for mediocrity in football, literally. In over 100 seasons, their overall record is like 2 or 3 games under .500. I didn’t mean my comment as a slight at all, even though he/she obviously took it that way.

Perennial power house?......cute I mentioned VHS in the same sentence as Marion and Lebanon. The fact of the matter is all three schools are exactly that, afterthoughts in football. It’s not personal, but none of those schools are near the levels of Union, Graham, or Richlands, the true perennial powerhouses in our region. Yes, Marion has had consistently good teams in the distant past, and as recently as 2017, had a really tough team, but it’s been many, many years since Marion has had a team that has been considered a contender year in and year out.

That’s pretty cool! I’ll have to check that out lol

From what I’m hearing, that’s exactly what he’s doing. That’s the style I played with, so of course they’re my favorite.

I LOVED Pitfall! Q-bert was another favorite of mine. I hated that damn snake! The game was actually called Oregon Trail. It was the first popular desktop computer game that I was introduced to in my library class in elementary school. My parents could never afford a computer back then, so the only time I was able to play it was at school. Oregon Trail has developed a cult following in recent years. I’ve actually seen kids wearing t-shirts today with the old-school green computer graphics of the big covered wagon with the infamous slogan “You have died of dysentery” captioned underneath. The object of the game was to take your family on a winter-long trip on the Oregon Trail, to relocate from whatever town you were living in at the time. At the beginning of the game, you could choose your character’s strengths, like being an efficient hunter, or being good with tools, or good at bartering. During your journey, a million different things could go wrong to slow you down, like one of your oxen dying that’s pulling the wagon, or your wagon could be attacked and your food and few personal items stolen, or an axel or wheel on your wagon could break. The longer it took you to reach your destination, the more likely it was that bad things would happen to you and your group, like hunger, pneumonia, and the most popular, dysentery lol. For the time, it was so much fun. I’ve seen a few recent mobile versions of the game, but the ones I tried just never compared.

I didn’t really believe your earlier post was exactly directed at me, but since I did mention parks, gyms, and fields, I just wanted to clarify what I meant by what I’ve personally seen with kids over the last two decades, because I do respect your opinion on other topics I’ve seen you post on over the last few years. I agree with your last statement wholeheartedly! I know personally, because as a teenager that was a decent athlete, I was part of the problem in my day. I got away with murder, along with a lot of my teammates, back in our day. My claim to fame as an athlete at VHS, aside from being an average D2 football player, I became Virginia High’s first ever athlete to be banned from a sport/team because of the then new state rule that athletes had to maintain a 2.0 GPA to play sports. My terrible GPA had nothing to do with lack of intelligence, but I preferred playing ball, getting drunk, and chasing skirt to actually doing my homework. When the news broke, I actually went to my teachers in a last ditch attempt to get make-up work, to reach the 2.0. Looking back, the worst part about that experience was that I had teachers that played along! My Algebra 2 teacher let me retake my first semester exam, with the answer key right next to me! I was not able to do enough to reach the 2.0, so I had to sit out baseball season my junior year, in the Spring of 96. That season just so happened to be the last state title that VHS won, before the 2014 team ended the school’s longest title drought since the early 80’s. That experience scarred me for life. I swore that I would do whatever I could to ever keep my kids from going through that themselves. Now, the good Lord did bless both of my kids with a little bit of athletic ability, that did allow them to earn money for college, but they can attest to the fact that their mother and I have preached the importance of “academics first”. The “Good Ole Boy” system is an epidemic that unfortunately, isn’t going anywhere soon. I believe that stems from society’s view of professional athletes. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a sports nut, but way too much importance is placed there.

I’m not sure I see anyone saying that all kids, your daughter included, that do not go to parks, gyms, and fields, are lazy. I will see if I can explain the meaning of my posts a little further. First of all, congratulations to your daughter on everything she is working hard to accomplish. With that schedule, she is not lazy whatsoever. Along with the sports aspect of this discussion, I also have a little knowledge of exactly where you’re coming from with this aspect. My daughter, 19, graduated from VHS last year with a 4.25 GPA, with nearly 40 college credits to her name. She fell just a few credits shy of actually graduating high school with her Associate’s Degree. We did have two graduation ceremonies to attend though, as she did receive her General Ed. certificate from Highlands Community College in Abingdon, the school responsible for sponsoring the dual enrollment classes at VHS. She entered college last fall as a second semester sophomore. She also has an extensive collection of t-shirts from STEM camps. For three consecutive summers, she attended Emory & Henry’s week-long Summer Leadership camp, where the kids did everything from build and program robots to writing, directing, and acting in plays. I understand where you’re coming from when a kid has a grueling schedule such as our daughter’s did/do. Mine has carved out her path in receiving her Doctorate as she’s wanting to become a Forensic Profiler for the FBI. With that said, she was also a cheerleader in high school as well as the 2018 Region D champion in girl’s discus. My whole point is, school hallways are not filled with kids who CHOOSE technology/science/academics/arts over football and other sports. Are there a few kids who do? I’m sure there are. Is the number of kids who CHOOSE not to play football and other sports exponentially higher because there’s too much hard, physical work involved? Without a shadow of a doubt! Of course there are many reasons why kids don’t play sports. Certain reasons have always been there like; too expensive, not coordinated enough, other interests such as cars, fishing, hiking, camping, “learning to play guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, ukulele and saxophone at a concert level”, and a big one, GIRLS! I echoed the sentiment of @Blue 72‘s post about video games. Video games allow kids to be a professional whatever they want to be without getting up off of their couch. Dont get me wrong, I’m not anti-video game. My generation is responsible for the start of gaming. I have a lot of hours under my belt with Pong and Pitfall on Atari, trying my best not to die from dysentery during a harsh winter on the Oregon Trail, and doing my very best to whip Mike Tyson’s ass on Punch Out. Video games certainly have their place in our society. Although, there has to be balance.