Bearcat Dad

I haven’t posted in a while, so I figured I would get on here and congratulate coach Palmer and the GMen......
Also, watching grown men talking **** to each other about high school football, like some on this thread, never fails in entertainment value.

I haven’t posted in a while, so I figured I would get on here and congratulate coach Palmer and the GMen......
Also, watching grown men talking **** to each other about high school football, like some on this thread, never fails in entertainment value.

I haven’t posted in a while, so I figured I would get on here and congratulate coach Palmer and the GMen......
Also, watching grown men talking **** to each other about high school football, like some on this thread, never fails in entertainment value.

I haven’t posted in a while, so I figured I would get on here and congratulate coach Palmer and the GMen......
Also, watching grown men talking **** to each other about high school football, like some on this thread, never fails in entertainment value.

Actually, you hit the nail on the head, for current times. VHS has always had low numbers, but now there are just fewer kids playing sports. We even fell to what we consider “1A” a few years back. As I was growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, Bristol did have a thriving manufacturing setting for non college bound kids to start working in immediately after high school, but never much else. That is no longer the case.
The young Bristol families had to move away to find work that pays enough to stay off of government assistance. With the loss of good paying jobs coupled with the recent retail boom in Bristol, young families have been replaced by retirees, so the population hasn’t seen a tremendous change, but the enrollment at VHS has managed to stay fairly similar over the decades. 
I graduated from VHS in 97, and the enrollment was pretty close to what it is now, but we constantly had 50+ kids on the football team every year. Part of the problem at VHS is culture. Bristol has always been a baseball town. Numbers have declined in baseball the last couple of years, but not too long ago, we would have to cut 2-3 times as many kids that tried out for baseball, as the number of kids that made the team. Until 2 seasons ago, we regularly had well over 20 kids on the Varsity baseball team because kids wanted to be part of a winning culture.
With that said, VHS has always had kids leave to go to Battle, Abingdon, Damascus, Patrick Henry, and the big one, Tn. High. Kids from other areas only transfer to VHS to play baseball.
EDIT; 
I didn’t quite finish my thought, so here goes....
There has always been a lot of older people that have lived in Bristol. There are just more, now. Numerous people from the coalfields, my parents included, who didn’t want their children to go underground, saw Bristol as their “escape” so to speak. My dad moved us from Coeburn to Bristol in 1984, just in time for me to start kindergarten. That generation and the one before have either retired, or are close to retiring.
Couple those retirees, with the number of married people who don’t have kids, (my little brother, a 2001 VHS grad, and his wife, a 2003 VHS grad, are examples of this, along with many others) explains some of why Bristol has a decent size population, but a low high school enrollment.
Sometimes numbers are also just funny like that. I watched a piece on WCYB a few weeks ago about Abingdon. They have a population of 10,000, yet have the biggest high school enrollment in SWVA.

Tennessee High

Classic Big 6 match up. The best conference that could never be. Tennessee High, Sullivan East, Sullivan Central, Virginia High, John Battle, Abingdon. The problem was two states, two different sets of rules. Back in the day the student count was equal between the schools. 

It also hurts that VHS lost Barry Reed as their AD. He was aggressive enough to reach out to coaches like Wheeler and recruit them to VA High. He put in a lot of time raising money for their athletics as well.  I don't believe they did a good job of replacing this position when he left. 

Paul Wheeler coached at George Wythe before going to VH. We hated when he left. He was a top notch coach. 

Gentlemen,  kindly take this basketball nonsense over to the basketball forum. Some of us could care less about the roundball. We speak football around these parts.

Jeez, if their defense is better than last year, it's gonna be a long night in Bluefield for the Bears.

Out of respect for the fact that you make the rules around here, I will leave the discussion with this. Nothing I stated had anything to do with “facts”. I have no recorded numbers to turn this into a “facts” discussion. It’s been my opinion from the beginning. Time will tell if anyone Graham faces the rest of the way, has more team speed than Tazewell.
This is my final statement on the matter. No disrespect intended, but if this gets me in trouble here, then so be it. We have a difference of opinion. 

C'mon man I know Union isn't quite the well oiled machine of 2017 and Graham certainly handled the Bears last year but you don't have to rub it in and say it'll be that easy lol. 

1. Bluefield (20) 225
2. Abingdon (2) 162
3. Graham 149
4. Radford 146
4. Ridgeview 146
6. Pulaski County (1) 106
7. Union 102
8. Galax 62
9. Chilhowie 49
10. Tazewell 38
 
Also recieving votes: Patrick Henry (37), Gate City (23), Richlands (10), George Wythe (3), Marion (3), Honaker (2), Narrows (1), Wise Central (1)

I knew about and mentioned Bluefield’s QB and RB and their massive O-line. I did not know about House.
But, like you used the word “likely”, I used “may be”. My meaning was not certain, but there’s a good chance.
Lester is probably a bit faster than anyone for Tazewell too, but not by much. I could be wrong, but I don’t believe any of these boys have the elite speed that, say, Cooke had for Graham, 2 years ago. I’m talking elite, 4.3 speed. Lester, Harris, and Jordan are all really fast. The Dawg’s new QB looked like he could fly as well.
My whole point was that Tazewell has a lot of speed on their offense. I’ve stated more than once, that even though that speed puts Tazewell back into the upper echelon of teams in Region D, Graham is still in a league of their own, overall, in the region.
My initial post that @GMan quoted, was talking about the offenses that Graham will face this season. Bluefield may very well have more team speed, but when you have everything else that program has, all aspects of the team are magnified, immeasurably. 
The kids that will be responsible for the overwhelming majority of offensive touches for Tazewell have a lot of speed. That’s all my post meant. I didn’t forget anyone, nor am I trying to slight anyone. That’s the only meaning. 
 

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That’s exactly why I pick Graham to win the game. The push that Graham’s defense can provide, may be too much for any offensive line in our region to handle.

I knew about and mentioned Bluefield’s QB and RB and their massive O-line. I did not know about House.
But, like you used the word “likely”, I used “may be”. My meaning was not certain, but there’s a good chance.
Lester is probably a bit faster than anyone for Tazewell too, but not by much. I could be wrong, but I don’t believe any of these boys have the elite speed that, say, Cooke had for Graham, 2 years ago. I’m talking elite, 4.3 speed. Lester, Harris, and Jordan are all really fast. The Dawg’s new QB looked like he could fly as well.
My whole point was that Tazewell has a lot of speed on their offense. I’ve stated more than once, that even though that speed puts Tazewell back into the upper echelon of teams in Region D, Graham is still in a league of their own, overall, in the region.
My initial post that @GMan quoted, was talking about the offenses that Graham will face this season. Bluefield may very well have more team speed, but when you have everything else that program has, all aspects of the team are magnified, immeasurably. 
The kids that will be responsible for the overwhelming majority of offensive touches for Tazewell have a lot of speed. That’s all my post meant. I didn’t forget anyone, nor am I trying to slight anyone. That’s the only meaning. 
 

Graham will have the fastest couple of players on the field.  Tazewell has good team speed that can match Grahams team speed.  Question is can Tazewells O-Line hold up good against a pretty good push from Graham.

I agree. I don’t see 5 TDs either, but I have watched both Lester and Harris for years, with an outside perspective. They are close in speed, but Harris already squats almost 600 lbs, and power cleans well over 300 lbs. I’ve seen the videos. He is crazy strong. He can break tackles as well. I’m not taking away from Lester. I’ve also seen videos of him working out. He has strength as well. He’s a heck of a football player. He’s one of the top 2-3 guys in our region. I could be wrong, but I just don’t see him being able to duplicate what Cam did for the G-Men offense. That’s not a slight, because Cam’s season was an all-time great season, last year.
The thing is, in my opinion, Harris may not even be the fastest kid on Tazewell’s team. The Jordan kid can straight up fly. He didn’t get many touches against VHS the other night, because they didn’t need him to. Harris, and the new “X-factor” for Tazewell, their new QB, did most of the damage with the read option. This QB has wheels too, as well as looking very athletic.
Lester may very well be the fastest player on either team, but Tazewell has more team speed on their offense this year.
With all of this said, Graham’s defense is the class of Region D. Tazewell’s defense is improved from last year, but nowhere near the level of Graham’s. This may be the fastest offense Graham faces all year, but the G-Men defense is why I feel they will run the table for the rest of the regular season.
To me, Graham is the overwhelming favorite to repeat as Region D champion. Tazewell has enough team speed to be in the mix for being mentioned as the second best team in the region, along with Ridgeview and maybe one or two others.
 

I agree. I don’t see 5 TDs either, but I have watched both Lester and Harris for years, with an outside perspective. They are close in speed, but Harris already squats almost 600 lbs, and power cleans well over 300 lbs. I’ve seen the videos. He is crazy strong. He can break tackles as well. I’m not taking away from Lester. I’ve also seen videos of him working out. He has strength as well. He’s a heck of a football player. He’s one of the top 2-3 guys in our region. I could be wrong, but I just don’t see him being able to duplicate what Cam did for the G-Men offense. That’s not a slight, because Cam’s season was an all-time great season, last year.
The thing is, in my opinion, Harris may not even be the fastest kid on Tazewell’s team. The Jordan kid can straight up fly. He didn’t get many touches against VHS the other night, because they didn’t need him to. Harris, and the new “X-factor” for Tazewell, their new QB, did most of the damage with the read option. This QB has wheels too, as well as looking very athletic.
Lester may very well be the fastest player on either team, but Tazewell has more team speed on their offense this year.
With all of this said, Graham’s defense is the class of Region D. Tazewell’s defense is improved from last year, but nowhere near the level of Graham’s. This may be the fastest offense Graham faces all year, but the G-Men defense is why I feel they will run the table for the rest of the regular season.
To me, Graham is the overwhelming favorite to repeat as Region D champion. Tazewell has enough team speed to be in the mix for being mentioned as the second best team in the region, along with Ridgeview and maybe one or two others.
 

I think this comes down to defense, period. Can Tazewell's OL keep Lester in check ? You can't miss a tackle on him or some of the others or they'll be long gone. Lester is unbelievably fast. Can Harris navigate through Graham's defense to score? He seems to be the big play maker for Tazewell on offense. I could be wrong but I don't see 5 TDs against Graham like he had against VA High. 

Tazewell has plenty of speed to go around on offense, to score points against anyone on their schedule, including Graham and Bluefield.
With that said, even though their defense is improved from last year, they still missed too many tackles against VHS on Friday Night. Missing tackles against Graham would be disastrous.
As interesting as an upset would make things in our region, I believe Graham’s defense will make enough stops to win this one.

I think Bearcat Dad is right, we will see what Ricker does now an the new adjustments that need to be made. Also not meaning to step on any ones toes at Union or Ridgeview but unless Abingdon has a bad off night I do not see them losing to a Mnt.7 distric team, when they take the field against teams they just are huge. I cant guess scores no more only have fingers crossed an hope nobody from either team gets hurt, was afraid we lost our wideout/safety for the year Friday night, not a good feeling for a kid to get hurt. So good luck to both teams.

U - G - L - Y, we don’t need no alibi, ‘‘twas UGLY. Yeah, yeah, ‘twas UGLY!
Bring on baseball season! Lol