TTownTigers

Favorite is Legion at GC. Tradition and fun. I think Giles is underestimated. That's a pretty nice place/beautiful setting. I still like the little old stadiums that are not necessarily new, and where the fans are fairly close to the field. For example, I loved Riggs at Appalachia. That was so cool. Narrows is rough and old, but the setting in the small town and near the River make it still......in my opinion, a cool place to watch a game. I am not a huge fan of the newer stadiums that seem like the fans are furthet away from the field. I love Bullitt Park as a park and the environment is cool, but man....add some seats for Gods sake. It's just to small in my opinion regarding overall seating capacity and this atmosphere could be better with more seats.

Thank God!

I have a question on districts. Do they mean anything other than you of course will play each school in your district every year? Meaning......you automatically do not get in the playoffs by winning your district? P.S. Talking about playing up....in the Richmond area (Dominion District) George Wythe of Richmond is Division/"Class" 3 and there are 9 total teams in this district. Four of those 9 teams are Class/Division 6. One of those 9 teams is Class/Division 5, and 3 of the 9 teams are Class 4, and then there is George Wythe at Div/Class 3 who will play "up' a minimum of 8 times in the season. Five of those 8 games for George Wythe are against teams at least 2 Classes or more higher. It may be safe to say, or at least arguable to say that George Wythe has one of the toughest schedules in Virginia. M. Walker in the Colonial has a tougher situation with 9 teams in that District and M. Walker is Class 2, and they have 6 other teams in the district that are Class 5. That's playing up 3 classes/divisions above your level at least 6 out of 10 games for the season. I don't know much about Richmond area football, but that sure does look tough on paper for George Wythe of Richmond and Maggie Walker. If Maggie Walker somehow goes 6-4 in regular season, then look out for them for heavens sake.

The problem I have with it is.....there are still 32 teams that make the playoffs across the state in each Divsion. That's just to many for my preference, especially since we have 6 Divisions. I remember back in the day when there was 3 divisions or A, AA, and AA with 4 regions for each level, so that's a total of.......12 regions for the entire state and we had 48 teams in the state of Va make the playoffs total. We now have........32x6=192 teams in the state make the playoffs. I even liked it most when there were 6 divisions and there were 24 total regions for the state with 4 teams making the playoffs in each region for a total of 96 teams in the state making the playoffs. 192 teams is just a bit much. I like the way the new playoff system is designed overall compared to what we recently had and am in favor of it. I just wish it could have been 4 teams per region, or if not that, then 6 teams make the playoffs in each region with the top 2 seeds getting a bye in week one. That's somewhat of a meeting in the middle I guess. Either way, high school football is still fun and I will still watch and pay at the gate.

I agree that would be a cool atmosphere. The 2 times I have been to Honaker, there was an awesome crowd that was loud and made it tough for the opponent. The atmosphere was fantastic. Heck, you never know until the two teams play in that....Honaker maybe could take down the Gate. I guess GC would have to be favored on paper with what is returning, but you never know until they play the games and no doubt, GC does owe the Honaker a return trip. I hope Honaker can go far in the playoffs and kick some butt outside of SWVA.

Sometimes when you play hard, you still lose. Gate City also plays hard and with all things equal, the talent level favors Gate City. Equally important, Gate City has some talented kids and a couple are D1, but don't forget that the reasons these kids are D1 is not because of talent alone. There is the hard work mentality and motivation to be good, and to get better. For example, McClung is and has been a gym rat since age 5. He's talented for sure, but years of practice and hard work has helped him perfect that talent to make him D1. I guess what I'm saying is....two teams can play hard and because Honaker plays hard doesn't mean the other team can't play equally as hard or have the same desire to win.

Gate City needs an inside presence to win a state title because of the defensive side of the ball. With a tall inside player that can change and contest shots around the rim, it takes Gate City from a top 4/final four like team to a state champion type team. GC has the scorers, and the on ball perimeter D will be good enough, but that on ball perimeter D can get tired when its doing 80% of the scoring. This is why a tall, inside defensive presence for GC could be the difference in state semis and state title. The kid doesn't need to score 14 per game, but only needs to simply change shots and contest shots and create some "one shot and dones" for the opponents. If GC can develop this, then GC can and will win a state title.

Not true. Keep your eyes on a true freshman named Pierson Prilouex. I am sure I misspelled the last name, but this is the son of the former VT All American and long time NFL player of the same name. He was a stud in junior high and will be a ninth grader. I don't know how good Radford's overall team will be, but this kid has future FBS power 5 written all over him.

I wasn't placing Gtown on a pedestal. I'm simply saying, Georgetown is in fact, major college basketball regardless of how many sweet 16s of late. No question, they are not now what they once were. Neither is Wake Forest, NC State, Indiana, Arkansas, Memphis or many others, but....they are considered by the average fan as major college basketball. Signing two top 100 players in the last 24 months is something ETSU, LaSalle, Murray State or Old Dominion can not and will not do. As for Georgetown, I am no fan and truly don't like their coach. But.....compared to his current offers, Georgetown is in fact....on a Pedestal.

I think Georgetown would be more than another nice offer. It's not in the same category as all of the other schools. Georgetown is a different level. Georgetown's program is far more accomplished and has much higher status than the others. If he gets an offer from Georgetown, he's made it to the level, or at least has the offer....... of major college basketball. As recent as 2015, Georgetown signed 2 of the top 100 players in the country for that recruiting class.

Health Miller, class of 2001 had some big offers if I'm not mistaken. I don't know if that's internet era or not. Coleman Thomas of Fort Chiswell had offers from Tennessee, Florida State, WVU, VT, UVA, and Maryland. Florida State is certainly big time football, but he was still a 3 star on Rivals. James Mitchell is a 3 star on 247 sports and a 4 star on Rivals. Since the early 2000's, he would be ranked higher than anyone in SWVA that I can think of regarding recruiting ranking and offers, etc. However, Jake Houseright was ranked higher out of Gate City than both Jones brothers and was the 31st ranked player in the United States by SuperPrep, but this was before the boom of the internet (internet was already around though). Houseright and both Jones Brothers were on at least one High School American list. Both Jones bro's were honorable mention USA Today All-Americans, but Houseright was an All American on most of them including Prepstar, NRA (no longer around, former recruiting ranking service), and Superprep. In the last 25 years, if going by recruiting ranking only (not future success in NCAA or NFL) but by recruiting ranking out of High School only, Jake Houseright would be the highest ranked recruit out of SWVA slightly ahead of both Jones Brothers.

Maybe not as popular in SWVA, Murray State might be the best offer and most accomplished Hoops program of the current offers. They got 15 NCAA tournament appearances and 26 conference regular season titles. I think the second best offers are a tie between ODU and LaSalle far ahead of ETSU if going by long-term tournament history-appearances, even though ETSU is the most recent to the dance. Academically, Rice and Air Force and William and Mary are non-IVY league, yet Ivy League comparable. A degree from any of these 3, especially Rice being a top 20 university and William & Mary right there in the mix would be a great degree. I think I would like to live in Colorado Springs, Williamsburg, or even Houston over New Haven, Connecticut. One other thing is....the "P5" in college football and "P5" in college hoops aren't the same, even though some use them interchangeably. There are historical national powerhouse programs in college hoops that are not P5. For example, an offer from Georgetown, Marquette, Butler, Dayton, Nova, and a few others of which many make up the Big East and American Athletic Conference (Houston, Cinci, Temple, Uconn) are far better offers than a Rutgers, Arizona State, or Washington State which are P5. Other schools like Gonzaga and BYU out west are historically far better than Rutgers and many of the "P5" schools.