I say that I have the utmost respect for Dr Falwell. He was such a people person and his love for the kids of that university was evident to anyone who crossed paths with him. He would routinely been seen with the kids, whether it was at sporting events, chapel, or just driving up the roads on campus swerving hi big SUV at the blowing that loud horn. you could see he belly laughing when he knew he startled you good. I've been on the receiving end of good punch in the side only to turn around to see him blaming his wife for hitting me. He was a man of faith who stuck his neck out to try to accomplish what he felt the Lord had called him to do. Most people who ever met him knew he wasn't what the media tried to paint him to be.
Jerry Jr...... never really had a good feeling about him
Jonathan seems down to earth and has the same heart for people his dad did.
Safe travels to you BoBob if you're making the trip. If D-B didn't have a basketball game Saturday, I would be making the trip for the second week in a row to Bluefield to sit with you in the stands.
As I’ve said before, I respect what they’ve done over the years but I don’t think I could ever cheer them on 😂 Them banning my train horn turned me into a petty person lol
I know. Thanks for the support and prayers for Coach you talked about.
couldn’t resist the petty jab there.
Safe travels.
Unfortunately, I’m going to be in Pigeon Forge next weekend. I’ve been trying to convince the lady to let me come back Saturday for this game then drive back to TN afterwards. My chances are looking slim so it may just be a NFHS type night for me.
Haha…Graham is definitely the underdog. Appomattox is defending state champions and beat Graham the last time they met in 2019. Graham will take the underdog role and hopefully bring their best A game on Saturday. They will need it to beat the Raiders. Blevins is the big ? right now. Hoping he’ll be okay but he seems really hurt and was in a great deal of pain. Kudos to that kid, he fought through it. Tougher than a lot of grown men I know.
Well I hate to see a kid miss his last game due to an injury.
Well the bad luck for SWVA has to end at some point.
Someone above said it right when they said this Appo team ain’t what the other teams were and surely ain’t what the 15,16 team was. Out of all 5 teams, this team ain’t them. They are good obviously, but we will see just how good.
They will come to Bluefield ready play and Coach Smith will have them well prepared. If Graham is looking past them Bluefield won’t be a happy town come Saturday night.
While I stand whole heartedly behind what this school stands for I do feel it’s an injustice they way they do their sports. Fully support a partner wanting send their kid there for a Christian education but when a lot of these kids are god athletes is when it starts to get fishy to me.
I could go into more but don’t feel like starting my morning off like that. Lol
That 2016 Appomattox team is arguably the best 2A team in VHSL history. I’m not sure it’s a winning argument, but you can make it and support it without immediately being discarded. They beat Heritage (Lynchburg), who was a 4A region finalist that season. They had 1 close game against Dan River. They obliterated everyone else.
We beat Rustburg 17-6 who I think that year was the Number 1 seed in their region in 3A
Heritage 29-21 (game was 22-0 at half and the hot humid conditions had out starters (two way players) dropping like flies- Heritage "out benched" us in the second half to bring the score close) who went a couple rounds into the playoffs in 3A
Altavista 42-13 (they went 11-4 that year)
Amherst 35-12 who went a couple rounds into the playoffs in 4A
Goochland (who was undefeated) we beat 45-13 in the state semi game.
Richlands for the tile 42-7.
Riverheads was good too though but I wouldn't bet against that group from Appomattox. They didn't love winning as much as they HATED the thought of losing, winning was just the by-product.
To follow up, when they played Dan River it was in a monsoon with some of the worst field conditions I’ve ever seen. Union beat DR that year and then Appomattox blew them off the field. I’d assume Appomattox does the same to DR on a dry field.
Dan River refused to move that game (I forget what hurricane it was that came through).
They knew that with the style of football they played and the wet field slowing us down that the soaked field and driving rain would play into their favor.
That and we were missing our best lineman and #26 Delonte Kelso that game which helped allowed the score to stay close.
We kicked a 40+ yard FG in that rain too. Special teams baby!!
In saying all that, DR was good, I think they were looking past Union to a rematch with us. There were articles in the paper about the possible rematch.
Good for Graham. I want to see Appomattox come west, outside the confines of Region C officiating in a state sem-final game, and play against a team that has equal athletes. No offense to Union or Ridgeview or Central, but I want to see them come to Graham. In 2019, that game is possibly a different outcome with Graham and Appomattox if that game is on a neutral field or played in Bluefield. It's not intentionally cheating with officials. It's getting caught up in the emotion of the event that often sways 50/50 calls in favor of the home team in state semi games. It happed with Graham and Appo down there. Appo got nearly every 50/50 call. Again, not intentional by the officials, but it's the difference in High School Officials and College and Pro Officials. Those officials at a higher levels are less likely to get caught up in the emotion of the game which can benefit the home team/crowd. It even happens at higher levels. Simple human nature.
We have, twice, and the one time there was complaining about the officiating down there in Region D. Lol!
We are definitely beatable as are most teams.
Maybe we will get to travel to Region D this year if we can make it that far.
Ride there (81 to 77 and up) was beautiful and the Tech game traffic wasn't too bad.
Got the the Railyard at 11:05 and it didn't open till 11:30 so we just sat with the windows down and enjoy thee wonderful weather.
Railyard was good (although I was disappointed the only offered their brunch menu--that philly cheesesteak on the online menu looked good) and they had live music which was nice.
Got to the game around 1:00 to watch the boys warm up. Mitchell Stadium is pretty nice. Love the stands and how step they are.
Georgetown won the game 61-19 so I got to watch my son get lots of short snaps in for extra points and one field goal snap.
My youngest son (who was a junior when we played Graham in 2019) was able to catch up with Brody Meadows and they talked down by the locker rooms for about 30 minutes.
Nice trip! Beautiful drive and a great experience.
What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
Just kidding but cmon man. They beat Stuart’s Draft every year and Stuart’s Draft almost beat Appomattox in the state finals in the spring. That game was a lot closer than Graham or Union was to Appomattox
From what I heard about their game last year was that barring some stupid unsporstman like penalties late in the game that Draft would have won. Not saying the penalties weren't warranted but that they handed the win to RH.
Plus Appo lost their big back right before they went up 14-0 in that game (knee) he could play defense (not at 100 percent though) but couldn't run the ball due to the chance of getting hit on the knee.
NOW.... That is taking nothing away from Draft. They were loaded and ready to play. Appomattox fans knew they were in a knock down brawl of a game there, we just jumped on them early and were able to hold on. There was NO QUIT in that team. The fact that Riverheads played with them and beat them says enough to me to know that they are a great team.
I'm just saying the one truly quality team RH has played, Draft, was very competitive and in the game til the end. LB got boatraced by Appo just as bad and Tazwell clearly is a step down from last year.
Appo also had two TD"s called back (their fault) and lost a fumble once at the LB 25 and another lost fumble at the LB 5.
The game was changed by the holding calls on first down and 2nd down for Graham that killed their drives. It's a simply, easy, subtle, difficult to disprove, and very quick, non-emotionally, fans think very little of this CALL that can change a game for a team and I'm talking about a hold on first down that is a 50-50 call that went 100% towards Appo and Graham didn't get that 50%, and that simple hold is DEVASTATING for an offense, especially in High School with you have fewer possessions because the game is not as long. A first and 20 is gigantic and it happened time after time with Graham, and if not a first down holding call, a second down holding call, for example, 2nd and 3 for Graham with a 7 yard gain on first down, then a 7 yard gain on second down only to be called a hold and boom, you now have 2nd and 13. That's huge. It's absolutely a HUGE factor favoring the defense. That happened time, after time, after time and they just wouldn't let Graham have the momentum. Graham impressed me to score as much as they did. They actually overcame a bunch of the penalties and just several times, it didn't matter, 2nd and 19 and boom 20 yd gain. These teams, if you know ANYTHING about football were not close to 15 points in separation in level of play. And for the folks who said Draft played Appo tougher, then you are either blind or ignorant. Appo completely dominated the game with Draft and Draft was never a threat and didn't have the athletes to match up and Draft actually played well and Appo not so great. Graham played poorly and Appo played well and Graham was a threat even in the fourth quarter........until they tried to get momentum.
All the credit in the credit in the world to Appo as you guys have a great program, great fans, great coach and good kids. I want to see Appo go West and play on the road, outside of Region C, against a team that is equally athletic, and that's Graham. Not saying Appo doesn't win, but you can absolutely forget the 44-7 type score at Mitchell Stadium Not going to happen. They have just as many weapons, and if it happens, there will not be as many drives that start out 1st and 20 or 2nd and 15.
We’ve been West twice to play in the Semi Final against the team that WON Region D.
I guess we will have to agree to disagree on the 2019 game. You guys were no doubt loaded.
You’ve got a great program that contents year in and year out.
Guess I just was figuring if a lineman moves (or the whole line) with the obvious intention of drawing a player off sides then that was illegal.
I guess, what’s the difference between a “flinch” and that shift.
Even on here a SWVA forum folks say that Graham plays undisciplined at times. I can tell you for sure that on the punt return in that game that there was an illegal block (two in fact) one was a block in the back that wasn't called but then the blind side block was called.
One time we converted a 3rd and 7 when Graham had 12 men lined up (not a guy running off) that wasn't called.
Not sure how you can say the refs didn't "allow" Graham to take momentum when your third play from scrimmage they allowed a 62 yard pass play to stand. Not saying it shouldn't have stood just saying it wasn't flagged. Then in the 2nd quarter that long play to Bradshaw stood.
I'll concede that athlete to athlete you guys were stacked and probably were better, but it was said above our coaches had our kids prepared to play disciplined football and saw areas in the defense that they could exploit and we did, scoring on plays where we simply created confusion and had kids WIDE OPEN for scores.
26 minutes ago, Union_Fan said:
That happened in 2017. Union's little "punt play", where they stand up and get back down on punt formations, has been done by them MANY times since 2011. Appo jumped offsides when they did it that game, and Union got flagged for illegal motion. The ONLY time ever after dozens of times doing it. Bear fans still feel raw over that! haha
I can't see how you guy can do that BUT I know that you have down it a bunch and didn't get called, so I'm not sure why they called it that day.
Thought you were meaning Division 2 in general. Graham would have in 2018, and really should have in 2019.
I'll give you 2018 Graham winning. I think we were better than Radford (5 turnovers and lost by 3) but I'm not sure we were up to graham level that year.
Now, 2019 we beat them 28-13. Were they talented, you bet, BUT so were we. They lost a few plays to penalties but I think we held them to 3-4 first downs the whole second half.
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Question about Liberty Christian...
in SWVA Football
Posted
I say that I have the utmost respect for Dr Falwell. He was such a people person and his love for the kids of that university was evident to anyone who crossed paths with him. He would routinely been seen with the kids, whether it was at sporting events, chapel, or just driving up the roads on campus swerving hi big SUV at the blowing that loud horn. you could see he belly laughing when he knew he startled you good. I've been on the receiving end of good punch in the side only to turn around to see him blaming his wife for hitting me. He was a man of faith who stuck his neck out to try to accomplish what he felt the Lord had called him to do. Most people who ever met him knew he wasn't what the media tried to paint him to be.
Jerry Jr...... never really had a good feeling about him
Jonathan seems down to earth and has the same heart for people his dad did.