Elder statesman

On the boys side I think Lebanon and Abingdon may be better than Honaker. Not sure about Graham this year. Central should definitely be better than Chilhowie and PH (Union has the talent to be above all three of these teams) On the girls side Honaker/Abingdon would be a good game. Honaker surprised me by playing with Carroll County. Wise is the team to beat until someone knocks them down. To beat Wise, their free throws have to be limited. They went to the line 23 times against Abingdon and IMO, that was the difference in the game. Eastside is better than JI Burton, Marion, and Va High. Gate City will be better than Union also, so I don't see Union at 10. Eastside easily handled Burton in the Wise tournament and Hammons is better than any 2 players on Marions team. Moss does well against weaker teams but she would have a hard time going up against a quality post defender.

Ridgeview girls will be top 3 in the district. They have a quick, talented group going about 6 deep. The thing they lack is size, that's where Wise and Abingdon should be a level ahead. I don't see any other team in the district being a threat to the top 3. NFHS commentators mentioned some nagging injuries holding back Union in football. I don't think it held them out of playing but it will slow them down until they have time to recover.

My surprise team prediction for 2A has got to be VA High. By tournament time, they may be the team nobody wants to play. The Lee kid is very good and will only get better as the season continues.

Boys side will be hard to predict. Gate City should be very good. One constant you get from Gate City in boys and girls is the tenacity on defense. They are relentless all game long. Ridgeview, Central and Abingdon are hard to predict. Their talent is very streaky. Battle has some good players but maybe not the best all around team. Union is young, with some football injuries to slow them down early. I can't comment on Lee, just don't know enough about them for a full opinion.

On the girls side it will be a 3way battle with Central, Abingdon, and Ridgeview. With Bays not playing at Gate City, they will not be able to contend. Union seems to have everyone leaving the program, including the coach. Battle and Lee will struggle for wins other than against each other.

i think they mean on the boys side

The Hammonds girl for Lee is pretty good. She needs another solid player to take some pressure off.

Lee girls went 0-3 in the Wise tournament. Doesn't say much for the Hancock County team.

Abingdon boys avenge an early loss to Lebanon with a home win 74-59.

I thought Eastside would be the favorite for single A in SWVA but Honaker appears to be in mid season form early.

Carroll Co. won 65-62. Honaker gave them a heck of a game.

Ridgeview girls beat Eastside 68-44. The Mountain 7 teams have been rough on the Spartans early in the season.

CC 51-Honaker 49 after 3

Honaker hanging on at halftime only down 37-32.

I think the truth is that the Falcons coach just isn't very good at using or developing talent. He was brought in less for his credentials and more for the fact that he just wasn't Darren Reed. He inherited a very solid Junior and Senior class for his first 2 years which made his job very easy early on. But, just like with any new coach, you cannot judge them on their first years. If they are still successful once they have cycled through with their own players then they can claim to be a success. The numbers are there and Abingdon's strength program is very good, the coach just needs to learn how to cultivate the players.

IMO, it was a very beneficial move for Trivette. I agree that the national exposure you get from travel ball is unmatched with playing at any school. But, this girl still has room to grow and more years to mature and improve. Face it, basketball is a year round sport now if you want to play at the highest level after high school. Richlands would not provide any chance during school ball for a player like her to improve. For every game that she would be tested against quality speed and size, she would have to endure 8-10 games playing against slower, weaker players. She may put up bigger numbers in those games but she would not get better. The same thing if she'd chosen to go to Honaker. They play a single A schedule and would have to wait until the postseason to be tested. A move to the Mountain 7 places her in the top 2A district in the state year in/out. This season at Abingdon she will be playing against Wise Central, Gate City, Ridgeview, and Union. For years, these 4 teams have dominated the 2A ranks. Non district games on the schedule include Lord Botetourt, Christiansburg, Tennessee High plus the possibility of facing off against Pulaski which dropped down from 4A and Alyssa Ervin/Carroll County who have dominated 3A since dropping down from 4A. With the loss of Trivette and Reynolds at Richlands, Va High inherits the bullseye as the team to beat in the Southwest District. I think the 2A race will come down to Wise Central and Ridgeview with Gate City and Union having an outside shot. If McCamis is healed, Wise will be the favorite. Ridgeview has an impressive group that have played together for some time. They have plenty of speed and shooters. Gate City will need to fill the hole from losing Lexi Ervin to graduation. Union and VA High will be depending on scrappiness and speed but may not have enough to contend for the top spot.

Carroll County girls should run away with Class 3 state title. I haven't seen any team that's close. I heard they had a close game with Pulaski (4A) but I haven't had a chance to watch on NFHS yet.

Based on what I watched in this game and the games I saw last year, it would be tough for Abingdon to stick with McMurray and 23 on the perimeter with Ramsey, Osborne, and the other tall kid in the game at the same time. It would require a lot of switching off and Gate City would screen until they got the right matchup to exploit. I also don't think Abingdon has the speed/endurance to play an extended zone like they did a couple years ago during their state run. The only current guard I really know much about is Honaker and I don't think he is fast enough moving his feet to guard McMurray. That kid may be the fastest I have seen in a long time, nothing but a ball of energy. The other guards for Abingdon must be young or new because I don't remember them. If you go with 3 guards and Osborne/Ramsey you give up muscle because, let's face it, Gate City is always football strong. In that case, you would have to depend on a lot of weakside help from either Ramsey or Osborne which could lead to foul trouble. I also noticed that there didn't seem to be any significant offensive set up other than pass and cut. There could be so much done with 2 bigs playing high/low and using screens and kick outs. Bottom line is Gate City just out hustled and shot lights out. I am not so quick to dismiss Abingdon's potential. It's a new varsity coach trying to learn his way so should get better as the season progresses.

Watched part of this game on NFHS. Gate City is quick, and those 2 kids shoot lights out. Overall, I would say that Gate City boys are physically stronger at each matchup as well. If Abingdon plays their big lineup, they can't match up well enough for man defense. If they play more guards, they don't have the scoring advantage. Gate City demands effort with every team and their kids buy into the system. That's why they always compete at every level.

For anyone who likes to hear sports stories from the past, check out SWVA hoops podcast on Spotify. FYI, this is focused mainly on far SWVA up to this point. In particular, I have enjoyed hearing all the various successful coaches discuss their different approaches to the game. Some of the notable coaches have been Scotty Vermillion (Gate City), Misty Miller (Honaker), Rick Goodman (Council), John McCrary (Twin Springs among other schools), Robin Dotson (JJ Kelly/Wise Central), Zach Moore (Union), Aaron Williams (Castlewood, Abingdon, Burton), as well as other coaches and successful players from the past. As an old school mind, I appreciate those coaches who have been mainstays at their respective schools and enjoy hearing about their methods of practice and preparation each season as well as their involvement and guidance of their respective youth programs. It is very evident that the schools with the best youth programs are the same ones that have the success year after year. Honaker and Wise have great youth programs for their girls' programs as does Gate City and Twin Springs with the boys' programs. Common attributes for successful youth programs are the willing and capable volunteers as well as the leadership of the Varsity coaches to give direction on how these youth teams should be coached. Coach Dotson, for example, relayed that he was not in favor of players going off on various travel teams. His goal was to provide the opportunity for his girls to play together at every level in order to achieve the chemistry and success needed to excel at the varsity level for their program. Another key feature for the better programs seems to be having numerous assistant coaches who are on the same page with the head coach and are able to spread out the workload to better prepare players for the season. Coach McCrary was very complimentary to many of his assistant coaches and their roles with his teams. He stated that his job was to be hard on the kids and push them out of their comfort zone and his assistant coaches were there to then coach those same players up as well as listen to their questions/complaints and help them understand where the coach is trying to lead them. Each assistant coach has a role. Some are there to work with individuals on shooting, post moves, defense, learning plays, etc. Others are there to help have practice plans flow smoothly to be more efficient. Basically, all we see from the stands are the wins and losses. It's eye opening to hear how humble some of these coaches are when they begin deflecting their accomplishments and giving credit to all those behind the scenes that we, as fans, don't really notice.

You are thinking about Scotty Boyd. He did "coach" an AAU team for many years that included such big local names as Mac McClung, Zack Ervin, Cade Hungate, James Mitchell, Thomas Francisco and quite a few more very talented athletes. Not much coaching needed when you have that kind of talent pool. He transferred his kids from Abingdon to Honaker when his oldest son was either a freshman or sophomore in high school I think. He now coaches at Southwest VA Community College. I cannot remember all the transfers to Honaker while they were there but I know there were a few. It was rumored that he wanted to transfer his oldest son to play at Gate City with McClung but Vermillion didn't want him and/or the hassle of dealing with an ineligible transfer.

Not sure I call beating Burton a quality win, more like a should win. Ridgeview is deeper, quicker, and should be able to handle Burton by 15 pts +. Burton does have some talent and could potentially have a big game and give you a scare but in reality they shouldn't beat the top 2A schools. On the other hand, they will be a factor in some 1A games. I don't think they will be able to handle Honaker but I will be interested in seeing them play Eastside and Twin Springs this season.

Ervin is the real deal. She is athletic, quick, can jump really well, and plays both ends as smooth as anyone I have seen. All around I would say she's the best girl in the area right now and may be the best in recent memory. I watched both McCamis and Trivette last year and would have given the edge to McCamis but then again she is somewhat older. I have watched both online this year and it's a difficult comparison to say the least. McCamis has a much better supporting cast and it takes a lot of the extra coverage off of her to be able to do what she does. Trivette on the other hand will face gimmick defenses every game to try to contain her because she's the bulk of Richlands offensive power. As someone said in an earlier post, Trivette has the highest ceiling by the time she is a senior. I think she could potentially be the biggest SWVA recruit ever. Ervin and McCamis will both get D1 interest but in my opinion, Ervin will be able to play at a higher level than McCamis

I will agree that it's not "wise" to play Robin Dotson early. He is very good at taking that info and using it later in the season to attack your weaknesses.

In my opinion, Ridgeview lost more than Honaker. Frazier and Sutherland were the heart and soul of the Wolfpack last year. Both teams had some very talented JV players move up so it was actually a good matchup.