All the VHSL cares about is the eastern side of the state, much like government. That's why they changed the bracket setup in 1A-3A so that region C and D can no longer meet up in the state finals. They did not like it on the girls side when C\D were continuously dominating.
This article showcases arguably the best team Dotson has had in addition to other area players that have played college ball. This area has already had the bulk of girls basketball talent in the state.
I don't know about that. There are very few college players coming out of swva. I believe the rest of the state is just that bad.
Wise has had a lot of college players over the years at UVA wise, Emory, Tusculum, Milligan, etc. Sarah Helton from the 2000's set the UVA Wise scoring mark during her time there. In your next post you change that to D1 players, one of their best all time players, Logan Reynolds, played 4 years at JMU.
Gate City has had multiple college players just over the last 3-4 years with Sarah Thompson playing D1 at ETSU.
Ridgeview has two players at Pikeville right now and a third was recruited heavily by them but chose not to play.
Honaker has 1 McNulty playing in college currently and the other should be once she graduates. Nolley is getting offers, not sure if she has committed yet.
Patrick Henry had 3 girls go on to play college ball from their last good run.
Abingdon has had 2 D1 players with Grace Hess and Peyton Carter. Taylor Gilbert and Sarah Walter's played at Emory, Emily Breeding played at Bluefield. A couple other girls had options but chose volleyball instead. A few years earlier, Taylor Blevins played at Emory and set their all time scoring mark.
With some research, I could find a lot more. These are just some from recent memory.
This past summer we went to team camps at Emory, Concord, and Elon. In all three, we only played one team that could compete against Wise, Ridgeview, Botetourt, and Carroll County.
Trivette is a rare talent and a game changer and will make a difference on whatever team she plays for, the Reynolds girl, not so much. The one thing regarding transfers that no one likes to talk about, is what hometown girl was pushed aside and riding the pine for a mediocre player to have playing time? Hometown kids getting screwed by transfers like the Reynolds girl is a shame. That being said, Go Falcons!
You evidently have hard feelings from that situation because you clearly don't have a clue what you are talking about. Reynolds had proven all season to be a very good player. She is as quick as any girl in the area, one of the best on ball defenders, handles the ball well, rebounds great for her size, and has only gotten better as the season progressed. Her defense against Lord Botetourt in the 4th quarter alone helped win that game. She picked up their best shooter who had hit 5 threes and kept her from getting the ball back.
As for playing time, she's earned every second of floor time. IMO, if she wasn't on the team, the rotation in tight games would just be one less player. I will take less playing time and a Region championship over a 5 win season anytime.
I agree that 2 fouls on Ervin were legit, one was questionable and one was laughable. The coach left her in the game the whole time and she actually became a liability for about 3-4 minutes. She couldn't play defense or try to rebound at all and had to hold back on offense because of a possible charge call.
It got worse after halftime. The officials done a complete 180 and targeted Magna Vista. It seemed like someone may have called them out during the break and they had to make up for the first half.
Watched part of this game. Carrico was a little off in the first half until she scored her 1,000 pt. After that, she started scoring more often. She's tough to guard, just has no help.
Abingdon has 3 coaches, what did they do, stand there too?
Why would you expect your opponent to help your player off the court?
I swear people look for anything to knock Wise.
I can't stand them either, but they didn't win all them banners by being nice.
Maybe if some other girls and their coaches got mean around here they would beat Wise.
1. Yes, Abingdon has 2 female assistants.
2.The girl had to be carried off the floor.
3. TJ was not the opponent, he was the tournament host and principal.
4. You obviously don't like Abingdon either.
5. If you think it's being "nice" for the staff of the host school to help an injured player off the floor then you may be as pathetic as the situation.
Abingdon player got hurt during the game and Wise doesn't have a trainer available and no EMT's on site. If that's not a prerequisite for hosting tournaments it should be. Nobody even offered to help getting her off the court. TJ just stood there with his hands in his pockets. Pathetic.
There are too many points on both sides that are hard to address. “Daddy ball” and travel sports can be both good and bad for all the reasons listed. With an excellent daddy-coach that cares about the team, the ceiling becomes close to the genetic limit. As one poster pointed out the population loss plus the need or want to specialize is a killer for the sport not chosen by the individual or school. The three-sport athlete is an endangered species. Success is no longer limited to athleticism or hard work, but how you focus that hard work. So now, we simply play sports to win a championship or earn a scholarship. The love of the game and lessons learned as a byproduct have been supplanted by winning at all costs. I’m not saying this is right or wrong, it just is. We transfer, holdback, and spend more time and money for those ends than in the past for one or two sports. In most schools the dominant sport eats up the others for those goals. Let’s use Lebanon for example. It is a “baseball” school. But sheer numbers of players should rightfully dictate greater support and attendance for football and basketball. Instead, we shouldn’t only play and support baseball because that is our best chance to win. Gate City has become a “basketball” school some because of the Mac influence, but how many players have given up playing football for the limited time they are able to play it in life to focus on basketball?
This isn’t an indictment on people’s choices. Just pointing out how that population loss and pressure to commit early has made us sell out in some sports and neglect others.
I agree. Abingdon is a baseball school with countless kids who either stop playing other sports or do the very least possible to say they played multiple sports. Look at Mac, he is told to have been great at football but he chose to dedicate fully to basketball. But, some of the best to ever go through the area played multiple sports and excelled at all. Calvin Talford and Heath Miller could have played all 3 major sports at college level without a doubt, 4 if you consider track. Thomas Jones was a really good basketball player as well as James Mitchell. Julius Jones was great at track, etc
My son's core group played together from a very early age. 2 different youth teams developed for Abingdon youth basketball that eventually merged into 1 team around middle school. They played together every summer and their chemistry was a big reason for their success.
With that being said, Abingdon is a baseball school and that either pulls kids away from basketball or at least dominates their summer. It's very hard to get enough kids to field a full summer team.
You mean the TSSAA refs weren't catering to Dotson? 😂
Exactly
They must not be intimidated by his antics like swva area officials. I have heard 3 different refs comment that they hate doing central games and try to avoid his side of the floor.
Ben Campbell was Dotsons puppet in this one. And Jeter made 2 calls that got changed because Campbell and Crocket were standing in front of Dotson listening to him. Then they run over and change the calls.
It is counterproductive to have Trivette guard a smaller player at the perimeter when her major attributes include controlling the paint, altering player shots, and rebounding. The quicker guards are able to get by her which forces help defense and opens up a post player to either get the dump pass or have great position for offensive rebounds.
First of all, if it’s true that a coach and or school administration can say yes or no to what officials show up that is a joke and the VHSL needs to fix that immediately. I haven’t watched the game in question and probably won’t so I won’t comment on specifics of it just posts here. Like @sixcatsaid, who is going to want to officiate games for what they are paid. These schools are getting what they pay for. I’ve looked at doing it as I know there is a massive shortage of refs. But there is no way I’d put up with RV, Central, and Union fans for what refs around here are paid for
Heck, every business now seems to prompt you for a tip.
Some of these guys have been officiating for decades, so that per game check must be enough.... or is it?
Anyone is welcome to watch the nfhs feed. It's very telling when even the Central announcers are saying numerous calls against Abingdon are bad. The second half is where it gets really obvious. Anytime abingdon made a run, calls were made to stop that run.
Honaker and Conley called 2 walks on Trivette that were ridiculous. One was a straight pivot spin for a shot and the other one she never even moved. Trivette grabbed a rebound and mccamis fouled her as she came down but they called a foul on Trivette. Even Dotson and Mccamis couldn't believe they called the foul on Trivette.
Reynolds was called for a foul on Mccamis and replay shows she didn't even come close to touching her. Mccamis bumped 2 of our guards almost to the floor and there was no call. When they finally did call one on her they made it a double foul to keep Dotson happy. Seymore was called for a joke foul after Looney makes a basket. They turn to run back down the floor and Seymore trips and falls. She grazes Looneys leg as she goes down and Honaker calls a foul and gives central the ball back. Abingdon never made it to the bonus in any quarter but Wise did every quarter except maybe the first quarter.
Another official in attendance just happens to be Centrals assistant principal and from what I have been told, TJ blackballs certain officials who have made calls against his daughter so I guess the rest are protecting themselves.
Not sure what the fan said but a school employee has to be better than that. Abingdons principal and security can be seen blocking the student section from doing anything while the VA High players kept trying to rile things up. There was no coaches or school officials making any effort to restrain Bearcat players and that's where the problem lies. Kids are kids and need guidance to be better. Even the handshake line had Bearcat players mouthing off to players and even to coaches from Abingdon. Leave all that on the floor and be humble after the buzzer.
Va High officials need to really work with their team on how to handle themselves. Their was a lot of trash taking throughout the game from both sides. I get it, that's competitive nature to an extent. But, after the game, the players were yelling and making gestures toward our student section and to fans in the stands. Nfhs cameras should show that well. An assistant coach also was heard yelling obscenities at a fan while heading to the locker room.
Gotta learn how to act when you lose and learn how to act when you win
Big crowd at Abingdon for this quad. Abingdon girls started a little slow but came out the second half and ran away with the game. Abingdons transition game is very good. The half court offense is definitely more efficient when the play is ran through Trivette. It just doesn't work when individuals try to play one on one.
The boys game was a great one to watch. Va High came out with the speed and Abingdon was caught a little off guard. After trailing by 10+ for most of the game, Abingdon was able to rally back to tie it up. The controversy came on a last second shot attempt by Va High. Mooney calls a foul against Abingdon on a shot at the buzzer. They give Va High 2 shots but say their is no time on the clock so players can't be present. The shot did release before the buzzer but if a foul occurs, their has to be some amount of time on the clock, even if it's 0.1 second. If clock is at 0, the foul isn't legit. Refs said no time but gave them free throws. Even having the players line up on the lane brings more tension for the shot so that became a major issue.
My vote would have been Dotson. He carried the bulk of the pitching load with great success. At one point late in the season it was announced that Dotson was leading the team in RBI’s. Hard to compare fielding when Dotson was on the mound in at least half the games. Humphreys had a good year too and may have the better batting average but Dotson stepped up big after losing Gibson. IMO, Humphreys got the voting edge because he was the better player last year. (And, if I remember correctly, Dotson was given player of the game honors in like 5 straight games in the middle of the season)
.png.01bb665814ffc257795fe158cb2045c7.png.8a531ac878a82772b21014d7a6167582.png){kind=logo}
State Finals Updates/Scores
in SWVA Basketball
Posted
All the VHSL cares about is the eastern side of the state, much like government. That's why they changed the bracket setup in 1A-3A so that region C and D can no longer meet up in the state finals. They did not like it on the girls side when C\D were continuously dominating.