F@lcon

Aaron Williams is back at Burton now. He could take the boys job or the girls coach could take the boys so Williams could coach his daughter’s junior/senior seasons. Gate city would be a tough place to coach. After the big 3 you will never live up to the expectations surrounding that job. Just setting someone up for failure.

This goes on more than you guys would believe. I could tell some stories.

Hankins and gobble are definitely the best 2 pitchers. Against Abingdon and Lebanon, they have to be on the mound. Against anyone else in this area you can go deeper.

Gobble pulled Hankins to save for nondistrict game against LCA. Possibly cost them the game and lost to LCA anyway. Don't know if he assumed they could beat Abingdon with other pitching or got greedy hoping to win both games.

Battle jumped out early with Hankins HR and kept a small lead (3-2 I think)until Abingdon had their error inning. I thing it was 6-2 when Abingdon finally got out of that inning. Abingdon bats got hot in the 6th and tied it up 6-6 after Humphreys HR. Coach Gobble brought Hankins in for a short time but pulled him for pitch count. Turned out to be costly decision. Greear had a walk off single for the win. IMO, Abingdon’s youth shows. Freshmen and sophomores on the left side when Humphreys is on the mound. In big games, Battle will go as far as Porter Gobble and Hankins can take them. Both teams will do well until they get a cluster of games and have to go deep on the mound.

IMO, it’s not so much about going to Richmond as it is about getting bumped by a team built to dominate because of a loophole in their school district rules. Playing for 3rd place is participation trophy thinking and only gives the VHSL more money(that’s all they really care about anyway). As for the shot clock, I would be hesitant on 35 seconds. Maybe 45/60 sec. A quick clock will force many bad shots and hurt the overall game. I am not a fan of stall basketball either, but I also hate to see players throwing up horrible shots because the clock is running out.

Does anyone know if the new shot clock would eliminate the 10 second count for crossing half court and/or the 5 second rule for individuals since you are already forcing the play of the game? I would like to see the old jump ball rule reinstated. Actually jump at the free throw lines when called. Officials have abused the jump ball rule because it’s easier to call that to call the foul. It’s basically an escape call and happens too often. Officials would be hesitant to make that call if they knew it would result in actually jumping. It feels like some games have 20+ jump ball calls. I do like the suggestion for 2 halves. Not sure the 3 point line moving is gonna change anything. The Steph Curry age is here and kids are gonna keep jacking up 3’s no matter what. Since the VHSL is OK with Richmond having a wider area to pull players from, I say they should just have open enrollment for all schools. Allow players to play at any school as long as they begin the school year there. I am sure Scotty Boyd would have loved the opportunity to pull all of his SWVA Heat players together for Single A Honaker. Mcclung, Ervin, James Mitchell, etc. Would have been laughable then as well. What they are allowing at John Marshall is a disgrace. Not only does it screw over all other 2A teams, look at the actual kids at that school who get cut to allow this to happen. At least Oak Hill has a B team for the school kids to try out for.

The only Va team to even stay close this season was 4A Pulaski during the first game of the season. In a later matchup, CC beat them by 20

Have one player cross into front court corner with ball and other 4 form a half circle “screen” to prevent defenders from getting close enough to guard or get 5 second call, lol.

That’s all the video shows. I wasn’t there so that’s all I can go by for my opinions.

I see the point about instigating but it’s still words vs. physical action. Most fans/parents yell from the bleachers during games whether it be directed at coaches, officials, or players. Very few of them are yelling positive things. Unless they can prove that he made a credible verbal threat, there’s not much they can do. WJHL posted that an investigation is underway. It will take a while for all details to leak.

I don’t know Rife, Lowe or Lawrence personally. I am basing my opinions on what went down before the season and the video from the game. Neither one of them were innocent by any means but the fact is that Rife chose to make it physical and that’s inexcusable for anyone, especially a school employee on school property. That crossed into a legal matter at that point.

When wise went into a stall offense, Rife stayed in a zone defense with Trivette in the paint leaving 2 guards chasing 3 girls passing it around the perimeter. No chance at a steal or putting pressure on the ball handlers. Been reading some old threads about Rife pushing Lowe out. Administration appears to shoulder much of the blame for what happened. They removed Lowe, ignored parents discontent and targeted the parent involved with Rife last night. He was in line to get a boys coaching position but once his family voiced their feelings publicly, the board essentially refused to allow him to have any affiliation with the program. This was a power play that blew up in their face and makes sense why Rife lost his mind at the game like he did.

Looney is the transfer from Grundy. After losing 3 starters from last year, Central needed her to contend with gate city (and richlands).

Doesn’t matter what parent said. Rife is a school employee and cannot attack a parent. Watched the video many times, Rife jumped the chair and became physical. Grounds for immediate dismissal and legal charges.

That’s totally implied. But it’s on two fronts. They want to play on his team for what he can do for them and he is getting the best possible players to make his team what it is. He’s not taking scrubs and making players out of them. He’s taking tremendous athletes and combining them with 9-10 other stars to dominate.

Because they have many different high schools in Richmond. It’s the coach at John Marshall that pulls the kids.

If I remember correctly from the first time this was discussed, the city of Richmond has a rule that anyone within the full city radius is allowed to choose any school within that same radius regardless of district lines. The Richmond metro area has a population so 1.2 million people so that puts all other 2A schools at a major disadvantage. Plus, the rumors of players being from other states brings in a whole other controversy.

Don't have a dog in this fight but with Trivette they would do just fine with anyone's grandma coaching. Only time will tell with Rife when they get to region and have to get by mountain 7.

I think most people have different opinions on how in shape you should be for girls basketball. From all the games I have watched this year, Richlands seems to be in about the middle. Carroll County and Gate City are on another level entirely. They don't stop and go 8 girls deep with intensity. Other than Mccamis, I think Wise is pretty slow. Ridgeview seems to be a little above Wise and Richlands on speed and endurance. With Richlands, Trivette plays the top of their half court defense and then snowbirds hoping for the turnover and layup. The other girls don't see the need to run down the floor and follow her. They play decent 1 on 1 defense on the perimeter.

I sent back and watched it again. I agree it was the right call. I had to watch it a couple times because it happened fast. Lol, a little dramatic to say she "pulled her down" though. Just gave it a hard tug. I noticed that Dotson substituted that girl in for that play and didn't act at all surprised by what happened though.

Va high is athletic once again but other than #1 I think it was, they can't shoot outside the paint. The big lineup for Abingdon was too much for them. Each time abingdon went 3 guards, va high was able to close the gap but the only way they could guard the big lineup was to foul.

I didn't see that. I will have to check it out

I watched the Honaker and Wise games on nfhs. Ridgeview is playing really well. Wise appeared to be a little weak after the main three (Mccamis, Jordan, Looney). Ridgeview is deeper at guard position and Hill played well. I am no Wise fan by any means and am glad to see Ridgeview beat them but the intentional foul at the end was a joke call by Conley I think. Approx. 20 seconds left, Ridgeview up either 1-2 pts, and they are trying to foul to stop clock. It was a very simple, easy foul. Nothing overly physical, no shove, just hands on the girl. That was the wrong call for that situation.

Abingdon is definitely not an easy place to coach. There is a long history of parental pressure with most sports. Baseball saw a parent group that pushed hard to have Francisco removed a few years ago but that fell through when one of them had some legal trouble and others transferred to different schools. The previous football coach was criticized by a sizable parent group until he left to go back to gate city. The current football coach is somewhat under fire for underachieving the past couple of seasons. Softball is on their 4th coach in 6 years I think. Boys basketball has had the last 3 coaches pushed out for various reasons. Seems to be a pattern there.