F@lcon

Ervin is a great player but gotta give the rest of carroll county's team some credit. They are just a sound group of players.

Battle shouldn’t be able to upset Abingdon barring injuries or unseen factors, but that’s why you play the game. I think both teams will have a shot at state titles. I, too, will be interested in how the Kelly Foster situation unfolds. A lot of drama surrounds him.

Carroll County is the best girls team I have watched. They have it all, speed, size, strength, tenacity, and the superstar in Ervin. And, I wouldn't say she plays at all selfish. She gets hers in the flow of the game. I don't have a dog in the Aaron Lowe fight but if you think richland's success is because of the new coach you might want to watch some games. If you take Trivette off that team, they don't win many games at all. To put that in perspective, if you take Mccamis off Centrals team, they still compete for top 2-3 in district. You put Trivette on any team in the area and they become an immediate contender.

It was a Facebook live somebody had. going. Not sure who's account it was. I haven't found an actual streaming site to watch but I wish they would arrange that

I watched some of the Thomas walker game online and I don't think the coaching staff was a factor at all. They could have stayed home and it wouldn't have mattered in this game.

Exactly. Imagine being on the bench last year knowing that 3 starters are graduating. Of course you will work your ass off to impress the coach in order to earn one of those spots. Then you start practice and all of a sudden you learn that a player has been brought in to start because they didn't think you are good enough. How hard do you work now? This is probably a factor in the problems at union as well.

If you read the thread before posting these guys have been talking about looney transferring for quite a few posts. And to correct your statement, "it's their state championship to make roster adjustments so they don't lose".

In all honesty, mcclung probably would have had a harder time making it big without holding back. The senior season propelled him into the national spotlight with all the overtime media following and setting multiple scoring records. Not sure Georgetown would have come looking if not for that attention.

All of these are definitely great players. You cannot argue that each one of the gate city boys got better each year as I am sure the girls will as well. I think that also makes it obvious that being 19 as a senior would make you better than if you are 17-18 as a senior especially on the boys side where bodies fully mature a little later.

Not everyone has a motivator like you had either. Quite a few kids go through school being supported financially at least with a roof over their heads and food on the table. Other than summers, I didn't work until after I graduated. I played all sports and graduated with a 4.0. Then by that August I have classes during the day, work evenings and weekends, and have to learn how to manage money and pay bills all at once. I am proud to say that overall I did succeed with some bumps and bruises along the way, but I definitely don't think I was ready for that life at 17. Like I said before, I think it all boils down to individual circumstances. Holding back for sports has really been a major thing in far swva for a long time. It was a well known thing in the 80's with schools like Grundy, Richlands, and Gate City. By the 90's most schools were seeing hold backs at some level. Some schools in our county have cracked down on it at the school level but now parents are just taking them to a private school or home schooling for a year then re-enrolling and repeating a grade (before 9th grade to be eligible). It may be a stretch but I also think the emergence of travel sports to the level it is today has been a motivator for holding back as well. Travel ball leagues are creating some monster parents who think that little Johnny is going pro because he hit a homerun last week in the 10th usssa world series this year.

Studies or not, I still don't agree that it's the same for all kids. I graduated and started college at 17. I was also living on my own working full time and primarily supporting myself at that age. My family did not have money nor the means to help with my education. I really struggled for my first 2 semesters and ended up repeating a few classes because of my grades. I do believe if I had been another year older that I may have been more equipped to handle all those responsibilities.

I actually have mixed feelings on hold backs. IMO, this would be hard to regulate because there are other reasons to hold back besides sports and if you can't really prove the reasons, it's not fair to punish a kid for this. I personally know a couple kids over the years that have been held back for more of a maturity issue. Some birthdays could have kids graduating when they are barely 17 years old. As for transfers. It's been a questionable practice for a long time. Some schools are so obsessed with winning that they are now openly recruiting because the VHSL doesn't have the balls to do anything about it. Why would you think the VHSL would address a transfer situation when they openly allow teams like Liberty Christian and John Marshall play public schools and they are well known recruitment schools. It's not about right/wrong with them because they only care about the $$$

With all the drama that comes with Foster, I don’t think they would want him in a head coaching position.

This is true. From what I was told, he’s not planning to coach there, just watch his daughter play. I think he got very frustrated at the lack of commitment from his returning players. Baseball players were not planning to play because they were being encouraged to specialize and the better returning players were not willing to work out as a team to get better and promote team chemistry leading up to the season. They seem to only be worried about their individual status. Coach Hutton has had some good relations with the younger players through JV so hopefully he can pull that together or it may be a letdown season for those involved.

I said this after Abingdon played this at beginning of season. Graves is really good but the rest of the team is football players playing basketball. Quick, athletic, and scrappy but poor fundamentals and shooting. Without Graves they can’t score enough to beat any good teams.

A little foul trouble factored in at the end for Abingdon. 2 guys with 4 fouls and coach tried to sub for small stretches but it cost on a couple occasions. Osborne is doing well scoring around the bucket. Need to cut down turnovers and improve on the perimeter. Definitely miss Ramsey’s presence. Not so much for his offense as much as his ability to limit teams offense around the paint. I still think it’s sad that he isn’t even on the bench with his team. That says a lot.

Poor choice for officials in this type of game. Both teams ran the ball all night. There was a lot of chaos and back and forth action. For this high paced game you had 100 year old Mack Shupe and little short guy that is quite round in the mid section. They are probably both still sore today. Ridgeview plays most of the game out of control. I made the same comment last night about them looking like street ballers. They have the athletes to be better but somebody gonna have to get them to play with discipline. Abingdon weathered a couple runs by Ridgeview then maintained for the win. The void of losing Ramsey for the season provides more opportunities for Osborne around the bucket. Freshman Honaker is playing solid at the point and Carter provides you the energy and shooting ability. They may not be able to take down union but they will be a tough win for anyone else in M7. I am disappointed that Ramsey is not at least traveling with the team. Not sure of the reason but even with injury he should be there supporting his teammates.

Osborne did play majority of first quarter but had 2 fouls in first 5 minutes. Played less than 3 minutes in second quarter before picking up third. Played less than 4 minutes in third before picking up fourth foul and fouled out with 4:30 left in game. One of his fouls should have been a charge call and his final foul on Bunch was a joke call. Whether it cost the game or not, playing without Ramsey and effectively losing our other top scorer were huge disadvantages in this game. Team foul counts are not relevant. These teams play very different styles and the situations in which fouls are called tell more of a story. Union did their job, congrats on the win, just hate that it played out the way it did

Thought he would have graduated last year.

Fuller went to Bluefield to coach. Phillips had him ran off for the job. Don’t think Fuller would ever think about coming back.

Osborne fouls out playing approx. 8 total minutes of the game. Bunch charged at least twice possibly 3 times and got blocking calls on every one. Same ref that tossed Williams made majority of these calls.

Osborne been sitting on bench all game and they are obviously protecting Bunch. Campbell has always been a joke. Never thought I would ever wish for Jeter, lol

I can’t 100% verify this but from what I was told the wise players were automatic ejections for leaving the bench. Unfortunately, it happened right in front of their bench.

I haven’t seen Ridgeview play but it could be a good matchup with GC. Battle isn’t a bad team, just missing that one player/shooter to be a contender for 2nd-3rd.

Yes, I said “potentially”. Never said they were winning M7.