This rivalry used to be super fierce due to the fact that they grew up playing each other in Pee Wee/Midget rec league from flag through 7th grade. Now that league is just a memory and I feel because of that this rivalry has suffered a bit. I am afraid that because parents can't travel just a few miles to Sugar Hollow Park for great youth league competition between City and County that football participation numbers have dwindled for both schools.
The City/County bowl championship games were always competitive and controversial.
so right in every word, when I coached High Point the bowl game was in Bearcat Stadium an it was Great. Oh but the travel ball football means so much more now days. Battle had 33 kids an I think VHS was high 20s, the rec league is the feeder program to HS, an kids parents cant do the travel ball so kids dont play an lose interest. Heck just look an do the math, not rocket science here.
The jury is still out on how the new JSB coach can make necessary adjustments against teams not named Abingdon. I don’t count that game, because I don’t believe Abingdon will lose to a 2A team this year. If this new coach does as good a job as coach Stone used to, Battle could win this one big.
I think Bearcat Dad is right, we will see what Ricker does now an the new adjustments that need to be made. Also not meaning to step on any ones toes at Union or Ridgeview but unless Abingdon has a bad off night I do not see them losing to a Mnt.7 distric team, when they take the field against teams they just are huge. I cant guess scores no more only have fingers crossed an hope nobody from either team gets hurt, was afraid we lost our wideout/safety for the year Friday night, not a good feeling for a kid to get hurt. So good luck to both teams.
I can tell you all that Abingdon is a monster of a team, there line is huge an there backups are the same size, Lucus is 230 pounds of power an speed, we thought from PH game that passing was weak spot but not so last night. I thought Union an Ridgeview was going to have the largest line but I was wrong, Abingdon just wore us out.
No upset to Abingdon here but lost our wide out an strong safety on 1st series, may have broken his ankle. Only way to eat Abingdon is with quickness an a big stick, 2nd sring line was bigger than mosts 1st string
I think Tyler McCloud Lineman at John Battle can be ranked as a top player, was defensive player of year last year, Battle has some other good ones that I will not mention
Its hard to beat a team that has the man power that Abingdon has, most teams would be glad to have the starters they have but when you have another 11 waiting that are almost as good as the starters, just hard to beat a team like that. Myself Abingdon needs to be a independent school, hope they enjoy there awards.
just got more info, another line an kicker left too! Something major must be going on for players to just walk away from something they have loved an sweated over for years.
Dont know how true this is but I have a friend that told me he was over that way this morning an over heard a conversation between 2 men an they said Ridgeview lost there 2 good linemen yesterday. Anyone hear any talk about this because if its correct it could hurt them in in many ways.
I got that from a very reliable source who was there near the sideline that works at the school.
Can tell you for sure Abingdon an Patrick Henry played 1st string for the 1st half an score was 7-0 Abingdon, The other scores were done by the other 42 that Abingdon has on the team.
Abingdon went very vanilla against Patrick Henry. Basically only playing the first string the first quarter, and then began subbing, and still put up 53. I'm sorry but Martin Lucus is going to run all over Battle. Abingdon by at least 3 TDs.
I think teams are going to find Abingdon a lot more physical than normal this season.
You may be right about it an with a 53 man squad they should have man power an talent to do it to any team in mnt.7 or SW Va. except for the G-Men, I did hear it was other way around against Patrick Henry but that is what I heard.
Going way out but I think Abingdon may be too confident an Battles defence is very stingy, I think Battle 24, Abingdon 21, an yes fingers an toes are crossed.
On 8/19/2019 at 2:23 PM, Long Legged Turd Cutter said:
From a talent standpoint I do think Brown is a better ball carrier. They do have very different styles where Humphrey’s was more of a smash mouth bowling ball type of running, Brown is an upright runner with strong vision and top speed once he gets on the outside. Brown came close to some of Dakota’s numbers with about 150 less carries last year. He also is someone to watch in the return game, having returned several for six.
If you watch PH they bring everyone in close , start motion in backfield an hand it to Brown, he in turn gets lost behind his line an looks for a lane an then speed kills! Dokota in turn was your classic smash mouth tailback. If a defence was smart an corners an safteys did not get sucked up they have better chance against Brown.
Battle seemed to move the all on them pretty easy except till they would try a sweep an North had the speed to stop it then Battle would go back inside an move the ball again. They dont wrap up on tackles an that will kill you, but they do have speed. The office could not move the ball until a missed Battle assignment turned them loose for a good gain, they need to hold on to the ball more which watching the coach I am sure he was addressing hat on he ride home. Overall they were not bad.
SXSW this is in reply to your question because it will not me quote you.
I was at Battle Sullivan North game last nite, I really think I am biased but I think Battle is just suffering a lot from depth, practice is rough because they are low on back ups. They seem to have some good speed an as long as QB stays healthy he can run the triple option very well. They moved the ball well an the running backs an wide outs can catch the ball. Line is not huge but seemed to hold well enough. Defence looked very good, moved inside linebacker to outside this year so he is having to learn new things fast, corners are learning an safteys look good. line looks good just the depth that will hurt some, but while 1st team was in North did not move the ball much. North has good size an speed on both sides, need to wrap up on tackle an hold on to the ball.
was at Battles scrimmage last night an I looked at our team on the side numbers whos numbers were down again this year an knowing that 13 are seniors. That's good if you have 10 to 12 juniors, where are our numbers (sitting on couches playing game systems). I think the main problem an I am not alone at Battle is the feeder program, rec. football is dead because we are trying to compete with travel ball on the baseball side. Little League is dead an gone because of travel ball an now some body thinks its a great thing to do that to football. At Battle up to 2000 we had 3 teams, city of Bristol had 3 teams an we played each team twice an it worked great. Now we want to run all over the country like the high school teams an that's fine if everyone had money to do this but most parents because of work have the problem getting to a game 10 miles away now you ask them to drive 2 hours 1 way for a 1 hour game. Most parents work a Saturday sometimes both do, what if there car wont make the long trip? Simple answer the child DOES NOT PLAY! when that happens 9 times out of 10 he wont play High School football. There is part of the problem, we got to find a way to put these young kids back in the feeder programs.
Another thing an a lot of us were talking at Battles media day is travel ball football, it has killed little league now starting to take its toll on football, rec football is gone. The league here we travel all the way to Pigeon Forge, then to Ridgeview an Union. A lot of kids parents can not make trips like that either because of work or maybe a car that might not make the trip so the kids cant play. That was brought up an we were told that parents had plenty of time to work out something, an what if their child gets hurt far away, so the kid does not play. If we want HS football to continue we have to have the feeder program.
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If the MRI is not good for Battles tailback then I dont see Battle winning any more games.