Tiger 2000

To me a legend in the area.  Sarge was a long time assistant for Harry Fry at Gate City.  In the late 70s he took over as the lead Dawg at Appalachia stepping down in 79 after a 7-3 campaign handing the keys to Tom Turner to take over.  Sarge then took over the Rye Cove program in 83 and got the broke on the brink of a state title in 88.  RC had defeated Jonesville at Jonesville near the end of the regular season before losing to the Dogs in a mud bowl in the region finals during the improbable run for the crew from Jonesville.  Sarge stepped out of coaching after 1990 but returned to the Cove in 97.   He was to be he HC but took the assistant title instead so a former player, Joe Carter could be the HC.   Sarge still ran almost everything for the program for the next three years which were some of the programs winningest teams.   He took over the Twin Springs program in 2003 as they were coming out of a really rough stretch.  I asked him why he was heading up there.  Coach told me he liked a challenge and had coached at GC and RC, he might as well mark off the last county school before he retired for good. Coach stepped down after only two seasons.  He led TS to two of their programs three region final games during those two years.
Coach Reed wasnt flashy.  He wore the same clothes to practice everyday and its hard to tell how many miles had been put on his 80s Thunderbird.  He expected you to be physical as he said he only felt like he had lost two ballgames when his teams were the most physical one on the field.  The playbook wasn't super deep on either side of the ball but like the nickname "Sarge" practice was drilled like military over and over to run things to perfection.  He commanded respect but showed his "bigguns" a lot of love over the years.  RIP to a SWVA coaching legend in my book.

I suggest letting the School Board Supervisor of Secondary Education be the coach, after all he thinks he knows more about coaching football than anyone else, so let him show everyone how it is done.  

I prefer 6 playoff teams and less forfeits with some sort of system that equally focuses on the team that was forfeited on/rewards them. I don't think my logic is off here and don't think it's unreasonable to do both at the same.
As for Ryan's statement about the health of the kids first. Very valid, but what's NOT valid is the assumption that fans not in favor of a forfeit are automatically "against or not first for" the health and safety of kids, and yes Ryan didnt explicitly say that, but he implicitly inferred it. Where is the line skewed with all of this?
There is a Difference is being a bad team and about to get beat by a whole lot of points compared to Unsafe for the lesser team. Those 2 aren't the same. I live closer to Blacksburg High than I do Giles High. I know a ton of people in BBurg from school staff to a couple assistants to a couple of parents. I know for a fact, an absolute fact, thst BBurg has 20 to 23 healthy players and they absolutely do not have only 12 as claimed. It's a DAMN lie, period. They forfeited not because of it being "unsafe." They forfeited because they were going to lose by a ton of points and it's very easy to forfeit under the "heartstrings" of "player safety," when it is often not a player safety issue. 
The above are my opinions with one exception, the Blacksburg healthy players thing is a fact, not opinion. They have well over 20 players healthy and the Coach, AD, and Principal of Blacksburg knows dang well that is true.

Virginia High beat Richlands last season

It’s not just about scheduling bigger or better teams, It’s about scheduling games that you know you can win against teams that can also win at least a few games. 

for example - 
this year’s Tazewell team lost to Riverheads and (3A) Princeton. The best case scenario if both of those teams win out they will have 19 wins between them. 
Losing to those two teams nets you 33 points at the end of the season.
& on the other side -
Tazewell has beat Richlands & Grundy (2a points for both). Let’s say in the absolute worst case scenario those two teams finish with 1 win total. 
Beating those two teams net you 38 points at the end of the season in that scenario. 

Beating a 1-9 1A & 0-10 2A team is better than losing to a 9-1 2A & 10-0 3A team by 5 points. 
 
Ridgeview (strictly talking about playoff seeding) wouldn’t benefit nearly as much by losing to a 6-4 Bluefield team as they would scheduling & beating teams like Twin Springs, Rye Cove, Eastside, etc. 
Of course in a perfect world you want to play better competition to better your team but the current VHSL points format is not set up that way.

No. Not at all. Coaches are defined by their records in 1 or 2 score games. Blowouts are typically talent based and is not a reflection on coaching.  The way they manage ,the clock / timeouts/ unnecessary penalties  , turnout of players in the program, retaining players, closing out games in which you are competitive, ( all things that coach mance was able to do), however are coach related. No one is suggesting the talent pool is great or even close to 6 years ago. But the free passes shouldn't be given out each week. . Go back during this 3 1/2 year run and you make the call just based on these areas. Its hard to see this board bash travis turner ( whose teams are usually very consistent ) but this coach gets a free pass due to talent levels. I wasn"t calling for his job ,   just a fair assessment.  Talent is down , and so is the leadership. 

People act shocked when these type of things happen. I don’t know why. These things have always happened, There just weren’t cell phones and social media. Teenagers brains haven’t fully developed and they’re dumb. It seems every season some team has players that post something dumb on social media. I dare say the stunt that got some Graham player’s suspensions last year is the reason Tazewell County has a stricter cell phone policy this year. 

Patrick Henry does put out a good uniform..very underrated. 

The 1980's Garden Green Dragons home units were hard to beat.

Hmm....so what I'm getting out of all of this is that its Mance's fault!  Which leads me to wonder what would the state of Richlands football be if Mance was still at Richlands?  I can definitively say that if he were still there several kids from other schools would have transferred over there.  

Football is a cycle. Every great dynasty hits hard times. Talent leaves. Families leave. Kids stop playing. 
 
One day it will turn around. But that day is not today nor likely any day soon. Still can’t wait to show up and cheer on the boys who are out there every week. 

@Tiger 2000just messing with ya man. Nice to see you such a good sense of humor about it. 

Dang man, sounds like things are really falling apart. Any way we can crowdsource a solution to tighten things up a bit?

Not getting into the particulars, but obviously more talent is going, than coming. This is a problem, no matter the reason.
Is this recent phenomenon, just that, primarily fallout from the incident described, or a deeper and potentially ongoing problem? 
 
There will always be business decisions by parents on the costs/benefits of bigger school, better competition, more exposure vs smaller school, more playing time, more opportunity to stand out. (This doesn’t necessarily apply to many of the kids mentioned who likely contribute and benefit no matter the school.)

I thought he retired due to health reasons, but if so that explains the “whatever you have to do” part.  
 
The Galax transformation during his tenure was very impressive in football.

That would do it...

I could fix Richlands in one step. Do whatever you have to do to hire Mark Dixon.

@BandanaVTDavis4321   work with what you have to make the best of the situation? NO no no, better to dream of what could be, complain because things arent the way they were in the glory days, etc. Never mind developing the talent you have and playing to their strengths. Rule #1 as a OC/DC is put kids in a position to succeed, don't ask them to do things they cant do. I think asking the talent R has had to be pass first offensively would violate that rule. Really the rule applies to coaches too, dont try to do things that you dont know how to do. Do what you can for now, go to clinics, buy programs/books, etc to grow as a coach. 

Richlands.  Here is my annual (I do this every year in late July-Early August) Run the Football and Stop the Spread mentality rant.  So, Richlands Run the Ball Rant 2023 and Ryan soon follows and doesn't like my statement, but here goes.
1.  Richlands doesn't have the athletes anymore or the offensive "scheme" knowledge to run a spread offense, and would be better suited at running the football first and foremost with passing the football as the 2nd option, not the first option.  Richlands should have done this the very minute Thad Wells left from day one.
2.  If you don't have the great athletic advantage in SWVA, but you have elite offensive coaching knowledge, you absolutely can have some success "out scheming" opponents with a spread or pass first type offense.  It's better to have both the athletes and the elite offensive "scheme" knowledge, but you can have some success with only the coaching knowledge and not the athletes.  Richlands has neither.  That's not to say Tarter is a bad coach.  He's not, but they have no person on that staff that is elite offensively, so here is the default........the default is....."well, do what we always did, that's tradition, just go wide in most of our formations and throw it as a first option."  That's the problem.  Somebody has to have the knowledge or sack to say....enough.  We are better suited to run the football first and foremost with what is usually very good size up front, and passing the football is a 2nd option UNTIL we have advanced offensive scheme knowledge or better athletes or both.  That hasn't happened yet at Richlands and the wins and losses are showing.
3.  Run the ball, play defense, pass efficiently.  Why?  The knowledge isn't there offensively at Richlands to go wide open and out scheme opponents, nor are the athletes.  Use the size and power to run it well, shorten the game, kill clock, play defense.   I've said this before and will say (write it again).  When Richlands preseason fans get to the point of first asking, "Who is the starting Running Back this year," instead of asking, "who is the starting QB this year," then you will know the culture has changed and the appropriate change in culture/mindset offensively has changed at Richlands.  That hasn't happened yet (at least not as of 2022 in August).
The above is purely one guy's opinion and nothing more.  I understand how some or many more might see it a whole other way and that's cool.  I'm just giving my take.  To each is his or hers and do what you do.

Sooo, if your school is getting the better end of the deal just take it.  Richlands has been fire bombing itself for three years now.....without the help of Honaker fans. 😆 "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake" Sun Tzu.
They still haven't recovered from Mance's departure.  Of course, the Thad Wells debacle wasn't their fault.  Tarter has been loyal and is trying to steady the ship....but I feel like they need to get their long term plan in place sooner than later.  Honaker has always poached Richlands kids....but it was usually for playing time.  Things have changed now and kids are leaving because they want to win.  

As a fan and supporter that doesn’t know the details, simply stated, the recent trend is disturbing. The main question remains, what is the remedy? (Besides the obvious cure of winning.) 
That might be a question better answered by Tazewell, Gate City, or other teams who appear to have turned the corner after dark times. (I excluded Graham due to the obvious riches in talent that simply required the right man in charge.) Tiger 2000 and SwvaOG paint a very accurate picture. I certainly cannot blame Honaker, Lebanon, nor any of the beneficiaries for whatever the issues are at home.

Word is VA High decided not to reup with Central and in a round about way replaced them with the mighty Jenkins Cavaliers. They always play a tough schedule over there in Bristol 

Akers was our coach

Akers was our coach

Based on their schedule you'd think Va High wanted to 🙂