Folks, when I say that I haven't seen one open competition in Dickinson County, I'm not exaggerating. This is part of the reason kids leave the sport. It sounds like Richlands has the same daddy ball habits. I was fortunate enough to play for Ansil Salyers growing up. He was a lifelong miner and tobacco farmer and coached the Baptist Valley Tigers for decades. You wanted to be QB? You had to beat out the 6 other kids who wanted it, too. No favorites, no dads/uncles getting in the way. The leagues have to get back to this.
I'll say it again. The varsity HC has to take more control over the youth league and middle school programs. Prime example, my middle school team was coached by four coaches who were all teachers, were all part of the greater varsity program and had zero kids playing on the team. We ran the same offense as varsity. Two of those coaches were D. Palmer (current Graham DC) and Jeff Tarter. Fast forward to RV middle school, coached by dads whose kids are the starting WRs and assisted by the starting QB's dad. 75% of the team were hold-backs and the coaches only coached this year and won't be back next year. The offense was designed and centered around their kids. Meanwhile the 6th and 7th grade kids just lost a year in development because the majority of the team should have been FR this year.
It looks like this is now the new norm.
This will not change in Dickenson County for a minimum of 4 more years. Especially since the entire school board and BOS was re-elected running unopposed.
Only thing that’ll change it is if the superintendent’s husband doesn’t like what he sees in the field.
I don't think the local staffs do a particularly good job of preparing them for the reality of college and college sports. All too often the high-school football "stars" are given unearned breaks at their schools. It has always been that way. They aren't prepared on how to study and how to collaborate and utilize and incorporate multiple disparate data sources to produce cogent products and conclusions. As mentioned earlier, a lot of those professors "don't play" and couldn't give two cents that you play football.
Now, throw in the football side. Let's do some 06:30 (am) lifts during the week of football season and have weekly meetings and mandatory study hall and, my favorite, 08:30 recall meetings Sunday morning (so you can't party too hard Saturday night). Oh, you want to go home this weekend to watch your old high school team and see your girlfriend? No, you are hosting recruits this weekend. Now, throw in the fact that your very best my never even move the needle or catch the coach's eye because 10 others can do it as well or even better than you. You better have a "team-first" attitude to even be looked at.
Here is the ultimate kicker about college football. Daddy. Don't. Matter. Your local cache or hook-ups, etc., don't carry water at all. That is why, the staffs that don't fall into the daddy ball/nepotism/favorite ideology and adopt a "play the most talented" mindset, prepare their players the best. Another major injustice some of the local staffs do is not adopt a consistent and quality S&C program. Every recruiting visit will have a stop at the gym and you will meet the trainers and S&C coach. His voice will be horse and gravely and have a crew-cut and will say the following: "Your son will spend more time with me and my staff than the football coaches." And it is true.
A final issue is that, unfortunately, a lot of our local kids are socially isolated here. They aren't used to being surrounded by a majority of kids that don't sound, look, act or think the same. It can be a shock and, all the while, their boys from back home (and their parents) are saying "You gonna be home this weekend? Let's go out, There's a party at Skeeter's". They will miss family events for the first time.
Did I mention that they will devote 5x more hours to football than they ever did in high school and devote 5x more hours to studying than they ever did in high school and their old friend's will always be in their ear to come back home and hang out.
Good article. It does sound like they need to get some hard rules down for scheduling purposes. WVA is a small state. Sounds like some schools are making things more difficult than they need to be.
Well, it is "Bulldog Radio Network" that did the broadcast.
I apologized in another thread. It was their complaints about holding and the refs. Then a couple of really bad calls against Tazewell came up and I realized that it wasn’t just homerism,
Any idea why most kids leave after 1 year??? I think they could have a solid program if the kids stayed
Because most are from east of Roanoke and there is nothing to do in Wise. I don’t want to sound racial but I think Wise especially being mostly a white town doesn’t help.
If you ever look at their roster every year it’s 75% freshman it seems so apparently every kid quits or transfers after their first season.
This is very true. It was like that when I went to school there in 96. The only time the program was rolling was then with Ramseyer. Made the playoffs a year earlier.
If they want to build a solid team and want a local coach, they may want to look at Palmer at Graham or Turner at Union. It would be a risky hire but it would get the areas attention for sure.
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No worries, I hear exactly what you’re saying. Union is in trouble though. I’ve seen this game show with Graham the last 2 years.