SwvaOG

Why? They feed him the ball and run an offense centered around him.

That's a good point, Frito. The G-Men suffer a lot of penalties and can't afford to give up 80-90 yards in penalties.

They've got a group of athletes in that 9th grade class...a few holdbacks, I believe, that will serve them well for a few years. As for the school, is there serious talk about shutting down soon? If so, would they all just go to Central? I'd imagine some would go to Castlewood but they would put Central up near 3A level.

The whole region really did support them. It felt like a SWVA vs the rest of the state situation. The lack of respect from the game announcers just sealed it.

Oh boy, you're gonna get me in trouble. Lol. Well, I think it is a combination or layers of things: 1) lack of youth development (too much daddy ball); 2) lack of attention to detail and 3) an overly permissive environment. 1) There is nothing wrong with dad coaches and they are often necessary or there won't be any coaches. The problem is that Dickinson County doesn't have any standard or training for youth football. This means that a lot of the safety, techniques and details are missed all through youth and middle school. I've watched several games of middle/JV where no one is doing any active positional coaching...mainly due to not having enough coaches on the team or not having the coaches with knowledge to coach that position. I watched coaches only coach their kids and not hardly pay attention to the other players as well. 2) There is a lack of attention to detail in several areas. The blocked FG against Abingdon...my son and I called that out as it happened because we could see that the right wing was lined up too tight and behind the line....sure enough...blocked FG. The blocking effort and coverage on punts/kicks and punt/kick returns has always been poor. Against Graham, RV had forced a punt and then proceeded to not even line up to cover a gunner. Graham actually pointed at the uncovered gunner and then called an audible and threw it to him. The whole damn stands were yelling to cover the gunner. Graham scored after that. 3) There doesn't seem to be an appetite to be disciplinarians. Ever since Rick Mullins left it has been a permissive environment without serious consequences. Costly mistakes and/or penalties are never addressed (sitting them out a series/benching, etc.). I think they are worried about losing some kids if they are strict. I think some of the fumbles have been extra effort fumbles where the kid needs to learn to cover up as they are going down while some were just questionable calls with too many moving parts. The interceptions have been head-scratchers as they have just thrown it right into coverage while some of them were the WRs not catching the ball and it bouncing off their hands (attention to detail, discipline and fundamentals).

Variety is the spice of life!

Far SWVA wins its first volleyball title since 2018 (Patrick Henry) as the Wolfpack defeat top seeded Fort Defiance in straight sets 25-21, 25-22, 25-17. It is the second state championship for the Wolfpack and the first since 2016 (girls basketball). Although I don't think they are considered SWVA, 1A Auburn won their sixth consecutive VHSL 1A volleyball championship.

The guest announcer (the female college coach) tried but couldn't help not slanting coverage for Fort Defiance. Did anyone else catch her when she said she was over there recruiting them? And she mentioned that she knew them well. Meanwhile, she mentioned that Ridgeview was a good team "for where they are from". That, coupled with the one announcer calling the Wolfpack Ridgeway and Mount View several times didn't help either. The whole match was tilted to them talking about what Fort needed to start doing or what they weren't doing and not much was spent talking about what Ridgeview was doing and not letting Fort do. Although it always felt tense (full disclosure: my daughter plays on the team so it always feels tense), Ridgeview trailed for one point, 2-1 in the first set, all match. The truth is they dominated a very good Fort Defiance team. The Wolfpack crowd was about 2.5x the Indians crowd and they were loud. I've never seen a far SWVA team come out so confident and emotionally charged in a state championship game in a long, long time. It is a shame the announcers didn't recognize that. Those girls deserved better coverage and more "flowers" than what the announcers gave them. I do want to specifically call out the SWVA media. They have done a spectacular job of covering Ridgeview all year...Bristol Herald, WCYB (5) Kingsport Times, WJHL (11) ....they've been great and produced some of the best written articles I've seen in a while. Additionally, Dickinson County really got behind this team and packed the house at home and on the road. Those Region and State playoff home games probably drew 500-700 a game. The Radford coach was actually quoted in the paper as saying the crowd and atmosphere created problems for her team: And this excerpt was from a Staunton based paper and quoted the Fort Defiance team:

This. Look, Union BTA'ed Ridgeview early this year. But, Union was very, very fortunate to win that game Friday night. The Wolfpack could have easily won that game by two scores and probably should have, at least, won it by one score. So, if I'm Graham's coaching staff, I'm looking at that film and saying, "Damn, RV should have put up 28 on that defense." But, Graham doesn't have the passing offense RV has, so I don't see them scoring more than 21. I'm thinking this is a 21-14 type game with Graham on top unless Union can get creative in their passing offense. Base offense/defense vs base offense/defense, I like Graham. If Union pivots from base a bit and throws some and runs Bostic, they can win; however, if Graham remembers that Edwards is the best WR Union has faced and uses him appropriately, Graham and win by two scores. With all due respect to the Gmen, I'm kind of sick of seeing the same damn team from the SWD. That district needs to step up. The M7 rotates between three teams.....it would be awesome to see the SWD get there. I'm thinking when Buchanon County consolidates they should go to the SWD and Abingdon should go back to the SWD and Virginia High goes to the M7. That would be two well-balanced districts for football.

Graham- Spy Bostic and just play the run defense you're known for and you win by two scores. I'd even flip your best DB and man-up or at least man-zone Union's WR1.

The Wolfpack will feel sore about this one for a while, although the girls bringing home a volleyball state championship will help the community. I felt they were the better team and should have won that game by a score, if not two. Other than a few nit-picky offensive habits, I thought the coaches did well and certainly called a game that should have won. The kiddos just can't have those crucial turnovers. I was happy to see them actually give Baker an end-around.....too little too late though. The kid proved definitively that he is the fastest player in the region, especially after running down Bostic from 6 yards behind. How the heck does he not move inside to the true slot position and touch the ball 6-8 times a game? They had speed demons that last 4-5 years and refused to use them creatively. Even in By-Gawd-SWVA, speed kills. I don't understand it.

Hill is back at Ridgeview and was the Wolfpack Middle School coach this past season and will probably be on varsity soon. Beavers is transferring to UVA-Wise and is sitting out this season. He will have four years eligibility. Emory had a significant amount of turnover after the HC and his staff left. I believe Connor Roberts may still be there but the other Graham kid (Wadkins) transferred out.

This is long overdue at RV and a step in the right direction but its been ridiculous this is just now happening. Hell, I had mandatory weight training at 6:30 am in high school in the late '80's. Most region fans will agree that one thing that has held RV back to some degree has been the strength of the OL/DL. I'm pumped that they are working to address that and moving away from a seasonal work approach.

That team is selfless and truly a team-oriented group.....absolutely no drama from the girls or parents! The coaches are great, knowledgeable and, most importantly, competitive! Ridgeview's best program, IMHO. I have to give a shout out to the incredible support the community and the administration has given those girls. They have provided a real home-court advantage. The Radford coach was quoted in an interview that her girls struggled with the crowd and atmosphere.

I've been one and rightfully so. But, I'm fair, and I think they've done a better job this year with play design and play call. I think most of the complaints in the previous years were tied to the realization that the '21 and '22 teams were incredibly talented and were RV's best shot for region championships. Most fans didn't feel like the program was focused and all-in on winning those championships.

It won't be that precipitous because of their hold back freshman class and a good junior class. I would think they fall back to 4th next year, maybe 3rd if they get decent QB play. They have several freshman starters and several others that play or will play heavily next year. That class has good speed in it as well and it will keep them competitive until they graduate. They will obviously miss O'Quinn and Honaker and several senior OL/DL but they return several key players as well. The JV team will provide a handful of starters for next year but their size and depth were both low (due to significant freshman starters on varsity). The middle school team was very small but, until their QB got hurt, they absolutely threw the ball all over the field against several teams. Additionally, it had a lot of 7th graders playing as starters. They were definitely smaller than every team they played. The storm that is coming is a small group (numbers and physical stature) and lack of quality starters in the current 10th grade, 8th grade and 7th grade classes.

I'm wondering how RV continues to escape this assessment. You wanna talk about a run of talent...over the past 5-6 years the schools best RB, QB and WR in history passed through and not one Region Championship to show for it....just two M7 championships. Those skill positions were the most talented in the M7 over that period. Additionally, numerous All-State level LBs, DBs, and DL as well. And don't get me started on speed....they have had great team speed since 2018 with the luxury of having the fastest guys in the region for the past four years. What M7 school can surpass Sproles, Hill and Honaker for LB over that period.......how about Hess, Beavers, Hill, Counts, Baker for WR? Phillips and O'Quinn at QB? Adkins, Hill, Honaker, Deel at RB? Two All-State DL in Gibbs and Lester? The hands down best kicking game in the region for the past 6-8 years...multiple all region kickers, punters and punt returners? I truly don't think the RV faithful understand the talent that was squandered. They think it will be there every year and it won't....it is already starting to thin out.

Weather will be the 12th man for Union if its nasty.

Yep, the deployment of 4 wide pretty much eliminates play-action....unless you want to call RPOs a bastardized version. Plus most offenses don't truly run RPOs around here...if any at all. I'd love to see RV lose the "spread" offense and go with some more 2WR sets with TE and Hback utilization. You can still go open with 21 packages and even 12 packages. Like I said before...if you aren't allowing the QB to read or audible at the line...what the hell is the use of 2x2 and 3x1?

Man....this is tough. Both may rush for over 250 yards each. I'm going with Rye Cove at home by 7.

Then I would argue they truly don't know how to. Refusing to do so speaks to confidence in its ability to do so, if that makes sense. If they aren't confident then they truly don't know how to. The amount of wasted aerial talent down in Big Stone is amazing. Heck, at Graham as well.

Snake makes adjustments and, honestly, most other DC's don't. RV never adjusted to the wildcat in that game....it was painful to watch. To be honest, the format of the game allows the OC to have an advantage over the DC. The OC has an initial game plan...if it works the DC can adjust at halftime. However, if the OC does a bit of extra work, they should have a rebuttal game-plan ready to go. It should be on his call sheet. If so, the DC really doesn't have the time or framework (half-time) to make adjustments.

All in good fun.

I think my demonstrated understanding of a passing game would preclude me from being anywhere near a Union coaching staff. 🤣

😄 Nah, my time has passed. I don't think I could handle the parents and special interests today, but I could coach up a position group.