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One thing that should work in Riverheads' favor is their offensive style of play. That under-center, two TE Wing-T is a rarity these days and I'm sure it's tough to prepare for in a week. I've always rooted against them because I hated seeing them dominate smaller schools in Class 1 but I hope they make the Class 2 final. It would be an interesting game against Radford, Union or Graham.

I think a big reason for the all inexplicable scores of that time period is largely due to the style of play. The SWD and SW Virginia in general for decades was known for its 2 TE, 3 RB offenses like the T, wishbone and Power I that didn't pass much, just trying to grind it out and knock the crap out of people and limit mistakes. That lends itself to fewer possessions, lower scores and lower average margins of victory (as opposed to today where so many teams run a version of the spread, read option, etc that gets players in space). Other variables like bad field / weather conditions or a random turnover / busted play or just getting a key defensive stop end up having a bigger impact. It was fairly common back then to see a team win games with 150 yards (or even less) of total offense. It's rather ironic in that back then I used to complain about having to watch all those types of offenses, wishing teams would open it up more. Now I'd love to see more teams play that style, particularly an underdog against a really good spread team (like the year Gate City beat Gretna).

Richlands under Bruce Evans, who coached through 1986, had solid talent but always seemed to underachieve. I remember he ran the wishbone and conservative 3 RB offenses were more commonplace at the time. Haun's first RHS team in 87 with Adam Lallande and Mike Compton was loaded. He ran a more modern offense than Evans but still didn't win at the level he probably should have, especially that first year.

He was a really good coach. It's a shame he made such bad decisions. It would've been interesting to see what direction his career would have taken had he been able to stay out of his own way.

To expand a little on something mentioned in the article you linked: Former Grundy head coach John Curia was the head coach for Orange County, Richlands' opponent in the 92 state finals. I was a sportswriter at the time covering the whole ordeal and Curia told me during an interview (several days after the final, once all the cleat stuff became public) that Salem had forewarned him to be on the lookout for the cleats. In pre game warmups the officials checked the cleats and Richlands came out late for the start of the game because they had to change them when they went back to the locker room. I also recall a couple days after that Salem game, a parent of a Richlands player said there were mumblings about their cleats being too long. He said "we were just as legal as they (Salem) were." If I remember correctly a Salem fan or grad who worked for CMT provided The Roanoke Times or maybe the Salem Times Register with the receipt for Richlands' purchase of the cleats. Initially Vaught said they used them only for practice.

Vaught took the PH-Roanoke job in ‘89 and was off to a good start (I think they were 5-2 or thereabouts) but then resigned or got fired after making some racial statements to his team during a game they had been playing poorly in. He joined the Tazewell staff as an assistant in 1990 and had a big hand in that team going 6-4 and making the playoffs. The Dogs weren’t expected to win more than a couple games that year but almost upset Graham in the playoffs when the G-Men were unbeaten and defending state champs. It was said that Vaught was brought to Tazewell as a “coach in waiting” for Richlands that year because Billy Haun was on his way out in 1990. A lot of Tazewell people were pissed, saying Richlands got their best coach.

As a Tazewell alum I have to agree with what a lot of others have said here. Aside from one scrimmage, I haven't seen them play in person in years but have watched several games on NFHS. It seems they often get whipped up front and don't seem to have a clue how to play defense. That's not a one year thing either; its been the same pretty much every season. I like their general approach on offense, as they try to take advantage of their athletes and get them the ball in space. They seem to always manage to beat the teams they are supposed to. But when it comes to the better opponents, they not only lose, they don't even come close. The 2020 season that got pushed to Spring 2021 due to COVID was probably their best shot to do something in the playoffs. They were leading Riverheads on the road in the second half and should have beaten Graham, then laid an egg in the playoffs against Central. It would've been interesting to see what that team might have done had it been a normal season.

Another factor with Auburn is that the Riner area has become progressively more upper middle class over the past decade or two. While some of its attendance zone has always been rural, there are a lot of newer $300k-plus homes there and the vast majority are within a mile or two of the school. That’s an advantage a lot of smaller schools (like county rival Eastern Montgomery) do not have.

1987 Richlands at Tazewell Tazewell was the defending state champion and Richlands came in 3-0 and unscored on. Back then the games started at 8 pm and the stands were full at 6:00. It has to be the largest crowd ever at Tazewell ..reportedly 9k to 10k in a 5,000 seat stadium and easily more than than the state final the year before. It was a back and forth game in which Tazewell stopped Richlands QB Adam Lallande on a 4th down option keeper late in the 4th quarter with the score tied 21-21. Tazewell then won the game on Quentin Reed’s 4th TD run of the game. Some others that were already mentioned: 2016 Richlands - Stuarts Draft state semi 1996 Grundy - Salem state semi….one of the most miserable weather-wise I’ve ever witnessed….cold and it rained sideways most of the game. Grundy fumbled inside the Salem 5 in OT and lost 6-0 The Galax v Clintwood state championship game. As an impartial observer with no dog in the fight, the Galax receiver slipped, he wasn’t pushed. Another couple that weren’t the best, but two of the most memorable (and strangest). 1995 state semifinal. Graham beats William Campbell 7-6 despite getting only one first down the entire game 😂. The winning TD came on an INT return and the first down came late in the 4th when they were trying run out the clock. 1991 Bluefield 6 Graham 4 ..the ESPN Scholastic Sports America game won when Ron Betts (Beaver’s third QB of the night) throws a TD pass in the final minute.

I think it's cowardly that Riverheads appealed to the VHSL to move down to Class 1 when the 2023-24 alignments were announced this past summer. It's pretty obvious the administration is trying all it can to keep that state championship streak intact, presumably to set records. Riverheads would be competitive in Class 2 in most sports and probably even be a top 5-ish football program in that class. Region 2B is also FAR more compact geographically for them. Region 1B goes south of Lynchburg and all the way to Sussex / Surry now. They would still generally be the top program in 2B but in a given year some of the teams in that region (Central, Stuarts Draft, etc) could knock them off. Right now no one in Class 1 can touch them, let alone the region.

Back then the VHSL used only grades 10-12 to determine classification and there was a hard cutoff of 500 for A/AA and 1000 for AA/AAA so Richlands would’ve been pretty close. The VHSL went to equal thirds sometime in the early to mid 1990s. That combined with increasing enrollments in the rest of Virginia gradually moved the AA/AAA cutoff above 1000. I think Grundy’s enrollment was comparable to Richlands’ during the 1980s. The freshman class at Tazewell had over 250 in 1986 which I believe was the largest to come through at the time. Carroll County was allowed to play down for years in the New River District. I always used to say they were a AAA school in a AA district playing a Single A schedule (Floyd, Grayson, Galax non district).

So where does Honaker end up after Buchanan consolidates? Cumberland? Combination SWD? Easiest travel-wise Hogo? (they were in it in the 80s)

IMO that team is one of the most talented to ever come out of this area simply because of the number of players who went on to play college ball. They just didn't dominate due mostly to the conservative nature of the coaching staff. That team would have been sick in a run oriented spread in today's game. I think their defense gave up 30 points total in their 4 playoff wins. Plus the level of competition was higher back then. At that time Tazewell was in Division 4 (essentially 4A), although like the 89 Graham and 92 Richlands teams, they had the benefit of playing all 4 playoff games at home. Off the top of my head, a few of the others off that team who played in college: RB/DB Jeff Lamie (Ferrum) OT John Blankenship (Ferrum) C/NT Chris McCall (Clinch Valley / UVa Wise) I don't think he played in college, but the heart and soul of that team was arguably Jeff McCann....all 5'6, 155 lbs of him...started at FB and LB.

Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races is about 20 min north of Berryville up 340.

Yes, I'm sure the VHSL wants the region that brings the most fans and makes them the most money to get shut out of the championship. The reality....they love it when schools like Gate City and Giles make it because they know they'll sell tickets. The Galax/Clintwood game a couple of years ago was probably their biggest crowd ever for a Group A final.