hoard

It really doesn't put Franklin County in any worse shape scheduling-wise than what they face under the current setup.

Just a thought, but if Graham and Grundy decided to rejoin, you'd basically have the old SWD from the mid to late 80s: Tazewell, Richlands, Graham, Grundy and Lebanon. Plus Abingdon (although it might be easier to just move AHS to the CMD).

I can't understand why so many people think this setup is so complicated...it isn't. It preserves, for the most part, many of the traditional district rivalries, reduces regular-season travel and groups schools of similar size together for post-season play. This is what the vast majority of schools WANT. Is it the ideal solution that pleases everyone? Nope. But coming up with that is an impossible task. I've yet to see anyone who has complained about this system come up with a better one for ALL of Virginia. You might be able to throw together a nice couple of districts that work out okay in SWVa, but try doing it for the rest of the state. The new plan is a heck of a lot better than watching some of these recent B.S. state tournament pairings where schools have to play against opponents double their size.

The new one is a complete 180 from the "stadium" at the former Shawsville High School. That place had the smallest seating capacity for a high school facility I've ever seen.

The RHS fans aren't relishing in the problems now because they're winning. Believe me, Richlands people complained a TON when their team sucked while Graham was getting transfers from Bluefield and winning the SWD and Region IV regularly.

If people are going to hold their kids back for sports, then maybe they should have to foot the bill instead of the taxpayers.

C'mon, you know it has nothing to do with sports. It's just to give kids an extra year of "maturity" so they'll do better academically in high school and eventually college.

There are a number of reasons why football just doesn't seem as big now as it used to be. As the column mentions, there's more to do entertainment-wise for both prospective players and the fans. The expanded playoffs haven't helped IMO. Back when there were only three state champions, just making the playoffs was a great accomplishment and even a regional championship was huge. I remember many an SWD team staying home with 7-3 and even 8-2 records. Another factor is the loss of population and reduced attendance. Just look at how much smaller the schools and the towns themselves are now compared to the 70s and 80s. It's hard to believe that in the mid-80s Tazewell had over 900 students and Richlands and Grundy had around 1100.

Let's assume that the 6-class proposal doesn't pass (or is delayed two years) and Region D survives, at least for the time being.... Why not just put Lee (and even Gate City) into the LPD? No trips from Lee to Marion, Tazewell, Richlands, etc. Plus if Gate City were in the LPD, that would leave them with six schools and the CMD with seven. LPD: Lee, GC, Union, Central, Burton, Clintwood CMD: Tazewell, Richlands, Lebanon, VHS, Abingdon, Marion, Battle

Many people felt the VHSL used the fan behavior as an excuse to punish Richlands since it had no by-laws in place to make a team forfeit for using illegal cleats.

IMO a lot of it depends on how many of the adults who live there actually grew up in the town. People who didn't go to school there don't have as much of a connection to the teams.

1987 Richlands vs Tazewell ---- Richlands came in 3-0 and unscored on; Tazewell was the defending state champs. Close game throughout, game was tied in the 4th. Tazewell stopped Adam Lallande on a 4th down play, then went on to drive for the winning score. Quentin Reed had over 200 yards rushing...probably the largest crowd ever to watch a football game at Tazewell...more so than the 86 state championship. Others I attended that people have already mentioned... 1990 Graham vs Rustburg state semi-final 2006 Richlands vs Rockbridge state final 2008 Richlands vs Tazewell regional final 1996 Grundy vs Salem state semi-final 1991 Bluefield vs Graham (the 6-4 game) The Salem-Amherst game (I can't remember the exact year) where Peter Rose threw a long TD pass in the final minute to give Amherst the win. I had already left the game thinking Salem had it won only to hear the outcome on the radio as I was leaving. Absolute huge crowd. I'd also have to throw in the 1992 Tazewell-Gate City regional final on Thanksgiving weekend. Tazewell had only one or two first downs the whole game but led at the half before GC won something like 28-21. Tazewell scored on a long run, a 90+ yard INT return, and a kickoff return.

Refer to the 2nd link I posted with the conference breakdown--it shows each of the 6 classes will be divided in half as East and West (or in the case of 5A and 6A, North and South). The East will contain four conferences and the West will contain four conferences. There will be no such thing as Regions C, D, at least as far as playoffs go. They may still remain for governance purposes and maybe recognition (like an all-region team).

No offense, but have you read any of the threads here on this subject? I don't think you understand the proposal. Here it is in a nutshell: In the regular season, the districts may contain schools of more than one class. You might have schools from 1A and 2A together in a district, or 2A,3A and 4A all together. This was done to preserve rivalries and minimize travel. Once the post-season begins, 1A schools will only be competing against other 1A schools, and so on. Here is the link to district alignment. Keep in mind there have been a few changes to this--for example it does not include Clintwood moving to the Cumberland. You will see that Holston and Northwood are still in the Hogo. http://www.vhsl.org/doc/upload/rr-2013-15-proposed-alignment-plan-model1.pdf Now here is the link to the conference alignment. Again, this is comparable to what used to be the district tournament (precursor to the region tournament). Most likely, the champion and runner-up from each conference tournament will advance to the regionals. http://www.vhsl.org/doc/upload/rr-2013-15-revised-conference-plan-model-only-May.pdf

They are not changing districts...they would still be in the Hogo for regular season play. The conference is the first round of post-season play.

^^^THIS I may be alone in this sentiment, but I've completely lost interest in regular season (and even early-round post-season) high school football because everyone makes the playoffs now. Basketball has become even more of a joke. I just wonder if the expanded post-season has negatively affected regular season attendance at all?

There's a thread on TSL right now with people complaining about BB ticket prices---yet the fans wonder why Weaver won't pony up for a better coach.

What's the reasoning behind that? Why would they want the schools to give up some of (if not THE) biggest gates of the year ?

NOVA complains about its tax revenue going elsewhere but the reason its so successful economically is simply because of its location. I know that's stating the obvious, but it ticks me off to listen to people from that area talk about how they carry the state tax-wise, but any area of Virginia would do so if it were fortunate enough to be minutes from the nation's capital. I'm sure SWVA would look much different if the nation's capital were in, say, Bristol.

Location, location, location. I think if SWVa were a stone's throw from the nation's capital things would be a LOT different.

Incidentally, for many years the kids that went to the old Tannersville Elementary used to go on to middle/high school at Rich Valley even though their residences were in Tazewell County. In 1985-86 those kids started attending middle and high school in Tazewell. I'm thinking Northwood began in fall of 1986.

That's definitely true in Virginia--just look at the Group A schools and the smaller AA schools in either independent cities or suburbs of larger cities that are highly successful in multiple sports: JI Burton (Norton) Radford Galax Virginia High (Bristol) Glenvar (suburban Roanoke Co) RE Lee (Staunton) AA Martinsville AA George Mason (Falls Church)

Agreed...another issue is how the Tazewell students would get divvied up in a two-high school arrangement, assuming they would want the two new schools to have roughly the same enrollment. I suppose they could move Tazewell's Baptist Valley kids and maybe those in the old Rivermont attendance zone to the "Western" school with all the rest to the "Eastern" school but the Eastern school would still be a bit larger. It's also possible they could build one new high school and leave an existing one open (Richlands?), but that wouldn't go over too well with a lot of people.

Why does Lebanon not want to be in a district with the Tazewell Co schools?

Interviewed before, interested now, or both?