Tazewell Bulldog Radio Network will indeed be broadcasting!
First pitch is 1:00 PM, but we will come on the air around 12:30 PM to delve into some statistics and storylines before the action begins. As always, there are 3 ways to listen:
“A time to be born, a time to die A time to plant, a time to reap A time to kill, a time to heal A time to laugh, a time to weep.”
- Pete Seeger
For everything in life, there is a season, and that includes message boards devoted to high school sports in an oft-forgotten part of Virginia. For the 19 or so years I was here, I’m deeply thankful. I’ve seen the brightest and best in people I once questioned, and I’ve seen the darkest and nastiest in people I once considered allies. I’ve seen cause for celebration, and I’ve seen reason for sadness. I’ve celebrated new additions to families, and I’ve mourned members who left us far too soon. The sun will continue to rise, but I’ll remember this site fondly, both good and bad.
For every time I made a real-life friend through this website, and for every time someone attempts to sabotage my career and my family’s livelihood for taking a principled yet unpopular opinion. For every underdog I cheered, for every cupcake schedule I questioned. For every touchdown, basket, run, point, goal, ace, lap, and birdie over the past 20 years. I bid adieu, SWVASports.
I think X and O's can change this game. Does Tazewell have enough smarts to watch Bluefield tape?
I can say firsthand that both Bluefield/Tazewell and Bluefield/Ridgeview have been dissected down to the play.
I said it earlier in this thread, the closest comparison for Ridgeview for Tazewell is Bluefield in terms of offensive scheme. Tazewell runs a little more wide open, but that also puts pressure on the QB should a team decide to blitz, which Ridgeview has shown on film that it will. Tazewell’s done some creative things in practice to try and simulate pressure, but we will see in about 25 hours.
Naturally, if Tazewell comes out and has 6 turnovers in the first half like in the Spring of 2021, all the scheming in the world won’t matter a lick. I expect a very hotly contested game should both teams play largely error-free.
Looks like it might be a wet one. It’s turf & probably drains well but will rain be a factor otherwise? Does it favor either team?
You’d think it would favor Ridgeview, but Tazewell stymied Grundy in a downpour and threw for over 300 yards doing it, so it may not be as much of one.
Cam wouldn't have won a state championship and neither would Graham. That was a great fit for Graham.
But one could argue that it left Tazewell in one heck of a lurch. They sure don’t go 3-7 in 2017 and 2-8 in 2018 if Cam stayed where he originally was. That’s EH31’s point. Tazewell would have been much better than it otherwise would have.
Honestly, I’m not sure that Ghannam or the Jollay boys would have improved Graham’s trajectory at all this season. Graham did go 10-0 without them, and may end up with a state title without them. Hard to improve on a championship. Then again, perhaps other schools don’t have players poached if they stay. Difficult to tell.
I lived in west Graham all my life till high school when we moved downtown. I never felt like an outsider in school, most kids came to dully for 1st to 3rd then to Graham elementary you had Logan street school but I never was a outsider. But this was way back in 61when I started school.
It may be a generational thing. I don’t see my son having that same issue now, thank goodness, but perhaps that’s because all the kids are together from K on up. It was a very real thing in my parents’ generation and mine. It manifested itself in ways large and small.
For a small fee, those kids can go to Tazewell County and some of them do.
Very, very few in comparison to the kids who come across from Swords Creek/Honaker to Richlands and Bluefield/Bluewell to Graham. It’s right at 25 minutes for kids from Bishop, WV to get to Tazewell, and they have to cross a couple of mountains on Route 16 to do it.
The reason about half the Springville kids jumped to Tazewell instead of Graham is that, circa 2000 and before, the kids who were from “town” treated the kids from Springville, Mud Fork, and West Graham like cavemen who just crawled out from underneath a rock. Tazewell kids didn’t show that sort of tribalism, and it was welcoming and inviting.
I came within an eyelash of making the jump myself. To this day, even though I have a Graham diploma and am more “Graham” than folks who might have moved here from WV and stayed in Bluefield a few years, I still feel like a bit of a misfit amongst them. When you’re 12 years old, you don’t forget how folks treat you.
Do the kids that get out of cars with West Va tags at the Hillbilly Market in Bishop and get on the Tazewell bus count as transfers? Maybe Squire and Berwind are part of Tazewell's territory? If I'm not mistaken Tazewell has been the recipient of a couple Graham kids that played football at Graham but elected not to play when they got to Tazewell.
Tazewell has been the beneficiary of some of Graham’s best baseball players through the years. And yes, there was some recruiting of sorts that happened. Definitely nothing as brazen as Richlands in the late 2000s/early 2010s or the Graham of current, but it happened. If you ain’t rubbin’, you ain’t racin’.
Agreed there is one delusional Tazewell poster that seems to bring the whole board down a few IQ points.
Hey, don’t be mad at me. You’re the one that posted that little self-owning statistic. I just shed a little more light on it. Just admit you made a dumb mistake and move along instead of digging your hole even deeper. I’m done with you.
Folks, let’s police this thread up and get it back on topic. 😂
Any word from either camp about injuries? I know Tazewell had a bye week and have been preparing for RV for a while now. That is an advantage for sure, especially at the high school level. I think the Pack came out of Legion Field with no injuries.
Im wondering how the Pack will handle the empty set. Their DB performance against Bluefield was damn bad, but they looked much better against GC.
Im curious how the Dog’s defense will opt to play RV. Will they double or play straight up. I’m also wondering if RV will take a play out of Tazewell’s book and go empty on offense and not allow Tazewell to double.
Good suggestion, LOL.
Tazewell’s has a starting LB that should be coming back from a thumb injury this week. He missed the last 2 regular season games. Aside from the couple of season-ending injuries Tazewell has suffered, Tazewell should be right at full strength, granted nothing happens at practice this week.
Glad to hear Ridgeview will be at full strength too: I hate to hear of any young men having their season altered by injury.
Tazewell can match Ridgeview athlete-to-athlete if they choose not to double. However, execution is all. Whoever executes best will win the battle.
BTW, speaking of dumb flexes, both of those equal or are superior to VT. Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
Had a hotdog there in 2018 and I told the folks working that it was the 2nd best one I’ve ever had at a concession stand. Did they let that high ranking go to their head?
Ridgeview and Union have as good if not better athletes than VA High
Granted they have better, more physical lines, which will make even an average athlete look like a world-beater.
Take Riverheads, for example. You put Cayden Cook-Cash in a decathlon with Patrick Poku, and Poku would destroy him. But Cook-Cash is far more accomplished in terms of games won and statistics.
What I’m saying, Virginia presents matchup problems that no other opponent in the M7 can replicate. You let Virginia get a head of steam and they’ll burn you. From what I’ve seen of Lee (which is admittedly not a ton), I don’t think Lee has the horses to match up with all the weapons Virginia brings.
I’d be very happy to see Lee win. You all have endured a generation lost in the wilderness, and I am happy to see signs of Lee finding their way again.
Fun Fact…VA High has lost to Graham and the great “Tazewell”!
Yes, the only two 2A teams on Virginia’s schedule with a winning record…like I said. It’s a matchup of the 2 teams in Region D that gamed the VHSL Power Points system harder than any other, which I find humorous.
I can’t even post something complimentary of your boys without you coming in to take a cheap shot. Just like with your compadre, it’s flattering, but also really weird that you show up everywhere I post.
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Parade time! 😎