RichlandsAlum

I don't know. Those Mountain Lions will get after ya. *sniff*

Also appears that Concord is very limited in available slots for scheduling non-conference games. Only possible reason to schedule a match-up with BC would be gate revenue (and that would project an outward appearance of weakness at the very least). Interesting idea and question. But it probably boils down completely to differences in classification (as pointed out by UVAObserver). Switching gears just a bit, a series with Emory & Henry would seem to be mutually beneficial (and actually similar to interactions between E&H and Concord that took place in years past). Was this year's game a one-off, or are there plans to continue that relationship?

A lot of very goofy stuff happening in Front Royal/Warren County these days. While perplexing, the decision to skip the playoffs is pretty far down that list.

With three games to go, I will amend my fretting to note that Tech appears to be performing on about the same level as Beamer's final years beginning in 2012. Fuente looks to be given more time to implement his system based on the play of his QB recruits (Hooker and Patterson). Will be interesting to see how that plays out. Thank God it's basketball season. (A bit TIC there but I do think we snagged a good coach in Mike Young.)

1959 Ole Miss Rebels

Club used CaptainU. We were hooked up with them as part of a tournament we played in Richmond. My son also had a profile with Next College Student Athlete. For soccer, my perspective was that my son and his teammates got slightly more activity through CaptainU. But the best networks are still through coaches (both travel and school teams). Thanks for the well wishes. Just waiting to hear from Tech on December 15th. Hopefully things will be crystal clear then.

Coincidentally, Jack Hawks just passed away fairly recently. Fine gentleman who is certainly missed.

Typical discrimination against a Raven boy. 😉

Based on this past weekend's results (ahem.... Duke) I will ratchet my previous assessment up to 1982. That was the Bill Dooley team that was pasted 45-0 at Vanderbilt (which probably cost Tech a rare and coveted bowl bid that year). There still seem to be a lot of personnel-related issues with this current team that need to be worked out. Until we see how that works I'm hesitant to move the needle beyond 1987. Using the transitive property, I don't think the 1987 Hokies could have pulled off a road win like the one this past weekend. But my gut feeling is that team could still hang with the current version. Guess we will find out in the next couple of weeks which game was the fluke. The blowout loss to Duke or the road win at Miami. I'd like to believe that Fuente is righting the ship but I'm pretty far from being convinced.

Oops. Forgot about Holtz. In any event, I agree that Taggert is way out of his depth at Florida State. And it is rather ironic that they allegedly made a run at Fuente when they wound up hiring him.

Rather than flood the chatbox further, I figured this might be a fun topic. And I'm willing to go first. My first allegiance was to the Los Angeles Dodgers, which I maintained from about the time I was five years old well into my thirties. But the source of that was completely random. My family used to eat at the old Burger Chef chain quite a bit in my earliest years. And they were among the first to pioneer meals marketed to kids that also featured some sort of premium giveaway. Around the time I was five years old, I was really starting to master reading. Coincidentally at that time the Funmeal tray at Burger Chef featured a set of pop out baseball cards for all Major League teams. The first one I got was -- you guessed it -- the Dodgers. I immediately memorized pretty much every detail I could get from that set about the Dodgers' starting lineup. And since I knew more about them than any other franchise, they became "my" team. Really aggravated my dad, who was a diehard Phillies fan and had intended to raise me as such. Out of respect and affection for him I did follow Philadelphia with interest during my childhood, but I always bled Dodger blue. When the Expos announced their move to Washington, I was initially excited because it meant I'd have more opportunities to see the Dodgers play live. And that's exactly what I did in 2005. But while I was at RFK for those games and others, I developed a genuine affection for the Nationals (as well as a strong sense that the franchise desperately needed some love at that point). Based on that sentiment and the Dodgers' musical chairs approach to managers at the time, I went all in with Washington beginning in 2006.

I'm impressed with what Taggert accomplished at Western Kentucky. And he did swing South Florida in the right direction when he took over from Leavitt. Those two rebuilding jobs had a direct impact on his W/L record. It's reasonable to think that his record would have improved if he had stayed at USF and focused all of his energies on that program. In historical terms, I think Frank Cignetti is an example of the point I'm making about gauging success at the right level. Sensible hire for West Virginia at the time (heir to Bobby Bowden in 1975) that just didn't pan out. Then found his niche in Division II at Indiana (PA) many years later and enjoyed great success at that level.

I'm hearing a lot of chatter about the money folks as well. "Timing" is the term that I hear tossed around most frequently. Some of the donors are gun shy because they genuinely like Fuente and want to give him the benefit of the doubt. A plausible scenario I've heard is that the pot for the resignation option could be sweetened by donors above the $3 million amount listed in the contract. The biggest question there would be Fuente's own ideas about his long-term career trajectory. In any event I think it's highly unlikely that anything will be announced publicly before the conclusion of the regular season.

Trying really hard not to venture into territory that may be personally offensive.... But my observation is that the members of this particular team aren't particularly smart (I'll point to turnover and penalty data as a source for that argument). And unfortunately they are not athletic enough to compensate for that shortcoming. That dynamic didn't affect the ability to succeed at Memphis -- but it's proving to be an absolute killer in the ACC. Ultimately I think that both Fuente and Willie Taggart are exceptional coaches at the tier just below P5 -- and certainly demonstrated as much. But their particular success was not the kind that could be extrapolated as a prediction of performance at the P5 level. Unfortunately for both VT and Florida State, there was simply no way to know that. It's hard for me to come up with contemporary examples, but Marshall had a couple of coaches in the mid 1980s (Stan Parrish and George Chaump) that also illustrate the point.

This will be an epilogue of sorts (at least for the experience of my oldest son). Boy the First has completed his college application process. He has applied early decision to Virginia Tech. His backup school is UNC Charlotte. If he is accepted at Tech (highly likely), that's where he is going. If not, he will go to Charlotte. We should know for sure by the middle of December. I was off about the major. He will be studying Political Science. He will not be playing soccer in college (at least not for the college team). Tech was never an option there. UNCC actually invited him to camp several times, but he didn't feel like pursuing that (and knew that it would be a long shot). He is somewhat excited about playing at the rec/intramural level. Ultimately he will finish his official playing career this spring as captain of his varsity team. No real expectations of success but he's focusing on using his leadership role to help support and develop the younger players behind him. And from my perspective as dad, I find that particularly satisfying. Of his two younger brothers, my second born is actually a better athlete than him. So I may be yammering more about this in about three or four years if some stars align.

My original thought was this is the worst Hokie team in 32 years. But I think that first 1987 team under Beamer would actually be favored over the current version. So just for the sake of argument, I will offer the opinion that this is the worst Virginia Tech team since 1977. Who cares to prove me wrong?

Make no mistake, the head coaches definitely have a firm idea about what the numbers are right now. Any of them who aren't on top of them well in advance of two a days probably aren't long for the profession. This is a real and growing issue with a lot of contributing factors.

Pretty sure that it originated with Navy back in 2012 for the Army game. It's been adopted by more than a few teams since (including Virginia Tech). I agree that it's pretty sharp. TW's logo and color scheme work well for the concept.

I did. Although I was only about 10 years old at the time, I took an active interest in the NBA (along with a lot of other people) when Magic and Bird came into the league. But everybody was already aware of Moses Malone by then. He was an absolute beast in the early 1980's. Pretty much put Houston on his shoulders and carried them to the 1981 Finals. And he was the missing link that allowed the 76ers to briefly break the stranglehold that the Celtics and Lakers had on the league when he moved to Philadelphia. I will always argue that the 1983 Sixers were the very best team in the history of the NBA -- but that's only true because of Malone. And the team was never the same after his ankle injuries the following year. That's the kind of impact that I observed.

My kids' school (Liberty-Bedford) also won the 3A softball title in Salem this morning. Good day all around in the Alum household!

I wasn't there, but it sounds like Richlands made a pretty good showing after Martinsville jumped on them early. Congratulations to the Blues for a great season overall and for making a big stride in the life of the program. The semifinal between Martinsville and George Mason has the potential to be a real treat for any soccer fans/spectators that can make it to Radford on Friday morning. I was a bit surprised by the margin in the Giles-Graham match. But I know that this particular generation of Giles players have done exceedingly well. I'll also offer the observation that the Region D soccer teams are at a disadvantage compared to the rest of Virginia due to the effects of travel ball. The ability to effectively play year round against challenging competition makes a huge difference. Here's hoping that the current recreational soccer arrangements in God's County can blossom into something a bit larger.

Sharing these observations largely gained from competing against them in travel ball (as well as preseason friendlies) over the years. Beginning with an understatement -- overcoming this Martinsville team is not going to be easy. But it can be done. They are very talented -- and they know it. But the main portions of their game plan are largely psychological. Generally speaking they are aggressive, physical, and do their best to be intimidating. It's the way they are coached from the time they start playing travel ball for PYSL and they execute it very well. They are also very well disciplined. Although they may push the limits, they generally are not a "chippy" team. But they have an uncanny ability to push their opponents to play that way -- and once inside another team's head, their talent is usually enough to resolve the issue definitively and in fairly short order. It's not quite "shock and awe" but it's not far from it. It's important for an opponent to understand that going in (particularly teams that may be experiencing it for the first time). But if your players can be confident in their own ability, play their own game plan, and deliberately ignore the "bait" in terms of the mental aspect of the match that will dramatically increase your odds of success (and by "dramatically" I mean that it still mostly raises your odds to being closer to even). If it's possible to score on them early, then keep pressing that advantage to the greatest possible extent. Since they don't find themselves in a position of playing from behind very often, it's even possible that an opposing team can flip the psychological aspect against them if you can build a lead of at least 3 goals. But it's very difficult to ever put them away. Even though it doesn't happen to them often, as a team they are designed to recover and overcome negative margins that most other teams cannot. Some opponents (like Giles in VHSL and a couple of clubs in travel) have gained familiarity over the years and figured out how to compete against them. But even those teams haven't had a high level of success against this particular group of players. Along with their outstanding facilities in the Smith River complex, Martinsville is blessed by an outstanding program overall in terms of their school and travel teams. Really great coaching and genuinely good folks overall. Like most folks in the area, I have a tremendous amount of respect for what they are doing there. Sharing this mainly due to my lifelong allegiance to Richlands as my alma mater -- not because I have an axe to grind or harbor any ill will toward Martinsville. (Quite the contrary, actually.) Here's hoping for a great match and congratulations to both sides for making it this far.

Appreciate the kind words. Truth is that I have quite a bit of inside information when it comes to SR based on my involvement with a travel club that most of those guys played with. I have directly coached or managed 9 of this year's starters (great kids and families all). This is arguably the very best team that Staunton River has ever fielded -- and in terms of talent it may be the high water mark there for a long time. They will be the underdog heading into the next round, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them knock off Cave Spring. The development of travel soccer in this area has really benefited the local high school teams. Pretty much all players in the area between Radford and Lynchburg (and Lexington and Martinsville/Danville running somewhat north to south) have access to good year-round competition now. Congrats to Abingdon on a superb season and continued prayers for healing.

The Eagles have a core group of some very talented members who have been playing together for several years (both within the program and in regional travel circuits). Don't be deceived by their record -- they beat Lord Botetourt (the #3 seed in the region) in the Blue Ridge District tournament just last week.

Picking up on observations about the college recruiting game (at least as it pertains to soccer). Three kids from Liberty are planning to play at the Division III level next year. One of those is actually going to run track, but also plans to explore the possibility of walking on the soccer team at his school. (And a fourth kid is actually going to play football at a Division II school.) The most intriguing case to me is the kid who -- by every possible estimation -- is the most talented member of the team (and probably one of the most talented overall in the history of the program). He has played travel ball at the highest possible level for several years, participated in the Olympic Development Program, and pretty much done everything possible to put himself out there for consideration. I don't think Division III was what he had in mind -- although I have little doubt that he will play brilliantly at that level. But he just doesn't stand out in terms of his physical profile. I'm sure that the fact that we are finishing the season with a losing record and far short of qualifying for the regional playoffs probably isn't helping him much, either. (Then again, that last point obviously didn't impact the ability of the other two seniors to move on to the next level.)