Beamerball

http://www.tricities.com/tristate/tri/sports.apx.-content-articles-TRI-2007-03-02-0050.html Group AA wrestlers move on to Day 2 Friday, Mar 02, 2007 - 11:27 PM BY LLOYD COMBS Sports Correspondent A day that started well did not end well for Grundy. All eight Golden Wave wrestlers entered in the Group AA wrestling championships at Salem Civic Center won their first-round matches. Only two remain in the championship rounds. Five area wrestlers are in today’s semifinals, including Grundy’s Jerami Bartley (160 pounds) and Jon Dotson (125). Virginia High’s Brandon Castle (119) and Chase Owens (189) and Tazewell’s Eric McDaniel (171) are also in the semis, while a number of area wrestlers were involved in consolation action. In the quarterfinals at 160, Bartley bounced back after losing his 7-5 lead at the third-period buzzer to Lord Botetourt’s Travis Franklin and earned a 9-7 win 12 seconds into overtime. Dotson responded to match-tying move in the third period of his quarterfinal match by sticking William Byrd’s Brian Wood to the mat and pinning him at the 5:16 mark. "Jerami answered the bell," Grundy coach Travis Fiser said. "He came to wrestle and so did Jon Dotson. We had some tough losses [in the quarterfinals]. We’ll try talk to these guys and keep them motivated [in the wrestle-backs]." The Bearcats’ Chase Owens dominated Liberty-Bedford’s Roger Shepard and got the pin at 1:59 in a 189-pound quarterfinal match. Castle fell behind Chancellor’s Chris Smith, 4-3, but took control early in the second period in the quarters at 119 pounds and never relinquished it. Castle, who pinned his first opponent, took a 14-7 decision over Smith. "[smith] was extremely tall and it’s really tough for a short kid to wrestle a tall, lanky guy," Virginia High coach Ed Cressel said. "So I was really worried early. "But Brandon scrambles real good, and he’s so quick and explosive he catches people in a scramble situation. And that’s how we got back points." McDaniel’s quarterfinal win over Brookville’s Eric Laughlin was won one of the most exciting matches of day one at state. The Tazewell senior got a takedown call with one second remaining to win an 8-7 decision. "I had to suck it up," McDaniel said. "I didn’t know if I had any wind left. I just had to fight through it. It was just good training from my coach. He taught me to fight through adversity." Eleven other local wrestlers won first round matches, but lost in the quarterfinals Friday evening, including Abingdon’s Devon Puriefoy, who was upset in the quarterfinals at 130 pounds, 3-2, by Grafton’s Justin Cooper. The consolation rounds continued late Friday night. Complete results were not available at press time. Among those who advanced were Puriefoy, Marion’s Adam Freeman and Grundy’s Ethan Owens, Kaleb Smith, Josh McCowan and Josh Lee.

Abingdon vs. Hidden Valley (at Northside, Friday) Brookville vs. Virginia High (at John Battle, Friday or Saturday??) Charlottesville vs. Courtland Riverbend vs. Turner Ashby

The final was... Virginia High 63 Carroll County 51 The score of the MV/Lee game was 46-34.

http://timesnews.net/article.php?id=3732456 Rumors running amok about Southwest Virginia coaching carousel Published 02/17/2007 By GEORGE THWAITES Two years ago, the Lonesome Pine District could boast of having three Virginia High School League Hall of Famers actively coaching football in its ranks. This week, some people have been wondering if there will be even one remaining in the fold next fall. The LPD lost one of its luminaries when Appalachia's Tom Turner died suddenly last spring shortly after he retired. The league was already expecting the exit of Gate City's Nick Colobro when the Blue Devils move to the newly forming Clinch Mountain District next fall. It is now possible Colobro won't even be coaching in Virginia. He was slated to interview for the Sullivan Central head job on Friday. No word on that yet. It's been no secret that Colobro, who led Gate City to Group AA and Group A state championships, is amenable to retiring in Virginia and coaching in Tennessee. He lives in Sullivan County, about a 15-minute drive from the Central campus. Far more surprising was this week's news of Abingdon High School approaching Powell Valley's Phil Robbins in hopes that he might resuscitate the Falcons' moribund football program. Abingdon's most recent head coach, Ray Gregory, was fired after being relieved of his duties in the midst of the 2007 season. This week, Abingdon made Robbins an attractive coaching job offer that entailed no teaching duties. He made a counter offer including several key stipulations that he felt needed to be met for the move to be viable. Abingdon evidently didn't give Robbins what he wanted and, as of this weekend, negotiations appeared to have fallen through. Salary, he confirmed, was not a bone of contention. Far from it. Despite rampant rumors to the contrary, Robbins has plenty of job security at the Big Stone Gap gridiron powerhouse. Any coach who has authored seven Group A state championship seasons shouldn't be in much danger of being ousted while on the verge of competing for an eighth. Not in a sane world, anyway. Abingdon's faith in Robbins as a program builder was not misplaced. It is true that Powell Valley's program had a good foundation, including a previous state title, before Robbins arrived. But there is little question that he has done a magnificent job building on what he found. Powell Valley's football infrastructure - including feeder system, facilities, equipment, coaching staffs and training regimens - is among Virginia's finest. It sets a standard to be emulated by other programs that want to win. Of course, the same could be said about Gate City under Colobro, another exemplary steward of an inherited tradition. In contrast, the sorry state of Abingdon's football infrastructure is no secret in Southwest Virginia. It's been in a complete funk since Randy Flinchum left in the 1990s. Evidently, athletic resources have been systematically allocated elsewhere for a long time in Falcon Country. You can only blame the coaches so much. Back in the late 1970s, Robbins demonstrated that he could turn zeroes into heroes when he converted bottom-feeding Christiansburg into a New River District title contender. That was a tough league that produced three Group AA state champs in that predivisional era: Radford, Blacksburg and Giles. One doesn't doubt that Robbins, a savvy organizer, logician and fund-raiser, could accomplish a lot at Abingdon. Even if he had to do it all by himself. But at this stage of a coaching career that has been so successful, why should he sign on to make bricks without straw? If Abingdon is committed enough to football, perhaps Robbins will come. If it isn't committed, plenty of other places are. Including where he already is.

According to a write-up in the BHC on Gregory taking the job at Bethune-Cookman (at the end) they said one may be hired at the end of the month or early March.... "Meanwhile, the search is under way for a new head football coach. Principal Jeff Noe said a coach will likely be named by the end of this month or in early March. "I want it as soon as possible, but we also want to find the right person," Noe said. According to the Virginia High School League, football practice for Virginia high school teams begins Aug. 1." Full article: http://www.tricities.com/tristate/tri/news/education.apx.-content-articles-TRI-2007-02-09-0003.html

[ QUOTE ] If I was Lee I'd be ticked off. According to the brackets Lee is the 4 seed MV is the 5 seed but the game is at MV. I thought the higher seed hosted the game.I would want the opponent driving 4 1/2 or 5 hours to play not the other way around!! [/ QUOTE ] I'd probably be ticked off even more so now if they ended up moving the Bassett-MV game like some of vapreps are wanting instead of traveling to Graham and playing.

Dang...

Martinsville won 71-55.

Abingdon 58 Graham 43 Bassett 74 Tazewell 46 Magna Vista 51 Carroll County 42 Virginia High 60 Martinsville 40

[ QUOTE ] If I was Lee I'd be ticked off. According to the brackets Lee is the 4 seed MV is the 5 seed but the game is at MV. I thought the higher seed hosted the game.I would want the opponent driving 4 1/2 or 5 hours to play not the other way around!! [/ QUOTE ] Why are they having to make another trip over there again then???

http://www.vhsl.org/Basketball/2007_Region4_BBkb.htm

Here's some results... http://www.tricities.com/tristate/tri/sports.apx.-content-articles-TRI-2007-02-15-0010.html

Well, I retract my vote now for Va High. I'm going with Lee, they seem to be the popular vote

The game tonight was cancelled.

Agreed. I'd be careful about saying things like he was going to "kill him" too.

http://www.tricities.com/tristate/tri/sports.apx.-content-articles-TRI-2007-02-17-0007.html BY JOSH FLOYD SPORTS CORRESPONDENT BRISTOL, Va.  Turns out Gary Stafford didn’t need another Ben Hur bomb during Highlands District semifinal tournament play Friday. Brother Bobby had already provided the necessary ammunition. The elder Stafford nearly outscored second-seeded Abingdon on his own, pumping in a game-high 20 points on 6-of-11 shooting as Lee High posted a jaw-dropping 50-26 decision at Virginia High. Lee’s victory, coupled with the subsequent VHS triumph, assured the third seed of yet another Region IV trip. It also erased Stafford’s memories of a lackluster fourth-quarter team performance against Abingdon on their home floor exactly three weeks ago. "That’s a big win for us, because usually our fourth quarters have been slow  especially against Abingdon and Virginia High," said Stafford, who added eight rebounds and six assists despite picking up his third foul with 3:49 left until halftime. "But as long as we get the win, I don’t care." While Lee (18-5) didn’t need a last-second buzzer beater this year, Stafford’s staggering effort on the offensive end complemented a stifling 2-3 zone defense  a defense not popular with coach Steve Collier. But it certainly worked. Though the Falcons (17-6) trailed 25-24 heading into the final quarter, the team wearing white was far from solving the Generals’ defensive riddle. Uncharacteristic air balls from a bevy of Abingdon shooters demonstrated Lee’s determination at keeping the Falcons outside the paint. "I told the team that this was the first time we’ve played a zone defense the entire game," said Collier. "I was itching to get out of it in the fourth quarter and go man so that they wouldn’t get any open 3-point looks. "But it was working, so we didn’t change it." Though Collier perhaps entered those final eight minutes with clenched teeth, his team stayed the course. All that resulted was a meager 1-for-17 performance from the Falcons over that stretch, as Lee ran away with game  and the season series  with an astounding 25-2 spurt. For many years, Abingdon hasn’t had to worry about a must-win tourney game. Not only is an early Highlands exit rare for the Washington County squad, a loss of this magnitude can baffle even the most veteran coaches. "I can’t really put it into words," said Abingdon coach Sam Blevins. "We didn’t react very well to their zone. We just seemed like we didn’t have a lot of energy all night. I don’t know. It sure wasn’t our night." The Generals  who will travel to Magna Vista in first-round regional play Tuesday  again turned down the metronome to a successful offensive pace, while effectively winning the rebounding battle. That allowed Gary Stafford (12 points) and Chad Skaggs (11 points, nine boards) to ultimately reach double figures. "Over the last few games, we’ve tried to do that," Collier said. "We’ve slowed the tempo down and tried to be more patient on offense." Nick Viers had a team-high nine points for the Falcons, who shot 20 percent (10-for-50). VHS 79, Marion 45 Top-seeded Virginia High (16-6) needed a significant second-half push to wriggle away from scrappy Marion, who resembled anything but the tourney’s fourth seed. The Bearcats  who received 15 points from Randy White and 11 more from Kasey Marion  received a whopping 42 points from four different post players to set up an interesting battle with Lee tonight for the crown. "At the beginning of the year, we had at least three opportunities [for titles]," said VHS coach Doug Mitchell, whose squad hosts the Tazewell-Carroll County winner in the first round of the regional tourney Tuesday. "Now, we have a chance to finish it off [tonight] and get two out of three." Jordan Burrows had a game-high 16 points for the Scarlet Hurricanes (6-14)

It was close throughout most of the game, Lee just went off in the 4th outscoring Abingdon 25-2. Abingdon was down just 1 at the end of third, and it was tied up at halftime. Va High beat Marion in the other game, 79-45.

Lee beat Abingdon in the first game tonight. Final score was 50-26.

So the #2 seed from the Piedmont (Magna Vista??) will be playiing the #2 from the Highlands?

The game is back on ESPNnews again.

[ QUOTE ] That helps....considering I'm in Tennessee. [/ QUOTE ] I feel your pain lol.

Guess that's why I didn't see a score haha. Just seen in the Galax paper that the Carroll County game was cancelled. Noticed that Marion's had quite a few postponed/cancelled games. So, their record is just 7-12. By the way, I meant 7-12 in that other post but put 8 by accident, sorry about that.

I didn't know what the results of those two games were.

Marion's record is 8-12, excluding the Tazewell and Carroll County games the second time around...

71-51 Lee