cityofRaven

Princeton Senior High School has 1061 students, which is about 65 shy of that needed for 4A.  Frankly, I'm shocked that Virginia schools aren't beating down Princeton's doors to schedule football games.  I understand that Princeton's locked into its schedule in terms of playing 6 AAA-equivalents, but were I a school's AD, I'd lock Princeton up for eternity.  
 
BR: Abingdon's enrollment is 874.  About 60 short.
 
As far as Graham's scheduling goes, Graham will have no problem finding opponents.  Graham historically has never cared who it schedules, with the exception of that decades-long refusal to play single-A squads, no matter how good.  

The German team is still trying to figure things out...
 

Carroll wants to be 8-2 or 9-1 every year by playing significantly smaller schools and without having to work for it.  I find it hilarious how Carroll wouldn't renew it's yearly football rivalry with Galax because the games had gotten so one sided, which they had.  Now they are looking to move into a district of similarly sized schools.
 
I can appreciate Carroll being in a terrible position as the only Class 4 school west of Roanoke.  But Carroll hasn't exactly made the wisest of choices within it's athletic department either.  The athletic department tends to not be very inclusive to anyone not residing within close proximity to Hillsville.  They also had Mark Dixon on the coaching staff before he became head coach at Galax and let him go to keep Tom Hale.  Nice choice!  How has that worked out for both programs?

Mount View did ok in football until the last ten years.  They actually had good baseball teams.  The exodus of almost all working class families is the real struggle in McDowell County. There actually are some jobs there but most who work there live in Bluefield, Princeton, Beckley and Tazewell. 
 
As a historian consolidations present a challenge. For football if 2 or more football schools consolidate then the football history for me starts anew. Ridgeview is a new school and they may pull on the fine histories of the schools in Dickenson County but no one is going to call them champions until the new school wins one or more. Clintwood's football championships were/are Clintwood's and not Ridgeview's.  Just as Appalachia and Powell Valley's championship do not belong to Union. Now that doesn't mean that the new school shouldn't look to the great history of the area and promote if they want to but no one is giving Union credit for any championships until they win one.

Bit of a grey area, IMO.  
 
Further exploring the example I cited, Mount View was initially formed by the consolidation of Gary and Welch -- both of which had considerable football histories.  The idea at the time (1978) was that the new school would be a real juggernaut on the gridiron.  That never occurred.  A couple of tangible reasons jump out immediately.  One was the fact that the new school found itself at what I refer to as the shallow end of the Class AAA pool in West Virginia.  The other was the complete free fall of the economy in McDowell County that began almost concurrently with the school consolidation.  The addition of Northfork in 1985 produced no notable results in basketball for largely the same reasons.
 
Based largely on the history of their contributing constituent schools, it's reasonable to think that Union will eventually claim a state title in football and that Wise Central will be able to do the same in baseball.  But there are certainly no guarantees.  And there are several examples (particularly in West Virginia) of the opposite effect.

Exactly! That's like how Union claims all of Appys and Powell Valleys football titles. Doesn't count in my book.

J.J. Kelly's heritage is certainly impressive and worth noting as a contributor to the present competitive level of the Mountain District.  However, I'm not sure that it's appropriate for Wise Central to co-opt that identity at this point.
 
For the sake of precedent, Northfork won 8 straight West Virginia state basketball championships in a row.  Mount View (the school into which Northfork was consolidated in 1985) has never won a state championship of any kind.  
 
NOTE:  I was a few minutes slow on the trigger.  Didn't mean to duplicate the effort of hhstigers7327.

No that would be J.J. Kelly high school that won 9 state titles in baseball not central.

It was called sarcasm...you missed it...

Apparently Graham is 1-0 having already beaten Bluefield 23-0.
 
http://wvmetronews.com/high-school-football-scores/?week=1

I agree good competition but the gate comment is laughable and the exact reason why a trip to Blacksburg or Christianburg for example would make more sense

Either one it really don't matter 

Mountain Dew

Tell me where I'm wrong Oh Message Board Genius

It's always great to know when someone thinks their better than you and to know they are wrong. 
 
 
 
Then why rejoin the SWD?

I see Marion is playing the old game that Lebanon used to play back in the day and can't figure out which district they want to be bottom dwellers in. 

I see Marion is playing the old game that Lebanon used to play back in the day and can't figure out which district they want to be bottom dwellers in. 

Fair enough but why leave the SWD in the first place?

Tell me where I'm wrong Oh Message Board Genius

That's far too logical

I see Marion is playing the old game that Lebanon used to play back in the day and can't figure out which district they want to be bottom dwellers in. 

That is the entirety of the Grayson County argument.  Apparently, the former administration pushed to join the SWD before realizing the travel budget would increase by an estimated 65%.  Former administration in Grayson must have been as bad as all indications suggest.  According to local media, they are still missing several hundred thousand dollars in school resources.  One person has already been convicted and the commonwealth attorney's office may be pursuing charges against others. 
 
In my opinion, instead of Carroll, Christiansburg and Blacksburg joining the TRD, they should resurrect the old New River District and add Pulaski to those three.  Let the Roanoke area schools make up the River Ridge and Blue Ridge.  Alleghany has complained about their lot in life for two decades.  Byrd is caught up in Roanoke County politics.  That's not going to change and their numbers will fluctuate because of it.
 
The new look MED and TRD could easily be turned into an entirely 1A and 2A district.  Put Grayson in the TRD and move Auburn to the MED and all member schools will make up the same division.
 
MED                                             TRD                                        New River District
Auburn                                         Floyd                                       Christiansburg
Bland                                           James River                            Blacksburg
Fort Chiswell                               Giles                                         Carroll
Galax                                          Glenvar                                     Pulaski
George Wythe                            Radford
Rural Retreat                              Grayson
 
 
But, as is with most things involving VHSL, common sense will be absent from the equation.

I'm pretty sure Grundy's is "Cotton-eyed Joe"...
 
That's the only song I've ever remember hearing at Nelson Memorial.
 
 
Also, anyone that uses Notre Dame's or Michigan's fight songs are just taking the easy way out in my opinion...

I'm pretty sure Grundy's is "Cotton-eyed Joe"...
 
That's the only song I've ever remember hearing at Nelson Memorial.
 
 
Also, anyone that uses Notre Dame's or Michigan's fight songs are just taking the easy way out in my opinion...

I think it's a wonderful idea in theory, but it's virtually impossible to implement.
 
Just off the top of my head...
 
(1) The videography equipment needs to be reasonably good so that the production values aren't crap.  
(2) Compensation is needed 3-5 people for their time and expenses in traveling up to 3.5 hours one-way for "SWVA Gameday".
(3) Decent video footage is needed for any kind of in-depth analysis (good luck with the production values there...)
(4) There would need to be licensing agreements with the schools and school systems to use their sites + IP.
(5) Depending upon what you name it, you may need licensing agreements with ESPN and its partners.
(6) Money.  Money money money.  MONEY.  You need sponsors, and in hefty amounts.
 
Most importantly:
 
(7) If this venture is going to be any kind of self-sustaining, it needs to be more than just some Facebook Live or Youtube stream.  That means, you're going to need to sell the brass of WVVA and WCYB on syndicating this.  I can tell you for a 100% ironclad fact that WVVA wouldn't, because it would anger its precious WV audience.  WCYB is going to need a really good reason to buck its Friday programming.  And there isn't one.  The people who would likely tune into a "SWVA Gameday" are people already at games.  It's the reason Friday Night Lights died in a Friday timeslot.
 
I mean, sure, you could probably rig together a rink-a-dink shoestring affair, but it wouldn't do the idea justice.