futbolking

This young man is the definition of toughness.  He had a horrific injury in the Richlands jamboree when his leg was broken and he had to be airlifted out of there.  He came back only to suffer another leg injury, re have and came back again moving to the defensive side of the ball and becoming one of Graham's best defenders.  This latest injury was very scary, he was blind sided with helmet to ear hole contact after the play was over by a Grayson defender who I will not name.  Very scary situation   Michael was motionless on the field for quite a while.  Don't know if he was concussed or not.  But an uncalled for cheap shot, that could have ended tragically.
 
Looking forward to a fun trip this Saturday. Hoping for a good clean game with no injuries and may the best team win!!  Whoever wins. You can bet that I will be cheering for them to bring the title back to region D.  Where it belongs 

On a lighter note, I'm hearing that Michael Mason's x Ray's came back good, no spinal injuries or nerve damage   

This young man is the definition of toughness.  He had a horrific injury in the Richlands jamboree when his leg was broken and he had to be airlifted out of there.  He came back only to suffer another leg injury, re have and came back again moving to the defensive side of the ball and becoming one of Graham's best defenders.  This latest injury was very scary, he was blind sided with helmet to ear hole contact after the play was over by a Grayson defender who I will not name.  Very scary situation   Michael was motionless on the field for quite a while.  Don't know if he was concussed or not.  But an uncalled for cheap shot, that could have ended tragically.
 
Looking forward to a fun trip this Saturday. Hoping for a good clean game with no injuries and may the best team win!!  Whoever wins. You can bet that I will be cheering for them to bring the title back to region D.  Where it belongs 

On a lighter note, I'm hearing that Michael Mason's x Ray's came back good, no spinal injuries or nerve damage   

That's great!! My heart goes out to any player on any team that gets hurt.

On a lighter note, I'm hearing that Michael Mason's x Ray's came back good, no spinal injuries or nerve damage   

Cooke can run a 4.48 backwards, you are delusional.  Bradshaw's best time was a 4.52 at the NFL combine and he himself will tell you that Cooke is faster.  To be a Graham fan that never actually goes to see them play and relies mostly on a pitiful radio broadcast, you sure throw a lot of shade their way.  That's why I don't like posting on here because of fake fans like yourself.
No wind aided time coming from their indoor practice facility and they sure as hell didn't use a stopwatch.  They were electronic.  As was the time at the camp in Charlotte. WVU put a speed jacket on him and offered him immediately afterwards, but it wasnt a "wind aided" speed jacket.
The only wind aided stuff around here is the stuff coming from your direction. And don't refer to me as "you people".  You're not any better than anybody else on here.  

Graham doesnt have a lot of participation in track.  Several of their athletes play soccer in the spring.  Track has never been popular at Graham, even when I went there in pre historic times.  Of course Cooke's fastest OFFICIAL time is 4.37 ran at a camp at VT.  He also has an official time of 4.40 clocked at a camp in Charlotte, NC.  I capitalize official because of how many folks doubted that these numbers were for real at the beginning of the season.  13 or so D 1 offers later, after these times were posted, I guess we see he's for real.  You don't need a watch to see how fast this kid is, if he gets in the open field, it's going to the house, simple as that, he can fly.  Graham has several kids who can run in the 4.5 to 4.6 range on offense.  Lester, Gray. Allen, Justice all have very good speed.  Curto is very athletic and decent speed as well, I'd like to see him get the ball more, but there are just not enough football to go around.  I can't help but wonder how tough of an out Graham would be with a healthy Reed and Chinault playing this season.  Don't sleep on their defensive, they are decent up front and their linebacker play and secondary are exceptional.  Not a lot of success passing on Graham.  Richlands was able to put pressure on the QB, but Allen made big plays with his feet.  I don't think Graham can simply drop Allen back in the pocket and try to let him pass against Union.  They have to get him moving, make those big linemen chase him around and wear them down. Otherwise it could be a long night for Graham.

Haven't posted on here in a while, but everybody needs to pray for Graham's Michael Mason who appears to have suffered a very serious looking injury.  I hope and pray that this young man is ok.

Haven't posted on here in a while, but everybody needs to pray for Graham's Michael Mason who appears to have suffered a very serious looking injury.  I hope and pray that this young man is ok.

Haven't posted on here in a while, but everybody needs to pray for Graham's Michael Mason who appears to have suffered a very serious looking injury.  I hope and pray that this young man is ok.

Awesome.  I was counting UVA as a D-1 Offer....not sure if they qualify....
 

Awesome.  I was counting UVA as a D-1 Offer....not sure if they qualify....
 

Shane Allen has joined the staff at Galax, I hear.   Not sure if he is the "Head Varsity Assistant" or not.  However,if this is true, I wish him the best and hope that he has much success at Galax.  Galax is getting a good coach joining their staff.

Shane Allen has joined the staff at Galax, I hear.   Not sure if he is the "Head Varsity Assistant" or not.  However,if this is true, I wish him the best and hope that he has much success at Galax.  Galax is getting a good coach joining their staff.

Had my doubts, but I will not doubt you again sir. 

The turff is available if TCPS choose to have it installed!

Ok...Bluefield College just posted this on Twitter...
To which I replied with this...
 
 

City of Bluefield may price themselves out of the market.  Ask yourself...would you rather have $119,000 or none???
Mercer Co. BOE and Tazewell Co. BOE have paid $37,000/year to use the facility, Bluefield College pays $45,000/year (they practice there, too).  City of Bluefield has said it costs $130,000/year to run Mitchell Stadium, a number I find hard to believe, but want to start charging the three mentioned above $50,000/year...using fuzzy math, the City of Bluefield is fleecing the Mercer Co. BOE, the Tazewell Co. BOE, and Bluefield College to the tune of about $20,000.  Not only that, but the City takes 20% of what the schools do in concessions. 
The City of Bluefield says the money goes to improvements at Mitchell Stadium but I haven't noticed any since the remodel 10 or so years ago that was funded by the Shott Foundation.  Maybe someone should look into where this money is really going...

Rent for Mitchell Stadium is going up for the school systems, from $35,000 to $50,000 per year.  Quite a steep jump to digest in one year for a school system.  Talk around Tazewell County is that Graham may be forced to play home games at THS on Thursday nights this season.
 
My two cents.... I would like to see Graham have their own stadium at the High School, nothing too fancy.  Something like Floyd County or Marion has. Probably could be financed for what they are paying in rent at Mitchell.  Obviously the Graham / Bluefield game could be held at Mitchell Stadium, with the teams splitting the gate each year.
 
 

Well you have to take care of the grounds year round, modern locker rooms for teams and officials, press box with working P. A. System, concessions that pass health inspections, electric bills, rest rooms, parking lot, clean up crews etc.  You want to build a place that is up to playoff standards.  You are looking at least at half a million without synthetic turf which is another million.  50k to rent a field is not a bad deal. It is tough to except when the rent has been so low before.  What needs to be done is charge Bluefield College three times as much as they are now since they use (and abuse) the field almost every day.

Looks like five sets in your picture. One set of compliant bleachers similar to the to those run about 30,000(around 190 seats per set). Found a press box that was 8x30 that ran 35,000. Not overly expensive but certainly not cheap. 

My opinion:
 
1. They don't belong in the Mid South Conference, they are way out of their league.  That is one of the best NAIA Conferences in the country, if not the best.
2.  Fans are not going to come watch them lose all of the time.
3.  Very few local athletes are recruited to play there.
4.  There is a tremendous amount of player turnover, which leads to inconsistency.
 
 
I believe they should either change conferences and start playing teams more their speed, or drop the football program altogether.  Not a lot of fan support attending these games.  
 
This community is football CRAZY.  If they are in a league in which they can be competitive and they recruit a few local athletes, attendance would be up....and they would get more "w" s.  
 
The Athletic Director and the President of the College need to get on the ball and try to turn this thing around or just drop the football program completely.  It has to be losing money for the school, there is no way that it is profitable.
 
Start recruiting kids based on athleticism and character... I won't go into details about that, just had a bad experience on campus last weekend and I'll leave it at that.
 
What does everybody think?  It's been a few years now that football has been back at Bluefield College.  I just think it could have and should have been done differently.  
 
Can they play as an independent and pick up teams more their speed?  
 

Shouldn't this be in the "General Discussion and Local Talk" Forum?  
 
This is in the football forum and my immediate thought was that the football teams in Smyth County were in a state of despair....and I thought....yeah, what's new?
 
 
As far as the subject matter of this post.  I think it's in everybody's best interest to find FACTS first before deeming everybody to hell.  
 
Some great folks work at MSHS, including the Principal and coaches.

From SWVA Today:
Smyth County Schools Superintendent Dennis Carter reiterated Thursday that the incidents outlined in the warrants occurred after the high school volleyball season had ended and the travel team’s season had begun.
“Really, this is outside the school setting,†he said. “This was outside of our school’s volleyball team.â€
 
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