EH31

Mine was last year at the Hoover Met Stadium (where Michael Jordan played his minor league baseball home games). 16k people showed up! Hoover (9-0) played Thompson (9-0 #4 in the country) for 1st place in Alabama 7A. Hoover was historically one of the top teams in 7a but Thompson had came on the scene and played for the state championship for 3 years straight. This game had 20+ players that held division 1 offers, including Thompson’s FOUR!!! 5 star defensive players. game was back and forth the whole time. It always seemed like Thompson would pull away but Hoover would always come up with a big stop. For some reason Thompson only played the 5 star guys on defense, even when they really needed a couple yards. Hoover led a 4th qt. Comeback drive and threw a touchdown with a few seconds remaining. I’m including a tweet with the video of the touchdown pass and another one of the crowd pano.

TEAM WINS LOSSES Radford Bobcats 7 0 Graham G-Men 6 0 Grayson County Blue Devils 6 0 James Monroe Mavericks 6 0 Montcalm Generals 6 0 Ridgeview Wolfpack 6 0 Rye Cove Eagles 6 1 Patrick Henry Rebels 5 2 Virginia High Bearcats 5 1 Abingdon Falcons 4 3 Gate City Blue Devils 4 2 Galax Maroon Tide 4 2 Honaker Tigers 4 3 Hurley Rebels 4 2 Lebanon Pioneers 4 3 Lee Generals 4 2 Narrows Green Wave 4 1 Tazewell Bulldogs 4 3 George Wythe Maroons 4 3 Union Bears 4 3 Central-Wise Warriors 3 3 Grundy Golden Wave 3 3 Holston Cavaliers 3 3 J.I. Burton Raiders 3 3 Northwood Panthers 3 3 Princeton Tigers 3 2 Pulaski County Cougars 3 3 Twin Springs Titans 3 2 Bluefield Beavers 2 5 Fort Chiswell Pioneers 2 5 Giles Spartans 2 4 Pikeview Panthers 2 5 Rural Retreat Indians 2 3 Carroll County Cavaliers 1 6 Castlewood Blue Devils 1 5 John Battle Trojans 1 5 Marion Scarlet Hurricane 1 5 Mount View Golden Knights 1 5 Richlands Blue Tornado 1 6 Thomas Walker Pioneers 1 5 Bland County Bears 0 1 Chilhowie Warriors 0 6 Eastside Spartans 0 7 River View Raiders 0 6

This ^^^^ also, I don’t think everyone from Richlands irony.

Grundy vs. Galax would be fun to watch. The game would be over by 8:15.

I get what you’re saying, but let’s be honest about it - how many years are SWVA teams really playing for a state championship? Obviously Graham has made it a couple times in the last few years but they’ve had once in 20 year type athletes on those teams. Other than that Union threatened once or so but that’s it. And it’s not like this is something new. Rivals have been playing for things other than bragging rights for years. People in McDowell county will still talk you about the Welch vs. Gary games where they played for the “Barrel” for 40 years. They haven’t played that game since around 1978(?) but it obviously it meant a lot to those two communities if the conversation is continuing in 2022. Lebanon and Honaker play for the Coal Bowl trophy. Graham and Bluefield play for the Great American Rivalry trophy (and hats). Patrick Henry (not glade spring) plays for the Tomato Bowl. Appomattox plays for the “Axe” against Buckingham. Only 1 team Per division can be state champs. Nothing wrong in my opinion with giving some of the other teams something to look forward to during the season. I will say, I wish some of the teams played for something other than trophies. Back of the dragon is missing a good opportunity to make Tazewell & Marion play for a barrel or a keg to silently promote the brewery lol

Graham plays for 2 regular season trophies. Is 2 trophies the acceptable number? Should we call the Ramey family or the Back of the Dragon folks to tell them one of them is out?

The past three games in the series have been a lot of fun to watch. Over the last 20 years, with the exception of the early 2000’s & the 2 games in the 2008 season, the rivalry hasn’t been competitive. It’s better for both teams and both communities when each school has a chance to (& believes they can) win.

Gotta be careful. Short routes to get the ball in your playmakers’ hands aren’t well received on the message boards. Throw it deep or don’t throw it at all!!

James Monroe dropped to class A. WV Metronews had Greenbrier West ranked #3 in class A in the state of WV & James Monroe shut them out last night. Good chance at least the first two weeks of the playoffs will be played in Lindside. Not sure if they can play with Wheeling Central or Dodridge if they make it that far.

Richlands is getting out Thad Wells’d

Ridgeview 7 Union 3 halftime

Have you watched any Graham pre-game since 2015?

SWVAsb.com Official line: Tazewell -9.5

SWVAsb.com Official line: Ridgeview -7.5

I see 22

Richlands had dominated Graham for over a decade too until Graham won at Richlands in 2017. Now Graham has won 7 in a row.

How are they scoring games against Twin Valley and Bland County? Riverview was supposed to play TV. Wondering if they gave them a win for that game?

Denver Brown? Is that right? @sixcat

I can’t think of his name now but I’m pretty sure you’re thinking of the RB that transferred to Galax a few years after Hamm graduated.

In the second half of last week’s game the home side’s lights on the field house end of the field blew out. Someone else said after the game another set at the 50 yard line blew as well but I don’t know if that’s 100% correct or not.

Did Grundy get their lights fixed?

I could be wrong but I think he played his whole career at UVA. I feel like that’s actually when he finally started some games. I didn’t mean anything towards you on you not mentioning Hamm. I just meant that there was a 1a school in SWVA had two P5 kids not too long ago but it doesn’t get talked about much

Not true, there’s been two ties 🙄

People forget that Fort Chiswell had two P5 starters on the same team. It was actually a pretty big upset when Graham beat them that year.

7/9 on PAT’s on the season.