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Thanks for the link! That was a lot of help! Even gave me a chance to see myself back in the day playing!

I was just curious if anyone knew of ANYONE who may have video's of Graham football from previous years. I have a friend who was inquiring more specifically about the 2004 season. So if anyone has any video's from that season I would greatly appreciate some info about them!

Yeah but see that's on the company more so because they're the ones putting it on. Plus Gridiron Alumni has been doing this since 2001 and safety, sportsmanship, and fun are keys to the game. But also, no one is forcing these players to be out there. Yes there is always a chance for getting injured, and if you don't think you can do it without getting injured then don't do it. One more thing, if anyone that does plan on playing, knowing the game is in May, they should go ahead and start training now so they might be in a little better shape and conditioned by May. Team practice is suppose to start back up in March. Which the ones that were originally playing for the other group had been practicing since early October and stopped two weeks ago. From what I know, the ones that had been coming out we're getting in pretty good shape. I know me personally, am starting back in the gym next week to start getting ready, assuming the game does happen. I want to show that G-Men Pride one more time.

Understandably the company does get a good chunk of money out of it... But if the school actually would support it they do get a good chunk too. From what I know O'Neil wants nothing to do with it, however, Coach Williams is all for it. But as for the one about Bluefield and Richlands not having enough, that is correct from one original possible alumni game that just some locals were wanting to put on, but supposedly a "professional" guy who does it wanted to charge all players 100 to play, but the guy I have been doing advertising for over the Graham/Beaver one he is only charging 70 per player but if you pay early its like only 50 or 60 from what I remember. And yes I agree there are a few from the Graham side that never played either which I don't agree with, but again that too was from the other guys that were putting one on here, the "Gridiron Wars". Of course though yes the Bluefield side from what I have heard does need more players and only play if you want to. It may come off as old people just wanting to get back out and re-live they're hay day. Although, there are a lot of people on the Graham side are class of 2004-2012.

The original game that was being put on by Gridiron wars is no longer happening. However, there is a group out of California working with the Great American Rivalry Series that has been covering the Graham Beaver game for the last few years, (the thing that the previous Graham coach believed was ESPN...), and they are doing a Alumni Rivalry game with every game that the Great American Rivalry Series covered this past year. Which is Bluefield and Graham seeing as we were the first game of their season. The Graham team from what I know is full roaster from what was going to be the one for the Gridiron Wars. From what I was told the new game will be played Memorial Day weekend. It is meant more as a fun way to celebrate the two schools. Obviously there is a lot of people who are going to go full on but I have been working closely with the Event Coordinator for Gridiron Alumni.com and he does this across the country and is excited to do this. From what I know the Bluefield Team does need a few more. You can go to their website to sign up. Like I said it is honestly meant to be more for entertainment and a way for people to enjoy what has been the greatest rivalry in the area and one of the biggest in the country (at one time).

I know this is Richlands oriented but I have seen this in the Graham games too. When I was at the Tazewell game I did happen to notice a lot of the people in the stands, more so women than men, would just sit there and chat. I even noticed one couple where the woman was chatting with some other women and her husband started yelling at the refs over a bad call and she hit him and told him to settle down that they couldn't hear him and that he was acting like a redneck. I could be wrong but I think yelling at a ref for a bad call is not acting like a redneck or something but trying to support his team over something he felt was a bad call. But yeah its not just Richlands, it's all over, people these days don't go to the games for the game, but for the conversations and social interaction. But there is a lot to the game these days that has changed... But that is the nature of the beast. For Richlands, everyone goes and doesn't care about watching cause they figure it's a given that their going to win. For Graham in the last few years at least its been they expected us to lose. A close game is usually what makes people pay attention.

Ah, I see that now. For some reason when I seen Blues, I automatically thought Bluefield. BUT, even then in the last 10 years I think there hasn't only been 1 win. Like 02, 03, 07. I think there was one more recent than 07, but again I'm going to say there have been 4 wins in the last 10 years. So again, I think it hold a valid point that it hasn't been pure domination in the last 10 years. Given I will give Richlands credit where credit is due, they are tough. Who can argue the regular season winning streak they have going. But for him to of said only 1 win and who knows how many blowouts... Honestly I don't know the numbers on what the overall record is between Graham and Richlands, I could be mistaken, but I would think we have the overall wins or very close to it. Looked back at the "Schedule" page from the main screen that has Grahams win/loss from 52-08 and with the exception of a few missing seasons on there the total wins for graham over Richlands is 24 Richlands over Graham 15 With 1952 ending in a tie.... so the overall is Graham 24-15-1. So even if you added 4 wins from the last 4 years in, Graham still holds overall wins.

Yeah I just don't care for Grundy. I mean they have their years where they can be better than us. Heck I can remember playing them in the playoffs a couple times and one year we lost to them and then the next year we beat them in the playoffs... Given the next game was a loss to Gretna... But still not trying to knock Grundy as a team, but yeah location plays a big part in it. I honestly hated going down there. The bus ride wasn't horrible but I always hated that field. I know they have made some changes to it since then, with the field house and all but did they actually do anything to the field itself... I like the pick up of Giles, but still think a team like Salem would be great to see knowing the history we had with them. Would love to see Gate City again as well.

While at the Graham/Beaver game, I was talking with a friend about our schedule and just looking through the teams we play. Not to say they're not a tough team or a good team to play, but we agreed that it would be awesome to see us drop Marion and maybe down the road pick up a team like Giles, George Wythe, or even Salem again. I know it's always good to play up in the rankings (A, AA, AAA) but given now that we are in A I'd like to see us maybe challenge some of the other tough Single A programs in the area. Of course throwing Gate City in that mix would be awesome too. But just thought those would be some interesting match-ups in the future if it were ever able to be set up.

Actually... In the last ten years there have been wins in 02,05,06, 09(I believe that was the Will Cole Bowl),12 (according to the records that were on the schedules page on here) so If I'm not mistaken that's 5 out of 10 years? Also if you wanted to jump one more year back and look at 01 when we beat bluefield 56-8 (the one touchdown being scored against basically grahams JV team) and only a couple of the last few years have been actual "blowouts". So as you asked "How has that worked for us in the last 10 years" I would have to say pretty good.

Guess its a good thing I have been registered as long as I have...

Yeah typically, at least used to be typical, Graham wouldn't wear their "game day" uniforms until Graham/Beaver game. Scrimmages we used Practice helmets with no stars on it. Coach would probably put the strips on but no the G-Stars. And uniforms were old uniforms. Don't want to mess the good stuff up before the Big game...

Another option would be if you searched the address for Magic Mart in Welch... The field is like 200 yards down the road from there... But definitely best option would be to get on 16 at Tazewell and go "straight" from there. I hated that field... I honestly thought it was funny cause my freshman year when Graham played there the field was so "moist" and was like it had been raining on the field for days... Yet there had been no rain in weeks..... I figure Grundy would have no issue with Mt. View unless they can't play in the mud.

This actually made me bust out laughing.... Plus gives Bluefield another reason to not want to schedule Richlands.... I guess its bad enough that Bluefield plays us (Graham) at single A, but I am sure they would never want to take two single A teams from VA, (just to stir the pot a little) especially a Virginia Single A team that could beat Bluefield. Given I'm sure at some point down the road we will have to beat Bluefield... It DOES happen from time to time.

Only MED games we may have a good chance at are Narrows and Bland Co. I'm not familiar with Fort Chiswell so I can't say anything about them. But I know from what I have heard and obviously seen now, Galax and Grayson Co are going to be tough for a couple years. Question though, has Grayson Co been A for a while or within a few years?

I already know Sandman's reply to this.... "He wasn't ran off. He quit cause he wanted nothing to do with a losing program." I don't know him (sandman) I don't know if he has ever been a Graham fan or not but I know from the comments he said about Coach Carlock, he must not of been a true fan cause he would know, if he ever really knew anything about Coach (Carlock), he would know that Coach would like how things are going now. He would know that Coach would want a guy that has similar values as himself. And obviously Coach would be proud to see another man with a military back ground, (given I do not know if Williams has ever been in the military but he obviously supported the Military Academy that he previously worked for) so Coach would be honored to have a man of his stature taking over the GRAHAM G-MEN!

Like I said in a previous thread, I honestly was impressed with their tackling. Look at last years Graham Beaver game: you will see "tackling" that consisted of running up and trying to knock someone down. There was no wrapping up. There was no swarming to the ball carrier. A lot of the time the players were just out in the field looking confused as to where they needed to be. This years Graham Beaver game: you find players trying to wrap up on a player who was breaking tackles of for players that were on him because he had some strong legs to chop his feet right through the "tackles". You saw players swarming to the ball. Players that was watching where the ball was at and trying to get to the carrier. I even think last year and previous years players would stop chasing a player if they broke free. This year you had kids chasing trying to give every bit of themselves to try and at least make a tackle. They had passion to change, passion to be a team to be reckoned with, THEY HAD PASSION. I think even Coach Carlock would of been proud that they never gave up. And like one of the previous threads said about hearing that the graham players had put holes in the walls, may not of been the right thing to do but that shows that they were upset of how things were going and that they had the hope that they could do it when clearly they were the underdogs going into this game. I had hope to see improvement. My hope was full filled in the fact that I did see improvement from the years Coach Marrs was there.

To have a chance against Beaver next year, they need to find someone that can handle him or teach everyone how to make sure they are going low on him and swarm low on him. Other wise it will be Beaver again for the next two years at Graham Beaver games. Regarding the post about no one seeing the potential of Tazewell, really neither has Graham. Every team we've played have had dominating teams. One good thing about how we always try and schedule tough teams. Got to do it to improve and be ready for our district. I'm definitely not counting Tazewell out. You should never do that cause honestly any given night any team can win. Other wise why play the game?

I actually have to semi disagree with one thing here. Yes they weren't tackling very good on Legget (#4) but compared to previous years they had massively improved. Previous years all the players thought they could do was come up and hit someone to tackle them. They were wrapping up and swarming to the ball carriers. But that Legget kid was just a beast. He would drag players a couple yards and chop through the tackle to break it. Overall I was pretty impressed when they were tackling the other players. So as long as Tazewell doesn't have any players like #4 from Bluefield, we should be pretty good as far as tackling goes.

Ok I will go ahead and get this started. Whats the predictions here... Who is going to be the better choice for a W and how much of a point gap will there be.

I actually have to agree, Simon did put in some back up guys early in the 3rd. I noticed when the Beavers were on offense there were a bunch of, what looked to be, linemen sitting on the beach on their side and noticed they had the starting qb and Legget (however you spell his name) both were out too. Given this was when it was 44-7 (which is basically where I ended the "real" game). About the time we scored the second td and when the back up qb got hurt on the field (Looked like nothing more than a cramp) they put at least the starting qb and Legget back in. And Williams did keep pulling Jackson and Edwards from the second td on. Honestly the only thing that I felt was not very classy on Bluefields side of things was at the end when the Bluefield player intercepted the ball and instead of going down to end the game he kept running on down the field and was met by the Bluefield student section about the 50 yard line. That really was the only unclassy thing I saw. Cause honestly I saw a lot of late hits, roughing the qb, and other stuff from the graham team to bluefield that weren't called so I think a lot of it was a rough game and the refs did let them play a lot with out to many calls so the ones they did give were as I felt kind of called for to keep the teams in check so to speak.

Ok sorry I miss read this article/blog from the coach. The title of the blog was Graham (a blog from last season) and the opening started out with "This is the first time writing you after a loss on Friday night. We were beaten by a football team that was just better than us that night. They deserved to win the game. They will be a team that will be hard for anyone to beat the rest of the year." After I saw just that part I started laughing for the multiple reasoning being, A. I thought it was funny that Coach Marrs coming from Graham High, VA and will be playing Graham High, NC was rather ironic? B. Just the simple fact that I didn't read further into it and realized that further down it did say that our next week game was against Graham (NC). SO yes my bad on not fulling reading the blog from the coach. But the point that I was really going at was that I thought it was funny Coach Marrs was going from a Graham High to a school that he would still be playing a Graham High... I would just have to wonder if in the back of his mind when "his" team is playing Graham High (NC), that he wished it was the one he just left and had so many people not really diggin him as a coach.

The Graham vs Gate City looked pretty good. GC looked tough. Kinda liked Grahams passing game. Wasn't to impressed with the lines protection when they got into the red zone. I mean seriously, that close and it ends up back almost or right at the 50? Geez... Like I said though they were slightly impressive and I have to give Coach Williams some serious credit for getting them to look good out there. Just got to get some big kids out there on the line. But kudos G-Men can't wait to see how you fair next week!

I don't know if they play them this year or not but looking at the teams that his new team plays.... They should be playing Graham High.... of NC. Rather humorous if I do say so myself... Would be even more funny if GHS out there beat them.... Just saying.

Personally I see no issue with this. It happens all the time or at least it used to happen all the time at Graham and Bluefield. Kids going from Bluefield to Graham, of from Graham to Bluefield. Most recent acquisition being Bluefield getting Will Cole from Graham. I think as long as the parents are willing to re locate to the area that would allow their kids to play at whatever school it should be ok. As long as there was no recruiting done to bring him to Richlands from Bluefield I would have no issue and don't think many people should have an issue either. Yeah losing certain key players may not be good for your team but it happens.