Ryan4VT

Or maybe Mance is decades older and at a point in his life where he wan'ts to coach football and play golf every day, and there's no better place to do that than the Grand Strand. 

When it was Richlands it was clearly recruiting -- but when it's Graham is just the Tony Palmer effect. Can't you see the difference?!?!

When it was Richlands it was clearly recruiting -- but when it's Graham is just the Tony Palmer effect. Can't you see the difference?!?!

He left it because he was disenchanted with the level of corruption in amateur (high school and collegiate) athletics.  Recruiting of high school athletes was a large piece of it.  The death knell for him was the Virginia General Assembly essentially enacting law that allows people and businesses to buy high school athletes effective July 1, 2023.  
 
I’ve spoken with him about it IRL and I’m comfortable sharing it.  I don’t reckon he would mind.

Deleted.

Or maybe Mance is decades older and at a point in his life where he wan'ts to coach football and play golf every day, and there's no better place to do that than the Grand Strand. 

I'll take any addendum that helps make my point stronger, LOL.  

As an aside, I vacation at the southern NC beaches, about 35 miles as the crow flies from Myrtle Beach.  The development that's going on, even with price tags of $500K+ for modest homes, is mesmerizing to me.  I wonder where this money's coming from.  I remember as a young child, being awestruck by a $900K price tag on a beachfront 3-story development.  That same home would run $3M+ today.

Nailed it.  

Or maybe…just maybe…he figured out that (1) he could draw full VRS while (2) teaching gut HS classes and coaching football while (3) living 20 minutes from the ocean and (4) being within 30 minutes of several world-renowned golf courses.
 
You show me a soul alive that wouldn’t make that trade in a heartbeat, and I’ll show you a liar.  
 
Mance wasn’t scared of Palmer.  If he were scared of challenges, he wouldn’t have gone to Loris, which was a doormat before him and now is competitive.  
 

Not all coaches who make that jump have success. I think Mance would be successful anywhere he went. Sounds like he has brought much success to his current team in South Carolina.

Mance appears to be successful in building a struggling Loris program. A dream scenario, but a Graham-Bluefield series with Mance at the helm of the Beavers would be interesting. No slight to Simon, he’s had the luxury of “out-talenting” most WV schools.

I can’t speak to this specifically, but with a similar formula for success (recruiting or otherwise), it can be argued the greater Bluefield area possesses much more local talent than Western Tazewell, Russell, Buchanan, or even southern McDowell County. 
 
Specific criticism aside, I think Mance and staff consistently exceeding talent expectations is just as impressive as Palmer and company maximizing the talent at his disposal. (See other thread). 
 
While thinking about it, it really impresses me how Vaught won titles at Lexington and Richlands despite controversy.

When it was Richlands it was clearly recruiting -- but when it's Graham is just the Tony Palmer effect. Can't you see the difference?!?!

When it was Richlands it was clearly recruiting -- but when it's Graham is just the Tony Palmer effect. Can't you see the difference?!?!

When it was Richlands it was clearly recruiting -- but when it's Graham is just the Tony Palmer effect. Can't you see the difference?!?!

It's not always as simple as "find the best game." It has to be 2 teams from within WCYB's coverage area playing against one another. So those big matchups of a Union/Graham, Narrows/Holston or Richlands/GC from back in the day wouldn't work. So that eliminates several good games by itself. And then the school has to actually agree to it. There are more than a half-dozen schools that will not let them come because they don't want to lose the gate money. They think it will actively hurt attendance. 

It's a super complicated process they go through, having seen it behind the scenes for many years. 

It's not always as simple as "find the best game." It has to be 2 teams from within WCYB's coverage area playing against one another. So those big matchups of a Union/Graham, Narrows/Holston or Richlands/GC from back in the day wouldn't work. So that eliminates several good games by itself. And then the school has to actually agree to it. There are more than a half-dozen schools that will not let them come because they don't want to lose the gate money. They think it will actively hurt attendance. 

It's a super complicated process they go through, having seen it behind the scenes for many years. 

It's not always as simple as "find the best game." It has to be 2 teams from within WCYB's coverage area playing against one another. So those big matchups of a Union/Graham, Narrows/Holston or Richlands/GC from back in the day wouldn't work. So that eliminates several good games by itself. And then the school has to actually agree to it. There are more than a half-dozen schools that will not let them come because they don't want to lose the gate money. They think it will actively hurt attendance. 

It's a super complicated process they go through, having seen it behind the scenes for many years. 

It's not always as simple as "find the best game." It has to be 2 teams from within WCYB's coverage area playing against one another. So those big matchups of a Union/Graham, Narrows/Holston or Richlands/GC from back in the day wouldn't work. So that eliminates several good games by itself. And then the school has to actually agree to it. There are more than a half-dozen schools that will not let them come because they don't want to lose the gate money. They think it will actively hurt attendance. 

It's a super complicated process they go through, having seen it behind the scenes for many years. 

I have a feeling Marion may surprise some people.  Excellent coach, 1 D1 football player on the roster.  They wont challenge for the district title but much better than previous seasons and not the team in the cellar.

Union:  "Why are you looking at me???"  

That is 100% accurate.  I attended that last two Ridgeview games at Big Stone Gap and that absolutely was the case.  RV burned two timeouts and had a false start early in the last game.  In both contests they blew the horn while RV QB was trying to have the ball snapped all the way through the play on their first half drives.  Now, here is the kicker, they stopped doing that in the second half with Union up comfortably.  Perhaps someone complained or they didn't think they needed to anymore.  Union holds on as RV makes a second half comeback in both situations.  I'm not making an inference but I'm just stating the facts of the matter. 
I don't care about the horn but I do care about grown ass men deliberately skirting rules so a 15 year old QB can't call a play.  Call me old-fashioned but if you want to be really loud then have your fans get off their ass and yell and holler and ring the heck out of their bells or whatever...just abide by the rules and VHSL does have written rules on this.  The violation is actually a fine IIRC, which was odd.  In my opinion, just tell the operator to stay within the rules and re-install the horn. Now, I actually had someone from the Gap say that some of the locals that lived near the park were pretty tired of the horn and that it was being used too much.  I'm not sure about that but I'm sure some of them weren't big fans.    

Well someone literally reported my post because I apparently can’t count correctly. 😂😂
According to our anonymous investigator there are 40 in the pic and 47 on the roster. 

Gentleman's agreement or not, Baker's injury was a fluky non-contact one. Yes, it happened in the benefit game but he literally was rolling out of the pocket and the ACL tore. One of the weirdest things I have witnessed in my life