barondawg77

As a Graham fan are you sure you want to bring up videos that were posted on social media yesterday 🙊

Thanks for the trip down memory lane! I graduated from Tazewell the year before, coach Vaught was my o line coach my jr. year. I just talked to him this past weekend. As you said, he taught me more about football than any other coach I had. Love him or hate him, he was one heck of a football coach.

Enjoying being a Grandpa from our conversation lol

No Tarter was not an assistant.  There is no connection between this team and the 92 team, other than Brannon Breeding, who I believe is on staff under Tarter.  I was lucky enough to be a member of the 92 team, my ring still reads "State Champion."  Football has changed, the game, much like our society has become more about prestige and less workmanlike.  The teams were better, the players were tougher, the coaches were more focused on the fundamentals, and yes, better.  Dennis Vaught will always have nay-sayers, the people that know him and played for him know better.  In my opinion, he is the best pure football coach to ever walk the sidelines in Richlands.  If you want to talk about state titles, he won two titles with schools that never had won one before, Lexington and Richlands.  He was a throwback coach cast more in the mold of a Bear Bryant compared to today's coaches (high school and collegiate.)  In the past, I would get upset when people brought up the cleats.  Not so much now, my feelings are mixed.  I am grateful that my path crossed his as he taught me many lessons, more about life than football.  It also saddens me that the players on that team are not celebrated as they should be.  I am sure everyone remembers Breeding and Harrison.  There were others on that team that worked their asses off and did not waste their opportunity.  Yancy Tabor was the tackle that no one knows, yet he is probably the best pure OL technician to ever play at Richlands.  Chris Crawford and Brian Triplett were the guards and Adam Yost was the other tackle, all supremely talented.  The center was Sam Barnett.  Willis White himself remarked at the VHSL All-Star game in 92 that Barnett was the best High School center that he ever saw.  There were Brad Salyers, Terry Monk and Brad Davis, all three exceptional and all three taken from us way too soon.  The assistant coaches were all tremendous as well.  Richie Thomas, Brian Johnson, Dennis Palmer (probably the best football coach in SWVA right now), Terry Wess...etc.  With the mention of the Marion game, I remember that it was a very sloppy field and Marion had run the double wing with a 5'8" 240 lb. full back or "B" back.  That guy was impressive and had no quit in him.  The mud made him impossible to bring down.  The game winner was rung up by Josh Perkins who by far was the best kicker ever at Richlands at that point in history.  They have had a few good ones since.  Also, Powell Valley pushed us to the brink in Big Stone as we slipped by them 16 to 15, I think.  Many good local teams then.

May not be a game between Va High and Tazewell either. Just what I hear. Hang me if you want! lol

I was disappointed the Blues didn't win.  In my local newspaper this morning they had a picture of Chancellor Harris running down the field after the win.  Seeing the joy on this young man's face took the sting of the loss away.  17 years they waited, a long time.  How some can fault a town wanting to celebrate a win for these young men, I don't understand.  In the story line, Josh Herndon talked about the middle school coach of these young men, and how the Dawgs went undefeated that year.  That coach was Stevie Mitchem, now deceased.  I knew Stevie well, we went to church together.  On Sunday morning during football season, because of my Richlands football ties, he was always ribbing me about the Blues.  I remember his funeral service and a group of young men in their football jerseys.  This was the young men that won yesterday.  I looked back at Stevie's obituary card and saw the date of his funeral was March 11th. Four years and two days after honoring their middle school coach, their dream came true.  If Stevie had been here, he would have been cheering the loudest for these young men.  

I'm not watching the game, but I'm listening to UVAObserver doing the Tazewell broadcast on the Tazewell Bulldog Radio Network...he's telling me everything that's going on, and it's awesome.  He's new to the broadcasting game but he's the second best around for high school football behind The Legend, Jim Nelson.

Every group of fans has the jackwagons that makes the remainder look bad.  I must say, I was extremely impressed by (and thankful for) at how we were treated by Riverheads today.  Every last person, to a fault, was gracious and accommodating.  They are certainly proud of their team, with good reason.  Certainly saw the good side of a collection of fans that are maligned quite a bit.

And Chris Patton, Mark "Caveman" Cundiff".  and many more.  I believe the duo of Eddie "Hit man" Hall and Mark "Cave Man" Cundiff would be my pick as the top linebacking duo to come through Graham High School.  Terry may have been a better LB then his brother Eddie.

That’s usually the sign of (1) a talented team with zero discipline and coaching or (2) a team devoid of talent with good coaching that plays hard.  Given that much of Lebanon’s talent is on a wrestling mat, I’d go with #2 (based on what I’ve seen).

3a and up is already doing the 16man brackets. 1a and 2a are doing the 12 man brackets. WHEN and if they combine it will go from 6 to 4 classifications par some VHSL dude that came asking us in that long ass line to get in to the finals and the guy beside me brought it up. He said thats what they are looking at (4 Classes). He also said it be 2022 before it would take place. So we wait and see. 

There was a lot of discussion about what to do as far as Districts & Regions with combined 1A/2A format.  Two ways of doing it were talked about. 
#1:  Each Region have District Tournaments for Regional Seeding, then an All-In Regional with 1A & 2A wrestlers.  Top 4 from each Region to the State/16 Man Bracket
#2:  Use Half State Format. Each Region use Districts Date for All-In Sub-Regional.  Top 8 from Sub-Regionals advance to Half State.  A & B together & C & D together.
Half State will use 16 Man Bracket as 8 advance from each Sub-Regional.  Top 8 from East & West Half States advance to State using 16 Man Bracket
This format was used for a few years when the VHSL used Half States and worked very well with 6 from each Half State advancing to State Tournament.  1A still uses this format.

It was really fun to watch the finals this year in 2a. Region D pulled off 6 championship wins in a row. It was great.  We may not have the numbers we used to have but the quality is still there. 

Well your life is in jeopardy! Because both players that were ejected was for running their mouths!

I'm hoping for Graham to set a VHSL scoring record.

I’m actually very interested in this.  He was an unmitigated disaster at Central, but he put up gaudy numbers at Abingdon with Colobro holding his hand.  He’s inheriting a .500-ish team that could go any direction, and his results would solve the riddle once and for all.

Josh Spurlin from Galax signed a LOI to wrestle at Appalachian State.  Spurlin finished his 4-year career at Galax with a 133-16 record and 4 consecutive state championships.

I don't know him personally but have heard some really good things.  Ironically, several current members of the Grayson wrestling team transferred from Galax when Coman was hired.  Two of them finished 4th in the state tournament. 

Grayson also has one othe most underrated coaches in the area as well. Coach Coman has done very well in his short tenure so far. 

Grayson will be very competitive on a state level coming down to Class 1 next year.  They only had 3 seniors on this team.  None of which competed in the regional or state tournament if I recall correctly. 

Boneheaded move by the Graham coach. The protest at the coin toss was fine, but you at least play one or two plays of the game in which you know the ineligible players are on the field for Tazewell.  If that happens, Graham would have got the decision and win, but by not playing one play, Tazewell should have that victory in the record books because ineligible players are only ineligible once they have played a snap and if the game hasn't kicked off, it's a forfeit. 

Can Graham get a competent announcer next season.

I wouldn’t look into the yardage totals too much. 
Radford picked up a mishandled field goal try and returned it for a TD taking away one full offensive possession for the Bobcats and Appomattox fumbled a kickoff that recovered deep in Appo’s territory in which radford only had to go 25ish yards to score. 
That’s two separate times that radfords offense didn’t get a chance to drive the length of the field. They were moving the ball well enough that they could’ve easily matched or eclipsed Appomattox in total yards if they had those normal possessions. 

Gotta love “grown ups” hiding behind a keyboard calling kids out by name for as  a “joke”being recognized for a good season. If there are kids from “your” team that you have a problem with take it up with your HC. I strongly doubt any kid on this list was missing practice every week. 

That is a trip I urge everyone to make one time, just to remind yourself how good and valuable life is.