Widespread_Panic

I don't think the best pitch for recruiting is "we share a field and locker room with a high school team".

This year? More like the last 5 years. The Hogo is the worst district for basketball in SWVA.

I believe Wesley Carter may be Lebanon's only senior that gets significant playing time.

Gate City - Andy Arnold & Luke Ervin VA High - Nick Howard & Zach Bossard JSB - Alex Posey & Matthew McMurray Lee - Adam Pendleton

You're exactly right Big O. As long Abingdon's AD stays the same the football team will continue to struggle. Why would he want to bring in a winner that could take away from the basketball program? The sad thing is a good coach could win a lot of games at Abingdon with the talent they have but it's not going to happen until changes take place with the administrators.

Yep. They have one more year and then they will go back to the cellar. Huge drop off in talent is coming in two years.

I'm guessing you haven't seen a BHC paper in the last three weeks. They've made him it out to be the next Nick Saban.

Any list without Tom Turner in the top 3 would be highly questionable. Appalachia football was what SWVA football is all about. Hard nosed kids, small numbers and state titles.

Abingdon will be tough with Hess and Owens returning. They will be making an appearance in the Arby's Classic.

Coming from you, I'll take that as a compliment, but in the meantime, take a look at the board of supervisors and city councils around SWVA. How many doctors, lawyers, professors, educators do you see on those boards? It's mostly local business owners or retirees who believe the education they received way back when is still good enough for everyone today so it's o.k. for the schools to go without. If you are of the opinion that they care about education then why do they continue to cut its funding?

Most of the people making the financial decisions (Board of Supervisors, City Councils, etc.) didn't make it past high school and therefore do not value the opportunities that come along with investing in education.

Without Paul Arnold Gate City will not be better than last year no matter how much the desire they possess. VA High is the team to beat followed by Gate City and then there's a big drop off in D2.

VA High is the team to beat this year in D2 for SWVA. Gate City lost two key players but will still be decent. After those two it's a big drop off in Region D.

Any info on Abingdon's numbers? Awfully quiet in Falcon land this summer.

I'd say it was higher than 30. More like 50 to 60 when you include Alexander and Dontae.

Did they learn from getting blown out by Gate City or did they improve because they went back to playing in the weak SWD? As for baseball, John Battle is average this year. Will probably finish 2nd or 3rd in the Clinch Mountain District. Abingon is way down from the last couple of years. Not much pitching and their offense is terrible. They'll probably finish 2nd or 3rd in the SWD due to the weak competition.

I'm going to disagree. The refs gift wrapped that game to Abingdon. The blocking call on Salem with 3 seconds left was a definitely a no call but that put Hess on the foul line. He hits 1 of 2 to go up 61 to 60 and that's the ball game. There's no way a ref at the state tournament blows the whistle in that situation. I was disappointed in Salem. I thought the River Ridge district would have much tougher teams but they were extremely slow and made several bad decisions on offense.

Lets save the State talk for after they've faced some real competition. Galax and East Mont. are no slouches and will give Hurley all they can handle. Region D Division 1 is not very good in comparison to those two teams.

Atown won by 15 or more. Carroll County hung around until half time but couldn't handle Abingdon's pressure. Does anyone know the regional seedings for the upcoming weekin AA D4?

I'm sure Christiansburg/Pulaski/Salem/Hidden Valley or any other D4 team from Region IV is really scared. SWD could possibly be the worst bball district in SWVA but the HOGO isn't far behind.

Lets say Atown wins the district tourney. Would they host a team from the River Ridge district (Hidden Valley, Cburg, or Salem) in the first round of regional play?

What's funny about this story is he's using another newspaper as his source because the Bristol Herald sports writers are too lazy to cover any high school basketball in person. They should shut down their paper and let the Kingsport Times take over.

This is exactly the problem with Abingdon and their fans. Abingdon has a 1000 students. Abingdon is a AA D4 school and they still consider Gate City to be a "big" game. If you lose to a single A (not even ranked in the top 10 in VA) by 30 points then you don't have a good team. When you play the Patrick Henry's, John Battle's, and VA High's of the world you're going to think you're good. How about playing some teams within your own division like a Christiansburg, Blacksburg, or Pulaski and see if you're able to compete. At least play some tougher single A schools like Radford instead of beating up on schools half your size.

I really hope Abingdon gets to face Christiansburg in regional play so you can get a taste of what a real AA Division 4 team is like. After that game reality might set in that for AA basketball the Falcons are not very good.

Marion's new coach is doing a bang up job over there. Geez. The year before Bailey arrives Marion is at the top of the district and winning region games. Two years later and they're in the cellar in possibly the worst district in SWVA besides the HOGO.