battleftbl

He's a Virginia High Bearcat supporter from the look of his posts on here, the old clinch mountain board and the new mountain district forum.

Guys... hope that didn't come across as arrogant. The kids on Battle's team are far from arrogant...that goes for the fan base also. Just tired of seeing this guy pop up on every Battle thread opened on 2 or 3 sports boards. Also, the last thing I want to do is put down the VHS program especially the kids that are busting their butts trying to get better this year. I Wish them nothing but the best.

Nevermind..... I did the research myself. You have to go all the way back to 2009 to come up with 23 wins....and over that time you have 23 losses. As a matter of fact...you've had 2 winning seasons since 2004 and neither of them were anything close to the success that's going on up at Battle... your best season was 7-4.

Let's put it like this.... Battle won more playoff games last year....3.... than Virginia High has won in the last 10 years I'd guess? All of those years of beating Battle in a row... I've got a little secret for you, it wasn't because Virginia High had good teams. Virginia High always has an average team and has athletes...but if we're talking about results, the bearcats haven't been relevant in SWVA football as long as I've been alive. The best group I'd guess is the group in the late 80's with Lucky Daggs? I may be wrong on that name but even they didn't do a whole lot as far as playoffs are concerned. Going back to last year... Battle is 17-2. If you want to go back 3 years... Battle is 23-6. How many years do you have to count back to get 23 wins for Virginia High? During that time span...how many losses did they have? Before you bring up Battle's past... I'm from Appalachia bud.....don't go talking about playoffs and such to me. I've been through more towns because of the state playoffs than you've traveled through in your entire life most likely. Go troll somewhere else bud, because you're just making yourself look ignorant at this point.

Battle did just fine in the playoffs last year. Most teams play their games on Friday nights now anyway. I do think that the Saturday away game in Honaker led to Battle being a little flat..but that wasn't why they lost the game. That was their 1st game without Cody Rogers and the offense was completely out of whack and it took them about a game and a half to figure things out honestly. The offense couldn't move the ball and the Defense that'd made stops the entire 1st half just wore down. Honaker went to an unbalanced line and started pounding the football and the defense just couldn't get stops as the 2nd half progressed. Honaker played a heck of a game up there last year.... to say that a Saturday game was the reason for the loss is just disrespecting that team. This IMO is one of the best series in SWVA over the past 4-5 years and will continue to be. Going to be a good one on Battle hill Friday night. IMO, the Battle line is the only ? on this years team....and we'll find out a lot about it tomorrow night. It'll give us a good indication of where the Trojans stand with games coming up against Gate City, Lee High and the toughest game of the season in....Union.

63-0, 70-0...77-0? Mullins choice really.

It'll be ugly. Those Cumberland teams have been thrown to the wolves. No chance against the Wave.

PH has the right man in place to turn the program around. I think that is pretty obvious just from watching them improve over the past few years. With that said... You don't go from from 1-9 to 10-0 over night. Most people think that Battle did but I was there....Let me explain. We went 0-10 in 2008...3-7 in 2009 by playing a lot of young kids. 4-6 in 2010, 6-4 in 2011 and earned a playoff birth with those same young kids we started in 2009. Last year those young kids were SR's and had set a great example for the kids that were following them as far as work ethic goes. They went 9-1 and advanced on to the state semifinals. That work ethic that they've passed on to the kids below them is showing up this season. It's a process....it doesn't happen overnight. That's why I hate to see programs fire coaches every 2-3 years. You never get anywhere, just ask John Battle fans. Give Palmer time and he'll have PH competing with good teams. Anyone that is giving PH a hard time over their "weak" schedule is crazy. You have to start somewhere, you have to build a winning attitude within your program. At Battle...our 3 wins in 2009 came against Twin Springs, Patrick Henry and Castlewood. As coaches, we knew we had a long way to go...but it gave our kids confidence that their work was paying off to a degree...and made them want to invest even more into the program. In 2010..our 4 wins came against Twin Springs, Holston, Patrick Henry and.. Honaker!. We all remember what happened that year to derail the season...but that Honaker win was our 1st signature win and we built off of that in the off-season. The next year was a 6-4 year with a playoff loss to the eventual D2 state champion Gretna. Still not great but we kept improving with each year...... and then Last year they made it all the way to the state semifinals. All of that, to get to this---- PH fans/players shouldn't get discouraged after this Friday night. I think that Battle will win this game by 3-4 td's but PH has a shot to win 4-6 games this year. That is a tremendous amount of progress no matter who the wins come against. It's a process and can be tough...but you've got to crawl before you can walk. Be patient and enjoy the process.

Lebanon deserves a lot of credit as they came out very determined and controlled the ball in the first half.. Battle couldn't get much going early which resulted in a 14-0 Lebanon lead. At that point, Battle opened up the offense completing 17-19 passes for 312 yards through the air. It seems that someone always steps up when Battle needs it the most and last night it was 4-5 kids coming up with big plays. Coaching staff deserves a credit for opening it up when needed also. It looks like Lebanon is on the right path. They're playing a bunch of young kids and they've given both Honaker and Battle a tough fight for 2 quarters. As soon as those kids start putting 4 quarters together, they'll be a very dangerous team for anyone to play.

You usually don't hear coaches talk about other teams that's not on their schedule. Just thought this was a great compliment to what the coaches and players are doing up at Battle. Here is part of the article in the BHC. BRISTOL, Tenn. – Like thousands of others in the area last week, Tennessee High coach Mike Mays spent his Friday night on Battle Hill watching the Trojans take down Virginia High once again. While Mays may have picked up a few tips for facing the Bearcats in tonight’s 97th clash between the two Bristol city schools, what stuck out in his mind was something familiar about the guys in green on defense. Namely, he caught a glimpse of Christian Gibson and Ryan Fleenor. “We watched Battle play the other night and I love to watch Battle because they remind me of a bunch of Gibbys and Fleenors,†Mays said. “They’re not real big, but they’re physical and they hit and they tackle. … If we can get our defense to play like their defense, we’ll be in good shape.â€

You should be worried why Virginia High is a paper champion. God knows they have no hardware in the trophy case for football. I nominate this for quote of the year!

I worded that wrong.... They ran the CB off or atleast sent a receiver deep to block the CB after the catch. They had the OLB matched up on the out and up. The OLB jumped the out route and the receiver was already starting to cut up field. The QB for some reason threw the out route instead waiting for the receiver to cut up field. If he had waited....it was honestly a foot race if they could've had 1 block on the CB. Go back and watch the tape... Mance had exactly what he wanted but that's the thing with High School Football..... what coaches want and what a 16 year old kid does...isn't always the same thing. lol Great game, great finish. I'm all for a rematch come playoff time.

It was a terrible play call by Mance...but let me explain what was called and where it went wrong. They ran the 1 defender off leaving 1 on 1 to the outside. The receiver was running and out and up. The corner jumped the out route and the receiver had him beat on the deep route. The only problem is that the QB threw the ball on the out pattern and never let the play develop. Oops.

There will be no blow out win for either team. It's going to be much like the last couple of games, hard fought with turnovers being the key. The largest difference between Battle and VHS over the past couple of years has been discipline. A lot of that has been the youth of VHS though and they're not so young anymore. Battle doesn't make mistakes very often.They make people earn wins. They don't miss tackles, they don't get penalized very often and they don't turn the ball over much. People talked last year about moving the ball on Battle and they will again this year. But moving the ball and scoring are 2 different things. They don't really mind if you gain 40 yards on a drive honestly. Battle's defense is built on making tackles and keeping things in front of them. It takes a very disciplined team to repeatedly drive 70 yards 3 and 4 yards at a time without stopping their self at some point by penalties or a turnover. Even a run oriented attack in Giles couldn't do it last year. Steve Wright is one of the best coaches in the state. You guys think about this... let this soak in--- He has taken Marion and John Battle to State semifinal appearances! That's no disrespect to either program, just giving him much deserved credit. I'm honestly not sure which team walks out victorious this Friday, but I do know that nothing will be easy. Should be another great ball game for both fan bases to watch. It's nice to see this "rivalry" actually becoming a rivalry! IMO, 2 solid football teams that have the potential to make some noise come playoff time.

How about we just let the year play out and see how it goes. It's very early. I agree with Thomas, both teams should be focused on the next game at this point.

34-0 in the 2nd half, multiple players cramping up and a young team. I think a let down of Battle as far as intensity goes contributed to Abingdon's success. Abingdon had a few turnovers...mostly forced since Battle's front was playing in Abingdon's backfield the entire 1st half. I've coached the QB in the past...and I'd put money on him being a top 3 passing QB in SWVA. Coach Wright isn't going to pass the football with a big lead, you can forget it. On the same note....if anyone decides they want to load the box on Battle, the kid will throw for 200+. The teams that will give Battle a very hard time is teams with Big experienced lines. Battle is very young, inexperienced up front. Fort Chiswell is a good example but I cant see many teams staying with them this year. IMO, Honaker, Union and Lee High will give Battle the toughest tests on the regular season schedule because of the Line. I fully expect Battle and VHS to be another highly competitive ball game that could go either way. Excuses is a common theme in Abingdon...... but the truth is that you lost to a Division 1, Cumberland District Eastside team in a benefit game...and it's a 2 year losing streak to John Battle. Outside of 1 sophomore, Abingdon has zero team speed and it's really going to hurt them through out the season.. It's going to be a long...long year in A-town.

Safety on intentional grounding call. Battle up 36-20 and has possession of the ball. Under 3 minutes to go

Battle stopped after 3 quarters from the sound of it. Better get it together quick. Playing a lot of inexperienced kids and this will be a great teaching tool for Coach Wright. Just have to finish it off though

34-6 Battle over Abingdon. Birds having their feathers plucked

Battle 28 Abingdon 0

Union and Tennessee High played a very evenly matched scrimmage. Union is a senior heavy team and look much improved over last season. It's early, but they're looking every bit of being SWVA's best team.

All I'm going to say...and I wont elaborate any further......is this was small town politics at it's best. Coach Taylor is a great hire for them and he's very deserving of this position. With that said, Scammell got a raw deal. I don't think he'll be out of a coaching job for very long.

Would love to get the word to those 2. Was told that they didn't have anyone to put in the game. If anyone on here knows them, pm me for more information.

Still working on finalizing them and getting a game program together. Added a few more kids from Union tonight. We have a few from Richlands also. Having trouble getting kids from Graham, Tazewell and a few of those schools so if anyone has a kid in mind, please let me know.

Everyone come out and catch an early football game. Schools from all over SWVA will be represented by last years SR's. The game will be Saturday July 20th at Virginia High in Bristol. Kickoff is set for 7:00pm. If anyone has any late suggestions as far as athletes go, please feel free to suggest them. It's late, but not to late. Want to get the best athletes possible on the field Saturday. If the athletes wish, dorms at Virginia Intermont are available for the 18th and 19th. A dinner Banquet will be held Friday Night before the game.