battleftbl

Cody Rogers has to have 600-700 yards rushing already. He ran for 150ish at Gate City this past Friday. He's not the power back like Meade, but if you give him a half inch of daylight...he's gone.

Cody Rogers- John Battle It'd be very hard to find a better football player in SWVA. Every time he touches the football...he is 1 missed tackle from taking it to the house. I dont think anyone in SWVA can catch him from behind.

You give that job to Dan Strong. lol. Go ahead. I dare you. Your program will go where Battle's came from. We had to take over for him in little kids 7 on 7 tourny at the Witten camp a few years ago.....because he doesnt know what he's doing and every word out of his mouth is a 4 letter word. Even with little kids. He'd make you a good one

Welcome back....Havent seen you in about a week.

Battle-7 Gate City-7 3rd quarter

Gate City 7 Battle 0 Halftime

Great article on Trey Jones. Trey has stepped up as a leader since he first stepped foot inside John Battle four years ago. Very deserving of being put in the spotlight this week. On the other hand... I'm sure Coach Wright isnt pleased with being put in the spotlight in the picture. He's an old school, team first guy. He'll be the first to tell you, credit goes to the kids. http://www2.tricities.com/sports/2012/oct/05/prep-football-trey-jones-hopes-help-battle-make-mo-ar-2259235/

I said just as many......That wasnt any disrespect to gate city.....just an opinon on the amount of people coming out to watch this Battle team. They'll pack the place tomorrow night.

I can promise one thing...it'll be packed. Last one off of exit 7 will turn out the lights. There will be just as many Battle fans there as Gate City fans. Should be a great game.

Here is a direct quote from an unnamed coach after watching the Battle/Abingdon game on film for scouting purposes. He went Bear Bryant on me by saying " Abingdon is slower than smoke off s*^t. Not going to speak on anyone's coaching...but they just dont have much team speed. They need to be more of a power running team with a good play action/screen game. The thing about that is...Abingdon isnt usually known for producing tough, physical kids which is a nice thing to have if you're run oriented team. I do agree that given their schedule, 4-6 wins is possible. The down side of that is that you get a low seed in the playoffs with that record and are completely overmatched in the Division 4 playoffs.

It was not school organized. The kids came up with it and made the banner together. Noone was forced into doing it. As for the audience.....dont like it, dont read it. Nothing forced.

I've seen blow out predictions going both ways for this one....... The only way this game will get ugly is if either team believes it'll be easy. Make no mistake about it..the CMD title goes through Gate City. They've owned it from day 1 of the CMD.....They're not going to just hand over that title without a fight.....especially at Legion Field. Gate City will play their best football game of the year Friday Night. On that note, the Trojans expect a knock down drag out game for 4 quarters. The thing that I hope they can overcome...is Legion Field and the name on the front of those Blue Jerseys. That alone has beat alot of teams through the years. They have to know that they're playing the 2012 devils...not the 1997, 2002, 2007 or 2010 Devils. They cant let tradition beat them. On another note.... JSB played their worst game of the season against VHS. VHS is improving though so who knows. I think at JSB's best and VHS's best.... Trojans are 14-21 points better. Thats no shot at VHS, they're just young. VHS has a chance to be special over the next couple of years. They're sort of taking the path that we did at Battle with this current SR class. These kids played on Varsity from day 1 and it's paying off now.

Anyone have a Gate City roster that I could get a copy of? Looked everywhere and cant find one anywhere.

Parents....you cant keep em' quiet. Always have to show off. You'd better be careful man, look what happened to USC because of Reggie Bush's parents.

And Gate City http://memegenerator.net/instance/27618806

lol, sorry Richlands. All in good humor http://memegenerator.net/instance/27612746

Yeah, this has really shown the support that our local communities have for each other. Virginia High, Patrick Henry and Abingdon all went out of their way to show support. It's been nice to see because like you said, sometimes we get to wrapped up in less important things to see the whole picture. Good post. I'm not sure how widespread the complaining is, but I have heard that some have complained. It's unfortunate that some people take shots, whenever possible. sad really

This is the sign that the Battle players and cheerleaders came up with to run through before the Abingdon game. Personally I'm proud of the kids for doing this sign. It goes far beyond a win on the football field. It's about coming together to overcome obstacles that life puts infront of us. More importantly, it's about a coach/AD thats loved by an entire community who is battling cancer. It's about an entire community coming together to support him in his fight. Looks like some people are making a big deal out of the sign, but IMO we need more of this, not less.

They are slightly entertaining. lol I'd say we'll see them about two weeks after the Richlands game. They'll lay low for a bit.

It was 38-7 in the 4th. Abingdon scored first on a long TD pass that was well defended but the reciever just came down with it. Battle reeled off 38 straight before Abingdon scored on the 2nd team defense. Battle has good team speed but the thing thats changed the most up there, is they're playing physical. If you notice on the video, even the backs are running physical. Most of those runs, the backs are the ones delivering the hits on the Abingdon defenders. It's been a process but the whole mentality has changed. Next week will be their proving ground. Should be a hard fought, physical football game. Noone can look at Gate City as a 1-4 football team. Just battle tested. They're 1-0 and playing for the CMD championship. Thats how they'll play, especially at Legion Field.

The article- http://www2.tricities.com/sports/2012/sep/29/battle-puts-end-falcon-follies-ar-2243778/ The Video- http://www2.tricities.com/sports/2012/sep/29/battle-ends-losing-streak-to-abingdon-m-36111-vi-41911/

Final Battle 38 Abingdon 14

The 8th grade team is very down. They have kids out but not any size. The JV team this season is also down. They have a few solid kids like the Cole and Denton kids. Reasons for the JV being down is that you still have a few kids like the Blaylocks that're playing varsity ball. They have decent skill players but there is a huge lack of lineman. The varsity team loses 3 out of 5 lineman after this year and they really need a few of those young kids to hit the weightroom hard in the offseason. If they can get that out of em, the varsity will have a very solid team next year also. They'll still have Honaker at QB along with Matney and Clark at Reciever. In the backfield they'll have Chapman and Harlow and Blaylock. After this 10th grade class graduates it could get interesting as far as having "lean years". But I'm telling you right now, regardless of a talent drop off.....Battle will not be as "lean" as it was before 4 years ago. Those kids will work their butts off in the offseason and will be competitive. Coach Wright wont accept anything but hard work out of them. That alone is worth 4 or 5 wins a year. Going Tim Tebow on you guy's here-- "Hard work beats talent when talent doesnt work hard".

I'm going with Battle 21 Abingdon 10 I do think it'll be 21-3 heading to the 4th and Abingdon will get a TD late. I'm thinking get the W and try to stay healthy. It will be very vanilla playcalling if the score dictates it. Gate City is up next and there is no reason to show more than needed. They'll love the PH tape they're getting. Be a good chance to watch the Battle 2nd team play 2 quarters of football and no passes after the first quarter. If the coaching staff can stay simple in this one, you better believe they will.

I'll start this post. Battle vs Abingdon, thoughts and predictions?