Great City

I have known Darren a long time. He knows his X's & O's, and is a good DC. He will motivate kids playing for him. Give him a D, and he will get the most out of those kids. He is not a butt kisser, and will not go out of his way to try and appease administration or community leaders. Hell, he will not worry about appeasing them if they come to him. He does not care how he "rubs" people. Not exactly warm and fuzzy. :) I believe most of the GC fans realize what a bad situation our football program is in right now. We are not just a HC away from turning this program around in a couple of years. Not even close. Our numbers are down, and our talent is down. With a great HC we might be able to survive one of those. With both of those....and throwing Akers in the mix............the end is not in sight. There is not a HC in America that could turn the program around in a couple of years. And no..........I do not believe Akers is the answer. Actually believe he would not have been the HC this year if the Powers That Be thought they could have found a better candidate.............that should speak volumes about the state of our program. I hope I am wrong, but I believe the best case scenario is us being back to "us" in around 5-7 years.

Heard last night that Calhoun was injured and out for the year. Hope that is not true. He was going to be a bright spot for us.

Yeah...…….the AD has absolutely destroyed the basketball program. Just take a look at the team's record the last 10 years. Terribly embarrassing. Pretty much the same case for the volleyball and girls tennis teams. Think we only have 7-8 state championships in those sports the last 10 years. Realize that pretty much all other schools have many more state championships the last 10 years. SMH Not sure people realize how much (little) true control the AD has over the programs. If you are going to blame the man for the woes of the football team, shouldn't you give him credit for the success of the other teams? Our football program is the only sport at GC that has tumbled this far. It is in a terrible place. A place we do not escape from in a couple of years. Not sure we will be in a much better place in 5 years. Our teams the last few years have suffered from a lack of talent. Apologies to parents who have had kids on the team the last few years, but the OVERALL talent of those teams pale in comparison to the GC teams that came before them...…..and it is not even close. We may have the talent walking the halls. Do not know. Coaching? Do not know where to begin. I do not believe Akers is HC material. Unfortunately, do not believe Reed is either. A good DC....yes. With the current state of the program I do not believe we are going to be able to hire a successful, established coach. Going to have to roll the dice on a young coach who can get kids out of the halls and on the team. I will be at Legion Field supporting the team this year...……...just like I have the last 30 years.

Darren is much better as a DC than a HC. He is prob not our answer at HC, but can coach the D and will hopefully get some kids out of the halls and on the team.

Central has a chance to be very good. Union will always be competitive. Not sure what Graham has returning. Expect GC to be very good. Hard not to pick Radford as the favorite after watching them last year.

https://www.wjhl.com/sports/gate-city-s-mac-mcclung-shining-early-in-kenner-league/1290807785

It is my understanding (although I am wrong a lot) that there is some sort of scheduling problem. Something like.......some M7 Tournaments were scheduled to start early next week..........and some of Abingdon's Regional Tournaments were also scheduled to start next week. The M7 tried to move up some of the District Tournament games to this weekend to give Abingdon a chance to participate, but weather at the end of this week messed up those plans. The M7 ADs decided to boot Abingdon instead of canceling the entire tournaments. I am repeating third-hand information, so take it with a grain of salt.

http://www.heraldcourier.com/sports/boys-basketball-coach-of-the-year-gate-city-s-scott/article_71d50b4a-3918-11e8-880f-5f1c19ff55e7.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=user-share

Believe Graham started 4 seniors tonight.

This time of the year, ALL teams left are good. Everyone is capable of beating everyone else. Will just depend on who plays their best game. If the GC team that played at Radford shows up, GC wins by 10+. If the GC team that played Graham last time shows up, we lose by 10+. Mac had is lowest scoring game of the season against Radford, but may have played his best overall game.

Guess you got me. GC just held Union to 47 in their last game, and won 82-47 for a 35 point margin of victory. Guess that means Graham is 5 points better than GC. I may just skip the game on Saturday. :)

I think all of the attention on GC is good for Graham. GC has ALL of the pressure. Graham is supposed to lose. They can come in, and play loose with no pressure. I do not see it as a big stretch for GC to lose to Graham on Saturday (assuming we both get there). GC historically does not shoot the ball very well at UVA - Wise, and will be playing with all of the pressure. Is a recipe for a loss. I am probably in the minority here, but I believe a Graham win over GC would not be the worst thing to happen. We have played sloppy for large stretches this season. A loss to Graham might get us focused. "Graham beat an M7 team by 31 last night and held them to 46..." GC played arguably their worst half of basketball all year, and beat a SWD team by 37 last night and held them to 43. At the end of the day, both of those stats mean Jack Feces. This time of the year it is about match ups, and who plays their best game. If we play our best game, are hitting the 3s, and driving to the basket & getting fouled........believe we have a shot at a state championship. If those things do not happen.........we could lose Friday. But...........back to the original topic.................. I HOPE Mac gets the all-time scoring record, but do not believe he will do so. Think I read that we need to make it to the state finals and him average 33 a game to set the record. After our performance in the first half last night, I worry about us making it to the finals. I would also assume his scoring average may dip slightly as we (hopefully) progress. Plus.......he has left a lot of points on the floor this year. There have been many times where he has tried to be a little too fancy and give the crowd what they want to see, and ended up not scoring at all. Believe he would already have the record if he had focused more on just scoring........of course we fans love the under the leg, and 360 dunks. Would have been good for the team to have gotten the all-time scoring record out of the way already and switched the focus solely to a state championship. Last night we did not handle the pressure of the single season record very well.

I do not know Coach Johnson, have no idea about his past, or his past history with officials. The most unfair thing is if the Coach's behavior is affecting his team's ability to play/win. The officials most certainly should have made an example of Coach Johnson last night. Coach Johnson was showing how to NOT act and behave. The officials showed what happens when you behave that way. They should have made that example much earlier in the game.

As a GC fan, I do not believe that flagrant foul call was accurate. IMHO, the refs could sense things getting out of hand and were trying to tighten up their calls. They should have done so sooner. After that foul they started calling almost everything. The Abingdon coach ran his mouth to the officials all night. He should have received a technical much earlier. He ran his mouth during that timeout. The official walked away from the coach and went to the scorer's table to call the technical. That coach also had some verbal exchanges with GC fans who were in the stands across the gym from him. Not exactly the way to endear yourself to the fans. GC's game is shooting the three, and driving to the basket. We had better be shooting more free throws than our opponent, or we are in trouble. Abingdon just does not match up well with GC this year. We are much quicker and faster. Abingdon kids got frustrated, and were reaching all night. Their game plan was to be physical and contest every shot. They were, and they did. Led to a lot of fouls being called.

Abingdon coach had been asking for a technical all night. Should have gotten one much sooner. Just running his mouth to the officials. I was fairly close to him. Could hear some of the stuff he was saying. Pretty much blaming the officials for their poor showing. The player only got in the game near the end. He committed a hard foul, and ended up on top of the GC player. Heck of a tackle actually. Was called for the foul. Apparently he did not approve. First technical was for running his mouth. Bumping an official got him the second technical.

http://www.nbcsports.com/washington/ncaa/meet-georgetown-commit-max-mcclung-most-exciting-dunker-2018

.......or maybe it has already come around?

Dang. Can't believe I brain farted like that. Was talking to my brother during the JV game about how we did not believe any of those kids played football. My bad.

Not sure of their record. Will be playing for the JV Championship Monday night at GC. Scrappy kids. Pretty decent team. Do not want to start another thread for this either..........but I do not believe we have one kid on either JV or Varsity that also plays football. Not sure in the history of GC has that ever happened. Maybe I am wrong.

Obviously I am a GC fan, so might be just a tad biased. :) Fairly obvious (to me) that this is a special team. How many other teams in far SWVA can you say the following about? To get a decent seat at a home game, you have to be in the gym between 4:30 - 5:00. Probably earlier for the rest of the home games. You also have to be early at away games if you want a seat. All schools where we play are benefiting from the huge crowds. Home games are projected on a wall in the cafeteria. GC shut down The Arby's. The next two home games (Ridgeview and Daniel Boone) will be broadcast live on FB. GC has two legitimate D1 prospects. GC has a kid with a real shot (pun intended) at becoming Virginia's all time leading scorer. Same kid could also set the single season scoring record.....moving ahead of some guy named Iverson. GC has provided national attention to basketball in far SWVA. (Wonder how many underclassman from other teams have received exposure from the success GC is having this year?) NOT saying GC will win a state championship. Just saying that this team has probably the best shot of any team to ever come out of far SWVA. (Radford has a shot this year as a 2A team, but I really do not consider them FAR SWVA.) IF you think this team has the best chance of any 2A team to ever come from far SWVA to win a state championship, doesn't that automatically make them "special"? Honestly.......if we play our "A" game, do not believe there is a FAR SWVA team that can play with us, and do not believe there is a 2A team in VA that we cannot beat. How often can you say that about a 2A team from far SWVA? If we do not play our A game, GC is very beatable. We NEED to be hitting 3s to play our best game. We have had games where we make 14-16 of them, and then have games where we make 4. We are also a turned ankle or stomach bug away from making an early exit from postseason. Teams with a dominant post player are going to cause us problems. All year we have played to our level of competition. That worries me some. The GC team that took the floor at The Arby's and against Cleveland, is not the same GC team I have watched just going through the motions at other games. Maroons67 pointed out my biggest worry......an injury late in the game. Again....Scotty & the team are in a no-win situation. You have a kid with a real shot at setting two VHSL Records, gyms full of people who came to see the kid play (see The Arby's), and the job of preparing your team for a state championship run......versus.....running up the score, and an injury late in the game. Truthfully, injuries can happen at any point during the game. Should Scotty take Mac/Zac/Dean out of the game in the second quarter if GC is up by 30 and not play them again unless the score gets closer? That would provide the most injury protection, but not sure that would be doing what is best for the team. (BTW.....where were all you people in football season when we were getting our behinds handed to us? Don't remember a lot of people coming out of the woodwork saying teams should take it easy on us. Just saying. :) ) Some of those old PV football teams were special. Ryan pointed out the big difference. Is fairly common for far SWVA to produce championship caliber football teams. Far SWVA has 2A State Champions in baseball, girls basketball, girls tennis, boys tennis, softball, etc.... How long has it been since far SWVA has produced a 2A State Champion in basketball? Go look it up. I'll wait. (again......NOT saying GC WILL win a state championship. just trying to point out how "special" it is that GC is legitimately in the mix for a state championship.)

Right! You see............ALL GC fans are the same. Just like ALL fans from ALL other schools are the same. Heck.........really.........all people in defined groups are the same. Same thoughts. Same beliefs. Same.....well........everything. Everyone knows this. Right?

Scotty is in a no win situation. If you pull the starters early......fans are upset because they came to see the starters put on a show, and he is not doing the best job of preparing his team for down the road. If you do not pull the starters early..........fans are upset because you are running up the score. This is a special 2A team, with a special player. A group like this does not come around very often. Got to do what you can to prepare them for a run at a state championship. At least we are bringing a boat load of fans to the away games, and providing an excellent gate.