sixcat

When someone is used to mark time, they are usually pretty special at what they do. Athletics as a whole in Galax are defined by Pre-Dixon and Post-Dixon! I will let others research the lack of athletic achievement prior to his arrival in 2010 compared to what has been accomplished since his arrival. And it's not just centered around football!

https://www.roanoke.com/sports/building-blocks-to-success-weightlifting-programs-at-lord-botetourt-and/article_f4ea61a9-1451-5bc4-8085-8220f87dfa22.html

Union Abingdon Princeton Ft. Chiswell Blacksburg Radford Central Richlands Tennessee Ridgeview Grayson Co. Lebanon Chilhowie Bland Glenvar East Mont. Narrows Hurley Twin Valley Patrick Henry Northwood West Greene G(s)otW Bluefield 52 Virginia 52

East Chapel Hill cancelled football for 2017. Neighboring Cedar Ridge has also cancelled football for 2018. East Chapel Hill has 44 wins in school history and no playoff history whatsoever. Chapel Hill is 2-13 lifetime in the postseason and hasn’t made the playoffs since 2008. Cedar Ridge hasn’t fielded a competitive team since 2007. Its not demographics in the Chapel Hill area. They haven’t valued football in that region in forever!

Fort has some nice talent coming up right now. And a lot of them.

The School formerly known as Shawsville. Montgomery County along 460 between Christiansburg and Salem.

Galax beat Floyd 39-19. Galax is young in several spots on the field and it showed at times. Two turnovers inside the 10 as a result of players being out of position. But that’s what these games are for. Galax has a lot of talent though with more depth than I can remember Dixon having in his career. Not much drop in talent when the Galax reserves entered the game. Floyd was big up front but got pushed around all night by the smaller Galax linemen. Floyd did have 57 players by my count. Dixon has developed a passing attack. First time I can recall a Dixon coached team throw more than run. They have a decision to make at QB. Both played extremely well.

^^^This^^^

I know better than to get involved in these "territorial pissings" but a few of these comments smack of racism and I'm reasonably certain Thomas Jones isn't one of the posters! Says more about the poster than the subject of the post!

Now that you mention it, I haven't seen a single letter jacket in Galax in at least a decade!

That's what I have grown to love about 8-man developmental football (sandlot levels). Two coaches with 11 players on a roster equates to more fundamental instruction per kid. An 11-man sandlot team with two coaches and 23 players would not allow the coaches to provide as much instruction per kid. They concentrate on the best dozen and the rest end up quitting before high school. Some dad's don't like it because it looks different but the fundamental game is the same. Rather than 7 on the line, nobody covered-up allowed downfield, it's 5 on the line, nobody covered up downfield. It has actually benefited Galax by having WR's learn at an early age, blocking is imperative. I've actually found a remarkable number of dad's, at least locally, who complain about 8-man, have no clue about basic fundamental rules of football in general. Like downfield eligibility (covered up). 8-man doesn't mean flag football rules where everyone but the center can go downfield for a pass. And we've had coaches actually attempt to send the guard downfield and then throw a temper tantrum when it's flagged. But some seem convinced of something they actually don't understand.

Coach Dixon developed 8-man sandlot for the Galax Recreation Department several years ago. It's been wildly successful in keeping kids interested who would have otherwise, dropped away because they weren't utilized much at the sandlot levels. Some look at Galax having 27 kids on the varsity football team as something of a negative. Dixon knows those 27 players will all contribute in some way. Most schools, especially those in Class 1, would love to have 27 kids who are ready to contribute at the varsity level. And that has been true for the duration of Dixon's time as the football coach at Galax. His direct quote in the Galax Gazette following last weeks scrimmage with Mount Airy read "I've got more kids at this time of year than ever before in terms of I think we can play 23-24 kids on a regular basis, all over, rotating. A lot of kids with the same skill-set. Young in the right places, old in the right places. The enemy of being great is being good. We've had several years here where we've been good but we haven't been great. We've got to make a change to be great and that's a hard sell to kids sometimes." In part, Dixon is referring to kids (and parents) buying into the 8-man program. It keeps more kids on the field rather than sandlot coaches playing their best 11 with a roster of 18. Those remaining 7 players usually never participate beyond the sandlot level and it hurts football development in later years. Imagine a sandlot team with "a lot of kids with the same skill-set." The fastest kid, coaches kids or maybe the kid who has developed bit quicker at age 12 will be the one playing while the other 2 or 3 kids will be sitting. In 8-man, if done properly, teams only have 10 to 11 players on the roster and every kid must play at least half the snaps in a game. They all play and learn how to have value as a member of the team. Some rules are tweaked but the fundamentals are still there. The Galax varsity football program is a shining example of how it can have a "trickle up" effect. Kids who would have likely fallen away, are staying in football.

I think this may be a bigger issue than most realize. County consolidation in SWVA and urban sprawl in NOVA/Richmond/Tidewater have created a sort-of disconnect within what used to be tight-knit communities. Folks took pride in those communities and that usually centered around the local school system. That has gotten lost with NOVA/Tidewater/Richmond having built several new schools every year for several decades and SWVA losing the town supported schools in favor of a large, nondescript county school.

A friend of ours living in that area told us PV-Sterling could have fielded four varsity soccer teams last spring given the number of kids who tried out.

Dam, somebody gonna need a lot of peanut butter to go with all that jelly!

Park View - Sterling has an enrollment of approximately 1,450 students. We have some close friends with two boys in that school system. It's my understanding, they had 18 kids come out for football with 14 of those never having played anything more than flag football. It's not as big a loss or disappointment to that community as it would be for others. According to a Yahoo Sports article from a couple days ago, PV-Sterling also has several kids of former NFL players among it's student body. Centennial High in neighboring Maryland cancelled last football season at about this time last year. They will field a team this season with 25 players and no JV program. Two high schools in Indiana and one in Chicago recently cancelled this upcoming season for lack of participation. It's a growing trend that isn't going to stop, I'm afraid.

Galax scrimmaged Mount Airy to what I would considered a draw yesterday afternoon. The Galax pass defense needs some work but the rush defense and offense looked very good. Mount Airy reached the state finals last year and have failed to reach the state quarterfinals only a couple of times in about a dozen years. Exceptional program! They have a star WR named Donovan Greene who has committed to play at Duke.

Virginia first made the Little League World Series in 1948 and have not made it since 1994. The list of participants from Virginia are as follows. 1948 - Alexandria 1953 - Front Royal 1954 - Hampton 1968 - Richmond 1972 - Vienna 1976 - Richmond 1993 - Richmond 1994 - Springfield

The team from Patrick lost to Louisiana 7-1 last night. They will face Arkansas again tonight at 6:30.

Galax hosts Mount Airy (NC) Wednesday afternoon at 5pm for a scrimmage and Floyd next Friday at 7pm for a benefit game.

The team from Patrick County is representing Virginia in the Dixie Youth World Series. I grew up in Fries playing baseball with one of the coaches of the team. He has a son on the team. They are 2-0 with wins over Texas (6-0) and Arkansas (7-6). They play Louisiana tonight at 8:00. https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.leagueathletics.com/Images/Club/22268/2018OZONEws-Final.pdf

I saw a few performing community service last week. It's my understanding, they weren't given the option to play this season. If true, it's a welcomed change. Disciplinary issues have been a real problem in recent years.

I stopped by Galax almost every day last week to pick up or drop off my daughter for band camp. I didn't do an exact count but they appear to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 28-30 football players.

Carroll will be much more competitive in Class 3 than they could ever possibly be in Class 4. Turner has his hands full changing the county culture and figuring out travel for kids to be able to play. Carroll is on of the more difficult county's to navigate in our area. I think he can do it. Others have in the past but it's been few and far between. The change of district and classification will help tremendously. It was my understanding, Rural Retreat didn't want to leave the Hogoheegee to begin with. Wythe County wanted all three of their high schools to be in the same region and district, forcing Rural Retreats hand. The MED is a juggernaut already and given Grayson and Fort will likely drop to Class 1 in the near future, that isn't likely to change anytime soon. If they have reservations about being in the MED, they will likely not put forth maximum community effort to support athletics. That can be devastation to an athletics program. Ask Carroll post entrance into the River Ridge!

Josh is an Independence boy! Was an All-State baseball player about a decade ago for some supremely talented Grayson County baseball teams. My understanding is, it's on an interim basis but Fort made a quality decision. Josh has been the JV baseball coach and varsity football assistant for a number of years. The kids love him!