sixcat

What Essence and Shay are doing now will be an example for the girls in middle school. That's where Galax has talent in spades.....boys and girls. Galax will be competitive on a state level in a number of sports with that group.

Girls basketball and softball consistently produce more state championship caliber teams than any other sports on our end of the state and have for a long time. They rarely receive the same recognition as the boys, however. It's nice to see the efforts of these young lady's being noticed with the amount of activity on this site. The girls who remain in the program at Galax are changing the culture. The new coach ruffled some feathers of parents and players alike causing roughly half the program participants to quit over the past year. I'm not certain that's an altogether negative thing. Changing a culture of mediocrity means changing habits, patterns, expectations and desires. Those who weren't willing to put in the work throughout the spring and summer were a part of the culture of mediocrity. The results have been tremendous thus far. This team is young, hungry but inconsistent. But the inconsistency is changing rapidly! I look forward to what these girls can accomplish over the next few years.

I think it's wonderful that we have, between this thread and the "Rankings" thread, 9 pages of nothing but girls basketball commentary. I didn't think that was possible, to be honest!

At the end of the day, it should be a family decision based on what's best for the child. I know the system gets abused to benefit athletic programs but I'm not certain anything can be done to correct that aspect of it. Either way, it doesn't affect my children so, to each their own, I guess.

So were Native American's when our ancestors stole this country from them! Just saying, many layers to an onion.

Galax thumped George Wythe 55-36 tonight. Impressive performance by an inconsistent team getting much more consistent as the season progresses.

From a conversation I had a few weeks ago with a longtime member of the Galax coaching staff, Carroll offered Turner the job quite a while ago. Turner had a list of items that would need to be addressed before accepting the position. Dedication to a system wide weight training program and supporting kids all across the county were main priorities on that list, meaning Carroll would have to dedicate activity buses to run more than just a few miles outside of the Hillsville town limits. That's always been an issue in Carroll. They have always been supportive of potential athletes as long as they live in or within a few miles of Hillsville. Anyone living beyond were more likely to be given far greater support from neighboring school systems. Some may get defensive over my statements. However, butthurt usually stems from a deeper truth those involved aren't willing to admit. I was one of those kids in 1988 when Fries closed and Carroll wouldn't allow me to play sports. Not much has changed in that time. I wish Turner well but nobody has ever been able to change the system for more than a year or two in Carroll. They have had top quality coaches in years past, the Tom Hale years being a noted exception. Mike Scharnus coached at Carroll in the late 80's and early 90's, taking them to the playoffs several times after a lengthy period of mediocrity prior to his tenure. David Haynie followed Scharnus and was probably Carroll's most successful coach but was never given full support and left after a few seasons. The most successful seasons in school history.

From what I understand, he was a bit of a wild child. Probably contributed to his shortened career at NC State. My uncle took me to see him play a few times when I was a small child.

I saw Shoemaker play both football and basketball in high school against my younger brother. Very talented athlete. Being the guy who replaced Tim Duncan at Wake is something he can tell his grandkids someday. Joe Stiltner was also a starter for an ACC program at NC State at a time when they were competitive on a national level.

Grayson's only loss was an impressive showing against Radford in a 9 point game. Grayson is a solid team with a lot of talent. Grayson didn't have an answer for the quickness of Morton-Robertson. Not many will outside of Gate City.

Joe Stiltner scored 875 points in only 21 games for Bland in 1977. His 41.7 points per game scoring average that season is still #1 in the VHSL Book of Records. The link is a photo of him playing for Norm Sloan at NC State. https://d.lib.ncsu.edu/collections/catalog/0008140#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&z=-4045.8165%2C-659.4103%2C12281.633%2C6961.1111 Any list of "best high school basketball players from SWVA" that doesn't include Stiltner is incomplete!

Georgia beat Samford who beat ETSU, therefore, ETSU and Samford were screwed out of their rightful places in the playoff!!!!!!!!!!!! Damned playoff committee!!!!!

Nelson County was the 2008 D1 champion and according to VDOE enrollment figures for 2008, it had 568 students to GW's 476. Interestingly enough, Galax beat Page and Amelia in 2011 and 2012 when Page had 608, Amelia had 561 and Galax had 394 each year according to VDOE stats. I know, i'm a nerd and have this data on hand at work!

From what I understand, a pretty nasty stomach bug.

I know Griffin personally along with another member of his inner-staff. He's not a likable person in the least. With that said, I am currently working on projects all across SWVA (with others contracted to begin in 2018) that wouldn't be feasible without his presence in office. As with UVAO, I'm not at liberty to discus further but it's a positive for our region.

Galax played the Bland game without Shay Foxx and Essence Brown. With an already shocking lack of depth, losing the top two players on the team was noticeable. I agree they are young and inconsistent but I wouldn't base any opinion on the Bland game.

Awesome concept! Should be enough to satisfy most scenarios and piss the holy hell out of Notre Dame for not having an automatic berth should they finish 9-3.

According to the VHSL Book of Records, GW in 2008 and Radford in 2009, 2011 and 2013 were Group A-Division 2. The rest were Division 1 or Class 1 under the new format. The jump from D1 to D2 was significant. Anything above D2 for the smaller schools would have been nightmarish for most. Under the new format, the road to a boys basketball state title for Class 2 is significantly more difficult than in years past, I believe.

Radford - 2009, 2011, 2013, 2016-2017 George Wythe - 2008 (beat Gate City) Galax - 2011-2012 Council - 2001 Floyd - 1997 Twin Springs - 1993 Just a few off the top of my head.

I spoke to some friends in the Roanoke area about the issues with Cave Spring. I just don't remember all of the details from that far back. It seems, Cave Spring played a game at the Roanoke Civic Center in conjunction with the old NBA D-League Roanoke Dazzle. Cave Spring played someone followed by a Dazzle game for a promotional deal to help the struggling NBDL franchise where Cave Spring apparently picked up some of the gate proceeds. For many reasons, that would be a very different situation than what we have here with Gate City.

I'm not sure why this is so difficult. Galax has 7 players and one never plays. Against teams not named East Mont and Auburn, Galax has been outscored in the 4th quarter at nearly a 3:1 clip for the season. Galax is a far cry better than they have been in a decade, maybe longer. But they aren't nearly ready for significant competition as of yet. And without depth to build for the future, it's likely to not get better for a while. Not only is the depth nonexistent at the varsity level but the JV roster features a whopping 8 players. Galax lacks depth in girls athletics as a whole from 8th grade through high school. It won't improve until the middle school kids take over.

Couldn't agree with UVAO and Larry more. Gate City will likely not face another Virginia based 2A program with athletes comparable to McClung and Ervin and most certainly not anyone the caliber of North Meck. North Meck is the #1 ranked team in the Charoltte Observer Top 10 in North Carolina. They are young and extremely talented. My brother and I were talking about the Ford kid being similar in build, athleticism, ability, style and talent to another North Meck product, VCU standout Jamie Skeen. Being only a freshman, he may end up better than Skeen. Radford is a quality program year in and year out. But they haven't had talent such as McClung and Ervin since the Nichols brothers were in high school. I believe Gate City would make Radford suffer if they were to pressure them in the open court if and when they meet.

I get it. He is huge and looks like he is 25 years old but he was in middle school with my nephew until this school year. The way the boundaries fall, Ford ended up at North Meck and my nephew ended up at Hough. Edit to add....My brother played at Bluefield College from 1998-2002. He was offered several coaching positions following college, one under Tommy Brown at Lee University in Cleveland TN. He turned them down to chase a lifelong dream of being a "big city police officer" to which he has been with CMPD since 2002. Point is, he knows more about basketball than I ever have or will. He has been telling me about this kid for the past 5 or 6 years. I just didn't realize he was already playing varsity until I saw the Huntington Prep box score.

Ford is also 6'-4" tall and close to 200 pounds. He has potential to grow quite a bit more. My brother says he is a good kid also. Went to middle school with my nephew.

To be fair, Gate City has two kids who would see playing time at North Meck. North Meck has a dozen! A lot different defending North Meck than defending Lee or Lebanon. I'm not intending to slight Gate City and I don't believe in moral victories but that's about as impressive an outcome as anyone should have expected. North Meck has at least three kids heading to major D1 programs and at least three others who will play mid-major D1 basketball. Gate City has McClung and Ervin who scored 56 of their 64 points. It's also worthy of mention, North Meck played without three year starting PG Vaud Worthy and started two sophomores and a freshman.