sportsfan

Finally ... Graham holds off the Beavers!

Your fellow Haysi boy (me) is making the trip.  I'll be channeling my inner James Colley and will be wearing shorts.  :D
 
My buddy from Coeburn is meeting me in Abingdon and riding up with me.

I'll be in Salem all day tomorrow cheering on The Maroon Tide and Appomattox!

First title game appearance comes full circle for Galax   The 2011 state runners-up made an impact on members of Galax’s current squad, and that impact is being passed along.By Craig Worrell, Sports Editor Thursday, December 10, 2015 at 11:00 am more   Kids are going to have their heroes. Some of those heroes wear skin-tight spandex and a cape and can leap tall buildings with a single bound. Some of them wear a shiny badge or drive a big red fire truck. Others wear combat boots, or a professional sports franchise’s uniform on ESPN, or bring home a paycheck every week.
Craig Worrell “I walked out the gate and there were little kids standing there, cheering and yelling...It’s a big thing.†––Daniel Edwards Buy this photo 1 of 2 Some of them wear their school colors on Friday nights.
High school football players may not get the feeling that they are heroes in the eyes of kids much younger than they, even minor heroes somewhat lower in the pecking order than a cop or a pro runningback or a guy with superpowers or a daddy.
But heroes they are, and members of the Galax football team get it. They were the wide-eyed kids, seventh- and eighth-graders, looking up at the varsity guys the last time the Maroon Tide reached the state championship game.
“Deion George,†said Daniel Edwards, now a 6-foot-2, 250-pound junior lineman for the Tide, thinking back to his heroes from Galax’s only previous trip to the state finals, in 2011. “I heard his name 24/7 in school. Austin Pack. Those two I really looked up to. They were my idols. Coach [Mark] Dixon, we heard he was in the NFL. That’s big to us. We haven’t seen anything like that in this small town. It was nice.â€
Jordon Peoples had heroes on that team. They were his brothers.
“Having all three of my older brothers playing for the state championship was exciting,†said Peoples, a senior defensive back and return man. “I couldn’t wait to watch them play. They were my heroes, I looked up to them. They motivated me to be just like them.â€
Charles Harris, who surpassed 3,000 rushing yards for the season last week, still was an NFL runningback in his mind when he was playing in the back yard, but he knew he could stay local if he needed a positive influence.
“I looked up to Steven Peoples,†Harris said of the first of three straight Tide tailbacks (Harris being the most recent) to top 3,000 yards in a season. “He had a big impact on me and was a great role model, especially as a runningback. He always gave 100 percent and I looked up to that.â€
They all remember that Saturday in December of 2011 when the 14-0 Maroon Tide fell 33-28 to Clintwood in what was then the Group A Division 1 state championship game.
“I remember watching the game and wishing one day I could play in a state championship game,†Peoples said. “I wanted to play in front of a huge crowd like that. All of those people coming to watch you and your team play is unreal.â€
Edwards had buddies involved in other sports, but his main circle of friends were mostly football players.
“It really had a big impact on us younger kids,†he said. “That’s all we wanted to do, was play football. Watching the game, seeing that they lost, it didn’t affect us as much as the team, but we saw it as maybe one day we’ll get a chance to do it. And now we’re getting a chance to play in a state championship.â€
Dixon didn’t know if that season drew any more kids into the program than what would have happened otherwise. But he does believe the 2011 season planted a seed.
“It drew in the possibility that you can get there,†he said. “I don’t know that, before that group, if anybody thought there was a possibility to get there.â€
Harris affirmed that notion.
“It was just amazing,†he said. “I looked up to Austin Pack and all the guys, making it to state and doing the things that I wished I would be able to do when I was little.â€
Older members of this team now walk the halls as juniors and seniors, and they can see their own reflections as the middle-schoolers pass by on their way to the lunch room.
“Every day in the hallway, it’s like ‘Good luck. I want to do that,’ you know?†Edwards said. “They come ask us how we do it, how are we all so big? We just tell them that we work hard. We tell them we do the little things, we come early every morning at 5:30, work hard, pay attention in class to the teachers, simple things like that. Being disciplined, having character and respect for others. That’s a big key.â€
Interacting with younger players may or may not do anything for a fifth-grader’s skills. But the beauty of it all is in the interaction itself.
“During the summer, coach had a skill camp down at the rec center,†Peoples recalled. “He wanted some of us to come down and help coach the kids and teach them some about the sport. The kids looked up to us. You could tell they appreciated the time we spent with them.â€
Edwards remembers getting help in the weight room from upperclassmen like Deion George and Chaz Sizemore when he was a seventh-grader. It has since come full-circle.
“There was a guy who came in here this morning, Joshua Brown,†said Edwards. “He came up to me and asked if I could help him lift. I said, ‘Yeah buddy, get behind me and we’ll do this together.’ Dougie Peoples helps a lot of the younger kids. It’s a big thing because they look up to us.â€
Edwards continued, “It feels great to know that little kids want to do the same thing that we’re doing. They want to listen to the teachers, they want to be respectful, they don’t want to fight or bad-mouth, they want to be responsible young adults.â€
The big burly kid with the raspy voice never thought he’d get the chance to experience what he watched his heroes do in 2011.
“Nope. I didn’t believe we’d ever touch state,†Edwards said. “But after we beat Essex, I took off my helmet and I teared up a little bit. I walked out the gate and there were little kids standing there, cheering and yelling. They had flags in their hands and all that. It’s a big thing. It’s a big thing.â€
And just like that, another seed is planted.

My company Christmas party is at Barter at 2PM tomorrow.  Been trying to get out of it all week without luck.  They have already purchased the tickets.  I even offered to reimburse for the tickets and donate to charity.  
 
This is the third year in a row the Christmas party is on state final Saturday.  Next year, I will politely decline a month in advance!

He was an All-American guard at UVA in 1993. Became the starter midway through his freshman year and never relinqueshed it. Played for the Philadelphia Eagles in 1994 briefly before getting sent to NFL Europe for 2 seasons. He played for the Montreal Allouettes from 1996-1997. He started for the Miami Dolphins from 1998-2003.
 
Not too often you get a resume with Jimmy Johnson, Dan Marino and George Welsh as you refernces. The Galax City School Board called all three. Why not, right?

So, Galax will go to Essex and Riverheads will come to GW?

At this point, I'm cheering for anybody from SWVA to bring home a title.  My team is done, so now I'm a fan of SWVA.

That 2011 team was LOADED.........Vaughn,Fisher,Shalabi,Peoples(1), Peoples(2), Ravenall, D. George, A. Pack   and thats just the skill kids   oh I forgot  L Parsons    B Ball POY in 1a....Im sure i missed a couple....had a tall lanky safety also but cant remember name....

Devante McKenney was the lanky kid you speak of.  
 
That Clintwood team was loaded as well.  The difference in the game, in my opinion, was special teams.  Galax, out-athleted everyone they stepped on the field with that season and used that advantage on special teams to put teams away.  Clintwood masterfully used the overly aggressive special teams play against Galax with delayed, directional and short punts and Galax didn't adjust to it at all.  They even recovered one kickoff Galax watched bounce.  I also feel like Galax went up 14-0 early and started celebrating on the sidelines.  Galax didn't play a competitive game all season until the championship game.  They didn't figure out how to respond until late in the fourth quarter.
 
That is in no way to say Clintwood shouldn't have won the game.  They earned it and deserved it!  It was a first hand lesson in traditional coal-field football.  
 
To an extent, I think that is still in the heads of the Galax coaching staff when playing the old Region D schools.

He was apparently walking fine, but with helmet off. Does make you wonder about a possible concussion. Here's to a speedy recovery for Cousin.

Sportsmanship aside...I'm just glad to see a Graham team with some fire in their belly...been waiting for that for 10 years!!!

It's all a matter of persepective I guess. IMO, if you are playing in game 12, you have no reason to expect anyone to take it easy on you...especially given tonight's circumstances. It is what it is, though..I wouldn't mind seeing Graham again next year, either. Union graduates a lot of players, but they have some good replacements to reload with as well. The drop off isn't nearly as far as some think.

Damn...gotta say Abingdon has pulled the rabbit out of the hat tonight...congrats to those guys.
28-21 Abingdon Final.

Sixcat I really enjoyed your post. Sadly you may never get to see a game at "The Cliff" as consolidation is looming. Realistic possibility within 5 years. 10 years is a reality.
 
Thanks Razor, being a Hurley grad I'm as Rebel as they come, but, I'm also as unbiased as they come.
 
John, don't take this wrong but when a tackle "tackles" a Defensive end its not hard to see.

I’ll be honest with you here…I was kinda hoping for a road game Friday.







Facebook/HurleyRebels
Smiley Ratliff Field –– The Cliff.
 






It may not be much in the way of a bucket list, but there are just a few SWVA football landmarks I’d like to check off the list before I check out of here myself. Our end of the state is dotted with iconic high school stadiums, and slowly but surely they are being crossed off the list, either by school consolidation that is rendering those facilities obsolete (sorry I missed ya, Ralph Cummins Stadium, Riggs Stadium) or by actually covering a game there (howdy, Sandlick!).

Should Galax win Friday I’ll most likely get to scratch another destination off that list next week – J.I. Burton’s Lawson-Fitchko Stadium, a place where I’m proud to say I probably soiled a diaper or two while my dad coached there in the late 60s.

Bullitt Park in Big Stone Gap, Legion Field in Gate City and that new joint up at Ridgeview (iconic – not yet; magnificent – yes) are all on the list.

As is Smiley Ratliff Field in Hurley. Arguably the most iconic of them all, it’s better known as The Cliff.

In need of 6,360 square yards of flat land suitable for the dimensions of a football field, Hurley folk blasted out a chunk of mountainside to meet its needs, leaving two vertical rock walls that meet at a tidy 90-degree angle, a great Gray Monster that hugs one end zone and half of the far sideline. As a resident of the town told USA Today Sports in a feature story back in August, “We’re miners here. We know how to do that.â€

As the VHSL ratings began to take shape, Galax was on the lower end of the scale and Hurley up near the top half. Maybe this year, I thought. But the Maroon Tide began overtaking gobs of teams over the final three weeks to finally settle in at No. 3.

Playoff season ultimately ends up with a pretty big disappointment for most of the teams involved.  So, as many of those teams will be saying Friday night – (sigh) maybe next year.

A must-read

The focus of that aforementioned USA Today story was not The Cliff but rather the school’s mascot and logo. The Hurley Rebels will most likely charge onto the field Friday behind a player carrying a Confederate battle flag (to be accurate, it’s the battle flag of the Army of Tennessee), and they will wear the emblem on their helmets. The well-written USA Todaystory was published two months after the horrific church massacre in Charleston, S.C., and for obvious reasons. I can’t speak for the citizenry of Hurley, but from an outsider’s perspective, the author provided fair, objective and positive insight into  the school, the Rebel football team and its supporters.

You’re going to feel what you’re going to feel. But before passing judgement, I strongly urge you read the article. It’s an extremely good read, whether you have an opinion on the issue or not. You can find it here ... http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2015/08/20/confederate-flag-hurley-... ... and I have it linked on my Twitter account, @GazetteSports24.

Playoff stuff

We’re down to ‘only’ 96 teams now, six classifications, two regions, with eight teams still alive in each region, as we dwindle down to championship Saturday and its six state title games.

The opening round of the playoffs are often as entertaining as the opening weekend of the NCAA hoops tournament. Colonial Beach scored 60 points and PH-Glade Spring rolled up 57, but both were first-round losers. Bland topped PH 64-57 and William Campbell outlasted Colonial Beach 67-60 in the two wildest games of the first weekend.

It’s gotta stink missing out on a playoff win because you can’t hold a team to eight touchdowns.

The lowest seed still playing is Chantilly, a 13 seed that knocked off No. 4 James Madison in 6A North. In all, 17 underdogs won on the road on opening night. The losingest team to win was 2-8 Lakeland (over 8-2 Park View), while at 9-1, Pulaski County was the winningest team to lose (to 6-4 Amherst County).

The two biggest upsets down our way were No. 10 Graham over No. 7 James River 35-17 in 2A West and No. 11 Amherst over No. 6 Pulaski County 29-22 in 4A West.

Graham’s win really wasn’t that big of an upset. The G-Men are a lot like Galax – a team that played a very ambitious nondistrict schedule, a team that’s much better than its record, and one with a potentially dominating tailback.

And Amherst County’s win speaks more about what’s facing the 2A field than anything. Amherst toppled 9-1 Pulaski County in the 4A opening round just one week after losing 38-0 to Appomattox, the top seed in 2A West.

Daaaang.

All referees, regardless of level, will make mistakes.  I highly doubt any go into a game with a rooting interest in outcome.  
 
Ask any coach in SWVA and they will all wish for consistency with the full knowledge and understanding that mistakes will happen.  If officiating is consistent, players and coaches will adjust quickly and it will never become an issue.  Fairweather friends in the stands who have never officiated anything with the exception of from the comfort and safety of the couch will always blame.  Referees are, and always have been, the easy target of that blame.  

Richlands makes an emphatic statement at Ernie.
 
Richlands - 41
Buckingham - 10

.ojoM

If you're the best two teams in this state, you're gonna play in Salem. Everyone says Richlands and Union are the two. If they don't make it to Salem, then they weren't the two best teams after all.

Congratulations to all the area schools who won tonight.  AHS, Richlands, Graham all won....not sure on everyone else since I just signed on.  Was at the Abingdon game and it was a very good one.... Too much drama for me but I'll take an ugly win any day.  Hope that Derrick Yates is ok......he really took a hard shot to the head.
 
I can only speak for me, but I am grateful to have sports to take my mind off some of the tragic events that are taking place today.  

Abingdon wins
 
2 point conversion good
 
Sturgill to Wallace
 
Rustburg 34
Abingdon 35
 
FINAL

I had a meeting at a project site yesterday afternoon.  A gentleman at this meeting from Illinois with ties to this area was holding court about how his "involvement within the upper echelon of Virginia Tech athletics permit him to be in the room during discussions of Mr. Beamer's replacement".  He felt "reasonable secure in stating with great pride that Mr. Babcock had secured a handshake agreement with Jim Harbaugh to be the next head football coach at Virginia Tech".
 
With that said, the guy is a full of shit as a Christmas goose!

Grayson is doing this more for baseball than football. They have eroded a bit from lack of compitition. Football isn't as important in Grayson as baseball.
 
The conference 46 idea is intriguing. Galax, George Wythe, Radford, Fort Chiswell, Rural Retreat, and Chilhowie would be a quality 1A district.

Slow down solider!!! What in the world leads you to think that your rebels could stay within 42 points of Richlands. Wait!! Don't answer that!!! There is no way in hell they stay within 42 points of Richlands!!