GC_Devils

Usually Richlands is solid Week 1. They are extremely well coached and are always a huge challenge. If Richlands is close to what we saw last season, which I expect to see in Week 1 (and get better), than Richlands should probably be a two score favorite. I'd really like this to be the case but that's not what the problem was. I don't think we showed all our cards, but GC's bread and butter has always been the power game. It didn't look like GC football Friday night.

It's too early for me to make a prediction. Like RiverRat said, the benefit game was not pretty. There's a good amount of injury concerns at GC and we're not exactly sure who is going to be on the field at Ernie Hicks on Friday night. GC had a strong showing vs Elizabethton, so this team has some potential. We're just not entirely sure who's gonna show up. I think either Richlands wins by at least 4 scores, or it's a one score game that could go either way. We'll see which GC team shows up.

Quincy could probably give you a better answer but I remember at least one was called back by a phantom and late (running back was already in the end zone giving the ball to the ref) holding call, and the last one we crossed the goal line by two yards before fumbling. And thanks for the vote of support in our fans haha

No argument here. Not to mention the 4 hour trip and the 30 degree freezing rain. What an awful day. In addition: 96 Brookville, 02 GW, last year Richlands is probably on that list.

Yes they did. Broadway got super hot that postseason. Just looked it up and they Matoaca by 9, Waynesboro by 5, and Fort Defiance by 1 before the state game. And that field goal is one of the biggest plays in GC history. http://gfycat.com/CompetentSmallBison

Definitely the weakest team overall but they deserved to be there. Broadway pulled off a huge upset in Game 13 vs Fort Defiance by one or two points I believe. Broadway also brought one of the biggest visiting crowds to Gate City that we've ever seen. https://youtube.com/wUbUpfFWFHU?t=43m7s

I was personally upset we didn't add a team from NC too so we could make it 5 states. In 12 we actually traveled to all of those teams. (Harlan County, South, Bluefield). But we try to forget that year don't we Quincy haha?

We won state against Braodway instead of Brookville, which put us out by one point in the semis the year before. I don't have the whole game uploaded to youtube, but I do have this TD run by Jake Houseright.

Shoemaker was the high school in Gate City until 1956. It burned down and was rebuilt as an elementary school.

I know it's not of much help, but from the GC football records Richlands played Shoemaker twice during that span. 1933: Richlands 20 Shoemaker 18 1934: Richlands 20 Shoemaker 0

Note: I'm not saying I 100% agree with the reason, I'm just giving the reason why he didn't have a ton of touches. Herron had a very rough 2013 season with nagging injuries throughout the season that really hampered his junior year. It was so bad that it wasn't a guarantee that he would play his senior year, to ensure his health for basketball and soccer. They decided to limit his touches throughout the regular season in hopes of having him fresh for a playoff run. (In addition he suffered an injury vs South during the early part of the season.) Herron saw his work load upped once GC got to Game 12 vs Buckingham and earlier vs Richlands in Game 13. Unfortunately for Herron, the field was a disaster that made cutting almost impossible for both sides. Richlands adjusted to short catch and runs and GC gave the FB Baker the load of the carries in the 2nd half. Richlands had the better game plan and adjustment and earned the win. I personally would've loved to see him get 20 touches a game but it's kind of hard to argue with the results. If GC was able to beat Richlands, it would've been interesting to see how it would've turned out. Oh well, not the first time GC fans have been left asking, "What if?"

Man BigWinners and Guru are taking us all back in time to when the LPD Forum was thriving. I'm not sure who's trolling who here. And just because I can't resist, in 1997 GC was not better than PV and won state. But in 1989 PV was not better than GC and they won state. GC was knocked out in game 11 that year. That's what happens in rivalrys. You can throw out the record books. But like Great City said, anyone with sense knows that Union has a great program in most everything (boys & girls). There's no reason for a shouting match with every new thread.

BigWinners - I completely agree about VHS having the most talent this year. The Fudge kid at VHS, among others can really light it up. Like you, I'm not sold on Barry Reed, but the fans don't seem to have problem with him, so who are we to judge? Bearcat Bob - Sorry. I normally don't post here since most of the conversation is not GC related. And the MD board should have turned into a conference board IMO. Once the mods decided to effectively cut out VHS and Lebanon the board slowly started to die.

Well the facts are that over the past 15-20 years, in everything but football GC has fairly consistently beat Big Stone in a majority of things. Does that give GC fans the right to act superior? Heck no. PV and Union has more than consistently held their own in pretty much everything and given GC some tough games. I agree that sometimes GC fans can be douches, but I would also like to say that people from Big Stone can be too. That's part of the whole rivalry. Whenever GC and PV/Appy (now Union) lace it up, you know it's going to be a dog fight regardless of record. Is it always civil? Nope. But that's part of what makes it exciting. Back to the basketball topic, last night just further illustrates how weak SWVA basketball really is this year. Gate City has 13 straight district titles and has controlled SWVA basketball for more than a decade, but this year it's not the case. There is a ton of parity right now. Gate City struggled with John Battle last night and needed to pull away in the 4th. I couldn't tell you the last time GC lost to JSB in basketball. Unless someone turns it on and really shows us something, the teams that make it out of C-40 may be in for a rude awakening.

Union was definitely the better team Friday night. Will they be the best team at the end of the year? Who knows? However, and it's probably not what anyone here wants to hear, the fight in C40 is probably just to see who gets to play basketball for another week. I've seen almost every team in C40 and the whole conference is WAY down. GC and VHS were the class of the conference last year and neither were within 20 points of the region championship. I personally don't think that anyone this year is as good (at least yet) as GC and VHS were last year.

I have watched a majority of Gate City's games this year. That was one of the worst games that they have played the entire year. As stated, GC has one senior contributor in Herron with a couple of juniors and underclassmen getting the majority of playing time. Gate City is very inconsistent this season so on some days they can beat anyone in SWVA, and on some days they can get beat by anyone in SWVA. As for Friday's game, it really should not have been close with the way they handled the Union pressure in the 1st half. GC turned it on midway through the 3rd and brought the double digit deficit back to tied before the Union kid hit a tough layup with a minute left. GC looked like an entirely different team last night in their win over TN High, who GC had previously lost to twice. As for the officials at Union, I didn't think they were biased, but just horrific throughout (as usual in SWVA basketball). They nearly lost control late in the 3rd or early in the 4th as a Union player and GC player got a little chippy leading to double techs. That's what normally happens though when the officials are inconsistent throughout the night. As chubz said, GC does play a more physical style that almost all of the teams in NOVA play and I'm glad that Union and other schools are starting to adapt down here. GC basketball was forced to adapt after making trips to Richmond in the 2000s and losing to much more physical teams. The future is bright for Gate City with as they're loaded with underclassmen and a couple of good 8th graders. As for this year, there's going to be some growing pains, but they never fail to make it entertaining.

No one has to pay out of state tuition to go to GC. However, contrary to what most people think, a majority of the students crossing the state line come to Scott County schools for academics, not athletics. Most enroll their kids at Weber City or Yuma when they start elementary school. I'm not saying that they leave Kingsport or Hawkins Co. because their system is bad or anything. The most common reasons is size of the school and student to teacher ratio. GC is a town of roughly 2000 people but is nearing 700 in the high school and normally has near 3000-4000 fans at home football games. The facts are the Gate City the town has been dying for a long time. There's very little in town to keep it's residents there so they end up moving to Kingsport for work. However, once they have children they take the very short trip (Heck we've played our home baseball games there for a decade) and bring them back to Gate City since they know the system and like it. Like Quincy said, it's not illegal so until someone really complains about the taxes where's the problem?

Both GC and Richlands have a ton of mutual respect for each other. If GC had to lose, I'm certainly glad it was to you all and not to the group we faced last week. I hope you all bring back the title to SWVA since we were unable to do so.

The train horn is a homage to the 1970 Big Blue Cannonball (that was just posted). There used to be an actual train engine at games. The cowbells are newer, early 2000s I believe. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but some reporter from a northern school called the field a cow pasture in an article. This prompted GC fans to make cowbells and ring them from here on out.

Is it really only Tuesday? Gah!

There's really not that many cowbells. I wish there was 3500.

The attendance is usually the same for the regular season and the playoffs. Legion Field has 5000 seats. GC uses the 2500 on the home side and usually 1000-1250 on the away side. Buckingham should have at least 1250 seats still remaining. Of course there's no reserved seating (GC has around 1500) in the playoffs so anyone can sit anywhere you want now.

I think that the Giles/Glenvar winner has #1 locked up pretty easily. If Marion is able to win out and knock off Abingdon, I think that they are really close to GC at #2 and could potentially pass GC. It may come down to the Tazewell @ Lebanon game the final week (Marion def. Tazewell and GC def. Lebanon). The Giles/Glenvar loser has #3 locked up if Marion cannot win out. Otherwise, they should be #4.

Harry Fry - Gate City