Everyone is afraid to ask so here goes...................

[ArnAnderson 10]

Will Grundy be able to continue the Region streak now that C'burg is coming over to Region IV?

 

In a shocker, I SAY YES, the pride is slowly being restored to Grundy Wrestling and everyone knows that you can't keep a good thing down to long.

 

If Tully, Arn, Flair and Fiser can get things going this off-season, I expect some EYES TO ROLL AND SOME HEADS TO TURN!!!!!!!

[BLU 10]

YES!

[tornadowaterboy 10]

Yes they will be able to continue....Cburg is Down w/ out Gardner

[littlraskul 10]

nope. cburg doesn't rebuild; they reload. why? they have one heck of a youth program over there.

 

i see grundy getting back to being more of themselves, but i honestly don't see any swd teams in any sports being competitive in regional play once the river ridge comes in (except possibly richlands football this season).

[WaveFan09 50]

Our Middle School won the State Championship...and beat c'burg..

[05lineman 10]

there youth program is not in Va......it is in NJ........5 kids off the top of my head come from the program in NJ....and two are graduateing this year....WEBER and Gardner....that leaves Little WEBER, and the Two Squires brothers....and prolly another one or two iam leaving out.....

[Lance 228]

[ QUOTE ]

but i honestly don't see any swd teams in any sports being competitive in regional play once the river ridge comes in (except possibly richlands football this season).

 

[/ QUOTE ]

 

I'd say Richlands, Graham, Tazewell, (and yes possibly Abingdon depending on how things go the next few years with that particular program) might make you eat those words.

 

Grundy will always be a wildcard in wrestling...you will never know when they will show up and even in a bad year people will always wonder what kind of a run they might make at state.

 

When you play the SWD teams in any sport, you are playing against a long and proud history...none of the schools will roll over for anyone...ever.

[littlraskul 10]

[ QUOTE ]

I'd say Richlands, Graham, Tazewell, (and yes possibly Abingdon depending on how things go the next few years with that particular program) might make you eat those words.

 

When you play the SWD teams in any sport, you are playing against a long and proud history...none of the schools will roll over for anyone...ever.

 

[/ QUOTE ]

 

believe me, i'd be glad to eat those words. but, i honestly don't see graham or tazewell winning the swd in anything next year, let alone competing in region play. please do take into consideration that i'm not even remotely factoring in golf, tennis, and the like; i just don't follow those.

 

football: richlands, and if not, definitely a river ridge team.

b bball: nobody from the swd, that's for sure

g bball: hidden valley

volleyball: cave spring

b soccer: bburg

g soccer: bburg/hidden valley

wrestling: cburg. sorry, grundy.

bball: not swd

sball: not swd

b track: pulaski co./piedmont team

g track: piedmont team

 

i'm not saying we'll simply roll over and drool; i am, however, saying that we'll likely fall short for a few years. as a district, we've got to elevate our level of play in every sport, or truthfully, we're going to get trounced.

[Lance 228]

Yeah...you forgot to mention that the sun only shines east of Salem.

[littlraskul 10]

[ QUOTE ]

Yeah...you forgot to mention that the sun only shines east of Salem.

 

[/ QUOTE ]

that's rather unnecessary, imo. i'm merely trying to be realistic. an objective person cannot honestly say that the swd can compete with the river ridge as things are. in a few years, possibly. but, generally speaking, they have much larger enrollments than a graham, tazewell, or grundy, and their athletes participate in productive, competitive offseason teams.

 

we're trying to get our athletes involved in such things, hoping to elevate our teams' level of play so we can be competitive. i'm sure other swd teams are doing the same, and collectively, we're going to have to. facts are facts, fellas.

[Lance 228]

[ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]

Yeah...you forgot to mention that the sun only shines east of Salem.

 

[/ QUOTE ]

that's rather unnecessary, imo. i'm merely trying to be realistic. an objective person cannot honestly say that the swd can compete with the river ridge as things are. in a few years, possibly. but, generally speaking, they have much larger enrollments than a graham, tazewell, or grundy, and their athletes participate in productive, competitive offseason teams.

 

we're trying to get our athletes involved in such things, hoping to elevate our teams' level of play so we can be competitive. i'm sure other swd teams are doing the same, and collectively, we're going to have to. facts are facts, fellas.

 

[/ QUOTE ]

 

well there is no need to even play then right? Let's just throw in the towel and bend over and take what we've got coming to us...we don't even deserve to be mentioned in the same thread as the great river ridge teams...our kids are no where near as talented as the other kids in the state.

 

next thing you know Richlands will go around thinking they might win state or something...how stupid is that to even imagine.

[goalie 10]

he does have a point lance...

[littlraskul 10]

[ QUOTE ]

well there is no need to even play then right? Let's just throw in the towel and bend over and take what we've got coming to us...we don't even deserve to be mentioned in the same thread as the great river ridge teams...our kids are no where near as talented as the other kids in the state.

 

[/ QUOTE ]

 

why don't we just be juvenile about it all?

[BCRAM55 11]

The size of these schools compare to most SWD is almost double if not tripled. Pulaski has over 1500 kids. It tough for Grundy to compete with C'burg when they have only 480 kids and C'burg has 1000.

[WaveFan09 50]

well it seems to me like the ones that think its all said and done for the SWD is the Carroll County people, you guys go ahead and quit, as for Grundy, Richlands, Tazewell, and Graham we will play on!

[goalie 10]

all were sayin is that we need to step up and get better richlands has had a good football team that won state and played hard th year b4... and grundys th powerhouse at wrestling... but for other sports we do need to step up... carroll will be th last to roll over but we know weve got to work harder to get better to win

[littlraskul 10]

nice post, goalie; i agree 100%. nobody in the swd is giving up or rolling over or whatever you want to call it. but, in cc, we also aren't getting complacent with our level of play, either. so, if you want to play that way, wavefan, you guys keep on keeping on; we'll work to make ourselves better.

 

good luck to us all.

[WaveFan09 50]

agreed.

[Lance 228]

it's always good to strive to improve but don't come on here and basically put down the SWD when you do it...our kids (CC included) are as good as any in the state...schools like Graham and Grundy could go to A level like other larger schools in the area have, but they choose to stay at AA...and for the most part they stay competetive...if you want to talk about the RR..thats fine...but don't say that the SWD can't compete...because we can.

[BCRAM55 11]

I think that people need to realize that numbers do play an important part of sports. I agree that the SWD has good support, coaches and players but all these things willti get better if the SWD wants to compete for Regions titles

[techfan 43]

I think that the SWD will be a factor in football, baseball and softball at least, in football Richlands will hold their own no doubt, Tazewell has been down for a couple of years but both them and Richlands have have some good baseball teams either one of them could make a run with the right pitching matchups along the way, and softball both Tazewell and Richlands are down this year losing alot of seniors last year but their JV teams were loaded they could either one make a run.

[littlraskul 10]

[ QUOTE ]

it's always good to strive to improve but don't come on here and basically put down the SWD when you do it...our kids (CC included) are as good as any in the state

 

[/ QUOTE ]

 

if we're talking about swd kids being as good as any in the state, character-wise, i am in total agreement with you. in fact, i might argue that ours are better. but, when we're talking about athletic talent, let's be realistic. we do have a few--but only a few--athletes who are top-notch. want concrete evidence? look at the number of swd athletes who are offered a full-ride, d-1 scholarship in any sport. (congrats to austin fuller, btw) now, contrast that number with the same of any other aa district in the state. i'd be willing to bet that the swd has the lowest number of all.

 

my intention is certainly not to come on here and deliberately belittle the swd as a district. anyone who knows me knows that i truly want the swd to be competitive and to succeed both academically and athletically. however, facts are facts, guys. being realistic, let's consider the following:

 

- in the river ridge and region 3, it's very possible to go 9-1 in football, and still miss the playoffs.

- blacksburg soccer has been in the state title game 8 of the last 9 years. they've won 5 of those. their girls also won state in cross country, and their boys' golf won state this past season. girls' indoor track won state in '05.

- cave spring volleyball has been in the state title game the last 5 years. they've won 4 of those. their boys bball team also won state in '02 (with redick), and their softball team was state runner-up last season.

- christiansburg wrestling has won 6 straight team titles. their boys' cross country team has lived in the top 10 for many years now.

- salem football's won 6 state titles since 1996 (including '04 and '05.) also, their boys' track team has been in the state's top 10 the last 3 years.

- pulaski county's girls' track team was 3rd in the state in '05, and their boys' bball teams made deep playoff runs a couple of years ago.

-hidden valley's boys' bball team made it to the final four this year, while their girls won state. girls' soccer won state in '05, and along with cave spring, has appeared deep in the state playoffs for the last few years. boys' tennis, state runner-up in '04.

 

what i'm saying is this: the river ridge is stacked with teams that have proven to be very, very successful athletically. honestly, what do we have to compete with that besides richlands' recent football success? where are they vulnerable as a district? someone, seriously, show me. please. all you have to do is look at last year's wachovia cup, which considers all of a school's sports and their successes: hidden valley won it, blacksburg was 3rd, cave spring 9th, and salem 14th.

 

it's not that we can't compete and the swd's "not worthy" of the "mighty" river ridge. but, you cannot logically dispute the fact that top to bottom, the river ridge is super-competitive, in every sport. how are graham's baseball/softball/volleyball teams? how are tazewell's tennis teams? grundy's soccer/volleyball teams? carroll's baseball/girls' tennis teams? how are richlands' girls' basketball/soccer teams? the answer? either not very competitive (for a variety of reasons) or nonexistant.

 

i agree with bcram that the underlying issue here is largely one of enrollment. it's easier for a school to be competitive if they've got a larger number of students to pool from. if we, as a district, are going to be competitive, we've got to put forth super, massive, giant-sized effort. why? because we've got to overcome a.) success breeds success. if a school's becoming a dynasty in a particular sport, kids who are serious about that sport will transfer in to play there. case in point: blacksburg soccer, cave spring volleyball, christiansburg wrestling. and b.) numbers. we can't afford to have athletes concentrate their training and focus on the one sport that would be their "meal ticket" because they are needed to play other sports so those teams can be remotely competitive. some of our athletes even play multiple sports in a season (usually during the spring.)

 

i'm not saying that slaying the beast, so to speak, is impossible. i am saying that we can't go on doing as we've been doing and expect the teams in other districts to simply get worse. (with the exception of richlands football, recently) swd teams struggle now to earn a region iv title. it's only going to get tougher, beginning next year.

[BCRAM55 11]

Well said. Now it is up to the the schools and teams to rise up and meet the new teams head on. The SWD needs to put for great effort to get better that means toughing up the teams they play in some sports. Good Lcuk I would love to come baxk on this board and said that Grundy beat Christsburg wrestling

[BigBlueAlum 12]

[ QUOTE ]

i agree with bcram that the underlying issue here is largely one of enrollment. it's easier for a school to be competitive if they've got a larger number of students to pool from.

 

[/ QUOTE ]

 

Dosn't CC have an enrollment that is up there with the River Ridge schools? If enrollment is that big of an issue, then why dosn't CC dominate the SWD in anything?

[littlraskul 10]

[ QUOTE ]

Doesn't CC have an enrollment that is up there with the River Ridge schools? If enrollment is that big of an issue, then why dosn't CC dominate the SWD in anything?

 

[/ QUOTE ]

 

we do have the largest enrollment in the district. however, currently, our largest classes, number-wise are our freshman and sophomore classes. oh, and cc does dominate the district in something: volleyball, winning 10 of the last 11 district titles. but, not very many people care about volleyball. also, we do very well in cross country, where our boys have won many (5, maybe?) consecutive swd titles. or, how 'bout girls' basketball, where we've won the district title every year since we entered the swd except the '05-'06 season, compiling a streak of 60+ consecutive district wins during that time? not many people care about those sports, either.

 

why don't we "dominate" in a sport that people care about like football or boys' basketball? i don't know. clearly, if our other coaches knew why, they would fix matters, also. like i've said many times previously, we've all got to get better in everything, cc included. in the sports that cc does well in, we get trounced in region play, as it is now. next year won't be pretty, imo. but, it will hopefully be a call to action.