redtiger 1,739 Report Share Posted May 7, 2021 The answer is to bring in a local coach that is knowledgeable and the kids like, and for the adults to leave him alone for 5 years. Do that and Lee could reach the 6-4/7-3 range pretty easily. From there it's not a big jump to regional contender. But it takes time, patience, and community support. They had a applicant the last time that would have imo been perfect and passed him over. Honestly, they probably had a few but 1 I know for sure. BigWinners 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted Account 5,203 Report Share Posted May 7, 2021 This is a generational rebuild, IMO. A coach who takes this job cannot be concerned with W-L records. The community also needs to look at this as a 10-year project. If a new coach comes in and his influence has the feeder system humming along, give him time to get the young men to high school. It’s going to have to be stripped to the studs, because you’re hemorrhaging kids to Union. redtiger 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigWinners 1,642 Report Share Posted May 8, 2021 3 hours ago, UVAObserver said: This is a generational rebuild, IMO. A coach who takes this job cannot be concerned with W-L records. The community also needs to look at this as a 10-year project. If a new coach comes in and his influence has the feeder system humming along, give him time to get the young men to high school. It’s going to have to be stripped to the studs, because you’re hemorrhaging kids to Union. You're right but good luck convincing those guys who keep sticking their nose in the program down there. There is zero reason for Lee High to ever be worse than places like Twin Springs or Rye Cove, zero. No offense to those two areas but the talent in Lee Co dwarfs those places. It's just either going to BSG or not playing bc of how shitty that program is right now. redtiger 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S10SQUAREBODY4LIFE 239 Report Share Posted May 9, 2021 Kids have been heading west for years after middle school in jonesville, but most are already closer to tw than lee. Kids east of dryden have been going to bsg forever. I think it's just lack of interest all together. Even the more successful programs around have trouble getting Kids out anymore. Hopefully someone can figure out the answer to make Kids want to work again, everywhere. Highlands, lpd, Cumberland, hogo, southwest, all used to be full of teams of kids that the other side of the state just couldn't outwork. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goose111874 967 Report Share Posted May 10, 2021 7 hours ago, Smashmouth said: Kids have been heading west for years after middle school in jonesville, but most are already closer to tw than lee. Kids east of dryden have been going to bsg forever. I think it's just lack of interest all together. Even the more successful programs around have trouble getting Kids out anymore. Hopefully someone can figure out the answer to make Kids want to work again, everywhere. Highlands, lpd, Cumberland, hogo, southwest, all used to be full of teams of kids that the other side of the state just couldn't outwork. Kids can't keep away from electronics to play football. S10SQUAREBODY4LIFE 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cityofRaven 2,424 Report Share Posted May 10, 2021 12 hours ago, goose111874 said: Kids can't keep away from electronics to play football. Are you telling me that the electronics that you speak of are only sold in Lee County, Virginia? Union High School, not far from Lee County, just won a State Championship in Basketball and was in the State-Semifinals in Football... Graham has always been smaller than Lee High School, yet, they compete in Football and Basketball most seasons. A number of other schools locally could be used as an example. Maybe electronics or lazy kids aren't the problem. Could be the adults??? Deleted Account, Grapeape, redtiger and 2 others 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redtiger 1,739 Report Share Posted May 10, 2021 Video games certainly cut down on numbers. I completely understand wanting to be a really good gamer rather than the 5th best Tackle on the team. Its not necessarily laziness, just choosing something with a more immediate payoff that they're probably better at anyway. Don't get me wrong, I want every kid in the country to play on their respective football teams(im a huge fan of what you gain from football outside of playing time and learning the game) but I understand why they don't. cityofRaven and Ryan4VT 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goose111874 967 Report Share Posted May 10, 2021 2 hours ago, cityofRaven said: Are you telling me that the electronics that you speak of are only sold in Lee County, Virginia? Union High School, not far from Lee County, just won a State Championship in Basketball and was in the State-Semifinals in Football... Graham has always been smaller than Lee High School, yet, they compete in Football and Basketball most seasons. A number of other schools locally could be used as an example. Maybe electronics or lazy kids aren't the problem. Could be the adults??? Don't know who pissed in your Cheerios but I know parents who say they're kids won't get out of the house because of Xbox and PlayStation so there you go. Wasn't making an assumption Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S10SQUAREBODY4LIFE 239 Report Share Posted May 10, 2021 Almost to the point that a person would have to offer money to simply go outside and play a game of horse. Not many bare patches of grass nowadays from play in any yard. No wiffle ball, milk jug ball, nothing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goose111874 967 Report Share Posted May 10, 2021 2 minutes ago, Smashmouth said: Almost to the point that a person would have to offer money to simply go outside and play a game of horse. Not many bare patches of grass nowadays from play in any yard. No wiffle ball, milk jug ball, nothing. Really, I hate to be the guy who starts off every sentence with "When I was a young boy" but geez drive around no kids anywhere Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigerman10 222 Report Share Posted May 10, 2021 2 hours ago, cityofRaven said: Are you telling me that the electronics that you speak of are only sold in Lee County, Virginia? Union High School, not far from Lee County, just won a State Championship in Basketball and was in the State-Semifinals in Football... Graham has always been smaller than Lee High School, yet, they compete in Football and Basketball most seasons. A number of other schools locally could be used as an example. Maybe electronics or lazy kids aren't the problem. Could be the adults??? Graham is in no way comparable to Lee Co. The Bluefield micropolitan area has over 100k people. BigWinners 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cityofRaven 2,424 Report Share Posted May 10, 2021 33 minutes ago, Tigerman10 said: Graham is in no way comparable to Lee Co. The Bluefield micropolitan area has over 100k people. If that really were a factor in this case, no one outside of Tazewell County would win in Region D, ever. But, that's not the case here, and really has nothing to do with anything being discussed here. Ryan4VT, Gridiron60 and Deleted Account 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted Account 5,203 Report Share Posted May 10, 2021 1 hour ago, goose111874 said: Don't know who pissed in your Cheerios but I know parents who say they're kids won't get out of the house because of Xbox and PlayStation so there you go. Wasn't making an assumption What if I told you that it’s not 1975 anymore and 16-year-olds have more things to do than watch reruns of M*A*S*H* on CBS? The more activities there are for kids, the thinner the numbers are going to be. As I’ve said repeatedly, it’s not better or worse that fewer kids are playing. It’s just different. Sorry, everyone over age 50, but ‘tis what ‘tis. 1 hour ago, Tigerman10 said: Graham is in no way comparable to Lee Co. The Bluefield micropolitan area has over 100k people. You don’t really know what a micropolitan area is, do you? It’s a census block made up of little census blocks made up of other littler census blocks. It’s pretty much like making a line in Tetris (L-shape goes here, Z-shape goes here...). It contains the whole of Tazewell and Mercer Counties. That block serves 7 high schools (Richlands, Tazewell, Graham, Bluefield, Princeton, Montcalm, Pikeview). Tazewell County is going to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 40K people when 2020 Census numbers are released, +/- 1K. It’s roughly evenly split between the 3 high schools. Richlands has a little more, Graham a little less. Let’s assume for argument’s sake that Graham has a population base of 12K, which probably overshoots it by a hair. Lee County has 23K people, which will likely be 21.5K after the 2020 Census. Lee High serves about 2/3 of that population, which probably undershoots it by a hair. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mountain Football 1,532 Report Share Posted May 10, 2021 1 hour ago, goose111874 said: Don't know who pissed in your Cheerios but I know parents who say they're kids won't get out of the house because of Xbox and PlayStation so there you go. Wasn't making an assumption I like how those parents say that but they are also the same parents buying the games too.🤷♂️ cityofRaven and Deleted Account 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redtiger 1,739 Report Share Posted May 10, 2021 As far as comparing number of kids who participate in football between Lee and Graham. Id guess 80% or more of Grahams students are within 5 minutes of the school, for Lee thats probably more like 20%. Also just guessing but id say no one who attends Graham has more than a 20 minute car ride to the high school, some of the Lee kids have double that. Distance makes a difference. Whats wrong with M*A*S*H reruns? lol "My boy hes lazy, just plain lazy. All he wants to do is play his Play Box 6, and watch all them funny videos on the tiktok, and ride his 4--wheeler, and deer hunt with his bow and muzzleloader and rifle.And turkey hunt. And fish. And txt girls all the time. Cant get him to play a lick of football, no matter how many times I tell him how much tougher we were back in my day and how his generation is soft. Just aint got no interest for some reason." Not trying to offend anyone, just my take on things. Deleted Account, Jags52 and Ryan4VT 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigerman10 222 Report Share Posted May 10, 2021 42 minutes ago, UVAObserver said: What if I told you that it’s not 1975 anymore and 16-year-olds have more things to do than watch reruns of M*A*S*H* on CBS? The more activities there are for kids, the thinner the numbers are going to be. As I’ve said repeatedly, it’s not better or worse that fewer kids are playing. It’s just different. Sorry, everyone over age 50, but ‘tis what ‘tis. You don’t really know what a micropolitan area is, do you? It’s a census block made up of little census blocks made up of other littler census blocks. It’s pretty much like making a line in Tetris (L-shape goes here, Z-shape goes here...). It contains the whole of Tazewell and Mercer Counties. That block serves 7 high schools (Richlands, Tazewell, Graham, Bluefield, Princeton, Montcalm, Pikeview). Tazewell County is going to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 40K people when 2020 Census numbers are released, +/- 1K. It’s roughly evenly split between the 3 high schools. Richlands has a little more, Graham a little less. Let’s assume for argument’s sake that Graham has a population base of 12K, which probably overshoots it by a hair. Lee County has 23K people, which will likely be 21.5K after the 2020 Census. Lee High serves about 2/3 of that population, which probably undershoots it by a hair. I’m quite familiar with what a micropolitan area is-in this case it matters because it’s a base in which transfer students can operate. In single or double A, three or four athletes can make a huge difference, so when a school has a larger pool of people close by then it allows them to sustain success in a way that most small schools cannot. Kids who are invested in sports want to win, and they will often go where the winning is. It boils down to the fact that right now Lee is losing 3-4 athletes that make a difference to other schools and Graham/Union are gaining 3-4 athletes from other places. This happens all the time in urban areas, particularly with open enrollment. Off topic, but you would think you might have learned not to be so condescending after your disastrous basketball predictions this year but apparently, old habits die hard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted Account 5,203 Report Share Posted May 10, 2021 1 hour ago, redtiger said: As far as comparing number of kids who participate in football between Lee and Graham. Id guess 80% or more of Grahams students are within 5 minutes of the school, for Lee thats probably more like 20%. Also just guessing but id say no one who attends Graham has more than a 20 minute car ride to the high school, some of the Lee kids have double that. Distance makes a difference. Whats wrong with M*A*S*H reruns? lol "My boy hes lazy, just plain lazy. All he wants to do is play his Play Box 6, and watch all them funny videos on the tiktok, and ride his 4--wheeler, and deer hunt with his bow and muzzleloader and rifle.And turkey hunt. And fish. And txt girls all the time. Cant get him to play a lick of football, no matter how many times I tell him how much tougher we were back in my day and how his generation is soft. Just aint got no interest for some reason." Not trying to offend anyone, just my take on things. M*A*S*H* was a good show until Alan Alda decided to kill it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mountain Football 1,532 Report Share Posted May 10, 2021 1 hour ago, redtiger said: As far as comparing number of kids who participate in football between Lee and Graham. Id guess 80% or more of Grahams students are within 5 minutes of the school, for Lee thats probably more like 20%. Also just guessing but id say no one who attends Graham has more than a 20 minute car ride to the high school, some of the Lee kids have double that. Distance makes a difference. Whats wrong with M*A*S*H reruns? lol "My boy hes lazy, just plain lazy. All he wants to do is play his Play Box 6, and watch all them funny videos on the tiktok, and ride his 4--wheeler, and deer hunt with his bow and muzzleloader and rifle.And turkey hunt. And fish. And txt girls all the time. Cant get him to play a lick of football, no matter how many times I tell him how much tougher we were back in my day and how his generation is soft. Just aint got no interest for some reason." Not trying to offend anyone, just my take on things. I know a couple kids at Graham that drive more than 20 minutes to school. I dare say some of the kids in Abbs Valley are pushing that 20 minute mark as well. I get what you're saying though. As far as Tazewell County is concerned the Tannersville and Burke's Garden kids have a pretty good jump to get to school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mountain Football 1,532 Report Share Posted May 10, 2021 1 hour ago, Tigerman10 said: I’m quite familiar with what a micropolitan area is-in this case it matters because it’s a base in which transfer students can operate. In single or double A, three or four athletes can make a huge difference, so when a school has a larger pool of people close by then it allows them to sustain success in a way that most small schools cannot. Kids who are invested in sports want to win, and they will often go where the winning is. It boils down to the fact that right now Lee is losing 3-4 athletes that make a difference to other schools and Graham/Union are gaining 3-4 athletes from other places. This happens all the time in urban areas, particularly with open enrollment. Off topic, but you would think you might have learned not to be so condescending after your disastrous basketball predictions this year but apparently, old habits die hard. For those that know this particular group of Graham kids from little league till now. They can tell you Graham lost more than they gained. 4 or 5 of these kids would have been major contributors to this year's team had they not left. Unfortunately egos and politics prior to high school got in the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted Account 5,203 Report Share Posted May 10, 2021 2 hours ago, Tigerman10 said: I’m quite familiar with what a micropolitan area is-in this case it matters because it’s a base in which transfer students can operate. In single or double A, three or four athletes can make a huge difference, so when a school has a larger pool of people close by then it allows them to sustain success in a way that most small schools cannot. Kids who are invested in sports want to win, and they will often go where the winning is. It boils down to the fact that right now Lee is losing 3-4 athletes that make a difference to other schools and Graham/Union are gaining 3-4 athletes from other places. This happens all the time in urban areas, particularly with open enrollment. Off topic, but you would think you might have learned not to be so condescending after your disastrous basketball predictions this year but apparently, old habits die hard. I’ve never heard of a kid from Pikeview transferring to Richlands or vice versa. It shows unfamiliarity with the concept to use that as a meaningful argument. Schools with a positive program are going to gain, and schools with a negative program are going to lose, regardless of population measures. Ryan4VT 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goose111874 967 Report Share Posted May 10, 2021 2 hours ago, UVAObserver said: What if I told you that it’s not 1975 anymore and 16-year-olds have more things to do than watch reruns of M*A*S*H* on CBS? The more activities there are for kids, the thinner the numbers are going to be. As I’ve said repeatedly, it’s not better or worse that fewer kids are playing. It’s just different. Sorry, everyone over age 50, but ‘tis what ‘tis. You don’t really know what a micropolitan area is, do you? It’s a census block made up of little census blocks made up of other littler census blocks. It’s pretty much like making a line in Tetris (L-shape goes here, Z-shape goes here...). It contains the whole of Tazewell and Mercer Counties. That block serves 7 high schools (Richlands, Tazewell, Graham, Bluefield, Princeton, Montcalm, Pikeview). Tazewell County is going to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 40K people when 2020 Census numbers are released, +/- 1K. It’s roughly evenly split between the 3 high schools. Richlands has a little more, Graham a little less. Let’s assume for argument’s sake that Graham has a population base of 12K, which probably overshoots it by a hair. Lee County has 23K people, which will likely be 21.5K after the 2020 Census. Lee High serves about 2/3 of that population, which probably undershoots it by a hair. Wasn't talking to you but ok Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigerman10 222 Report Share Posted May 10, 2021 29 minutes ago, UVAObserver said: I’ve never heard of a kid from Pikeview transferring to Richlands or vice versa. It shows unfamiliarity with the concept to use that as a meaningful argument. Schools with a positive program are going to gain, and schools with a negative program are going to lose, regardless of population measures. It’s almost as if a school being located in the population center of a micropolitan area means nothing at all. No one mentioned Richlands-they mentioned Graham. Bluefield city proper has about 15k people...now add a 15-20 mile radius and you have quite a bit more population than the entirety of Lee County. Sure, you are correct in your unrelated anecdote that one extreme end of the CD micropolitan area isn’t going to transfer to another, but Bluefield is a large population center in an area that is bleeding population daily. There is a larger pool of potential athletes than there is in Jonesville/PG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beamerball 566 Report Share Posted May 11, 2021 *getting educated on my home county and school.... 1inStripes, redtiger, BigWinners and 3 others 1 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S10SQUAREBODY4LIFE 239 Report Share Posted May 11, 2021 appo has became a gold-standard as of the past, say 10 years. before that there were dark days, just as in several other area teams. no one stays at the top forever, nor do they stay at the bottom. things change, slower/faster in some places than others. unless you're salem who seems to always be in the running. whoever comes out of region D always has a shot, just gotta get past appo, easier said than done. watched appo the past several years, and it's amazing watching how simple they keep things and execute to near perfection in all areas of the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grapeape 259 Report Share Posted May 11, 2021 7 minutes ago, Smashmouth said: appo has became a gold-standard as of the past, say 10 years. before that there were dark days, just as in several other area teams. no one stays at the top forever, nor do they stay at the bottom. things change, slower/faster in some places than others. unless you're salem who seems to always be in the running. whoever comes out of region D always has a shot, just gotta get past appo, easier said than done. watched appo the past several years, and it's amazing watching how simple they keep things and execute to near perfection in all areas of the game. And the last swva team to knock off Appo? Lee High, 2014 - right before they fired Terry Martin. Friendly Henry 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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