Galax @ Giles

[nrv_football 81]

Galax 42 to 21

[BandanaVTDavis4321 1,717]

4 minutes ago, nrv_football said:

Galax 42 to 21

Agree with that score 100%. 3 TD win for Galax, low 40s for Galax to low 20s for Giles.

[SWVAgridiron 1,469]

Maroon Tide 45-7

[Hokiebird7 1,416]

Another blowout

I think some of our players already mailed it in 

[1Wingit23 54]

Giles gets blown out again 42-14

[nrv_football 81]

If Giles finishes 2-8 which is very likely imo is that the worst record in program history?

[SWVAgridiron 1,469]

48 minutes ago, nrv_football said:

If Giles finishes 2-8 which is very likely imo is that the worst record in program history?

It will the worst record since 1978(Ragsdale’s first year went 2-8). 45 whole years. 

[BandanaVTDavis4321 1,717]

A 2-8 record would tie the 1962 team of 2-8, and the 1968 team of 2-8 and 1978 as SWVAGridiron mentioned above at 2-8.

1967 was the worst at 0 wins, 9 losses, and 1 tie

1976 was second worst at 1-9.

From 1979ish, we have a neary 40 year run , literally for over 1/3rd of a century of being pretty good, but times have changed.  

[sixcat 2,922]

I hear from various places, Giles coaches are far more concerned with tailgating preparations for VT football games than getting the high school team prepared for Friday nights.

What's the local take?

[60minuteMan 44]

3 hours ago, 1Wingit23 said:

Giles gets blown out again 42-14

Come on Man, don't you have any faith some 16 year old kid might step up this week and show some leadership? Apparently, that's all that's lacking at Giles right now, right?

[60minuteMan 44]

2 minutes ago, sixcat said:

I hear from various places, Giles coaches are far more concerned with tailgating preparations for VT football games than getting the high school team prepared for Friday nights.

What's the local take?

everybody knows the problem. A few on here are reluctant to admit it, but they know as well. they've been around long enough to know.

[1inStripes 932]

9 minutes ago, sixcat said:

I hear from various places, Giles coaches are far more concerned with tailgating preparations for VT football games than getting the high school team prepared for Friday nights.

What's the local take?

Tailgating is probably better than the product VT is putting on the field. 

[BandanaVTDavis4321 1,717]

58 minutes ago, 1inStripes said:

Tailgating is probably better than the product VT is putting on the field. 

There's truth to this.  I enjoy the tailgates at VT more than I do the games at this point and I don't drink alcohol.  What's that say about VT's on-field product?  Well, it ain't good.  

Giles issues are a combination of things, not single variant, and anyone educated enough (60 minute man) would know that also, but you Think you know, and what do you do?  You do the classic black and white, all or none approach to a multivariant problem just like the side opposite of your opinion.  What does that make you?  It makes you THE SAME, no different, and it also doesn't mean you are correct.  The issues at Giles are talent, it is leadership, it is coaching dedication in the off season, it is parent dedication in the offseason, it is player dedication in the offseason, it is the times we live in (We are closer to Blacksburg, a little more left of center in ideology) compared to years ago.  I'm not saying that's "bad" either.  I'm saying....a little bit less parental interest in football, don't quite want to start them as early because of CTE, a little more interest in soccer and non contact sports, etc.  Lower numbers that what we had.  And no question, some....not all.......some of this falls on the coaches.  It's Multivariant as to our decline and like most problems.......the cause and solution isn't single variant, but there are multiple factors at play.  

My point is .....it's far, far more than......"Blame the Coaches or Not Blame the Coaches."  It would be so easy....so nice.....so simple to be able to do that because we get empowered.  We get control.  We feel like that single variant problem gets a quick single variant fix and whooolllaaaa, it's all fixed.  It doesn't work that way with many things, and this is one of those things where it will not work this way.   Notice I didn't say a coaching change is not needed or needed.  What I am saying is.....staying with the same coach or not staying with same coach WILL NOT fix the problem until the other variables above are also addressed, and addressing those other variables above is absolutely NOT all on the coaching staff (present or new).  Much of it is the parents and it comes down to will.  How willing are parents and community willing to fix the problem.  You can lead animal to water.  They have to drink themselves. 

Finally, this post is my OPINION, just like everyone else has.  I would argue this point strongly.  For any side arguing its 100 % purely coaching related or it's absolutely 100% not coaching related are both......wrong.  Multivariant boys.....and multivariant problems such something God awful because they are tough to fix.

[60minuteMan 44]

46 minutes ago, BandanaVTDavis4321 said:

There's truth to this.  I enjoy the tailgates at VT more than I do the games at this point and I don't drink alcohol.  What's that say about VT's on-field product?  Well, it ain't good.  

Giles issues are a combination of things, not single variant, and anyone educated enough (60 minute man) would know that also, but you Think you know, and what do you do?  You do the classic black and white, all or none approach to a multivariant problem just like the side opposite of your opinion.  What does that make you?  It makes you THE SAME, no different, and it also doesn't mean you are correct.  The issues at Giles are talent, it is leadership, it is coaching dedication in the off season, it is parent dedication in the offseason, it is player dedication in the offseason, it is the times we live in (We are closer to Blacksburg, a little more left of center in ideology) compared to years ago.  I'm not saying that's "bad" either.  I'm saying....a little bit less parental interest in football, don't quite want to start them as early because of CTE, a little more interest in soccer and non contact sports, etc.  Lower numbers that what we had.  And no question, some....not all.......some of this falls on the coaches.  It's Multivariant as to our decline and like most problems.......the cause and solution isn't single variant, but there are multiple factors at play.  

My point is .....it's far, far more than......"Blame the Coaches or Not Blame the Coaches."  It would be so easy....so nice.....so simple to be able to do that because we get empowered.  We get control.  We feel like that single variant problem gets a quick single variant fix and whooolllaaaa, it's all fixed.  It doesn't work that way with many things, and this is one of those things where it will not work this way.   Notice I didn't say a coaching change is not needed or needed.  What I am saying is.....staying with the same coach or not staying with same coach WILL NOT fix the problem until the other variables above are also addressed, and addressing those other variables above is absolutely NOT all on the coaching staff (present or new).  Much of it is the parents and it comes down to will.  How willing are parents and community willing to fix the problem.  You can lead animal to water.  They have to drink themselves. 

Finally, this post is my OPINION, just like everyone else has.  I would argue this point strongly.  For any side arguing its 100 % purely coaching related or it's absolutely 100% not coaching related are both......wrong.  Multivariant boys.....and multivariant problems such something God awful because they are tough to fix.

OK, a lot to take in there. So my question is, where do you begin to turn the situation around? You can't bring in 50 different players each year You can't bring in 100 new parents each year. My theory, based on the handfull of players I've known and talked to over the past few years is, the head coach is not very well liked or respected by the players. He doesn't seem to inspire kids to come out for football, or keep the one's participating in middle school or jv to continue their football careers.  Participation numbers have been declining for years, and not wholly a factor of declining enrollment. Other area schools of near equal enrollments as Giles are not seeing these low turnout numbers for football, just check across the river. I'm going to throw this out as an example, Chilhowie. I know very little about that program. But I did catch one of their games this year. I believe they went 0-10 last year. They had over 50 kids dressed for their varsity team. What has happened there. They brought in a new Coach. I didn't look up enrollment numbers, but I'd say Giles and Chilhowie are fairly close. If you're satisfied to just let things go and hope they turn around someday, that's on you. Good luck with that. I got a patch in my yard that grass has quit growing. I can wait a couple more years and see if the grass magically starts growing again, or I can make a change and try something different to see if I can get that patch pretty again.

 

[BandanaVTDavis4321 1,717]

1 hour ago, 60minuteMan said:

OK, a lot to take in there. So my question is, where do you begin to turn the situation around? You can't bring in 50 different players each year You can't bring in 100 new parents each year. My theory, based on the handfull of players I've known and talked to over the past few years is, the head coach is not very well liked or respected by the players. He doesn't seem to inspire kids to come out for football, or keep the one's participating in middle school or jv to continue their football careers.  Participation numbers have been declining for years, and not wholly a factor of declining enrollment. Other area schools of near equal enrollments as Giles are not seeing these low turnout numbers for football, just check across the river. I'm going to throw this out as an example, Chilhowie. I know very little about that program. But I did catch one of their games this year. I believe they went 0-10 last year. They had over 50 kids dressed for their varsity team. What has happened there. They brought in a new Coach. I didn't look up enrollment numbers, but I'd say Giles and Chilhowie are fairly close. If you're satisfied to just let things go and hope they turn around someday, that's on you. Good luck with that. I got a patch in my yard that grass has quit growing. I can wait a couple more years and see if the grass magically starts growing again, or I can make a change and try something different to see if I can get that patch pretty again.

 

As for "satisfied to just let things go and hope they turn around someday," I never stated that.  You did.  If you want to go the other coach route, as I eluded to in my post, ok.  That's a valid concern, but it's not valid, if you choose the other coaching route without addressing all the other issues preferably first, or at least at the same time.  Chilhowie, ok.  I give you Gate City.  Great Coach and how good?  In my opinion, one of the top 5 in Virginia at Class 1 or 2 level.  Houseright is that good.  GC still has issues with parents, kids not wanted to dedicate themselves, and here's the thing I know personally about Giles, the HC has tried along with assistants to get the kids in the weight room.  The man is not getting the support from the parents.  Now, one could argue, then he needs to be a better leader.  That's fair.  I accept that, but you still have to have parental buy in.  When you have a school with low population, if they don't do summer weightlifting because the parents will not support you, do you kick them off the team or not let them play in August?  You could do that, but now you are dressing 24 players instead of 34.  Look around not just Virginia, but the country, and look at small schools with less population.  Look at the ones that have issues like Giles, and you will find a giant chunk of them being closer to a micropolitan area like C-Burg-Blacksburg that have a certain political or ideological slant (like Auburn).  Again, nothing wrong with that, but I'm just saying its a real thing.  We got kids at Giles who are at Hilton Head with their parents for their sister's soccer camp 1 week before the season starts, and those parents are dang sure insistent on that kid being at Hilton Head.  We have 2 in the hallways right now......literally as I write this, that are freakish athletes and their parents absolutely REFUSE to let them play.  Trust me, Williams has tried.  They are concerned about the CTE thing (again, not saying that's bad) but it's their choice.  For the schools that are small in population and hanging on (like Chilhowie) across the country, a huge chuck will be away from micro or metropolitan areas where the political or values are different.  

I am for this....a direct answer to your question...

Fire the AD first.  New hire gets told, we have a football problem.  We need a massive effort and campaign to get the youth leagues shored up and middle school and we need parental meetings monthly.  We want signs up in town. We want flyers.  We want buy in.  We want conversations with parents.  We want to inform the parents why the kid needs to be at weightlifting and you.....the new AD will spearhead this campaign.  If nothing has changed in 3 years, you then look at coaching replacement.  Why not fire the HC first?  Because he has a title and had a solid record up until 2018ish, so the odds that a switch flipped that fast due to his on field x's and o's are unlikely.  Is it possible?  Yep.  Is it possible his interest level or motivation decreased?  Yep, it sure is, but we can find out.  That's my solution to the problem since you asked.  

[60minuteMan 44]

from what I'm told, Giles Co. doesn't have a participation problem in the youth programs. As far as off season weight lifting, Coach Ragsdale was never a real big off season guy himself. The program was there, not mandatory.  Although there was better participation, I think that goes to my earlier statement that the guy coaching now is not well liked or respected. Ragsdale was both. The guys were willing to go that extra mile for him. Rags also encouraged kids to play other sports. He knew there were skills that could be learned in other sports that would help with football. Lots of football coaches these days don't like to see their top guys play other sports. We both want the same thing. Just disagree on the swiftest way to get there.

[spartanwinger 16]

Losing Christian Ratcliffe really hurts. Talked to his dad today and he said Christian was having surgery on his hand tomorrow. He was the only big threat potential we had on the team. That is Singal A football. But to make a comment that the coaches are more interested in tailgating at a VT game is idiotic. Are they perfect? NO, but they give their time 5 days a week. If you want to bash the kids and the coaches maybe you should go talk to the principal and put in an application if your willing to put in the time!

[sixcat 2,922]

Galax has two 10th graders and zero 9th graders contributing at the varsity level. They have a slew of them watching from the sidelines but rarely see the field. I just don’t believe adding those 9th and 10th grade varsity players to the JV lineup gets Galax a lot closer to the Giles JV squad that dismantled Galax a month ago.
 

Maybe I’m wrong but the Giles JV’s was better at every position!!!

Interested to see how that translates to varsity in the coming years for Giles. 

[SWVAgridiron 1,469]

3 minutes ago, sixcat said:

Galax has two 10th graders and zero 9th graders contributing at the varsity level. They have a slew of them watching from the sidelines but rarely see the field. I just don’t believe adding those 9th and 10th grade varsity players to the JV lineup gets Galax a lot closer to the Giles JV squad that dismantled Galax a month ago.
 

Maybe I’m wrong but the Giles JV’s was better at every position!!!

Interested to see how that translates to varsity in the coming years for Giles. 

Giles JV dismantled everyone except for Grayson. They only won by 4 points but had 3 or 4 TDs called back. In 2 years 1C should be a breeze for the Spartans with the exception of 2C Grayson(yep I said it) I’m also curious to see how it translates to varsity. 

[60minuteMan 44]

12 minutes ago, sixcat said:

Galax has two 10th graders and zero 9th graders contributing at the varsity level. They have a slew of them watching from the sidelines but rarely see the field. I just don’t believe adding those 9th and 10th grade varsity players to the JV lineup gets Galax a lot closer to the Giles JV squad that dismantled Galax a month ago.
 

Maybe I’m wrong but the Giles JV’s was better at every position!!!

Interested to see how that translates to varsity in the coming years for Giles. 

Giles JV's have been good for years. Sad part is 1/3 of them will quit football before their senior year. And not because of the AD or because their sister plays soccer at Hilton Head in July, or something like that.

[BandanaVTDavis4321 1,717]

50 minutes ago, 60minuteMan said:

from what I'm told, Giles Co. doesn't have a participation problem in the youth programs. As far as off season weight lifting, Coach Ragsdale was never a real big off season guy himself. The program was there, not mandatory.  Although there was better participation, I think that goes to my earlier statement that the guy coaching now is not well liked or respected. Ragsdale was both. The guys were willing to go that extra mile for him. Rags also encouraged kids to play other sports. He knew there were skills that could be learned in other sports that would help with football. Lots of football coaches these days don't like to see their top guys play other sports. We both want the same thing. Just disagree on the swiftest way to get there.

What I do want to see out of the current coaches is more emphasis on weight training.  We may disagree on the path 60minuteMan, but I think things will change soon.  There will be more pressure to win the JV program coming up, and I've argued that one problem (not the whole problem) but one problem has been lack of talent compared to what we had.  Whether that is true or not, we will find out shortly because of the performance of our JV team.  What I feel is an absolute must and the critique I've given on this board not just a year ago, but 4 years ago and on is weight training  That has absolutely got to get better and the Coaches have to absolute fix this.  They in my opinion, are not doing well in this area.  Now, again, some of that is the parents, but some is coaches.  I still think we are fine from an x's and o's perspcetive.  The pass play by Narrows.  Kid wasn't in terrible position.  He was told.....GET BACK  Do not get beat deep.  Those words were literally used by 2 staff members before the play, and the kid just got beat.  He simply did the exact opposite of what he was told.  Rags wasn't a huge weightlifting guy, but neither was most of his competition in his era compared to present.  That area needs to be better for sure.

[Hokiebird7 1,416]

8 minutes ago, 60minuteMan said:

Giles JV's have been good for years. Sad part is 1/3 of them will quit football before their senior year. And not because of the AD or because their sister plays soccer at Hilton Head in July, or something like that.

Oh we've had many that didn't play over the year because of the AD/JV coach...and a bunch could have helped us....and parents are part of the problem too

[BandanaVTDavis4321 1,717]

4 minutes ago, 60minuteMan said:

Giles JV's have been good for years. Sad part is 1/3 of them will quit football before their senior year. And not because of the AD or because their sister plays soccer at Hilton Head in July, or something like that.

Well, at zero times did I write a kid would quit because of their sister in Hilton Head (and you know that I didn't write that). I did write about the lack of emphasis or importance placed by the parents on football regarding a soccer camp at Hilton Head one week before the opening game which did happen year before last, and this is what the coaches are dealing with.  The AD is overwhelmingly responsible for many of the kids in JV not playing varsity as are the parents.   I don't think you know the AD very well.  Again, major push in the USA by many parents to let their kids play football up until junior high, jv at most, then stopping by age 16.  Giles is feeling the effects of that.  Again, I respectively disagree with what you are saying.  We literally have 2 kids that would be stars....absolute beasts right now, along with another player who would be pretty good, not great, but pretty good and would start, that are walking the halls because their parents willl not let them play because of CTE/Head Injury risk.  That's an absolute fact.  That's not Williams.  That's parents.  

[sixcat 2,922]

1 hour ago, spartanwinger said:

to make a comment that the coaches are more interested in tailgating at a VT game is idiotic.

I get it man, reading comprehension can be a bitch sometimes. 
 

Hearing from various places, some of which are longtime coaches in the region, isn’t the same thing as “making a comment” but you do you boss.

[SW_VA_boy 492]

54 minutes ago, Hokiebird7 said:

Oh we've had many that didn't play over the year because of the AD/JV coach...and a bunch could have helped us....and parents are part of the problem too

I can testify to that being the case in baseball as well.  Also, work with plenty that are scared shitless he'll be the new guy if/when Jeff steps down.