New Head Coach at Richlands

[Mountain Football 1,532]

7 minutes ago, Popeye said:

That's a quick closing date. 

They probably already know who they are hiring.😂

[Gridiron60 2,555]

26 minutes ago, Popeye said:

That's a quick closing date. 

Strength & conditioning starts in earnest January or at least it should. 

[Union_Fan 2,155]

37 minutes ago, Mountain Football said:

They probably already know who they are hiring.😂

That's been my experience over the years, especially with school systems. The quicker the closing date, the more likely it's already filled!

[Gridiron60 2,555]

My money is still on Mike Compton with the resignation of the HC at UVA-Wise if he wants it, I say it’s his. 

[SwvaOG 601]

6 minutes ago, Gridiron60 said:

My money is still on Mike Compton with the resignation of the HC at UVA-Wise if he wants it, I say it’s his. 

I don’t get the vibe this is happening.  Could be wrong though.

[Gridiron60 2,555]

15 minutes ago, SwvaOG said:

I don’t get the vibe this is happening.  Could be wrong though.

Key phrase, “If he wanted it”… I sort of doubt he does. Breeding might get it. I highly doubt it’s an outsider though. 

[Tru Blue72 88]

9 hours ago, Gridiron60 said:

Key phrase, “If he wanted it”… I sort of doubt he does. Breeding might get it. I highly doubt it’s an outsider though. 

I might be wrong but dosn't the HC have to also be a teaccher in the county.  I don't know so someone please answer, Is Breeding teaching in Tazewell County?

[Gridiron60 2,555]

11 minutes ago, Tru Blue72 said:

I might be wrong but dosn't the HC have to also be a teaccher in the county.  I don't know so someone please answer, Is Breeding teaching in Tazewell County?

Tony Palmer doesn’t teach. He works for Bluefield, WV PD. I’m not sure about Coach Harris from Tazewell. No clue about Breeding 

[Tru Blue72 88]

33 minutes ago, Gridiron60 said:

Tony Palmer doesn’t teach. He works for Bluefield, WV PD. I’m not sure about Coach Harris from Tazewell. No clue about Breeding 

I'm old school and back in the day a HC had to be teaching, but things may have changed. Thanks for the info.

[SXSW 557]

8 hours ago, Gridiron60 said:

Key phrase, “If he wanted it”… I sort of doubt he does. Breeding might get it. I highly doubt it’s an outsider though. 

This situation is almost identical to what happened at Gate City and I posted at the time that the wrong coaching hire can set you back for many years and guess what Richlands you are there! But all that in the rearview mirror now and turning your program over to someone who actually wants the job is a good thing (aka Jeremy Houseright) so if Breeding wants the job and is willing to take the time to rebuild it then by all means let him have it. It may take several years but recruiting the hallways at the high school is where you must start and we know how the transfer portal works in Tazewell County!! LOL! I wish the Blues luck and success in their next hire except on certain days! 

[BandanaVTDavis4321 1,717]

7 minutes ago, SXSW said:

This situation is almost identical to what happened at Gate City and I posted at the time that the wrong coaching hire can set you back for many years and guess what Richlands you are there! But all that in the rearview mirror now and turning your program over to someone who actually wants the job is a good thing (aka Jeremy Houseright) so if Breeding wants the job and is willing to take the time to rebuild it then by all means let him have it. It may take several years but recruiting the hallways at the high school is where you must start and we know how the transfer portal works in Tazewell County!! LOL! I wish the Blues luck and success in their next hire except on certain days! 

I agree with you SXSW 100%. Only thing is, there is a gamble on that person knowing football. I'm not saying Breeding doesn't (I have no idea). The point I'm making is...the new coach can have incredible enthusiasm, excellent leadership, discipline, and motivational skills that makes the kids want to run through a wall and even build community support, but............there is still the x's and o's part, and as I have wrote before on here or what I refer to as...."the brains."  Somebody on staff has to do the scheming, the chess playing on the field, and without that, you can have the best general, best motivator, best disciplinary guy, best "buy in" guy in the business, and they will still come up short.  

With Houseright, Gate City struck gold.  You have all the leadership parts combined with the "knowing football part."  Breeding may be both and be super.  I just don't know enough about him.  A guy like Dixon at Galax, Palmer at Graham, Turner at Union, those guys have both.  The opposite is true in some situations where you have a Head Coach that is brilliant in scheming, x's and o's knowledge, but may be a poor leader, not much motivation or enthusiasm and they will struggle also because you got to have both.

The above are my opinions only.

[TnT+h 9]

You can be the smartest coach in the world but when you start putting faces and names on those X’s and O’s Things can change fast. Size, speed and length will overcome in 95% of these situations. Good luck to this proud program 

[tornado99 345]

18 minutes ago, BandanaVTDavis4321 said:

I agree with you SXSW 100%. Only thing is, there is a gamble on that person knowing football. I'm not saying Breeding doesn't (I have no idea). The point I'm making is...the new coach can have incredible enthusiasm, excellent leadership, discipline, and motivational skills that makes the kids want to run through a wall and even build community support, but............there is still the x's and o's part, and as I have wrote before on here or what I refer to as...."the brains."  Somebody on staff has to do the scheming, the chess playing on the field, and without that, you can have the best general, best motivator, best disciplinary guy, best "buy in" guy in the business, and they will still come up short.  

With Houseright, Gate City struck gold.  You have all the leadership parts combined with the "knowing football part."  Breeding may be both and be super.  I just don't know enough about him.  A guy like Dixon at Galax, Palmer at Graham, Turner at Union, those guys have both.  The opposite is true in some situations where you have a Head Coach that is brilliant in scheming, x's and o's knowledge, but may be a poor leader, not much motivation or enthusiasm and they will struggle also because you got to have both.

The above are my opinions only.

I may have the wrong impression, and I acknowledge the growth into possibly having both now. However, I believe when Palmer was hired, he embodied the leadership and community support part. I credit the scheming part initially to having great assistants. My opinion was that Mance was able to out coach Graham initially at a time when Graham was getting arguably better athletes. Let’s face it, even before the leverage of the transfer portal, there have been more college caliber athletes coming from the greater Bluefield area. Not only has the talent disparity widened, it is no coincidence that D. Palmer and other coaches have helped immensely on scheme and preparation. I don’t have knowledge specifically of the other coaching staff or longevity, but I know likely that Isabelle and Horton (not meaning others don’t), know football and strength and conditioning. Tony Palmer hasn’t had to be every where and everything. He has wisely delegated and improved by learning from the experience of his staff. Now success continues to breed success as athletes wanting to win continue to deepen the talent pool.

[tornado99 345]

Whoever is selected, is likely to have a heavy lift initially. That said, whether you support an outside hire or inside, the biggest factor in selection is cost. Salary or stipend is only a small part of the equation. The biggest advantage of an insider versus an outsider is the personal cost involved, such as housing, commute, time, and possibly allegiance. An outsider must consider all these things, especially if they have a family. I don’t know anything about the applicant pool, but I’m excited to see about the future.

[BandanaVTDavis4321 1,717]

51 minutes ago, tornado99 said:

I may have the wrong impression, and I acknowledge the growth into possibly having both now. However, I believe when Palmer was hired, he embodied the leadership and community support part. I credit the scheming part initially to having great assistants. My opinion was that Mance was able to out coach Graham initially at a time when Graham was getting arguably better athletes. Let’s face it, even before the leverage of the transfer portal, there have been more college caliber athletes coming from the greater Bluefield area. Not only has the talent disparity widened, it is no coincidence that D. Palmer and other coaches have helped immensely on scheme and preparation. I don’t have knowledge specifically of the other coaching staff or longevity, but I know likely that Isabelle and Horton (not meaning others don’t), know football and strength and conditioning. Tony Palmer hasn’t had to be every where and everything. He has wisely delegated and improved by learning from the experience of his staff. Now success continues to breed success as athletes wanting to win continue to deepen the talent pool.

In my opinion, your take is spot on.  I should have added in my post the importance of Leadership knowing what you don't know, or at least knowing how one may improve.  Meaning...if you aren't an offensive guru, you have the leadership qualities to get an offensive guy, or a defensive guy, etc.  Tony was smart to get a guy like D. Palmer.  

I think....again, just my opinion, that if you are a Head Coach and you have great leadership qualities, but if you might not be the "advanced expert" on scheming/x's and o's, this can be overcome by using those leadership qualities to get great assistants/coordinators around you.  That's a huge part of coaching.  We see some in college how a great Head Coach can lose a coordinator and things turn quickly or vice versa.  I hate to give credit to an evil person like Sandusky, and no question, Paterno was sharp at Penn State, but a gigantic portion of all of those great Penn State teams was Sandusky's defense.  Same thing applies to Bud Foster at Virginia Tech.  

All the best for the Blues.  I hope they turn it around.  Great tradition and pride in Richlands, VA, and I think SWVA is better if Richlands is............the normal Richlands we are so use to seeing.

[tornado99 345]

32 minutes ago, BandanaVTDavis4321 said:

In my opinion, your take is spot on.  I should have added in my post the importance of Leadership knowing what you don't know, or at least knowing how one may improve.  Meaning...if you aren't an offensive guru, you have the leadership qualities to get an offensive guy, or a defensive guy, etc.  Tony was smart to get a guy like D. Palmer.  

I think....again, just my opinion, that if you are a Head Coach and you have great leadership qualities, but if you might not be the "advanced expert" on scheming/x's and o's, this can be overcome by using those leadership qualities to get great assistants/coordinators around you.  That's a huge part of coaching.  We see some in college how a great Head Coach can lose a coordinator and things turn quickly or vice versa.  I hate to give credit to an evil person like Sandusky, and no question, Paterno was sharp at Penn State, but a gigantic portion of all of those great Penn State teams was Sandusky's defense.  Same thing applies to Bud Foster at Virginia Tech.  

All the best for the Blues.  I hope they turn it around.  Great tradition and pride in Richlands, VA, and I think SWVA is better if Richlands is............the normal Richlands we are so use to seeing.

Thanks for the clarification and the well wishes. Your post inspired another thread. I’m one of the few who are old enough to remember those darker times prior to 1992, so I hope normal is at least 1992 forward or 2004-2016. The old standard prior to Vaught and Mance was certainly nothing to brag about even though the community has always seemed passionate about football.

[redtiger 1,740]

1 hour ago, BandanaVTDavis4321 said:

In my opinion, your take is spot on.  I should have added in my post the importance of Leadership knowing what you don't know, or at least knowing how one may improve.  Meaning...if you aren't an offensive guru, you have the leadership qualities to get an offensive guy, or a defensive guy, etc.  Tony was smart to get a guy like D. Palmer.  

I think....again, just my opinion, that if you are a Head Coach and you have great leadership qualities, but if you might not be the "advanced expert" on scheming/x's and o's, this can be overcome by using those leadership qualities to get great assistants/coordinators around you.  That's a huge part of coaching.  We see some in college how a great Head Coach can lose a coordinator and things turn quickly or vice versa.  I hate to give credit to an evil person like Sandusky, and no question, Paterno was sharp at Penn State, but a gigantic portion of all of those great Penn State teams was Sandusky's defense.  Same thing applies to Bud Foster at Virginia Tech.  

All the best for the Blues.  I hope they turn it around.  Great tradition and pride in Richlands, VA, and I think SWVA is better if Richlands is............the normal Richlands we are so use to seeing.

Rarely is it a fantastic HC with a solid all around staff, usually its a 2 man job: a very good HC and an incredible guy at OC/DC as his right hand man. 

[Tru Blue72 88]

Talked to someone with more knowledge about Taxewell County school system and found out the coach doesn't have to teach, just be approved by the school board, so that's that.  IMO Brandon Breeding would not be a fix.  Don't get this wrong, he's a good guy, but he's part of the coaching staff that went 0-10 this year, so how is that going to change anything?  Once again in my old crusty opinion, and some won't agree, it needs to be a clean house type deal, and start over, why hold onto pieces of the pie if the whole pie is molded? I wouldn't eat it.

[Mountain Football 1,532]

1 hour ago, Tru Blue72 said:

Talked to someone with more knowledge about Taxewell County school system and found out the coach doesn't have to teach, just be approved by the school board, so that's that.  IMO Brandon Breeding would not be a fix.  Don't get this wrong, he's a good guy, but he's part of the coaching staff that went 0-10 this year, so how is that going to change anything?  Once again in my old crusty opinion, and some won't agree, it needs to be a clean house type deal, and start over, why hold onto pieces of the pie if the whole pie is molded? I wouldn't eat it.

It depends on the situation. Breeding was part of the current staff but how much input was he allowed to have? Tony Palmer was part of the staff under Mike Williams if I recall. Sometimes I think programs that are so rich in tradition do not accept outsiders all that well. I have no idea what kind of coach Breeding would make but I wouldn't overlook someone from Richlands. 

[land_rider 30]

On 11/11/2023 at 4:23 PM, V-Cats said:

Don't forget the ghostly visage of Ernie Hicks!

I believe they would hire Dennis Vault in a heartbeat if he would apply ! 

[S10SQUAREBODY4LIFE 239]

1 hour ago, land_rider said:

I believe they would hire Dennis Vault in a heartbeat if he would apply ! 

This should gain traction. Lol 

Hope they find coach asap

[BandanaVTDavis4321 1,717]

25 minutes ago, S10SQUAREBODY4LIFE said:

This should gain traction. Lol 

Hope they find coach asap

I believe ole Dennis is far too old now. Wouldn't Vault be around 70? Vault could absolutely flat out coach. Talking about a damn field wizard, this guy was one of them. Look at this cat long before the cleat thing and his success. 

It's really/was really a tough break for Richlands based on the events that one day in 1992 because Richlands might have had another title or two in the 90s with Vault still the coach. It's really a true /what could have been. I just dont think the younger generation on this board realizes actually how good of a coach Vault was. 

[Queue 20]

13 hours ago, Gridiron60 said:

Tony Palmer doesn’t teach. He works for Bluefield, WV PD.

 

#TonyPalmerIsACop

 

 

[stu_bean 1,058]

10 hours ago, BandanaVTDavis4321 said:

I believe ole Dennis is far too old now. Wouldn't Vault be around 70? Vault could absolutely flat out coach. Talking about a damn field wizard, this guy was one of them. Look at this cat long before the cleat thing and his success. 

It's really/was really a tough break for Richlands based on the events that one day in 1992 because Richlands might have had another title or two in the 90s with Vault still the coach. It's really a true /what could have been. I just dont think the younger generation on this board realizes actually how good of a coach Vault was. 

Don't really have a dog in the fight as I want our streak to continue lol but valid question here.  If he is that old, has the game not passed him up?  Look at when Joe Gibbs came back, yes some immediate success but after about half a season you could tell that the game was passing him quickly.

[Tru Blue72 88]

12 hours ago, BandanaVTDavis4321 said:

I believe ole Dennis is far too old now. Wouldn't Vault be around 70? Vault could absolutely flat out coach. Talking about a damn field wizard, this guy was one of them. Look at this cat long before the cleat thing and his success. 

It's really/was really a tough break for Richlands based on the events that one day in 1992 because Richlands might have had another title or two in the 90s with Vault still the coach. It's really a true /what could have been. I just dont think the younger generation on this board realizes actually how good of a coach Vault was. 

Watch it Bandana, I'm 70 and it's not old or at least it don't feel that way to me.  I still strap my work boots on at five in the morning and pull my shift with joy in my heart, and I'm blessed to be in great shape with no major health problems.  I know your point, but if Dennis still has the drive and the ability, why not, however longevity would be my concern also.  It will more than likely take at least a couple if not three years to return this program back to a winning program.  Now when I reach 72 or 73 I MIGHT and notice that is a big MIGHT, consider retirement and riding off into the sunset, but at 70, no, I'm having to much fun.