Area Coaches with the Best 10 Year Run

[Liam McPoyle]

I likely overlooked some obvious people, but here's a list of area coaches and their best 10-year run at the same school.  Source: fourseasonsfootball.com

 

 

 

Best 10 Year Span	Coach	School	W	L	T	Win %
1965-1974	Harry Fry	Gate City	96	9	2	0.907
1973-1982	Ralph Cummins	Clintwood	103	11	2	0.897
1989-1998	Phil Robbins	Powell Valley	114	18	0	0.864
2015-2024	Tony Palmer	Graham	113	18	0	0.863
2004-2013	Greg Mance	Richlands	110	20	0	0.846
1962-1971	Jim Riggs	Appalachia	85	16	2	0.835
1996-2005	Nick Colobro	Gate City	105	21	0	0.833
1992-2001	Steve Ragsdale	Giles	100	21	0	0.826
1948-1957	Merrill Gainer	Big Creek	79	16	4	0.818
1970-1979	Norman Lineburg	Radford	86	19	3	0.810
2003-2012	Jim Adams	JI Burton	103	27	0	0.792
2012-2021	John Adams	Lebanon	93	25	0	0.788
2012-2021	Fred Simon	Bluefield	93	25	0	0.788
1953-1962	Harry Ragsdale	Narrows	71	17	6	0.787
2014-2023	Travis Turner	Union	96	26	0	0.787
1988-1997	Tom Turner	Appalachia	104	29	0	0.782
1992-2001	Joel Hicks	Pulaski Co	95	27	0	0.779
1968-1977	John Chmara	Bluefield	78	22	1	0.777
2008-2017	Jeff Williams	Giles	91	29	0	0.758
2003-2012	Rick Mullins	Clintwood	93	30	0	0.756
1999-2008	James Colley	Haysi	81	28	0	0.743
1989-1998	Glynn Carlock	Graham	92	32	0	0.742
1995-2004	Greg Rowe	Grundy	86	31	0	0.735
1998-2007	Doug Hubbard	Honaker	83	31	0	0.728
Other Notables
Merrill Gainer's 9 seasons at Bluefield
1959-1967	Merrill Gainer	Bluefield	87	6	1	0.925

Edited December 16, 2024 by Liam McPoyle
Added Greg Rowe, John Adams and Tony Palmer to original chart

[tornado99]

Thank you and Bluefield researcher for compiling in one place. It really puts things into perspective.

[BigWinners]

So Phil had the most wins?

 

and does any other coach have as many titles in a span like that? From 89-98, PV had six. 

[Liam McPoyle]

27 minutes ago, BigWinners said:

So Phil had the most wins?

 

and does any other coach have as many titles in a span like that? From 89-98, PV had six. 

Robbins would easily have the most titles.

Gainer had four in his nine seasons at Bluefield.

[GilesBandanaMan]

1 hour ago, Liam McPoyle said:

Robbins would easily have the most titles.

Gainer had four in his nine seasons at Bluefield.

If WV at that time would have had a playoff system instead of selecting 2 teams to play for the title, Bluefield would have had much more than 4 in my opinion only. They were the best or at least one of the best 2 teams in WV many more than 4 out of those 9 years. In my understanding, WV selected 2 teams to play for the title and there wasn't a playoff system. Virginia didn't even do that though. They just declared a champion. I don't know the methods of how WV selected their 2 teams for the title gsme or how VA selected the champ. What Gainer did was alarming when you consider the level of competition Bluefield had during that marvelous run.

There were times in those 9 years where the Beavers weren't selected in the top 2 and didn't have a chance to compete for a title and I'm NOT saying it wasn't a fair system based on how it was set up. I'm just saying they were likely in the top 2 best teams on the field probably two different times out of those 9 years above in which they weren't selected to play in the title game.

[Bluefield researcher]

WV has had a playoff system since 1947. It was just statewide and the formula only selected the top two teams in each class. Bluefield was undefeated in 1960 and finished 4th and undefeated in 1968 but finished third in the rating system. The teams were NOT selected. 

[GilesBandanaMan]

55 minutes ago, Bluefield researcher said:

WV has had a playoff system since 1947. It was just statewide and the formula only selected the top two teams in each class. Bluefield was undefeated in 1960 and finished 4th and undefeated in 1968 but finished third in the rating system. The teams were NOT selected. 

Yep poor choice of words on my part. Shouldn't have wrote "selected". I know there was a formula and according to the methods used to rate or get the highest 2 teams, it was fair. When I wrote playoff system I was referring to 4 or 8 teams that play each other instead of just 2 to play for the title. I know 2 teams is technically "playoffs."

All I'm saying is this according to several old timers over the years in the Bluefield area. In 2 out of those 9 years, a strong argument can be made that the Beavers were one of the best two teams in the state of WV but got outpointed/outranked by the system WV had at that time.

[redtiger]

From 90-99 Colley was 82-34, another very impressive run.

[goose111874]

9 hours ago, Liam McPoyle said:

Robbins would easily have the most titles.

Gainer had four in his nine seasons at Bluefield.

Turner I believe had 5 in nine seasons 

89 92 94 96 97

[tornado99]

22 minutes ago, redtiger said:

From 90-99 Colley was 82-34, another very impressive run.

Colley was an offensive genius who often did the most with the least. Haysi obviously had talent, but spent many years in Division 2 competing against teams with more talent and resources. 

[Liam McPoyle]

6 minutes ago, goose111874 said:

Turner I believe had 5 in nine seasons 

89 92 94 96 97

Good point

[Weatherman]

Very impressive collection of information, kudos to those who had a hand in pulling this together. Definitely some coaching legends in that list.

[Wolf1207]

16 hours ago, redtiger said:

From 90-99 Colley was 82-34, another very impressive run.

I wonder if Colley would’ve gotten a state title if Haysi would’ve been classified properly in Division 1 as opposed to div 2.  
 

 

[tornado99]

1 hour ago, Wolf1207 said:

I wonder if Colley would’ve gotten a state title if Haysi would’ve been classified properly in Division 1 as opposed to div 2.  
 

 

That was the main problem with the old system unlike today. Today, at least the six divisions/classes are divided across the state. The old system had the division divided per region. In Region D, Haysi was in the bigger half of schools, even though in any other region they certainly would have been in the smaller divisions. The Red Tigers were often fighting above their weight class.

I don’t know if they would have overcome the Appalachia dynasty, but would have had a better chance than against the Vikings and both Jones brothers.

[goose111874]

5 hours ago, tornado99 said:

That was the main problem with the old system unlike today. Today, at least the six divisions/classes are divided across the state. The old system had the division divided per region. In Region D, Haysi was in the bigger half of schools, even though in any other region they certainly would have been in the smaller divisions. The Red Tigers were often fighting above their weight class.

I don’t know if they would have overcome the Appalachia dynasty, but would have had a better chance than against the Vikings and both Jones brothers.

I can remember Haysi or Honaker not making the playoffs a time or two being 9-1 and a Cumberland team getting in at 5-5.  Some really good teams back in the day getting screwed over

[redtiger]

On 10/19/2024 at 11:49 PM, tornado99 said:

Colley was an offensive genius who often did the most with the least. Haysi obviously had talent, but spent many years in Division 2 competing against teams with more talent and resources. 

Hard to win when every opponent you play from the regional championship on was at least twice your size. 

15 hours ago, Wolf1207 said:

I wonder if Colley would’ve gotten a state title if Haysi would’ve been classified properly in Division 1 as opposed to div 2.  
 

 

I think Haysi would have made the state title game several times and a title or two would have been within reason. When I played we traded places with Thomas Walker as the smallest D2 schools in the state, and that was the norm for much of Haysi's history.  

14 hours ago, tornado99 said:

That was the main problem with the old system unlike today. Today, at least the six divisions/classes are divided across the state. The old system had the division divided per region. In Region D, Haysi was in the bigger half of schools, even though in any other region they certainly would have been in the smaller divisions. The Red Tigers were often fighting above their weight class.

I don’t know if they would have overcome the Appalachia dynasty, but would have had a better chance than against the Vikings and both Jones brothers.

Haysi's better seasons dodged Appy's, so that would have helped. Haysi was Region D champs in 91 and 93 as where Appy won titles in 92 and 94. Idk if Haysi would have had anything for Appy in 89, 96, or 97. The odds definitely would have been better for the Tigers than vs the much larger Vikings.

The 91 and 93 teams ran into Lebanon and Giles, both fresh to Division 2 from Division 3. 

I think Appalachia and Haysi would have been interesting opponents in the 90s, very different styles of play.

[olewave]

On 10/19/2024 at 1:58 PM, Liam McPoyle said:

I likely overlooked some obvious people, but here's a list of area coaches and their best 10-year run at the same school.  Source: fourseasonsfootball.com

Best 10 Year Span	Coach	School	Wins	Losses	Ties	Winning %
1965-1974	Harry Fry	Gate City	96	9	2	0.907
1973-1982	Ralph Cummins	Clintwood	103	11	2	0.897
1989-1998	Phil Robbins	Powell Valley	114	18	0	0.864
2004-2013	Greg Mance	Richlands	110	20	0	0.846
1962-1971	Jim Riggs	Appalachia	85	16	2	0.835
1996-2005	Nick Colobro	Gate City	105	21	0	0.833
1992-2001	Steve Ragsdale	Giles	100	21	0	0.826
1948-1957	Merrill Gainer	Big Creek	79	16	4	0.818
1970-1979	Norman Lineburg	Radford	86	19	3	0.810
2003-2012	Jim Adams	JI Burton	103	27	0	0.792
2012-2021	Fred Simon	Bluefield	93	25	0	0.788
1953-1962	Harry Ragsdale	Narrows	71	17	6	0.787
2014-2023	Travis Turner	Union	96	26	0	0.787
1988-1997	Tom Turner	Appalachia	104	29	0	0.782
1992-2001	Joel Hicks	Pulaski Co	95	27	0	0.779
1968-1977	John Chmara	Bluefield	78	22	1	0.777
2008-2017	Jeff Williams	Giles	91	29	0	0.758
2003-2012	Rick Mullins	Clintwood	93	30	0	0.756
1999-2008	James Colley	Haysi	81	28	0	0.743
1989-1998	Glynn Carlock	Graham	92	32	0	0.742
1998-2007	Doug Hubbard	Honaker	83	31	0	0.728
Other Notables
Merrill Gainer's 9 seasons at Bluefield
1959-1967	Merrill Gainer	Bluefield	87	6	1	0.925
Tony Palmer's first 9 seasons at Graham
2015-2023	Tony Palmer	Graham	98	18	0	0.845

Greg Rowe at Grundy 1995-2004 went 86-31. 

[Liam McPoyle]

1 hour ago, olewave said:

Greg Rowe at Grundy 1995-2004 went 86-31. 

Thanks, Olewave. I added him to the list.

[Wolf1207]

2 hours ago, redtiger said:

Hard to win when every opponent you play from the regional championship on was at least twice your size. 

I think Haysi would have made the state title game several times and a title or two would have been within reason. When I played we traded places with Thomas Walker as the smallest D2 schools in the state, and that was the norm for much of Haysi's history.  

Haysi's better seasons dodged Appy's, so that would have helped. Haysi was Region D champs in 91 and 93 as where Appy won titles in 92 and 94. Idk if Haysi would have had anything for Appy in 89, 96, or 97. The odds definitely would have been better for the Tigers than vs the much larger Vikings.

The 91 and 93 teams ran into Lebanon and Giles, both fresh to Division 2 from Division 3. 

I think Appalachia and Haysi would have been interesting opponents in the 90s, very different styles of play.

Don’t forget about 95 Haysi with Jason Compton.  That team definitely would’ve made a run in division 1.  Even though we(Clintwood) should’ve won the playoff game at Sandlick.  But Haysi had the far superior coaching staff. 

[sup_rbeast]

4 hours ago, redtiger said:

Haysi's better seasons dodged Appy's, so that would have helped. Haysi was Region D champs in 91 and 93 as where Appy won titles in 92 and 94. Idk if Haysi would have had anything for Appy in 89, 96, or 97. The odds definitely would have been better for the Tigers than vs the much larger Vikings.

From the mid 80s through the early 90s, there wasn’t that big of a size difference in Appy and PV. Appy usually had around 300 kids and PV usually was slightly north of 400. That comes out to around 25-30 more kids per class in grades 9-12, and at the time PV didn’t allow freshmen on the varsity football team. The 1992 PV class was large and the classes from around 95 to 97 were large, but it’s not like PV had huge numbers in the school. They had much less than folks tend to imply on this board.

[tornado99]

28 minutes ago, sup_rbeast said:

From the mid 80s through the early 90s, there wasn’t that big of a size difference in Appy and PV. Appy usually had around 300 kids and PV usually was slightly north of 400. That comes out to around 25-30 more kids per class in grades 9-12, and at the time PV didn’t allow freshmen on the varsity football team. The 1992 PV class was large and the classes from around 95 to 97 were large, but it’s not like PV had huge numbers in the school. They had much less than folks tend to imply on this board.

Thanks for the insight. I wasn’t sure how much bigger, but I believe the Jones era was around 94-98 football or 99 if graduating class. I know the Vikings usually beat the Bulldogs head-to-head, part of the basis for slightly easier path. Regardless, very tough football in the 1990s in our region.

[goose111874]

4 hours ago, redtiger said:

Hard to win when every opponent you play from the regional championship on was at least twice your size. 

I think Haysi would have made the state title game several times and a title or two would have been within reason. When I played we traded places with Thomas Walker as the smallest D2 schools in the state, and that was the norm for much of Haysi's history.  

Haysi's better seasons dodged Appy's, so that would have helped. Haysi was Region D champs in 91 and 93 as where Appy won titles in 92 and 94. Idk if Haysi would have had anything for Appy in 89, 96, or 97. The odds definitely would have been better for the Tigers than vs the much larger Vikings.

The 91 and 93 teams ran into Lebanon and Giles, both fresh to Division 2 from Division 3. 

I think Appalachia and Haysi would have been interesting opponents in the 90s, very different styles of play.

The 93 Appalachia team I’ve always thought was their best team but a incident in the half state game kept them from winning that season 

[Union_Fan]

1 hour ago, sup_rbeast said:

From the mid 80s through the early 90s, there wasn’t that big of a size difference in Appy and PV. Appy usually had around 300 kids and PV usually was slightly north of 400. That comes out to around 25-30 more kids per class in grades 9-12, and at the time PV didn’t allow freshmen on the varsity football team. The 1992 PV class was large and the classes from around 95 to 97 were large, but it’s not like PV had huge numbers in the school. They had much less than folks tend to imply on this board.

 

55 minutes ago, tornado99 said:

Thanks for the insight. I wasn’t sure how much bigger, but I believe the Jones era was around 94-98 football or 99 if graduating class. I know the Vikings usually beat the Bulldogs head-to-head, part of the basis for slightly easier path. Regardless, very tough football in the 1990s in our region.

Powell Valley had significantly more than 400 kids in the 80s and 90s. That was one of the reasons for Powell Valley Middle School to open. Close Carnes Middle school and alleviate overcrowding in the Primary and High schools. PVM opened with 800 kids. PVP had 1000 kids before 5th grade was moved to the new PVM.

My class started 9th grade with 200 kids and graduated with 160. This was a result of Westmoreland doing massive layoffs before finally closing in 1996. The LCD message board in the cafeteria scrolled the enrollment along with other items. I distinctly remember 710 scrolling across it while I was in study hall. I just can't remember which year because I had study hall in there 3 different times. Not much else to do, but stare at that thing and quietly play paper football. haha

When my sister graduated in the early 80s, there were over 800 kids in the building, but that included 8th grade at the time. In 2011, when it closed, PV housed 528 students. That's why Union was built to hold 750 kids, the 528 from PV and the 249 or so from Appy. (DOE Fall Membership 2010-2011). 2004 is as far back as the DOE goes. Couldn't find any enrollment records from the 80s or 90s.

[sup_rbeast]

31 minutes ago, Union_Fan said:

 

Powell Valley had significantly more than 400 kids in the 80s and 90s. That was one of the reasons for Powell Valley Middle School to open. Close Carnes Middle school and alleviate overcrowding in the Primary and High schools. PVM opened with 800 kids. PVP had 1000 kids before 5th grade was moved to the new PVM.

My class started 9th grade with 200 kids and graduated with 160. This was a result of Westmoreland doing massive layoffs before finally closing in 1996. The LCD message board in the cafeteria scrolled the enrollment along with other items. I distinctly remember 710 scrolling across it while I was in study hall. I just can't remember which year because I had study hall in there 3 different times. Not much else to do, but stare at that thing and quietly play paper football. haha

When my sister graduated in the early 80s, there were over 800 kids in the building, but that included 8th grade at the time. In 2011, when it closed, PV housed 528 students. That's why Union was built to hold 750 kids, the 528 from PV and the 249 or so from Appy. (DOE Fall Membership 2010-2011). 2004 is as far back as the DOE goes. Couldn't find any enrollment records from the 80s or 90s.

I went to PV from 1987-1991. I do know that at the time I was in school, the 1992 graduating class was the largest in the history of the school and they had nearly 200 kids. My class and the class ahead of me were significantly smaller with around 130-140. If you ever went to Carnes, you know the reason PVMS was built. Carnes only had 7 classrooms for both grades 6&7 combined. The 7 classrooms were used for grade 7.  6th grade classrooms were in trailers outside, in the current town maintenance shed, under she stage, and in the broiler room. Grades 5&8 were added to balance out the populations between the 3 PV schools. I’m not sure exactly how they counted enrollment back then, but I do know that my senior year, our official enrollment for sports placement was at 435. That same year, if I’m not mistaken, Appalachia was at 310 for sports placement. They used to print them in The Post football issue every year along with the write up.

[Union_Fan]

38 minutes ago, sup_rbeast said:

I went to PV from 1987-1991. I do know that at the time I was in school, the 1992 graduating class was the largest in the history of the school and they had nearly 200 kids. My class and the class ahead of me were significantly smaller with around 130-140. If you ever went to Carnes, you know the reason PVMS was built. Carnes only had 7 classrooms for both grades 6&7 combined. The 7 classrooms were used for grade 7.  6th grade classrooms were in trailers outside, in the current town maintenance shed, under she stage, and in the broiler room. Grades 5&8 were added to balance out the populations between the 3 PV schools. I’m not sure exactly how they counted enrollment back then, but I do know that my senior year, our official enrollment for sports placement was at 435. That same year, if I’m not mistaken, Appalachia was at 310 for sports placement. They used to print them in The Post football issue every year along with the write up.

If I remember correctly, they only counted 10-12 for varsity sports. Appalachia was around 300 for grades 9-12. I had 11 cousins that graduated from Appy from 1982-1995. My mom always kept the graduation insert from The Post. During that time, they consistently graduated 70-84 kids each year which would put them in that 280-320 range.

I barely missed Carnes, but very familiar with it as my siblings and some cousins went there.