Lebanon SWD Regular Season Champs

[Gridiron60]

Lebanon boys finish  10-0 to win SWD baseball title. Lebanon girls beat a Richlands to clinch SWD softball championship. 

[BigWinners]

So 2D tourney will look like Battle/VHS on one side and Lebanon/Union on other, correct? Assuming current standings hold

[cityofRaven]

22 hours ago, BigWinners said:

So 2D tourney will look like Battle/VHS on one side and Lebanon/Union on other, correct? Assuming current standings hold

Still have to play the district tournaments. Top 4 in each will face off in regional tournament.

[BigWinners]

1 hour ago, cityofRaven said:

Still have to play the district tournaments. Top 4 in each will face off in regional tournament.

Do both districts use only tourney results or would Battle/Leb be locked in as one seeds? I dunno how baseball does it. 

[swvavol]

If it’s like softball, I believe the SWD champ is the one seed on that side and on the MTN 7 side, it’s the team that finishes highest not named Abingdon 

[BigWinners]

16 hours ago, swvavol said:

If it’s like softball, I believe the SWD champ is the one seed on that side and on the MTN 7 side, it’s the team that finishes highest not named Abingdon 

But do they take regular season standings or tournament finish for the top 2D team in M7?

[techfan]

23 minutes ago, BigWinners said:

But do they take regular season standings or tournament finish for the top 2D team in M7?

I think in the past the regular season champion is the one then 2-4 is determined by the tournament order of finish 

[Ryan4VT]

45 minutes ago, BigWinners said:

But do they take regular season standings or tournament finish for the top 2D team in M7?

SWD does regular season champ is the 1 seed and then 2-4 is determined by the finishing order of the district tournament. 

[swvavol]

1 hour ago, BigWinners said:

But do they take regular season standings or tournament finish for the top 2D team in M7?

It's based off regular season.  You throw out Abingdon and the Class 2 team with the best district record is the #1 seed.

[BigWinners]

3 hours ago, swvavol said:

It's based off regular season.  You throw out Abingdon and the Class 2 team with the best district record is the #1 seed.

And 2-4 decided by M7 tourney, like in basketball and how SWD does it? I get what you’re saying bout Abingdon I know they don’t count in the standings when talking about potential 2Dntourney bids. 

[swvavol]

I'm not totally certain how 2 thru 4 is decided.  I have been told there is some kind of point system in play where you get so many points for regular season (don't know if its based on wins or where you finish) and then there are points based on where you finish in the district tourney.  I was told it's pretty much a lock that Lee is the #2 seed from the Mtn 7 in softball.  Just not certain how that is calculated.

[Stelley]

On 5/15/2026 at 11:57 PM, Gridiron60 said:

Lebanon boys finish  10-0 to win SWD baseball title. Lebanon girls beat a Richlands to clinch SWD softball championship. 

Since the ‘21 season Lebanon has went a clean 50-0 in regular season district play and 59-1 against district opponents (upset loss to chilhowie in ‘22 region final). Overall since then they are 120-27 (8 of those losses being this year) however, if you only count teams not named Tennessee High, Abingdon, or Daniel Boone they are 116-8 (split with Tn high last year, split with Boone in ‘24, and beat Abingdon both times in ‘23). If the Pioneers can somehow make it through district play unscathed next year, possible considering what Richlands and V High is losing, I see that streak continuing to grow because the middle school team is very solid but they all are being held back, pair that with dropping back to 1A who knows what else will happen. 
 

It also isn’t talked about enough the fact that if the 2020 season was played they would have bumped up that streak by a lot more and they would have a lot less room in the trophy case. Would have had all but one starter from the ‘21 team plus a couple of key pieces from the ‘19 team that made it to the state championship game. 19-0 was impressive in ‘21 and 26-2 was impressive in ‘23 the only thing that could top those two seasons is 28-0, and I would not have been surprised if that’s what that team would have been. The ‘20 team would have easily been a top team in the history of SWVA.

[tornado99]

When I see stats like this, and I’m aware of how dominant they have been on this impressive run, I wonder why and how? 
 

I’m under the impression that the Pioneers began to prioritize and emphasize baseball at some point and have been blessed with talent.

Tell us the story about how they rose to prominence in your opinion and the keys to staying there.

[Stelley]

2 hours ago, tornado99 said:

When I see stats like this, and I’m aware of how dominant they have been on this impressive run, I wonder why and how? 
 

I’m under the impression that the Pioneers began to prioritize and emphasize baseball at some point and have been blessed with talent.

Tell us the story about how they rose to prominence in your opinion and the keys to staying there.

I know for Lebanon the biggest key has been “daddy ball”. People can hate on it all they want but it’s needed at the youth level, not needed in HS, but definitely youth. I’ve noticed since about 2015 all of the good HS baseball teams all have had a group of dads get a group of 7-8 year old kids together and going to play travel ball. Granted it is a lot easier to do this whenever you constantly give the youth levels motivation with consistently having a good HS team. All of these kids that you see today that are good, 99 times out of 100 their parents have spent thousands upon thousands of dollars on lessons and team fees. Lebanon is going on about their 5th or 6th straight group of kids like this, with about 3 more already in line. This has been the case at Battle and Abingdon too, with BSG also starting to see that come to fruition, which is also why East TN schools are usually light years ahead of SWVA in baseball, Johnson City and Kingsport are travel ball hotspots. Same thing applies in softball. Baseballs not like Football or Basketball, HS coaches very rarely play a role in the development of players, usually you can already tell who can end up contributing at the high school level pretty early and easily.

So I’d recommend if you wanted your school to become a good baseball program, don’t worry about the highschool players. Get parents that have some knowledge of the sport and get them to organize a team and just go play. It’s a lot easier said than done but it’s theres not a secret formula to it

[tornado99]

1 hour ago, Stelley said:

I know for Lebanon the biggest key has been “daddy ball”. People can hate on it all they want but it’s needed at the youth level, not needed in HS, but definitely youth. I’ve noticed since about 2015 all of the good HS baseball teams all have had a group of dads get a group of 7-8 year old kids together and going to play travel ball. Granted it is a lot easier to do this whenever you constantly give the youth levels motivation with consistently having a good HS team. All of these kids that you see today that are good, 99 times out of 100 their parents have spent thousands upon thousands of dollars on lessons and team fees. Lebanon is going on about their 5th or 6th straight group of kids like this, with about 3 more already in line. This has been the case at Battle and Abingdon too, with BSG also starting to see that come to fruition, which is also why East TN schools are usually light years ahead of SWVA in baseball, Johnson City and Kingsport are travel ball hotspots. Same thing applies in softball. Baseballs not like Football or Basketball, HS coaches very rarely play a role in the development of players, usually you can already tell who can end up contributing at the high school level pretty early and easily.

So I’d recommend if you wanted your school to become a good baseball program, don’t worry about the highschool players. Get parents that have some knowledge of the sport and get them to organize a team and just go play. It’s a lot easier said than done but it’s theres not a secret formula to it

Thanks for sharing. I had my theories, but wasn’t sure. I guess it’s a clear argument for early specialization, rather than against in this case. This was my assumption with Graham soccer in the spring as well. I think those sports are very specific skills that lend themselves to reps and travel ball.
 

Does baseball negatively affect football in Lebanon’s case? I sort of considered Reese being an outlier that really improved those sports, but I could be mistaken.

[Stelley]

Hard to say for certain. I’d say the biggest problem has been that they haven’t been good in football since they’ve been elite in baseball and those kids might not want to go from playing in the state tournament to losing first round of playoffs. I’d be willing to bet that this was probably the first time in a while the baseball team has lost more games than the football team and it took having d1 talent in Jessee and potentially in Reece. Lebanons always had solid athletes over the years but can’t overcome their woes in the trenches. So I don’t know how much the baseball players athleticism would have helped, Baker and Garrett are apart of those baseball groups  but Lebanons not had any size in a long time.

I do think both Buchanan brothers could have been D1 running backs had they chose that route.

So long story short is that it definitely hasn’t helped the football program but not entirely sure how much they would have helped either

[Fairlawncat]

On 5/19/2026 at 3:17 PM, Stelley said:

 

I do think both Buchanan brothers could have been D1 running backs had they chose that route.

 

Don't know if those brothers are kin to one bad man back in the 80s at Lebanon named Eric Buchanan, but Eric was a bolt. Had world class speed and a great RB with not much blocking, but if he got a step, it was lights out.

[Stelley]

1 hour ago, Fairlawncat said:

Don't know if those brothers are kin to one bad man back in the 80s at Lebanon named Eric Buchanan, but Eric was a bolt. Had world class speed and a great RB with not much blocking, but if he got a step, it was lights out.

It’s their uncle. Eric might have had a touch faster speed but the brothers were probably a little stronger

[Fairlawncat]

2 hours ago, Stelley said:

It’s their uncle. Eric might have had a touch faster speed but the brothers were probably a little stronger

Well, the nephews would have had to have been fast as hell to be as fast as their uncle. I played football at William and Mary and ran track there also. The guy beat me in both the 100m and 200m in the Regionals. He beat everyone else too including Lewis Ramsey who was big and fast. Made us look awful.

[Fairlawncat]

Graham had a kid named Bird in the 90s who won the state 100 meters and I think on the football 95 or 96 title team for them. I was assistant track coach at Radford back then just starting out. That Bird kid would have had to have been one of the fastest kids to ever play in the SWD and maybe the fastest. I remember his regional time was only .1 seconds faster than Eric's in his regional back in the 80s in the 100 meters. I don't know about the rest of SWD schools dating back for many years, but if I were a betting man, Eric would easily be in the top 5 fastest kids to play in the SWD and maybe top 2 or 3. Our QB named Paul Snell was lethal in the 200 meters and hadn't lost all year and didn't have close contests. He went up against Eric in the regional in the 200m and Eric made him look like a junior high kid.

[tornado99]

37 minutes ago, Fairlawncat said:

Graham had a kid named Bird in the 90s who won the state 100 meters and I think on the football 95 or 96 title team for them. I was assistant track coach at Radford back then just starting out. That Bird kid would have had to have been one of the fastest kids to ever play in the SWD and maybe the fastest. I remember his regional time was only .1 seconds faster than Eric's in his regional back in the 80s in the 100 meters. I don't know about the rest of SWD schools dating back for many years, but if I were a betting man, Eric would easily be in the top 5 fastest kids to play in the SWD and maybe top 2 or 3. Our QB named Paul Snell was lethal in the 200 meters and hadn't lost all year and didn't have close contests. He went up against Eric in the regional in the 200m and Eric made him look like a junior high kid.

Milton Byard was a running back for Graham on the 1995 title team, if that’s who you are referring.

[Fairlawncat]

23 minutes ago, tornado99 said:

Milton Byard was a running back for Graham on the 1995 title team, if that’s who you are referring.

Yep, sorry about spelling. I thought it was "Bird" Thats him. Seen him in the regional and the state meet. Blew by everyone in the 100 meters and won the state title. Kid had world class speed. 

[tornado99]

26 minutes ago, Fairlawncat said:

Yep, sorry about spelling. I thought it was "Bird" Thats him. Seen him in the regional and the state meet. Blew by everyone in the 100 meters and won the state title. Kid had world class speed. 

That was the Graham team that rarely threw a pass. The other halfback, Brandon Banks, could run too. It seems he had nearly 200 yards in the title game, though I’m going on a less than perfect memory.

[Fairlawncat]

1 hour ago, tornado99 said:

That was the Graham team that rarely threw a pass. The other halfback, Brandon Banks, could run too. It seems he had nearly 200 yards in the title game, though I’m going on a less than perfect memory.

Seems like 97 Powell Valley or Graham 95, one of them never threw a pass the entire 4 games of the playoffs. Can't remember which one but remember it in the papers

[BigWinners]

On 5/21/2026 at 12:28 PM, Fairlawncat said:

Seems like 97 Powell Valley or Graham 95, one of them never threw a pass the entire 4 games of the playoffs. Can't remember which one but remember it in the papers

Wouldn’t have been PV. Juice got the ball quite a bit but they found ways to get McCoy the ball.  I could be wrong but I’d be shocked if PV didnt attempt a few passes that run. 
 

So it’s setting up for Lebanon/Union and Battle/VHS for a trip to state tourney barring upsets. I’ll be curious to see how everyone deploys their pitchers in round one. Union, Battle and Leb have enough to save the ace for the semis, does VHS or will Foy have to throw in game one?