Varina High School JV Squad looking for 2 Games, Aug 24 & 31

St. Chris Athletics
@STCAthletics

Varsity Tennis won its fourth straight state VISAA title 5-2 over Trinity Episcopal!
Bo Barbour and Jake Kuhlen clinched the match with a 10-4 victory at No. 3 doubles.
#StCVATennis

Amherst Lancers

10h • 6

AMHERST COUNTY IS SADDENED BY THE PASSING OF FORMER HEAD FOOTBALL COACH, MICKEY CROUCH. COACH CROUCH WAS AN INSTRUMENTAL FIGURE IN SO MANY OF OUR STUDENTS' LIVES AND WE ARE THANKFUL FOR HIS SERVICE TO OUR COMMUNITY. THANK YOU COACH FOR THE MANY MEMORIES AND IMPACT MADE.
ATHLETIC DIRECTOR

When the school was in Region 4B you did an excellent job of establishing and maintaining social media for the region.
They have a website and Twitter feed.
I was wondering if you could do the same for your new region - 5C?

Back to Back years with a State Champion in Region 4B & the Navy Gang gets #2🏆💍. I’m so proud of my guys they fought and battled all year an the KG game was the epitome of mental toughness and grit. Next year the road to repeat for the Generals will be extremely tough as 4B will be as loaded as it’s ever been IMO. Dinwiddie, KG, Varina, will be the favorites but EV, PH & Powhatan will be significantly better . The winner will almost certainly get the task of facing Phoebus for the opportunity to play in States. Man is it August yet 😅 #BLEEDNAVY

BASEBALL:
(#3) Lancaster 6 (#1) Essex 2

SOFTBALL:
(#1) Rappahannock 13 (#2) Essex 4

GW opened its new 4 million track facility on yesterday and hosted its first home meet in over 20 years.
The new track will be home for the Eagles as well as Class 1 Galileo Magnet and will be the home track for Averett University's track and field teams.

Varina High School JV Squad looking for 2 Games, Aug 24 & 31

(#1) Essex 3 (#4) Northumberland 1 FINAL

(#3) Lancaster Defeated (#2) Rappahannock. Don’t know the score on that game.

NND Tournament Championship Game:

(#3) Lancaster @ (#1) Essex. 5-18-23

Lancaster split regular season games with both Rappahannock & Essex.0

Riverheads played the role of the very rude houseguest tonight as they spoiled Senior Night for the Staunton Storm by posting a 12-0 six-inning shutout. The game was a sharp contrast to the one the teams played in Greenville where RHS needed all seven innings to squeeze out a 3-2 win.

The best word to describe tonight's game might be "ironic." First of all, despite the lopsided final score, Staunton actually had the first serious scoring threat as they loaded the bases in the bottom of the second, only to see Riverheads first baseman Henley Dunlap snag a line drive to abruptly squelch that threat. The Gladiators would go on to score their first three runs in the next frame and never looked back.

And speaking of line drives, those were pretty much the norm here tonight as neither team had any trouble at all connecting at the plate as there must have been a dozen hard-hit balls right at somebody and in many cases the fielder at the other end barely had to move.

But the ultimate irony for the losing Storm had to be the fact that Riverheads by my unofficial calculations scored 10 of its 12 runs on two-out rallies. That is about the most demoralizing thing you can do to an opposing team and Staunton no doubt wondered what might have been if they could have gotten a couple of those third outs a bit sooner.

Obviously RHS got the job done at the plate but they were equally dominant on the mound as the Fitzgerald Family Tree earned the victory. Sophomore Ethan pitched five scoreless frames before Cousin Holden, and he is only a freshman folks, came on board in the sixth. Not only did he prevent the game from going into the seventh inning, but he did it in mighty impressive fashion, striking out the side on something like 11 or 12 pitches.

Holden also got the Gladiator scoring machine going in the top half of the third as his two-out, bases loaded bloop single to shallow right field earned him two RBIs. After scoring their first three in that third inning, the Gladiators added four more in the fourth, again all scored with two outs. The key base knocks in that inning were a pair of deep shots to left field, both of which were misjudged or misplayed, clearing all occupied bases and leaving Carson Kuhn and then Logan Austin standing at third. The Gladiators then chased the Storm starter Job Harrell with five more runs in the top of the game-clinching sixth.

With the win, Riverheads finishes 8-4 in Shenandoah District play. As mentioned in previous recaps, the Big Red is a VERY young team, losing only two seniors to graduation and in fact their entire pitching staff will return for at least two more years as there were no juniors or seniors seeing mound duty this season.

As for the immediate future, the Big Red has to wait a few days while the rest of Region 1-B finishes its regular season schedule. The Gladiators are pretty much locked into a home game for their first playoff appearance, but their exact position, the opponent, and the date are all still to be determined.

Meanwhile at Saturday's graduation ceremony, seniors Bennett Dunlap and Lucas Edward will receive their diplomas and move on to bigger and better things. On that note, congratulations should go out to any and all seniors this year at all area schools. Congrats on a job well done!

Congratulations to '23 GW graduates OL/DL Elijah Bass and WR/DB Anthony Brawner on their signings today. Bass will attend VMI and Brawner will head to Bluefield.

Those who played football and where they're going:

DaRon Wilson- FUMA Prep
Khaleif Johnson- CNU
Isaiah Barlow- Ferrum
Andrew Lutes- UVA

Landon Miles- Hood College (lacrosse)

Graham G-Men 2023.

8-11-23 Scrimmage @ Greenbrier East (WV) vs TBD.

8-18-23 Scrimmage vs James Monroe (WV)

8-25-23 @ Bluefield (WV)

9-1-23 @Galax

9-8-23 @ George Wythe

9-15-23 Union

9-22-23 Virginia High (Homecoming)

9-28-23 Marion

10-6-23 Open

10-13-23 Lebanon

10-20-23 @Pulaski County

10-27-23 Tazewell (Senior Night)

11-03-23 @Richlands

RVA Sports Network @TheRVASportsNet


HOOPS: Blessed Sacrament-Huguenot announces former legendary @MonacanGBB HC Larry Starr has taken their head varsity girls basketball coaching position.

The long time Monacan High School coach is a proven winner.
378 High School wins
78.8 % winning percentage
4 State Titles.

Where do you find regional rankings for baseball?

Nm

A pair of very young teams met tonight in gloomy blustery conditions at Riverheads as the Gladiators celebrated the careers of their two departing seniors Bennett Dunlap and Luke Edward with a 12-5 win over visiting Waynesboro. The Little Giants only have three seniors on their roster which makes the future look bright for both teams.

However as it turned out, it was a very impressive performance by RHS freshman Brody Phillips that stole the spotlight away from the seniors as he went 4-4 at the plate and also took the mound in the third inning and pitched five shutout frames to turn back the visitors and earn the victory. He was especially strong in the sixth when he sent three consecutive Waynesboro batters back to the dugout on strikes after the two before them had reached base safely.

The Little Giants were fashionably late arriving today and as a result the game did not start until 5:20. But for the first two frames they showed some serious fight as they took a 1-0 first inning lead and then hit the Gladiators with a four-run second to grab a surprising 5-2 lead.

However, RHS struck back in the bottom of the frame to tie things up at 5-5 and after a scoreless third inning, the Gladiators plated three in the fourth to regain the lead and then put it out of reach with a four-run fifth inning. Meanwhile Phillips was in control on the mound with one of the Big Red's better performances of the season. It is worth noting that with former pitcher Dunlap seeing almost no mound duty this year, for all practical purposes the entire Gladiator pitching staff will return next year. In fact every returning Gladiator hurler has at least TWO more years after this one!

Waynesboro's early surge came simply from solid hitting and aggressive base-running. Their first run of the game came on a nicely executed double steal and they banged out at least 5 or 6 of their 9 hits during those first two productive frames before Phillips came aboard and pretty much handcuffed them the rest of the way.

Defense however was Waynesboro's real downfall, although some of that could be blamed on the wind. They had six miscues on the day, two of which were dropped fly balls. Yet at other times they were sharp in the field as they turned not one but two inning-ending double plays.

But once RHS got into the flow of the game, a whole army of Waynesboro pitchers could not slow down the Gladiator offense as Phillips' four base knocks led a 15-hit attack, and remember the home team only batted six times. Contrary to Waynesboro's fielding problems, Riverheads only committed one harmless error, making this one a pretty solid all around game for the Big Red.

Next up for Riverheads is a Wednesday trip to Staunton where The Storm can sometimes be difficult to deal with. RHS only won that one 3-2 the first time around. As for playoffs, a topic being discussed in another thread, RHS is currently the third seed in the six-team Region 1-B field. If that holds up, they should get to host a first round playoff game.

So congrats to the team for the big win and best wishes to Dunlap and Edward as they move on beyond Saturday's graduation ceremonies. While the boys needed almost 2 1/2 hours to put this one in the books tonight, the exact opposite was the case next door as the Lady Gladiators routed Waynesboro 11-0 in a 4 1/2 inning game that barely took an hour. This is not official but I overheard something about that one being a no-hitter and barely missing being a perfect game for Gladiator pitcher Destiny Good. The RHS girls are also in solid position for the playoffs.

Let's hear some discussion about next season. Obviously Riverheads and Lunenburg move up to 2A and I think that opens up Region B and I think Sussex and Buffalo Gap are probably the two teams that benefit the most from that. In Region A, it always starts with Essex, but they were so senior dependent this year and have to replace a ton. There's never a lack of talent there, but how will they be able to replace guys like Kam Robinson and Dorian Harris. King and Queen loses a senior class that gave them an amazing 4 year run. But they also have a good sophomore class led by Jadyn Nelson, Mekhi Dabney and Ethan Pate and return 3 linemen with starting experience. Another team that might be under the radar is West Point. They were fairly young this year and had tons of injuries including to top RB Elijah Adkins. I think they'll be in the mix and could surprise. Region C has to start with GW and they might be my early favorite to win it all, especially with Smith returning at QB. But Galax and Grayson will be in the mix and sooner or later Giles will put it together as well. Out in Region D, I know very little about who returns what.

Feel free to chime in with your opinions on next season as I'm already ready for next season to get here

As we all know there are changes coming with another cycle of alignment and classification changes to take place between now and next season. So how does that impact next season?

Region 1A will return all 8 teams who made the playoffs in 2022.

Region 1B will return just 4 teams who made the playoffs in 2022; Buffalo Gap, Franklin, Sussex Central & William Campbell.

Region 1C returns 7 of the 8 playoff teams from 2022 in Bath, Galax, George Wythe, Giles, Grayson, Narrow & Parry McCluer. Who fills the other spot?

Region 1D returns 7 of the 8 playoff teams from 2022 in Grundy, Holston, Honaker, Hurley, Patrick Henry (Glade Spring), Rye Cove & Twin Springs. Who fills the spot vacated by Lebanon?

With Riverheads moving to Class 2... who takes the reigns in Class 1?

Something to think about between now and August.