I am coach Briggs as many of you already know. I did stay on last year to coach the West Point high school football team. I did this because the new coach was offered a job at a new school. I also recommended the current Head football coach. He has been successful coaching the JV for several seasons. He will continue to work hard to keep the program competitive in the region. I made this decision knowing there was a chance West Point would lose a super talented.player and outstanding student and unfortunately they did. I'm sure Lawrence will be outstanding at CCS just as he would have been at West Point. West Point returns a outstanding senior class. Though some are recovering from spring sports injury. West Point has a great chance to make a run again this season and remain solid in the years to come. Good luck Pointers and Continued success to Lawrence Porter he will undoubtedly be playing on Saturday next season.
2019 NND football
- Thread starter offmylawn
- Start date
Thanks for clearing everything up. What’s the senior class look like, and who is injured/recovering from a spring sports injury
The Senior class looks great!!! I won't give names of the injured players on a public forum but I will say they are key players!!! Hopefully they will recover quickly. Let's just say I'm not a soccer Fan!!!!
Two of the 6 rising seniors that went to the Principle were considering going to CCS because of the new coach situation. One player's parent signed the son up for a CCS admissions tour, but then backed out after deciding that the son should finish his senior year with the other sport that he's going to college for. Another player signed up for an admissions tour himself, but one of his parents would not support it, so he backed out; that player's other parent still wants the son to go to CCS, but the player decided he did not want to transfer his senior year and miss out on playing with all of his classmates. I've kept it as generic as possible for obvious reasons.
Sorry, I missed the "other transfer out" part of your post. In addition to the two players that I first mentioned, another transferred to another school, and another made the decision not to play his senior year to focus on another sport. A 3rd is rumored not be playing his next two eligible years for personal reasons and has not been to any of the summer workouts. All 3 are two-way starters and major impact players (2 are All District/All Region players) and all decided not to play since the new coach was named. The 5 of the 17 varsity players that are showing up for the new coach's summer workouts do look good, so I won't completely disagree with BigBlaq624's statement that the varsity team is looking good. Draw your own conclusions as to why impact players are leaving, choosing not to play and/or not showing up for summer practice. Again, made as generic as possible for obvious reasons.
I concur with your Region A Champ pick, but cannot count Essex out for the reasons others have mentioned.
West Point's pass coverage has been a problem for the past couple of years and it doesn't look like it is going to get much better since the new coach declined to participate in any of the local 7-7s this off season. As you already know, the 7-7 competitions are as much about coverage training opportunity as it is about pass training opportunity. It goes without saying that if you already know your coverage is weak, then you might want to improve your coverage skills by participating in a few 7-7s.
Too bad West Point couldn't have worked all of it out. It looks like they could have made a big run this season.
Just a couple of observations from an outsider.
1. Porter is one of the top players in 1A. I cannot imagine any coach worth his salt that would be glad he left. If anything the coach has got to try to make that situation work.
2. CC ain't cheap. It would take a lot more than anger to cause most people to transfer their kid out in their senior season.
I wasn't referring to the kid leaving. Doesn't seem like the coach could have done anything. And yes, it would take more than anger to cause people to leave. If you read the posts, you can see that. Seems to be a whole lot going on there.
I was in the system for a long time and dealt with a lot of parents like this. I would lose my job if I was still working today.
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This is the last thing I will say EVERYONE should be ok with the decision they made! Move on, focus on what you thought was best for you and be content!!! Anything else is being petty. This dramatic movie has been played before and should not be played anymore. Everyone have a great season and let the players play, the coaches coach, and the parents support their children and their team! Good luck to all!!!
So you’re the Post Nazi deciding who can post or not post? A couple people asked questions about why my son left and in your opinion, I don’t have the right to respond? Another asked a question about the WP d and in your opinion, I’m not allowed to respond?
I’m not angry at all. My son will do well regardless of where he plays. He’s going to a high academic college prep school with a highly regarded coaching staff with a solid track record of getting kids to play at the next level, and was given a significant academic scholarship. What’s there to be angry about?
On point your point #1: The new HC has never once called, texted, emailed or asked to speak in person with Lawrence, me or my wife since the end of the football season. Does that sound like a coach who wants to retain one of the top RB and MLB in the state?
Your point #2 is 100% correct. Based on the history, there was zero trust that the new HC would do right by Lawrence when college recruiters called to inquire about Lawrence. He’s already made up false sound bites to tell everyone who will listen that “he doesn’t have the endurance to carry the rock for 4 quarters”, “he’s too slow to get to the edge”, “he’s not in shape to play both sides of the ball”, yadda, yadda. So if he says that stuff to other coaches and fans around 1A, what do you think he’ll tell a recruiter when he’s one-on-one and there’s no witnesses? That is why Lawrence will not play for him, because we can’t take the chance at him railroading Lawrence. He once posted on his FB that Lawrence doesn’t need to worry about the number of carries he gets when he becomes the HC because he was going to put Lawrence on the O-Line to block for his rising JV running backs. He was also called out last season by other coaches for complaining how many times Lawrence carried the ball. I doubt the WP coaches from last season will throw away their integrity by denying any of this happened.
People ask questions, people respond with facts, and sometimes opinions. If you don’t like the response, keep scrolling.
So you hold no bitterness over the fact that you were removed as an assistant coach 2 years ago? You never mentioned that. You praise Coach Briggs, yet 2 years ago you complained that your son didn't get enough carries to your liking. Btw, for those who don't know, the star rb on that team that year was Jared Lawson, who's dad is now the head varsity coach. Sounds a lot like a personal vendetta to me. Everyone I know in the West Point community thinks the world of your son and he will surely be missed. However no one is going to miss the constant complaints from you or constantly trying to divide the team. Remember if you want to come on a platform and blast someone, make sure you tell people both sides because others on here who aren't from West Point or the surrounding areas don't know how much of a pain you've constantly been.
A Diehard Pointer Fan from way back.
A Diehard Pointer Fan from way back.
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All I know is that Porter bulldozed Northumberland last year & had zero endurance issues in the 4th. If the coach Lawson said those things alleged, it reflects poorly on him.
I do love WP, but I also know the way the people in the town can be toward “locals” vs “come here”s.
Sucks it turned out this way. Thanks to Briggs coming on to share his POV as well as MGF doing the same. I’ll miss Porter playing for WP.
I do love WP, but I also know the way the people in the town can be toward “locals” vs “come here”s.
Sucks it turned out this way. Thanks to Briggs coming on to share his POV as well as MGF doing the same. I’ll miss Porter playing for WP.
I had no plans of bringing any of that up, but I'm glad you did.
Briggs did not invite me back because he got tired of me pointing out the obvious, which is we lost games because he gave the RB with 3 yards per carry the ball 25+ carries a game and gave the RB with 11 yards per carry the ball 8 carries a game. Briggs got tired of hearing me saying "how did that work for you?" and "imagine that!" whenever we lost.
I was a volunteer assistant coach for WP football since 2000. The current HC lobbied to have me off the team so I would be out of the way for his son's senior year, which is the year he "thought" he was going to oust Briggs and become the HC. Enough parents complained in 2018 to the Supe because of his treatment of another JV player with a medical condition and derogatory comments he made about my son, that the Supe forbid him to even be an unpaid volunteer coach. Politics got involved and the outgoing principal said he could be an unpaid volunteer assistant JV coach. More political pressure was placed, to include his sister filling a vacancy on the School Board and he was eventually allowed to be the JV HC because of his favor with the outgoing HS principal. What is interesting is that Briggs didn't want him on the team at all for 2018 and now that has evolved into a bromance with the current HC. Go figure.
So, if you want to know how politics work in WP, then ask yourself how a coach with a history of bullying players gets to be the Varsity HC?
Bottom line is its the current HC has the personal vendetta with my son. See my earlier post and ask yourself why the current HC has made zero attempt to smooth things over with my son or the rest of our family. It's because he got his way--he did not want my son on his team, and if my son were to stay, he would be playing on the O line. He did the same to another kid in 2017 that he didn't like. The kid was the 2-back since he was 7 and when the coach in question was named the JV HC, the first thing he did was try to have the player removed from the JV team "because he was too big and would hurt other team's players", yet the same kid was the starting blocking back for the WP JV team for the previous 2 years before the coach was made JV HC and had only gained 8 lbs since the previous season. He put that kid on the O line because he didn't like the kid. The Supe had to get involved and ordered him not to put him on the O line, but he did anyway, without any retribution, because he was protected by the outgoing principal.
The reason the current coach made up all of those lame soundbites about my son "not having the endurance to play 4Qs on both sides of the ball", "not having the speed to get to the edge", "not being capable of carrying the ball more than 10-12 carries a game", "we need Lawrence fresh for defense"--and my favorite--"Lawrence only has high YPC because the D is keying on our 1,300 yard RB". All these fake soundbites were to convince Briggs and the OC to give his son more carries and to prevent Lawrence from having more yards than the coach's son. They were all excuses to prop up his son's stats for district and regional voting and prevent my son from having the stats to make All District or All Region RB. And, even after his son graduated, as I stated earlier, he was called out by other varsity coaches for constantly asking over the headsets "is Lawrence the only RB we have?" "Why is Lawrence getting so many carries?" "Why can't we have someone else carry the ball?" That is fact. So how petty and vindictive does an adult have to be to do that to another kid just because the other kid is better than your kid?
After last year, is there any doubt in anyone's mind that any of those fake soundbites that the current HC has been spouting off for the past 3 years apply to Lawrence? Especially after the Northumberland game. Lawrence played all 4Qs against Northumberland and had 53 carries for 279 yards. And he didn't have another RB in the backfield for Northumberland's D to key on. They knew who was getting the ball and Lawrence still averaged 5.5 yards per carry. What happened to his low endurance claims? What happened to the claim that he couldn't carry more than 10-12 times per game without being winded?
Lawrence's performance and high YPC have been pretty consistent since he was a freshman. Imagine what our 2017 season could have been if Lawrence was not held back and were allowed to play to his potential?
Riddle me this Batman: What would have happened in 2017 if you gave Lawrence the ball 25+ times every game? Two things: We would have not lost some of the games we lost and Lawrence would have had more total yards than the coach's son. And as Paul Harvey said, "Now you know the rest of the story".
So, thanks to you, everyone on "the platform" knows the whole truth.
You're such a "diehard pointer fan from way back" that you just joined the message board today to support your beloved team? And is it 100% coincidence that the day you decide to join is the day this thread began? Or did you create a new screen name to protect your identity? Or did the current HC ask you to post in his defense? And VCU doesn't have a football team. Just Level 12 lame all around.
I just want to point out to you that your personal relationship with the current HC has blinded your objectivity and you are supporting a HC that made ZERO attempt to retain "one of the best players in 1A" (not my words, other poster's words). How about you go back and ask your buddy why he made no attempt to talk to Lawrence, me or my wife about the 2019 season and then come back and opine?
Thanks for the long post stating the obvious. You are the one who has the personal vendetta. It's you who is probably the least liked person in that whole town. It's you who made the decision for your son to go to Christchurch. You know good as anyone else that your son would have been the feature back this year. I do find it funny that you praised Coach Briggs above, yet quoted a reply from him above telling him to keep scrolling if he didn't like it. You constantly bashed Briggs when he was head coach and whether it was Jack Lawson who is the head coach or the board selected someone else, you'd still be complaining. I'm sure you will do the same thing at Christchurch as well, and they will soon find out what all of West Point already knows. You're a disgruntled parent who is trying to live out his dreams through his kid.
I don't even personally know Coach Lawson for one. I've watched this board for years from afar. I've seen all of your ludicrous posts throughout the years. Sooner or later someone had to call you out on your bs. Heck you have a history on these boards for degrading anyone who doesn't 100 percent agree with you. So yes I created a screen name today, but no I have no ties to anyone on the coaching staff nor do I even care who is the head coach. But I do care about the town that I grew up in and used to live in and when someone bashes or gives the school a bad name, then I spoke up. And thanks again genius for pointing out that VCU doesn't have a football team. I had no idea. Carry on with your bantering, I've said my peace and won't be responding back to anything you say. Have a great day sir.
If you don't live here, have no more personal ties, then maybe you should not butt your nose into something that you have no personal knowledge of? Just a thought, you're entitled to post whatever you want. You or anyone else here are welcome to prove me wrong on any single point I've made here. Several people asked why one of the best 1A players was leaving WP and I've thoroughly explained it, with my original intent to keep it vanilla. But my original explanation was not good enough for you and a couple others. So now you know the entire story and you still support the one person that could have retained the best athlete on the team.
For someone who is far removed from this town, you sure do make a lot of false claims.
False Claim #1: I have the vendetta. I saw again, go ask JL why he has not spoken a word to my son since the end of the football season. He never wanted my son on the team.
False Claim #2: I did not make my son play anywhere. Again, if you are so far removed from WP, who is feeding you this garbage? My son made the decision to play elsewhere, none of us even knew Christchurch was an option until another WP parent told us about it. Go ask some other local HC and they will tell you the same thing--everyone already knew that Lawrence did not want to play for JL.
False Claim #3: I'll complain at CCS. I won't have a reason to complain. Those coaches know what they are doing and they have a long history of placing kids into college football programs. And they play the best 11 and don't play kids based on who their parents are, whether they are seniors, or whether they are friends with the parents.
False Claim #4. I'm the most hated person in WP. Actually, I'm probably right below anyone involved in the decision to fire the French teacher. But I'll throw this little factoid out, that you obviously don't know, which is Jack is not as liked in WP as he makes everyone believe.
When Briggs nominated the OC to replace him as the HC, Jack Lawson sent out emails, PMs, texts and calls to just about everyone he knows in a town of 3500 asking for them to show up to the school board meeting to protest the hiring of the OC as HC and instead voice their support that he should be the HC. Do you know how many showed up to the school board meeting to support Jack? 2 people; Jack and another parent, which it was not clear if that parent was there to support Jack or to just see the fireworks. A second parent showed up to encourage the SB to confirm the OC, who was a
WPHS teacher. And Jack left early after he was told by a School Board member that he was not allowed to speak because he did not register ahead of time to speak. And if that was not pitiful enough, the only descending vote to approve the OC as the new HC was a "no" vote from Jack's own sister, who was on the school board. The next slap in the face for the new HC came when the new HC was forced by the outgoing principle to take Jack on as a paid assistant varsity coach after Jack made an end around to oust the OC as the HC. This overt attempt to deny the OC was the third slap in the face by the administration, the first being when the OC was not selected to be the AD by the outgoing principle, after the OC had performed the job as the interim AD for over a year. These three stabs in the back played a role in why the OC eventually declined the HC position and took a job elsewhere. Never love anything that doesn't love you back. The former OC will tell you that he took another teaching job to be closer to his home, but I think everyone can read between the lines. He left because he was not supported at every turn. He is now not coaching football at his new school.
So, there's a lot of dirty politics that you don't know about (or whoever is encouraging you to post is not telling you).
It's all a moot point, because the season will be here soon enough and then all of the excuses will come as to how they went from 5 points away from being Region 1A champions to maybe a 4-6 season if they are lucky. Jack wanted to be the HC from jump, but did not volunteer or organize an offseason weight training from November through February 8 when he was hired by the school board. He did nothing from Feb 9 until June 14, when he held his first meeting with the players. That's 7 months of nothing as the HC while other schools in our district and region have been lifting and training since the last down of football. He did not field a team for 7-7, under the guise "to prevent injuries" but when the Mathews HC invited him to 7-7, he told the Mathews coach that he asked the players and none of the players were interested in participating in 7-7. Preventing injuries is an excuse. Jack has never believed 7-7 was worthwhile because he throws the ball twice a game, if that. He should just come out and own that instead of making excuses. In the 16 years that I was involved with WP football, I recall two players getting injured in 7-7, but I recall several players getting injured every year during August practice. So using Stretch's logic, WP should not hit during August because the risk of injury outweighs the gains?
Wow- seems to be a lot of anger and issues in the West Point community these days.
1) I’ll just say that Porter was a one man wrecking machine (with his line blocking, of course) v Northumberland in last year’s thrilling playoff game.
Porter was unstoppable and WP just ran out of time. NHS held on and was only able to win with their explosive offense no matter the time of possession battle.
1) I’ll just say that Porter was a one man wrecking machine (with his line blocking, of course) v Northumberland in last year’s thrilling playoff game.
Porter was unstoppable and WP just ran out of time. NHS held on and was only able to win with their explosive offense no matter the time of possession battle.
I am sorry to see a great star leave Region A as I enjoy great competitive games and want all our local teams to do well.
However, I guess that it will make it a bit easier for the NND teams to advance now, lol.
Last year, Coach Lewis’ Indians beat the bricks off Christchurch (prior to the game, we NHS fans tried to tell the Preps people what was about to go down). Most did not believe.
The Indians walked the dog that day and a few folks came around to respect Northumberland ha. The Christchurch kids thought they were about to embarrass the Indians and talked the pregame smack...well, someone got embarrassed.
Anyway, good luck to Porter, WP, and Christchurch.
However, I guess that it will make it a bit easier for the NND teams to advance now, lol.
Last year, Coach Lewis’ Indians beat the bricks off Christchurch (prior to the game, we NHS fans tried to tell the Preps people what was about to go down). Most did not believe.
The Indians walked the dog that day and a few folks came around to respect Northumberland ha. The Christchurch kids thought they were about to embarrass the Indians and talked the pregame smack...well, someone got embarrassed.
Anyway, good luck to Porter, WP, and Christchurch.
CCS’s first contest is vs NHS. So the Indians get another shot at keeping Lawrence below 300 yards rushing.
No, neither of the two that were considering going to CCS are now going. It is my understanding that they will go ahead and play for WP. Naming them would definitely set them up for retribution by the HC and I won’t do that to those two.
I'm just gonna blame Riverheads for this post Lmao !
I have not many details but I had heard that West Point did the old OC (who was named the Head Coach according to the RAPP Times earlier this year) dirty. That man was a great assistant AD and hard working coach. He is gone to another school now I hear. Thanks for the story.
Also, the beloved Principal left...and they fired that popular French teacher who I was told by WP people really supported the students in academics and athletics etc and was a great teacher.
Wow..I read about that firing in national newspapers. Sounds like some spineless cowards got rid of him worrying about a bs lawsuit. Recent WP grad told me too much change has gone on and not the good kind.
Good to luck to the WP folks....
What? A thread that is not about Riverheads lol!
Regarding how they treated the coach, on one hand it’s surprising to me that the school board was this heavily involved. On the other hand, I know that’s how things tend to go in a tiny school division. What makes it strange is how small WP football is by the student participation numbers. Lot of people involved with no student skin in the game.
Mark Dorsey was there for a long time & made a smart financial move to Kecoughtan to get his pension higher before he retires. You are right that WP doesn’t deal well with change.
I have major doubts the French teacher scenario would have gone as far as it did with Mr. Dorsey as principal. New administrator dealing with an extremely sensitive legal issue requires no wrong moves. It also required an approach from the school board inconsistent with most of the town’s religious beliefs. It was a recipe for disaster with the teacher making some selfish decisions IMO. The threat of a lawsuit was very real & WP school board (including Mrs. Dorsey) made a prudent decision to protect the school system.
People get really worked up about polarizing issues like WP had, but I’m glad that separation of church/state won the argument instead of caving to the angry town mob that chose sides based on religious viewpoints.
Thanks for the nicely explained and thought out post. Well done and I respect it.
There were definitely major mistakes made by all the sides involved. It was/is a complex issue that was resolved very poorly and became an embarrassing debacle for the entire community.
While the administration was indeed faced with a horrible dilemma, I feel that the blame in the end lays with the leadership for not handling it well (to me, they threw a good man and loyal employee under the bus to save their own skins).
I would have liked to have seen this case go all the way to the United States Supreme Court. However, I read that the French teacher decided to move on and not drag his family and community through that long battle. I respect that too.
Anyway, this is a sports forum so this is an intriguing debate for another time and place. I would enjoy it though and could argue either side.
It will be interesting to see how the West Point football team does this season. It’s not the kids fault all this went down.
I may have missed this post, who does West Point scrimmage?
They were very tough last year and a tough out in the playoffs. It will be interesting to see what they actually bring back. If they only lose Porter, they'll take a step back but will likely be okay as the rest of their team was pretty solid last year.
They were very tough last year and a tough out in the playoffs. It will be interesting to see what they actually bring back. If they only lose Porter, they'll take a step back but will likely be okay as the rest of their team was pretty solid last year.
I agree it will be very hard to find the skill players of Lawson and porter, I think they will be solid but not as good as last year
