Big time news out of the Battlefield District

[BoKnowsSports]

One of the state’s best head coaches is leaving perennial 4B power King George and staying in district to go to 90s state power Spotsylvania. WOW!!!!!

Congratulations Coach Lunsford and staff. Truly some of the best guys in the business. Region B has a new team on the rise 🍿.

 

[86CulpGrad]

One of the state’s best head coaches is leaving perennial 4B power King George and staying in district to go to 90s state power Spotsylvania. WOW!!!!!

Congratulations Coach Lunsford and staff. Truly some of the best guys in the business. Region B has a new team on the rise 🍿.

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That is big. Wonder why?

 

[kwhs95fan]

That's huge for Spotsy and a major loss for KG

 

[cavaliers91]

That is big. Wonder why?

Yes we need more to the story here. For KG to let this happen ? A single school county having this much success with an elite coaching staff leaves ? Don’t care if they didn’t win a ring nobody talked about KG as much as they did since that staff been here. I know this stings for the county but man how do you let this happen ? Congrats Spotsy Won’t be long before you are talked about state wide as an elite contender in the daunted 4B. Great job by the Spotsy AD he deserves credit. He made a splash! I’m intrigued to watch some Spotsy games now

 

[GoBlue2109]

Single county schools tend have a bit more flexibility in paying coaches. I truly hope this isn't a matter of them being cheap.

 

[OCBoy]

Appears this is the news a poster eluded to not long ago.

 

[Kenneth Harris]

As I64 continues to be expanded and more trees are cleared out along with farms being converted into subdivisions, the population growth should cause even more teams to rise up out of obscurity.

 

[m-squared]

I was surprised to see an article on this in today's Free Lance Star. Lunsford played for Spotsylvania HS. Getting to coach at his alma mater is the why in the article.

 

[WP02alum]

Spotsy Principal/AD may have made him a good pitch or he just may be excited to coach at his alma mater.

 

[kwhs95fan]

I didn't realize yesterday that Spotsy was his alma material. It makes more sense now. There's no better feeling than being able to come back and coach at your alma mater. It might not happen in year 1, but he will definitely make Spotsy a contender

 

[Virginia HS Football Fan]

Appears this is the news a poster eluded to not long ago.

You are correct. I'm surprised it hadn't leaked out earlier to be honest.

 

[BoKnowsSports]

You just don’t be the best team in the Fredericksburg area for the past 7 years straight, a top C4 team with 2 regional championships in the hardest region in the state, beat the teams they beat and have parents and people in the community call for your job every Friday night. The King George HC job will be a very hard sale.

That staff had the opportunity to go to Mountain View, Eastern View, Stafford or really anywhere they wanted to go. This is a very huge get by Spotsy.

 

[Virginia HS Football Fan]

As I64 continues to be expanded and more trees are cleared out along with farms being converted into subdivisions, the population growth should cause even more teams to rise up out of obscurity.

The area from Rte. 33 in Louisa (ever since they started road work on it some years ago) to Rte. 208 in Spotsylvania continues to grow.

I notice people from Charlottesville and even parts of Northern Virginia in the last decade who have moved to Louisa is similar to how people from Northern Virginia have moved to Spotsylvania in the 1980s. The traffic on Rte. 208 has gotten pretty pretty bad. I call it the Lake Anna Autobahn.

As long as property taxes are low'ish compared to other counties and other forms of migrants start to eventually figure out where they are going to settle, the region will continue to grow while other regions will see a slow downturn of residents.

 

[cavaliers91]

You just don’t be the best team in the Fredericksburg area for the past 7 years straight, a top C4 team with 2 regional championships in the hardest region in the state, beat the teams they beat and have parents and people in the community call for your job every Friday night. The King George HC job will be a very hard sale.

That staff had the opportunity to go to Mountain View, Eastern View, Stafford or really anywhere they wanted to go. This is a very huge get by Spotsy

This is what I was referring to earlier. It’s more to it. A community that never had any major success in football or putting kids into college. Just not a good look but like you said that Spotsy community will be very happy.

 

[Virginia HS Football Fan]

This is what I was referring to earlier. It’s more to it. A community that never had any major success in football or putting kids into college. Just not a good look but like you said that Spotsy community will be very happy.

It's happiness. It's relief. It's excitement. It's hope (for the long term). It's a potential for a rebirth.

I don't know their schedule this coming Fall in the non-district, but I will say that what Spotsylvania fans want these days is a) to get into the Region 4B Playoffs. And we know how much of a gauntlet that can be. But to get in on their own merit...not back in if a team is disqualified like we saw what happened several years ago. And B) To be respected, I think that's what the community wants.

The great thing is that Coach Lunsford will have the full support of the community. I would hope that the boosters would hop on this wonderful opportunity combined with the teachers at the school to drive attendance at football games (which, per Battlefield standards is decent). They must market this and drive student and community interest as if this is a big deal; which it is.

 

[m-squared]

This is what I was referring to earlier. It’s more to it. A community that never had any major success in football or putting kids into college. Just not a good look but like you said that Spotsy community will be very happy.

I wouldn't say KG never had any major success, it just wasn't recently. They played in the State Championship game in 1995. I think they lost in the state semis either the year before or after that (not 100%) sure. That's when they had the Parker brothers. They've had players go to college (some D1), the most notable Jermaine Bushrod who has a super bowl ring as a starting OL.

I don't know why fans in the stands would have been calling for Lundsford's job. That's insane. I would think they would have interest with all the D1 athletes they have.

The article in the paper didn't say whether all his assistants were joining him at Spotsylvania. Spotsylvania may want the assistants to be employed in the school system. If so, there would need to be openings for them.

 

[GoBlue2109]

Well, since nobody has asked. . . Are any key players from King George likely to end up at Spotsylvania this fall or maybe next?

 

[Bcope83]

It's happiness. It's relief. It's excitement. It's hope (for the long term). It's a potential for a rebirth.

I don't know their schedule this coming Fall in the non-district, but I will say that what Spotsylvania fans want these days is a) to get into the Region 4B Playoffs. And we know how much of a gauntlet that can be. But to get in on their own merit...not back in if a team is disqualified like we saw what happened several years ago. And B) To be respected, I think that's what the community wants.

The great thing is that Coach Lunsford will have the full support of the community. I would hope that the boosters would hop on this wonderful opportunity combined with the teachers at the school to drive attendance at football games (which, per Battlefield standards is decent). They must market this and drive student and community interest as if this is a big deal; which it is.

When did they “back in” to the playoffs?

 

[Virginia HS Football Fan]

When did they “back in” to the playoffs?

It was towards the end of their death spiral years...just looked it up. 2013. They were 3-7 during the regular season and ended up being a replacement team for some reason when they were in Class 3. They went down to Lafayette and got smoked 57-0. Now granted, they did make Regionals a couple of times since losing in the First Round...both in Class 3 while then making it to a Regional Title Game. They also made it to the Class 4 Playoffs in 2019 losing to Patrick Henry.

But you're splitting hairs as far as what I was saying and were kind of nitpicking when things didn't need to be.

 

[BoKnowsSports]

Well, since nobody has asked. . . Are any key players from King George likely to end up at Spotsylvania this fall or maybe next?

I’d be very shocked. King George is an hour away from Spotsylvania. With these new transfer rules placed by the VHSL, I’d expect every good 8th grade football in Spotsylvania, South Stafford and Fredericksburg to be trying to get over that way though.

 

[WP02alum]

Spotsy’s geographic position probably mitigates this a bit. I’m not expecting a big migration, but maybe I’m underestimating that process.

 

[m-squared]

Spotsylvania HS is in the most rural portion of the county. There is a residential neighborhood on Brock Road and I assume any school age kids that live at lake Anna attend Spotsy HS. The heavily populated residual areas/neighborhoods in Spotsy County are around the other high schools and the students attend those.

 

[VAHSFootballFan]

Spotsylvania HS is in the most rural portion of the county. There is a residential neighborhood on Brock Road and I assume any school age kids that live at lake Anna attend Spotsy HS. The heavily populated residual areas/neighborhoods in Spotsy County are around the other high schools and the students attend those.

I know other counties allow you to attend schools outside your zone. Some require an academic reason such as that school having an academic program you want to be in, while others can be as simple as parents work in that area and they need to be at that school for transportation. I don't know Spotsylvania's policies.

 

[Virginia HS Football Fan]

Spotsylvania HS is in the most rural portion of the county. There is a residential neighborhood on Brock Road and I assume any school age kids that live at lake Anna attend Spotsy HS. The heavily populated residual areas/neighborhoods in Spotsy County are around the other high schools and the students attend those.

Yes, the heavily populated areas are around other schools; particularly Massaponax and Riverbend when it comes to newer subdivisions and then Courtland and Chancellor when it comes to older ones. However, by geographic size, Spotsylvania has the largest area. And if you know the Board of Supervisors, they haven't met very many housing developments that they haven't approved.

As a matter of fact, for years, the zones remained untouched leading to massive overcrowding; particularly at Massaponax where they had something like 17 trailers at one time (which was over a decade ago when I subbed in the county). Within the last decade, the School Board finally redrew the attendance zones for high schools. The only school to not be affected was Riverbend (despite being 21 years old, that school is still perceived as "the palace" in the county" and the Board didn't want to tick off the "affluent and high dollar" residents whose kids were zoned there). Heaven forbid, any got bumped from Riverbend to Chancellor. That sound have caused quite the pouting match.

But as someone like myself who lives on the Lake Anna Autobahn (Rte. 208) between the Spotsylvania County Courthouse and Lake Anna, we are getting growth out this way. It's a much slower growth here (10 homes here, 20 homes there) versus 2,600 homes here and 1,000 homes there with many still to be build particularly in the area currently zoned for Massaponax (Rte. 1 is a disaster from Massaponax High School up until the ramps for I-95 along with stretch of road out on Rte. 17 towards New Post near the Caroline County line.).

I don't know the trailer numbers now, but I know that the County is short at least 200 teachers as of a report several months back. Add another high school and that number will go up. And with the towering shell of Stafford County's sixth high school (no name yet, opens in 2026) just to the north of the Rappahannock River along Rte. 17, the competition for teachers will be even more fierce.

And we don't have school choice here like Stafford County. Generally, the only time that the kids leave their own zoned school is to go to the Vocational Center which is located at Courtland or when they have to Governor's School (which, I know from 2011-2014 when I subbed was at Riverbend).