The Big News: Riverheads officially has Coach Casto back as Head Football Coach. Your Augusta County Sports Podcast.
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Wow. He tries not to say it, but in doing so he says it. New system was not welcomed in Riverheads.
The word is The Red Team may not even make the playoffs . All the talent went out the door with graduation .LMAO at your spelling of Notoway. We fear no one believe it. Casto return is a good thing we want them at their best.
Sad thing was it wasn't a new system at all. Podcast says it all, new guy was undermined from the outset. Casto is back at Riverheads, good for them. He'll hang around and then try to get a family member the job. I respect what he did at Riverheads but even you folks have to admit some of the things he said in the podcast was classless and beneath him. Coach Wheeler took the high road and didn't air anything.....
I have a couple of questions for the ones bemoaning this as a conspiracy? What was Wheelers Run/Pass ratio out of his version of the Wing T? What Defense did he have the coordinator run at Warhill?
If either of those are vastly different than what was in place then the coordinators had every right to bail. Did that put him in a precarious situation having no ties to the programs legacy and little time or open positions to fill with his guys? Absolutely but I am going to say this, he had to see that was going to be the case if he upset the whole apple cart. I do however think Coach Wheeler would have been successful, just not making coordinators that were entrenched in one philosophy for a few decades change to his style. He would have had to get “his” guys in there that know what he expected.
To me with little time and no real job openings within the school system, he had very few options. Was it the intent of the staff to force him out? I honestly don’t think so because they were already talking to another school about potentially coming on there. There was no malice in stepping down from a job you feel you can’t do. As an example, someone mentioned when Casto retired that the D coordinator should take a look because his defense was spot on the last few years. Would you ask him to completely revamp his system and run different set?
IF, notice it’s a big IF, all these theories about behind the scenes sabotage and conspiracy are true then I can’t help but think that it will all come out in the next little bit anyway.
As the old adage goes, believe none of what you read and only half of what you see.
All in all I am just ready for the young men to take the spotlight back over and enjoy Friday nights under the lights again. Back to being the most hated 2A team playing 1A football again........
And to be very clear, I am a fan with no inside information whatsoever.
Gunz, I wouldn’t expect him to come in and change who he was or what he ran. My opinion is that there was a a big enough difference on the Offensive side and a huge difference on the Defensive side which prompted the exit. If however he had been onsite and in place since mid winter with discussions to those assistants, he would likely have had time to respond to their departure by infusing his guys to the program. Again, not saying that this is exactly how it went down, but I can see this more likely than just a flat out power play by the staff. Did they want to keep things pretty much they way they had it? I would guess so, but they also knew there would be some changes, how dramatic is the poi t in question and their level of tolerance for it. I won’t try to be politically correct about it because the system they had worked within was crafted over a few decades of tweaking. The head coach was brought in to replace Casto and I will tell you that I was excited about the possibilities for the future. The fact the staff decided to leave disturbed me but I thought just what I have stated in these two posts, that the new coach wanted something that they either couldn’t or wouldn’t commit to. It didn’t make me think less of them or worse of the new coach. Just the way it goes sometimes.
I know for a fact the defensive coordinator wanted to leave after his first meeting with coach Wheeler. They werent in the same zip code on the defensive scheme. Coach Wheeler wanted to run the defense and he wanted Coach Norcross to take the offense. Riverheads defense has shut down some pretty darn good offenses over the years not sure I would have made any changes there but Coach Wheeler wanted to run an entirely different defense but he was the head coach so thats his decision to make and its also the coordinators decision if they didnt buy into and support his decision they had the right to leave.I'm not one who believes these conspiracies, as evident by the other thread, but I do see one thing wrong with your scenario. Maybe I just misread, but you can't expect someone to come in and change what they do well either. Its not as if he was coming in as an assistant, he was going to be the head guy. And I have no clue what went on behind the scenes, or if any of this was going on.
Again, maybe it is just how I read it, or how it was worded, but you may want to take a look at the part about another job. It reads to me like you are saying they wanted to leave before.
I know for a fact the defensive coordinator wanted to leave after his first meeting with coach Wheeler. They werent in the same zip code on the defensive scheme. Coach Wheeler wanted to run the defense and he wanted Coach Norcross to take the offense. Riverheads defense has shut down some pretty darn good offenses over the years not sure I would have made any changes there but Coach Wheeler wanted to run an entirely different defense but he was the head coach so thats his decision to make and its also the coordinators decision if they didnt buy into and support his decision they had the right to leave.
I'm not sure why this was directed at me, I never said anything close to anything to the contrary.
In fact, while I dislike the school as a whole, I have certainly been defending them when I see something unfair.
If you replied because of the question I asked in the 1st message, your answer seems different than the guy I asked it to. Saying the assistants didn't force him out because they were already talking about another job. Maybe it is just weirdly written, but I read that as before the meeting that sounds went badly
Not directed at you just shedding some light on some of the things that transpired on assistants leaving.I'm not sure why this was directed at me, I never said anything close to anything to the contrary.
In fact, while I dislike the school as a whole, I have certainly been defending them when I see something unfair.
If you replied because of the question I asked in the 1st message, your answer seems different than the guy I asked it to. Saying the assistants didn't force him out because they were already talking about another job. Maybe it is just weirdly written, but I read that as before the meeting that sounds went badly
Just happened to hit the reply button on your post. Not really directed at anybody.I'm not sure why this was directed at me, I never said anything close to anything to the contrary.
In fact, while I dislike the school as a whole, I have certainly been defending them when I see something unfair.
If you replied because of the question I asked in the 1st message, your answer seems different than the guy I asked it to. Saying the assistants didn't force him out because they were already talking about another job. Maybe it is just weirdly written, but I read that as before the meeting that sounds went badly
Just happened to hit the reply button on your post. Not really directed at anybody.
My big remaining question is this. Did Wheeler attempt to hire new assistants after Casto’s guys bailed?
NOT-O-WAY Your Tiger will ever compete with the RED TEAM ! We hope to see you this Fall !LMAO at your spelling of Notoway. We fear no one believe it. Casto return is a good thing we want them at their best.
NOT-O-WAY Your Tiger will ever compete with the RED TEAM ! We hope to see you this Fall !
Since no one seems to know, I’m guessing he wanted to elevate another assistant but they had already been poisoned by the assistants who had “resigned”. Surely Casto didn’t contribute to this childish behavior...
I'm confused, I thought it was said they all were going to resign, and thus they were babies or whatever the words were you used. Now are you saying that it was different?
Can you restate your question more clearly so that I can better understand it?
It was said that all the assistants were leaving. When that happened you disparaged them.
Now you are guessing he wanted to elevate one of them. Is that some kind of information you have heard? Because that does kind of seem to be a little contradictory. It just didn't sound like from what has been said that there was any difference in opinion between the assistants. Unless you were meaning someone from outside the guys they had from last year
Thanks for clarifying your question. You tend to make some logical leaps when discussing this topic with me, so I want to keep the conversation very clear.
I hadn’t heard that ALL assistants resigned. I had heard that one or two resigned. Most programs have more than one or two assistants. I even quoted my original question to provide context for that, but you must have missed it.
I was asking, did Wheeler go to another existing RHS assistant to replace the babies who “resigned”? And did he have any luck or had the baby assistants poisoned the rest of the staff to Wheeler? And my final statement was referring to my hope that Casto wasn’t part of those counter-productive conversations, but having listened to him on the podcast...
Now please WP, get onto another subject because standing up for Riverheads is making my head hurt.
Considering some of the crap things Xcross has said about Stuars Draft over the years I have to wonder why you do take up for them. Especially considering I've never once seen him reeled in by the rest of the Riverheads crew on here. But hey, that's your choice and I respect that. Dont get me wrong, there are some good Gladiator fans on here but perhaps he needs to be reeled in the same way the Stuarts Draft wrestling coach called him out on here a year or so ago.
I buried my hatchet with Riverheads a long time ago but I do wonder about the comment someone made earlier in this thread about Casto wanting the position to go to a family member. I dont know if there is anything to that but I do recall Casto randomly calling a pass play on the game-deciding two point conversion one year vs. Wilson in the playoffs. Who was throwing the ball on that play? His son. It failed and they lost. (And Xcross threw a FIT on here).
As far as enrollment goes, until the VHSL grows a spine or is given the power to investigate the claims that pretty much 95% of D1 fans have put forth then we're stuck with it. Once again, dont know if the claims are true or not. Did seem fishy back 4 years ago, dont know about now. A few of the cool Riverheads posters have said they sit around 447 at this point and I'll take their word for it.