How do these teams matchup? Sussex is the only common opponent but that was week 1 when Essex played them.
Essex-Altavista
- Thread starter RappriverEHS
- Start date
The Essex Trojans beat the Sussex Central Tigers 24 to 6 in the first game of the regular season in Sussex on August 25.
Then the Tigers won 12 straight games until the Altavista Colonels came to Sussex last Friday and won the Region 1B Championship by a score of 22 to 16.
I don't know the details or ins and outs of Essex, but have seen Altavista and they are good. How well do they matchup? Hard to say, but I can tell you what Calpreps Says. Calpreps predicts that if Essex and Appomattox played today, the predicted score is 34-27 in favor of Appomattox. Altavista beat Appomattox by 40 points earlier in the year. Also, Calpreps picks Essex over Altavista right now. All in all, this game figures to be much closer than Northumberland and Altavista having a chance to win. The key for Altavista is DeLoach, the new Head Coach who played under Doug Smith at Appo. You might see with Altavista an Appo Class 1 version if DeLoach stays there long enough. This is his first year there and much like the new Head Coach at Gretna, Altavista and Gretna's coaches have Appomattox-Doug Smith connections regarding how they are modeled, work ethic, x's and o's. Get ready for both Gretna and Altavista to be very, very powerful for quite a while. They are both from the Appo Coaching tree either as an assistant or former player and both have Doug Smith as role models.
I think Essex wins this game, but somewhat close. But, I promise you this, Altavista is just getting started. Same thing applies for Gretna. We've already seen rapid turnarounds in year one for both schools. It's a matter of time for both schools assuming both coaches stay there, and I think they will.
Although altavista and appo have already played….cal preps currently predicts appo to beat altavista 35-26 so I’m not sure how accurate that site is…with the talent Essex returns the next few years it sounds like these two teams will be battling each other like a decade ago
Hey Fairlawncat, I’m gonna be honest have no idea where you got that info from with Appo connections. DeLoach coached in 2017 for Appomattox (one season, after coaching at JF for a bit previously) as an assistant before leaving to go to altavista in 2018. He played at JF. Coach at Gretna, Shaun Miller, is on year 3. He played at Gretna and has only ever coached at Gretna.
You’re good fairlawncat! Sometimes info gets around, but no DeLoach was actually an assistant at Altavista from 2018-2021 and the DC the last two years. Coach Miller, at Gretna was a Gretna player turned coach for Coach Simpson while at Gretna.
Both schools have found solid leadership that will have them in the discussion for post season success yearly now.
Fairlawn the coach for altavista was at appo then took the altavista job and then came back to appo this past season if you can understand that !
Both Altavista and Essex should be in the mix again next season. Altavista has just 5 seniors and Essex just 7. Essex returns 9 on offense and I believe 6 on defense.
That was Coach Cox, coached at Altavista then came over to Appomattox, then took the head job at Altavista, and then now back at Appo
