Future Spring Jubilees...

[DiamondDude]

With the move to SIX classifications the preliminary plan is to hold the 1-A and 2-A semis and finals back at Radford for at least one more year while 3-A and 4-A is planned for Lynchburg at Liberty U the next 2 years. This comes from a trusted,souce, but it is not yet chisled in stone. Radford has been received favorably by the majority of the (former Group A schools), the coaches and ADs in the Roanoke and New River valleys have worked very hard over the years, plus, no other venue is viable. JMU has not seemed overly interested, but anything is possible in the next year. Of course, 5-A & 6-A back to NOVA.

 

[gymrat10]

Remember the Jubilee is more than baseball. Radford City and RU "bid" for the right to host the event, including track, tennis, girls softball, boys and girls soccer championships. Takes a monumental amount of effort and organization, and a group of folks that WANT to do it and have it in their location. I've seen posts here saying that VHSL should have baseball at a more central location..."they should be at JMU or Liberty" Problem is, one just cannot wave a wand and play the games anywhere they want. Making such statements is like folks that aren't satisfied with certain stores or resturants in their town. They might say "The Town should get us an Applebees or Cracker Barrel", as if you could just call up corporate and they would show up and build one. There's more to it than that as there needs to be a vested and interested sponsoring organization in charge as there is currently in Radford. This is a huge benefit to VHSL, having this many state finals in one location...and someone else basically to run it for them. The only other locality I see that might possibly want this is Salem, whom I believe has unsuccessfully bid against Radford in the past. Now if in the future with the divisional splits VHSL also splits up respective sports to different locations, than I could see baseball, for instance going to Liberty. This would be a shame, for some schools, fortunate and talented enough to have multiple teams involved in state finals (Woodgrove and Radford this year), players and fans from that community could see more than one of their teams participate.

 

[aw19752]

Gymrat thanks for some common sense explanations...

 

[21base]

Well then it really is a shame that JMU and Harrisonburg have not made enough effort to "bid" for the Spring Jubilee. H-Burg would be more of a central location for most (and just an hour's drive for me, as opposed to the three hours I drove on Sunday to watch one team; albeit, they won) and definitely better facilities within the JMU campus. We can forget U.Va. because they would hike up any rental cost to their facilities and it is unlikely anyway that the VHSL could get Davenport Field for the baseball championships anyway because the Cavaliers ALWAYS have some kind of regional going on there during that time of year. But JMU has a wonderful baseball/softball complex right next to each other where the old Harrisonburg High School used to be and the baseball diamond is facing the opposite direction from where the old Memorial Stadium used to be. I know many years ago (1991, in fact, because I was there), Memorial Stadium hosted the AA championship and it's where Broad Run won its only state baseball title. In the past, I know JMU has also hosted state softball but I don't think they've ever hosted soccer (though I hear they have a very nice facility for kick ball). Harrisonburg has had state AA track, forever, it seems, and it is now held at the newer Harrisonburg High School after many years in Bridgeforth Stadium at JMU. I think if JMU could just make a push, perhaps sign a two-year deal, it's possible either the duo of Div. 1/Div. 2 or Div. 3/Div. 4 could play a Spring Jubilee there. I really would like to see it happen.

Oh, and my town already has Applebees and Cracker Barrel. Overpriced and underfed, is what you get there. Corporate can have 'em back. LOL. (I did understand your point there, gymrat10).

 

[DiamondDude]

It would take about 4 or 5 area high schools ADs, coaches, etc. to fully staff EVEYTHING the Jubilee offers. As gymrat says, it takes a bunch of work and lots of coordination. That's one thing the folks at Radford do--and have done so for a dozen years.With D-1 and D-2 events, they will have full plates next year. So get ready Lynchburg & Liberty for D-3 and D-4 stuff. We know the facilities are there.