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Giles Coach Retires. Is the Wing over?

Fairlawncat

VaPreps Honorable Mention
Nov 24, 2018
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Just read where the Giles Head Coach retired. Wonder if the single wing retires also. I'm hearing rumblings that the next HC at Giles could be the Princeton, WV, Coach Taylor who built them into an AAA powerhouse program in WV and Taylor resigned in February from Princeton. Princeton is 27 miles from Pearisburg and Taylor's wife works in Christiansburg, VA.
 
Just read where the Giles Head Coach retired. Wonder if the single wing retires also. I'm hearing rumblings that the next HC at Giles could be the Princeton, WV, Coach Taylor who built them into an AAA powerhouse program in WV and Taylor resigned in February from Princeton. Princeton is 27 miles from Pearisburg and Taylor's wife works in Christiansburg, VA.
It would be a shame if it did. When I think of Giles, I immediately think of the single wing
 
It would be a shame if it did. When I think of Giles, I immediately think of the single wing
I agree, but part of Giles slip aside from talent lows is the damage the wing does to it's own team (it's own defense.) Misdirection run offenses can be successful, but they do better when the majority of teams they play are run heavy. In Far SWVA, those Class 1 and 2 schools are far more wide open than the majority of the rest of VA in Class 1 and 2. That hurts a team like Giles because years ago, they just had to prepare defensively in practice for the upcoming opponent who was going to also run the ball the majority of the time. Nowadays, the football is often in the air and Giles can't really replicate this in practice.

If you are a small school where most of your starters on O (especially your athletes) are also playing defense, you are left to taking your 2nd team or JV offense (who only knows single wing) to try to replicate a spread or pass happy offense to prepare for the next opponent and that's hard to do. The single wing still fools people because they don't see it every game and gives a team like Giles an advantage, but it causes a disadvantage to Giles more than it helps in the modern era because of the inability in practice to prepare defensively for that upcoming spread offense opponent.
 
Wonder if Jeremy Haymore will put in...
Jeremy or Jay Phares would either be great choices if they applied for it. Both are single wing enthusiasts, with Jeremy even having a book coming out about the 1980 Giles team. Both Jeremy and Jay were assistants on those Staunton River teams that were so successful. Haymore had a brief run there as head coach, but wasn't really given a fair shake. Jay has had succes running it while he was head coach at William Campbell some years back. Also Jay's brother is the head coach at Bridgeport High in West Virginia and they run the wing to perfection and were the best team in the state of WV last year.
 
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I agree, but part of Giles slip aside from talent lows is the damage the wing does to it's own team (it's own defense.) Misdirection run offenses can be successful, but they do better when the majority of teams they play are run heavy. In Far SWVA, those Class 1 and 2 schools are far more wide open than the majority of the rest of VA in Class 1 and 2. That hurts a team like Giles because years ago, they just had to prepare defensively in practice for the upcoming opponent who was going to also run the ball the majority of the time. Nowadays, the football is often in the air and Giles can't really replicate this in practice.

If you are a small school where most of your starters on O (especially your athletes) are also playing defense, you are left to taking your 2nd team or JV offense (who only knows single wing) to try to replicate a spread or pass happy offense to prepare for the next opponent and that's hard to do. The single wing still fools people because they don't see it every game and gives a team like Giles an advantage, but it causes a disadvantage to Giles more than it helps in the modern era because of the inability in practice to prepare defensively for that upcoming spread offense opponent.
Probably a good read. But possibly why most small 1A schools can't defend the pass very good
 
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