Best season in a long time in Dry Fork. They’ll be back. Should be the early favorites in Class 3 next year. Gotta get Gretna off the schedule. Add Morehead, Reidsville or Person County to the schedule 💯.
Great season Tunstall
- Thread starter BoKnowsSports
- Start date
They most likely won't be able to remove Gretna from schedule as All four Pittsylvania County Schools usually play each other in nearly every sport.
12 Piedmont District games (14 with the addition of Mecklenburg County in 2022-23) plus playing Dan River, Gretna, & Chatham (6 games) = 20 games - not even factoring in if they play in the Harry Johnson Basketball Classic. They played Hargrave and had to drop the second game because of too many games.
Some traditions are meant to be broken. Playing a team that gets you zero points isn’t helping Tunstall’s seeding efforts. Northside, Byrd, Cave Spring, Botty and even Bassett’s schedule is comprised of mostly Class 3 or higher teams. Playing the Pittsylvania County teams actually hurt Tunstall with them all being Class 2 teams. Trojans lost 4 games (all against very good teams) and still had to travel 3.5 hours to a 7 loss team.
Dropped hargrave second game cause they got zero points for the first one .
For the longest time, Tunstall has been known - and still is - as a Baseball school for the boys and Dan River was the boys basketball school. Heck until this season, Tunstall hadn't beaten Dan River basketball since the Wildcats were in the Piedmont District back in 2007 (this season was DR's first losing season in 15 years too).
This year's team was bar-none the Trojans' best season since the 2005 squad with Mario Huffman, Chad Hardaway, LaRoger Parrish and crew. DeMarcus (Coach Morrison) and his staff have done a lot to turn them around in a short time. Tunstall's AD, a THS grad in Dustin Echols, made a great selection with him. Danville Sportshead would be pleased with the improvements (https://virginiapreps.forums.rivals.com/threads/mhs-at-magna-vista.37053/)
Back on subject, Northside, Byrd, Cave Spring, and Botetourt don't have to make long trips to play closer larger schools in those areas (Fleming, PH, Franklin Co.) The county games are pretty much more for $$$ and bragging rights, which you probably know that already. DR vs. Tunstall, Tunstall vs. Chatham, DR vs. Chatham games in most sports bring in a lot of fans & basketball usually sells out -GYM SIZE is a factor too!). If Tunstall were to drop a county opponent, Gretna would likely be the one.
All 4 county teams - along with Altavista and William Campbell - originally formed the Dogwood District in the late 90s.
Tunstall is in the same boat as GW - you in a district where you have to play teams that you get little to no points. With the addition of Mecklenburg County as a Class 4 school, that may help the district and with PC trying to leave - that opens up two more games.
Piedmont District
Class 4 - GW, Halifax County, and Mecklenburg County (starting 2022-23)
Class 3 - Tunstall, Magna Vista, and Bassett
Class 2 - Martinsville & Patrick County (who's now looking to join the Three Rivers District with the addition of Mecklenburg County)
That gives Tunstall 10 games with teams 3A or higher. Maybe forgoing the Harry Johnson Holiday Classic - Tournament and play in the one up in Roanoke where Cave Spring plays at? Maybe pick up another Class 4 team like Glass, Amherst, or even try to play Class 6 Franklin County. Playing Hargrave was good, but I'm not sure if they got points for that even with the loss.
I do see your point in Tunstall (17-4 not counting the Piedmont District tourney & seeded 5th out of the 10 Region 3D playoff teams) traveling to Abingdon (16-8 and seeded 4th). Abingdon was the only Class 3 school in their district, Mountain District and finished 2nd behind defending Class 2 state champion, Union. Their non-district schedule seemed to be stronger schedule playing teams out of Tennessee and a team from South Carolina (Dorman who's AAAAA) over the holidays. I believe Region 3D uses a point system and I wonder how close it was between 4th and 5th seed.
This year's team was bar-none the Trojans' best season since the 2005 squad with Mario Huffman, Chad Hardaway, LaRoger Parrish and crew. DeMarcus (Coach Morrison) and his staff have done a lot to turn them around in a short time. Tunstall's AD, a THS grad in Dustin Echols, made a great selection with him. Danville Sportshead would be pleased with the improvements (https://virginiapreps.forums.rivals.com/threads/mhs-at-magna-vista.37053/)
Back on subject, Northside, Byrd, Cave Spring, and Botetourt don't have to make long trips to play closer larger schools in those areas (Fleming, PH, Franklin Co.) The county games are pretty much more for $$$ and bragging rights, which you probably know that already. DR vs. Tunstall, Tunstall vs. Chatham, DR vs. Chatham games in most sports bring in a lot of fans & basketball usually sells out -GYM SIZE is a factor too!). If Tunstall were to drop a county opponent, Gretna would likely be the one.
All 4 county teams - along with Altavista and William Campbell - originally formed the Dogwood District in the late 90s.
Tunstall is in the same boat as GW - you in a district where you have to play teams that you get little to no points. With the addition of Mecklenburg County as a Class 4 school, that may help the district and with PC trying to leave - that opens up two more games.
Piedmont District
Class 4 - GW, Halifax County, and Mecklenburg County (starting 2022-23)
Class 3 - Tunstall, Magna Vista, and Bassett
Class 2 - Martinsville & Patrick County (who's now looking to join the Three Rivers District with the addition of Mecklenburg County)
That gives Tunstall 10 games with teams 3A or higher. Maybe forgoing the Harry Johnson Holiday Classic - Tournament and play in the one up in Roanoke where Cave Spring plays at? Maybe pick up another Class 4 team like Glass, Amherst, or even try to play Class 6 Franklin County. Playing Hargrave was good, but I'm not sure if they got points for that even with the loss.
I do see your point in Tunstall (17-4 not counting the Piedmont District tourney & seeded 5th out of the 10 Region 3D playoff teams) traveling to Abingdon (16-8 and seeded 4th). Abingdon was the only Class 3 school in their district, Mountain District and finished 2nd behind defending Class 2 state champion, Union. Their non-district schedule seemed to be stronger schedule playing teams out of Tennessee and a team from South Carolina (Dorman who's AAAAA) over the holidays. I believe Region 3D uses a point system and I wonder how close it was between 4th and 5th seed.
Yes. Probably should play them as a benefit scrimmage game since you get no points.
That Hargrave game hurt because they got nothing for it - win or loss - Abingdon got points from their losses to SC's Dorman (Class 5A school) and to those Tennessee teams they lost to. Like I said, I would love to see the points difference that decided that seeding.
You’re good bro, I enjoy reading it. Wish more local fans posted on here.
I’d like to see Tunstall and GW add Morehead, Burlington Cummings, Reidsville or Person to their schedule. Back in the 2000s, GW would play Durham Hillside, Person, Dudley, RJ Reynolds and Greensboro Smith. All within 45 minutes to an hour drive. It’s harder now to schedule but I’d like to see Tunstall go to NC. Most Tunstall kids live closer to Morehead than they do Tunstall and add 10 minutes you’re in Reidsville. Also, Person County will have one of the better teams in NC next year. Would love to see them play Tunstall. 35 minute drive to Roxboro.
BYW, this isn’t Morrison’s or Coach Echols fault.. They’ve done really great things to turn the Tunstall program around in a very short period of time. I’m really just thinking out loud.
I went once or twice with my cousins from GW down to Dudley game and that was an exciting game.
The old Holiday Shootout use to be fun because you got to see Dan River, Morehead, Tunstall, BY - before they had their own thing, Eastern Alamance, Reidsville, and GW. I like when DR played those teams
The old Holiday Shootout use to be fun because you got to see Dan River, Morehead, Tunstall, BY - before they had their own thing, Eastern Alamance, Reidsville, and GW. I like when DR played those teams
So the coach and AD didn't know this prior to scheduling the games? You take the home game, get a sellout crowd and don't give Hargrave their home game? Public schools can play 22 regular season games. Tunstall played 21 due to the Harry Johnson classic game vs DR being cancelled for Covid after they lost to Green Run.
Hargrave games were scheduled before Tunstall entered the classic. If Tunstall would have made it to the championship game that would have put them over 22 at (23) with the games already on the schedule. They contacted Hargrave and said if that happens we will have to cancel since the rest of the schedule is district games and 1 each vs DR and Chatham that we can't cancel.
So why didn't they play Hargrave at home? If it was about points they never should have scheduled them. I think they were scared meaning the coaches. Those boys would have played. They aren't the type to run.
Hargrave was 1-10 last year in Alan Petty's first season with a roster he didn't recruit and Covid to deal with. They looked like an easy target when schedules were made. But once the season started and Petty put his first recruiting class and system on the floor there was an oh shit moment from Tunstall. They played them well at home where they only lost 2 games this season (Hargrave, Martinsville). Tunstall has a great home court advantage thanks to their student section the Bleacher Creatures. But it would have gone very different at Hargrave. They didn't want to have another loss on their record so they hid.
Also this notion that the current staff turned Tunstall around is the laziest thing I have heard. I don't care how good of a coach you are you can't win unless you have the talent. Only one coach (Howell) has spent any significant time with those kids working on basketball before this season. You really believe the rest arrived and overnight made them good players? No! They walked into a winning situation and now acting like it was so hard.
The sophomores (Hammock, Edmonds, Pool, Brown) and junior D'dric Rogers have been good for a long time. Rogers and Graves (now at Winston Salem Prep) were lighting as freshman at Tunstall and would have been phenomenal sophomores if Covid didn't happen. This school was already on the rise. The current head coach is an upgrade over the previous but even he could win with this team. During This time younger guys were have great JV seasons Edmonds @ Dan River, Hammock @ Hargrave, Pool and Brown @ Tunstall.
But they were primarily developed through travel basketball with Warriors Travel Basketball (Chatham) and Virginia Elite (Danville) also Durham Hurricanes. Getting Edmonds to transfer from DR is the only this staff did and even that is probably due to him being teammates with the other 3 10th graders at VA elite.
They did a good job not messing it up but the truth is no matter who was there they were going to win. They have been coached well since they were babies. I want to make sure guys like Charles Craft, Alan Petty, Travis Fitzgerald, Steven Williams, Brandon Howell, Duke Word and Tim King get the credit they deserve. They put in countless hours year round not just in season for years. Now people acting like the new guy who just arrived turned things around 🤣 Cut it out. If you didn't know cool. But I know a lot of people do and they're sick of it. That's how I found this forum, because of people talking. I could say a lot more but I believe this is enough...for now.
No points for out of state games btw , too much put into points, if you the best it won't matter.... Cave Springs Northside and Spotswood were all better than a talented Tunstall so at best they were 1 game better if they get a 1st round at home. They didn't play a competitive schedule and played the system instead of playing tough games to prep for states playing Hargrave 2nd time helps the kids develop even with 6 or 7 pointsthey still going to abingdon so what are we talking about ..if the Ramsey kid is not hurt they don't even beat abingdon at home much less away so... let's move on... Good teams win! Great teams win championships AND we didn't have one in the area this year.... not a 1
You’re right petty did recruit from all over va an played a 3a high school team. With 4 starters with no varsity experience Lol . why play hargrave again when it gave us no points playing or not . Also there were some sportsmanship incidents stemming from the hargrave side that Tunstall administration did not agree with that happen during an after the game . But yeah they won by a few points . I would have liked to see the outcome had rogers not cramped up an missed the majority of the 4th quarter which saw tunstalll up when he went out. To have a triple double in basically 3 quarters on hargrave Not enough has been said about that . But You make some good points here an there.
Dry fork will always be dry fork.... want smoke but want to bring a fan just incase it's too thick... if yall signed up for a game shouldn't you honor it.. what if schools canceled games just because they didn't want to lose to yall this year... yall would have lost 4 home games on your schedule 📅 it's just funny to hear the rationale... I hope yall play them next yr yall will be better suited to make an actual playoff run. it's games like these that are missing from our area @Playmaker915 Roger's kid needs to get out of Tunstall if he serious about his recruitment... not playing at the level he's capable of ...your thoughts?
@Virginiahoopinsight @Fido429 SHEEEEEEEEESH y’all brothers speaking! Respect. Lots of good points made.
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