Welcome! And.....what color is the sky in your world?
I'm sorry, I really am. I tried so hard to refrain from saying anything but - my gosh. What kind of make-believe world do you live in, where every public school has the funds to travel three or more hours for half of their games, and where all the schools are legitimate state contenders?
"I would get rid of ultimately playing 7 or 8 games against opponents just in your area and proceed to turn it into a NFL type structure."
You do realize we're not dealing with NFL budgets, resources, and TV deals here, right? So, if you were in control of the situation, you'd be able to somehow produce the vast oceans of money needed for every team in the state to travel like that? We're talking about public education - an entity that's been notoriously underfunded for some time now. In the 2013-2014 school year, Salem's travel budget was shot after the fall sports season, due to the tremendous increase in travel for all sports to conference and regional events. Events that, under the previous system, used to all be held within an hour of most of the schools in the old regional setup. 4A North (soon to be 4A West) stretches from North Carolina to up near Maryland! If you think travel costs are an excuse, think again. They're a very harsh reality that every AD has to deal with.
And, who do you think is going to attend all of these games between opponents from far-flung corners of the state, that have no geography or history in common? Attendance is kind of an important issue for most schools, you know. Since there is no NFL-type TV deal, most schools find that money from football attendance is rather critical for their sports programs. You do remember that games now start at 7:00 pm, yes? How many people do you think will travel from, say, Bealeton to Salem to make a 7:00 pm game on a Friday? I can tell you this - they didn't bring too darn many for a Saturday afternoon regional championship game. And if a 4A South team came to town? Lake Taylor brought maybe 700 or 800 fans to Liberty - on as nice a mid-December afternoon as you'll get, on a day when they were heavily favored to win a state championship. So, how many people are they going to get to take off work to make the five-hour trip from Norfolk to Salem for a 7:00 Friday kickoff, for a regular season game? Wow - real financial windfall, there. And you're suggesting that the entire schedule be made up of games like that.
So, please - everyone complaining about the schedules of Salem and other 4A North teams: get a damn grip. This isn't the NFL, or even major college football. Salem can't just jet down to Florida or Alabama to play every other week, and if you're talking about a 4A North team playing half it's games every season in Tidewater, or even Richmond, it may as well be the same thing. Or, maybe we should lay off half the city employees to be able to play everywhere you think we should be playing?
And, another newsflash: Salem's schedule is not the problem, as far as winning state championships is concerned. People (mostly uninformed) have been talking about Salem's "weak" schedule for decades. It used to go hand-in-hand with all the recruiting talk. In '98 and '99, all Salem's detractors wanted to talk about was how their weak schedule was going to do them in against powerhouses Lafayette and Park View - especially Park View. So, untested Salem won both games, despite the fact that we hadn't seen anyone close to our finals opponents. [That's actually not true - in '98, Martinsville was every bit as tough as Lafayette turned out to be.] The problem this year was - Lake Taylor is friggin' awesome! Like Dinwiddie last year, LT was head-and-shoulders above all other 4A South teams. And I include Monacan in that statement; it took the worst game LT has played in probably five years for Monacan to be in position to win. So, if Lake Taylor was that much better than all the other 4A South teams, what would it gain Salem to break the bank to travel to a Heritage or Phoebus? The experience wouldn't have helped them against Lake Taylor, because Lake Taylor was far superior to both those teams. When Salem is good enough to win the state again, they will - regardless of who they've played that year. So, quit dragging Salem over the coals because they failed to beat a team that ended up ranked third overall in the entire state. There were probably only half a dozen teams - all in 6A - that would have had a legitimate shot at Lake Taylor this year. They were the heavy favorites from July for a reason.
You're also overlooking the fact that - unless something has changed - teams are still required to play every other team in their district, within two classifications. That means Salem is required by the VHSL to play Patrick Henry, Cave Spring, Christiansburg, Blacksburg, Carroll County, Hidden Valley, and Pulaski County. You know - the teams in our area, that we've played forever. In years when we did win state titles. Schools that will actually bring people to watch the games - people who pay money that gets used to support the entire sports program. At least (even in these times of declining attendance evrywhere) way more people than the opponents you're proposing. Northside-Salem has returned to being one of the state's best rivalries. And I hate to tell you, but over the past six seasons, Northside would have won at least four out of six from all four of the 4A North schools you mentioned.
"I say teams need to start having one goal and that is a State Championship..."
Oh, really? Is that what you say? In a given year, that's a realistic goal for maybe ten percent of the 306 public schools that play football. The coaches of the other ninety percent would say back to you , "You're nuts. We don't have the resources, the facilities, or the talent, and we never will." That's why, for most schools, district championships still mean something. It's at least a realistic goal, something attainable for the kids. Regional titles should mean something, too - especially when you're in a 28-team region! North or South, being the best out of that many schools is an accomplishment. Salem's usually among that top ten percent that can set its sights on a state crown, but that doesn't mean the district or regional titles along the way mean any less. And no - placing that emphasis on the smaller steps along the way aren't what hurt Salem last Saturday. I think that was more the ten or so guys with D1 talent that were wearing red jerseys.
So, again - sorry. A poster whom I greatly respect, one man, thought that you made a great first post, but I just can't go along with him. I just took a three-month hiatus from these boards, and that's the kind of post that might lead to a more permanent arrangement.
