Roanoke Times HS Sports Coverage

[Amgis]

With the start of another football season just around the corner, I hate to see how far the Roanoke Times has fallen when it comes to covering HS football. No more reading Robert Anderson's score predictions on Friday morning then on Friday night being amazed at how close all of his predictions were.
No more in-depth writing from multiple local games on Friday nights. Now you are lucky to read one good article about HS football on Saturday mornings.

Maybe they will or have hired many new writers to cover HS football this season, who knows!

 

[10iceiceice]

That's not good, here in the 804 Richmond metro, the Richmond times dispatch does a job on teams predictions, rankings, Players and coaches. Every team in the Richmond metro and private schools also. Hopefully Roanoke new papers will do the same good luck.

 

[Lakelife]

Lynchburg is same way now . No coverage at all it’s sad .

 

[10iceiceice]

Matter of fact the Richmond times dispatch high school football previews come out tomorrow, if I'm not mistaken. Check it out on line or in the newspaper

 

[cutnjump]

Lynchburg is same way now . No coverage at all it’s sad .

Everything is that way wherever Lee Media is involved. The Oracle of Omaha, the esteemed Warren Buffett got sentimental about his days as a newspaper carrier, made a lousy business investment with BH Media, then screwed the newspaper industry in the State of Virginia getting himself out of the bad deal and on his way out the door.

 

[General172011]

That's not good, here in the 804 Richmond metro, the Richmond times dispatch does a job on teams predictions, rankings, Players and coaches. Every team in the Richmond metro and private schools also. Hopefully Roanoke new papers will do the same good luck.

RTD & The Progress Index both do tremendous jobs

 

[lyhsports]

With the start of another football season just around the corner, I hate to see how far the Roanoke Times has fallen when it comes to covering HS football. No more reading Robert Anderson's score predictions on Friday morning then on Friday night being amazed at how close all of his predictions were.
No more in-depth writing from multiple local games on Friday nights. Now you are lucky to read one good article about HS football on Saturday mornings.

Maybe they will or have hired many new writers to cover HS football this season, who knows!

Yup I miss it too. I miss the fact that you could do predictions to and see where you stacked up. Is Anderson still with VA Preps?

 

[Virginia HS Football Fan]

Lee Media is BRUTAL. We suffer from their wrath with The Free Lance-Star here in the Fredericksburg-area. They run stories that don't pertain to the region. Also, the high school sports coverage has dropped considerably as well. Not to mention that on top of this, the paper has taken a hard left turn in the last two decades. A mostly unreadable rag (except for the handful of high school sports roundups they write).

 

[lyhsports]

Lynchburg is same way now . No coverage at all it’s sad .

Lynchburg hasn't fell off too much. They still do the stats, and still cover the games decently. I do miss the top 15 countdown they used to do though.

 

[lyhsports]

If you want good coverage of Lynchburg sports, check out Drekentalk on Facebook. Andre Kendrick and team do a great job!

 

[Amgis]

Yup I miss it too. I miss the fact that you could do predictions to and see where you stacked up. Is Anderson still with VA Preps?

Anderson is now with Cardinal News.
https://cardinalnews.org/author/robert-anderson/

He writes a few articles for them every now and then. I haven't seen anything saying how much or if he will write about HS football during the season. I figure he is retired from the Roanoke Times and is just writing whenever he feels like it.

 

[M11H16D18H]

Roanoke Times cut a lot of people.
Most of their sports articles come from Richmond and other papers, with a few high school articles mixed in.
High School coverage has dipped across the board.
WFXR and Jermaine Farrell do a better job than most, at least with Football. I am impressed with the range of schools they try and cover. The pre-season spotlights are a great resource.
They have done a better job than WDBJ and WSLS in the Roanoke and New River Valleys as of recent.

Good in depth local sports news is no longer a priority for these outlets.

 

[lyhsports]

Roanoke Times cut a lot of people.
Most of their sports articles come from Richmond and other papers, with a few high school articles mixed in.
High School coverage has dipped across the board.
WFXR and Jermaine Farrell do a better job than most, at least with Football. I am impressed with the range of schools they try and cover. The pre-season spotlights are a great resource.
They have done a better job than WDBJ and WSLS in the Roanoke and New River Valleys as of recent.

Good in depth local sports news is no longer a priority for these outlets.

Farrell is killing the game!

I miss the GOAT Dennis Carter. Love that he does color commentary for the Glass games though!

 

[MaroonDude]

Hoops does a great job covering Salem in the Salem Times Register.

 

[oldfool2]

Lynchburg is same way now . No coverage at all it’s sad .

I call BS,

 

[Mayor Stoner]

Danville has told its free lance guys there will be “No” coverage prior to 10/1. Lee did away with their sports department when it took over.

 

[VHSL-helper]

I met Robert back when he was with the Bristol Herald Courier. It only prints Tues/Thur/Sat now, and with the early deadline papers love, that means you'll get game stories on Tuesday... in your mailbox, since they did away with carriers.
But they will be posted online... or so we've been told.

 

[Virginia HS Football Fan]

Roanoke Times cut a lot of people.
Most of their sports articles come from Richmond and other papers, with a few high school articles mixed in.
High School coverage has dipped across the board.
WFXR and Jermaine Farrell do a better job than most, at least with Football. I am impressed with the range of schools they try and cover. The pre-season spotlights are a great resource.
They have done a better job than WDBJ and WSLS in the Roanoke and New River Valleys as of recent.

Good in depth local sports news is no longer a priority for these outlets.

Friday Football Extra was awesome. I would try to catch it when I was in college and when I worked down that way for longer than I should have. Mike Stevens was the man. Travis Wells kept it going. Both are tremendously nice guys and good people too. I guess it all started falling apart after Travis took the SID job at Tech.

 

[DitkaXX]

I call BS,

He's right. News and Advance used to have a preview of each local team leading up to the season. Nothing now. It's a joke. Liberty's beat writer left in the spring to cover VT (for Roanoke, I believe), and they haven't replaced him. Coverage is just so poor. As is WSET. Disappointing for the kids now. Glad they were able to give Glass basketball decent coverage on their run last year at least.

Will echo the thoughts on WFXR. They seem to be tops in the area now. Grateful for them and also the job Kendrick has done.

 

[lyhsports]

Can’t forget Crunch in the Roanoke area for the publications and the radio show. They do a great job as well.

 

[NNDman]

I have to disagree about the Times-Dispatch at least when it comes to the print edition that is distributed in rural areas. We get nothing on Saturdays. And it's been like that for a number of years. Might get the AP score list in the Sunday paper. I know they've been pushing folks to go to their 804 prep sports website. Heck, they even laid off their sports editor who was the 2022 Sports Writer of the Year in Virginia! Lee Enterprises is choking off good journalism in Virginia, especially when it comes to coverage of high school sports It's ridiculous to have "daily" papers printed just 3 times a week and now if you subscribe to one it comes via the Post Office and we know how pitiful the USPS has pretty much become. I used to the Free-Lance Star which stopped delivery to my area -- including eliminating their paper from newsstands -- some times in 2022. So, they fulfilled the last 3 months of my subscription by sending the papers through the mail. I live only 40 minutes or so from Fredericksburg and I'd go 2 or 3 days without a paper in my mailbox and then have 3 of them shoved into the box on the 4th day. Sorry for the long post and just one paragraph. At least I didn't all cap it!

 

[NNDman]

Ok, so I see in the Sunday paper (August 20) that the Times-Dispatch put out a decent preview of 27 teams in 3 pages using smaller type. But, where were the private schools and Class 2 King William? Maybe that's coming in tomorrow's print edition? I mean when KW won Class 2 two years ago RTD covered them pretty hard in the last 3 weeks or so and I believe the Claiborne kid was their POY

 

[pizzzzza]

So do you guys feel that the uptick in social media - especially twitter (now known as X) - has kind of "taken the place" of local high school coverage in local newspapers - it's up to the minute coverage of high school sports - instead of waiting for the game recap the next day?

 

[pizzzzza]

With the start of another football season just around the corner, I hate to see how far the Roanoke Times has fallen when it comes to covering HS football. No more reading Robert Anderson's score predictions on Friday morning then on Friday night being amazed at how close all of his predictions were.
No more in-depth writing from multiple local games on Friday nights. Now you are lucky to read one good article about HS football on Saturday mornings.

Maybe they will or have hired many new writers to cover HS football this season, who knows!

I have very fond memories of grabbing a copy of local papers and reading about all the high school sports in Harrisonburg, Staunton and Roanoke.

I guess those days are gone....

 

[Virginia HS Football Fan]

I have to disagree about the Times-Dispatch at least when it comes to the print edition that is distributed in rural areas. We get nothing on Saturdays. And it's been like that for a number of years. Might get the AP score list in the Sunday paper. I know they've been pushing folks to go to their 804 prep sports website. Heck, they even laid off their sports editor who was the 2022 Sports Writer of the Year in Virginia! Lee Enterprises is choking off good journalism in Virginia, especially when it comes to coverage of high school sports It's ridiculous to have "daily" papers printed just 3 times a week and now if you subscribe to one it comes via the Post Office and we know how pitiful the USPS has pretty much become. I used to the Free-Lance Star which stopped delivery to my area -- including eliminating their paper from newsstands -- some times in 2022. So, they fulfilled the last 3 months of my subscription by sending the papers through the mail. I live only 40 minutes or so from Fredericksburg and I'd go 2 or 3 days without a paper in my mailbox and then have 3 of them shoved into the box on the 4th day. Sorry for the long post and just one paragraph. At least I didn't all cap it!

We've had issues with our paper too. We get the weekday subscription. Sometimes we get it. Sometimes we don't. Sometimes it's laying in the ditch and spread out in the yard. When we would call and complain, they would say they had issues getting carriers because of COVID. Just laughable.

 

[Amgis]

So do you guys feel that the uptick in social media - especially twitter (now known as X) - has kind of "taken the place" of local high school coverage in local newspapers - it's up to the minute coverage of high school sports - instead of waiting for the game recap the next day?

I agree that social media has affected some of the local coverage but unless you know all of the specific team accounts that you are interested in then it doesn’t replace what you used to get from newspapers on Saturday morning.

I know that there are some accounts that do a good job of providing updates throughout the game but each account handles it differently.

 

[DitkaXX]

So do you guys feel that the uptick in social media - especially twitter (now known as X) - has kind of "taken the place" of local high school coverage in local newspapers - it's up to the minute coverage of high school sports - instead of waiting for the game recap the next day?

It may have but it doesn't need to be that way. I made a list on Twitter that is primarily about following high school sports in our region. It's great to know the scores, but I enjoy reading the game stories the following day. Now it's on Sunday because their deadline is 10pm. I don't know why the deadline is so early; it isn't like there are a lot of papers they need to print. The Lynchburg news is so bad. Harrionsburg/Staunton area are terrific. Ben Cates goes to like 1 high school basketball game per week, if he goes to any football games, he doesn't update anything. He has not adapted at all. I'm really curious what he is actually doing now. His coverage of Glass' basketball run was terrific. He is the head sports guy for the N&A in Lynchburg, and he hasn't written a single article or preview for the local schools this season. Emily Brown sometimes will give updates from whatever game she is at. I don't know what Dave Walls does. In the past two weeks the Lynchburg media guy has one post about HS football on his twitter feed. The Roanoke based media is giving far better coverage to Lynchburg than the Lynchburg media.

I'll also give credit to WSLS. They do a fine job. I commend Bob Alvis too, he is independent (I believe he does radio for Heritage football and then works the book or something for JF basketball) but he definitely promotes the local sports more than any of the traditional Lynchburg media.

 

[Amgis]

Who are some of the better Twitter accounts that you guys follow for HS football?

Here are a few good ones that I follow:

Christiansburg - @demons1football
Pulaski County - @pctdclub
Patrick Henry - @phroanokesports
EC Glass - @ecglassfb
Salem - @footballsalem

 

[lyhsports]

It may have but it doesn't need to be that way. I made a list on Twitter that is primarily about following high school sports in our region. It's great to know the scores, but I enjoy reading the game stories the following day. Now it's on Sunday because their deadline is 10pm. I don't know why the deadline is so early; it isn't like there are a lot of papers they need to print. The Lynchburg news is so bad. Harrionsburg/Staunton area are terrific. Ben Cates goes to like 1 high school basketball game per week, if he goes to any football games, he doesn't update anything. He has not adapted at all. I'm really curious what he is actually doing now. His coverage of Glass' basketball run was terrific. He is the head sports guy for the N&A in Lynchburg, and he hasn't written a single article or preview for the local schools this season. Emily Brown sometimes will give updates from whatever game she is at. I don't know what Dave Walls does. In the past two weeks the Lynchburg media guy has one post about HS football on his twitter feed. The Roanoke based media is giving far better coverage to Lynchburg than the Lynchburg media.

I'll also give credit to WSLS. They do a fine job. I commend Bob Alvis too, he is independent (I believe he does radio for Heritage football and then works the book or something for JF basketball) but he definitely promotes the local sports more than any of the traditional Lynchburg media.

Alvis does a great job as well! Love his post game interviews!

 

[DitkaXX]

Who are some of the better Twitter accounts that you guys follow for HS football?

Here are a few good ones that I follow:

Christiansburg - @demons1football
Pulaski County - @pctdclub
Patrick Henry - @phroanokesports
EC Glass - @ecglassfb
Salem - @footballsalem

LCABulldogsFB - LCA
hhspioneersfb - Heritage (not all that active for game updates, DennisK19791983 is a little better)
minutementpride - Liberty Bedford (doesn't seem as active since they've gotten a new AD last summer)
ACHSLancers - Amherst
JFHSsports - Jefferson Forest

just for checking scores:
wslsscores - Roanoke/Lynchburg
wdbj7ffe - Roanoke/Lynchburg
timesland (Not sure how active they are nowadays)
13sports - Lynchburg/Roanoke
scrimmageplay (Charlottesville area)
Thesportsbuffet - Bob Alvis - Lynchburg area
wfxrsports - Roanoke/LYnchburg
CBS6sportssean - Richmond area


reporters who may livetweet games:
emilyrachel527 - Lynchburg area
Heraldsportsnow - PE/Cumberland/Buckingham
damiensordelett - did Lynchburg games, is in Roanoke on the VT beat so no idea if he will contribute on Friday nights up there or not. I believe he helped cover spring sports.
Shante_DNRsports - Harrisonburg area
Bulletinsport - Martinsville/Danville area
VTCody - Harrionsburg area
John_r_Breeden - Harrisonburg area

Any other suggestions for someone to follow the Charlottesville area, in addition to scrimmageplay?

 

[MaroonDude]

Who are some of the better Twitter accounts that you guys follow for HS football?

Here are a few good ones that I follow:

Christiansburg - @demons1football
Pulaski County - @pctdclub
Patrick Henry - @phroanokesports
EC Glass - @ecglassfb
Salem - @footballsalem

@ footballsalem is a good follow??? Do better

 

[Amgis]

@ footballsalem is a good follow??? Do better

If you can recommend a better account to follow for Salem football, Im all ears. @mike salem do you have any suggestions?

 

[VHSL-helper]

try https://twitter.com/salemspartans

 

[DitkaXX]

What did you all think of the TV coverage last night? Watching WFXR (I'll watch the others later on today) and was disappointed. Their "Game of the Week" didn't have many highlights at all, seemed their camera wasn't running on many of scoring plays (They showed 4 total clips of the game, and all of the clips were of plays 3 or less yards. Missed the 56 yard touchdown and the game-winning touchdown. I was really looking forward to seeing highlights of that game. A lot of games they didn't know the score of, one game they told us the wrong team won, no mention of scores of other teams in the area who they didn't get a camera to, and in one game they showed a punt that was downed as a highlight. It wasn't like a great punt that was downed at the 2 or anything like that. It was just like a 25 yard punt. Look at how bad this highlight package is: I I understand they only have one camera, but show more highlights from another game that you got better looks at. Why show punts and incomplete passes and other clips that you have awful angles on?

 

[matthew328826]

Yup I miss it too. I miss the fact that you could do predictions to and see where you stacked up. Is Anderson still with VA Preps?

Yes, Robert Anderson is still with us - - got some video from the Liberty Christian / Salem game. Should have a report on that + our Will Garlick was also there.

 

[mike salem]

Yes, Robert Anderson is still with us - - got some video from the Liberty Christian / Salem game. Should have a report on that + our Will Garlick was also there.

I talked to him after the game. Good to see him still covering games. He's top notch with VA HS sports coverage.

 

[Virginia HS Football Fan]

What did you all think of the TV coverage last night? Watching WFXR (I'll watch the others later on today) and was disappointed. Their "Game of the Week" didn't have many highlights at all, seemed their camera wasn't running on many of scoring plays (They showed 4 total clips of the game, and all of the clips were of plays 3 or less yards. Missed the 56 yard touchdown and the game-winning touchdown. I was really looking forward to seeing highlights of that game. A lot of games they didn't know the score of, one game they told us the wrong team won, no mention of scores of other teams in the area who they didn't get a camera to, and in one game they showed a punt that was downed as a highlight. It wasn't like a great punt that was downed at the 2 or anything like that. It was just like a 25 yard punt. Look at how bad this highlight package is:

View embedded media

I I understand they only have one camera, but show more highlights from another game that you got better looks at. Why show punts and incomplete passes and other clips that you have awful angles on?

The shows are so stretched. The cameramen have to run out and shoot the first half at one school and then the second half at another school. Sometimes, they just get unlucky with when the action actually happens.

I bounced around and watched several shows. I thought Channel 6 out of Richmond was good despite the late start because of the NFL game. Channel 6 is boom, boom, boom and quick and tightly shot. So from a TV perspective, they keep it moving and at no point, does that show drag. Major kudos to 6 for getting in a few highlights of the Highland Springs/Miramar game. It could have been very easy to mail it in and just post the score but they actually got a couple of highlights.

I'm not a fan of the dual anchor setup on Friday Football Extra on 7 out of Roanoke and that show seemed to drag; especially with their features which included the last two hosts and also new coaches in the area (which this should have been done for a preview show). I also think that the anchor tries to act too much like Mike Stevens and Travis Wells with his demeanor and the way he speaks.

Johnny App on 10 out of Roanoke delivered a good show (he's a good guy too so that makes it easier to watch). I tried watching some 13 out of Lynchburg and it was OK. Much different than when Dennis anchored the show.

Channel 8 out of Richmond was OK and I thought that they were seizing on the opportunity to jump ahead of 6 due to the NFL game being on 6. I didn't check out 12 in Richmond to see what they had because their sports division has been helpless for decades.

And then finally, I chimed in on 29 in Charlottesville. Their show has been hit or miss over the years and usually; when it's been good, they've had a young energetic anchor lead it. I thought the show lacked a lot of highlights though.

I did see one show (maybe it was 10 out of Roanoke or 29 out of Charlottesville) that still referred to Alleghany as the Mountaineers and not their new mascot of the Cougars.

While all this was going on, I switched over to Bally Sports Southwest and watched their 90-minute show on Texas High School Football. The good thing about them is that if they can't send videographers to games, they will just pull highlights from the streams. They also cover games from all over the state. There were quite a few upsets in the various Top 10 Rankings over the weekend there and they had had highlights of most of those games. The thing part about them is that every part of the state is important and they can talk about any of the 700 games at anytime.

So that's my recap of the shows. I was able to make the short drive back from the Louisa County/Patrick Henry (Ashland) game to catch the shows and see the scores and highlights.

 

[DitkaXX]

Yeah I thought WSET's was fine (until the rankings...heavily Lynchburg biased. What has Jefferson Forest done to be #5?)
Was on YTTV, and it didn't record all of Friday Football Extra. No major complaints from WSLS either.

I wish WDBJ would upload some old shows. I've seen a few random clips and episodes on Youtube. Love the nostalgia.

 

[Virginia HS Football Fan]

Yeah I thought WSET's was fine (until the rankings...heavily Lynchburg biased. What has Jefferson Forest done to be #5?)
Was on YTTV, and it didn't record all of Friday Football Extra. No major complaints from WSLS either.

I wish WDBJ would upload some old shows. I've seen a few random clips and episodes on Youtube. Love the nostalgia.

I would love to see 7's old highlight packages of state semifinal and championship games...say, from he 1980s. That would be amazing.

 

[DitkaXX]

I would love to see 7's old highlight packages of state semifinal and championship games...say, from he 1980s. That would be amazing.

GlassDanville 1990:

Full episode from 1993: