With the season getting closer and to make the board live I figured I'd start this. I'm gonna pick George Wythe to win 1A in 2017.
State Champion Pick
- Thread starter eastspartan
- Start date
Wythe should definitely be in the hunt as they return a lot from last year. Riverheads loses some key players but they are a well oiled machine and run their system to perfection. Out East, Sussex will be back in the mix as will Essex who only graduated a handful of players and return all their top skill guys. Essex and Sussex meet in week 1 in Essex and although early in the season it will obviously be a huge game for both.
Galax just added Turner and Allen to coaching staff. Coach Dixon with these guys helping will get more out of less . GW and Riverheads will also tuff.
Essex should be awesome this year. Look for them as a 1 or 2 seed come playoff time, which should cruise them into the final four at least. They are my pick to win it.
GW still has 90% 95% of our skills from last year and 4 linemen. We lost Anderson and Isaac off the O line but the reason I say we have 4 back is Charlie Caudill will be back and he played alot last year. He didn't start but should have. We will be really close to if not as good as last year. But It will all depend on how the kids jell they have the potential. If they don't come together then we are 8-2 and will get slapped around by Galax.
It's going to be interesting to see how Essex come together this year. Although there is plenty of talent on the squad, they gotta overcome a few things. 1.) How well will they take to Jones as their new coach and his system. 2.) The QB position....It hurt Essex last year that they didn't have a solid QB. Went most of the year in 2016 with our best RB playing QB with WRs running the ball as well. J.V. QB T. Jones came up to play the last few games on varsity. I'm hoping now that he's had a year to develop, he's able to run the offense. I'm thinking it's going to be the Spread. 3.) Since Coach Young, the D coordinator was not asked to stay on, will the D be as solid as it was the last few years. 4.) Who will step up to be the leader or leaders on the field? Last years main 2 leaders are gone. T. Holmes 6'3" 340lbs. OL/DL #78, will be playing at St. Andrews University in N.C. last I heard and rising Jr. Adarious Jones 6'3" 277 DE/MLB #55/#38, has tranfered to Bishop Sullivan Catholic High School for his Jr. & Sr. years of school. Essex will be in the hunt if they take care of these things.
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I think Essex will be fine if they can find some linemen. they should have skill people coming out of the ying-yang. I would say they will miss jones, but he wasn't much of a factor last half of last season, maybe due to injuries?? Wouldn't be surprised if he's back for his Sr. year if he is truly in fact gone. As for Young they went 3-1 without him last year. Discipline should be much improved
That shoulder injury Jones suffered in the 1st or 2nd Q of the Northumberland game slowed down last year for the second half of the season. After the season was over, he had surgery on it. The W&L/Essex game is on 10/27. That's a Friday. I don't know if they moved it back to Friday's or if it will still be played on a Saturday but have the wrong date on the schedule.
Yes the W&L-Essex game will be on Friday. Primarily due to poor attendance especially the last 3 times the game was scheduled for W&L. The 2012 game there was postponed due to weather and played on a Tuesday night IIRC before a few hundred fans. The 2014 game at W&L was almost postponed but was played in high winds and intermittent rain. The 2016 game had wonderful weather but I personally counted less than 100 people in the stadium at kickoff. The 2015 game at Essex also did not live up to attendance expectations.
Plus, the incident that sparked the movement of the game to Saturday happened a generation ago so officials feel like there should be no issues.
Plus, the incident that sparked the movement of the game to Saturday happened a generation ago so officials feel like there should be no issues.
Yeah, I was all but in the car to leave in 2014, before I wimped out.
Didn't I see where W&L has another game scheduled for a Sat.? I'll have to re-check the master schedule.
Didn't I see where W&L has another game scheduled for a Sat.? I'll have to re-check the master schedule.
This was sent to me by a friend. It was a re-tweet from Mathew Hatfield's Twitter page......"Bishop Sullivan 2019 DE Adarious Jones has picked up an offer from Rutgers. Was a 1st Team All-Conference performer last year at Essex." ....Congrats to A.J. He went up to Rutgers last week to a camp and a week later, they offered him. That's his 2nd offer. The other offer is from FAU.
Dinwiddie's Alan Lucy will be a senior at Rutgers this season. Long snapper. I think he will agree that he has had a very good experience with the Scarlet Knights.
And walking around with a degree from Rutgers ain't a bad resume!
And walking around with a degree from Rutgers ain't a bad resume!
GW will have to find a receiver. The Nowers kid is not playing this year.
He and 2 others are not playing. I understand the coach is not very respectful to the players and coaches as well. We also lost 2 coaches and another that was trying to find another job but didn't get one.
I've heard rumblings of players not playing or wanting to play ever since the last game of last year. I hope and think he will change his mind before the season actually starts. He is a threat from anywhere and is a very respectful young man. But as I said last year the kids do not like the hc and most of the coaches don't either. I fully understand the idea of just being silent and playing for your coach. But he doesn't act like a coach he acts like a dictator. And teenagers will not respond to that.
But if Walker decides to not play it will be a sad day but we have enough to keep DBs busy while real action is going on in the backfield.
It would be a good time for VHSL to look at a couple good coaches and I will use Casto of Riverheads as one , Look at what they do to get all the kids out and how they earn respect both from the kids and how the kids get respect from the coaches . When I played the player coach relationship was not good . At Riverheads the kids seen to love him even if he is as strict as he appears . Not sure how he gets it done but others should take note ! JMO
Man that sucks he is a great kid and a weapon for the team. But I fully understand his decision not to play. But GW is a plug and play type of team this is the time out depth will show.
Dixon from Galax is another example of what a coach should be. He is tough but he earns the respect of not only his kids but the parents and other coaches. He does it by showing the kids he's hard for a reason and that his methods work if put to task the right way. Same as Casto at RH both are not frills coaches that earn the respect they are due..
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I think this is a very interesting, yet tough subject, I'll take a stab at it through my observation....
1). The majority of Coaches today coach how they were coached...hard, strict, no no nonsense, and with total power. They also instill offenses/defenses that they learned.....20-30 years ago. They are now coaching kids who've grown up in a society of being able to freely ask questions...this doesn't bode well with an abundance of coaches. The majority of coaches are "do as I say...and that's final", so this rubs the kids the wrong way, thus creating disdain towards the coach. I mean look at the MLB, it took a genius from Princeton to change how the game IS NOW played....of course people didn't like him or his thoughts, but they prove to work. I firmly believe in discipline on issues such as being late, being disrespectful, and not attending class, but I believe kids have disdain because they believe they can't freely ask questions when something is going wrong. I believe that Coaches should have an open and honest discussion with players when discussing plays, sets, formations, down/distance, situations, etc..looking through multiple lenses is NEVER a bad thing.
with all of that said.....
2). We also live in a society where parents/fans believe they know more than the coach. When something does go wrong, they bad mouth the coach and talk about how stupid of a play this was or that was in front of the player thus creating doubt in the mind of the player. This isn't the remedy either. Of course every dad/guy in the stands likes to discuss the glory days and how they used to do this and that, but comparison is idiotic. Parents/Fans need to learn to keep their mouths shut IN FRONT of the kids. All that it's doing is creating a divide that teams don't need.
I feel that GW had a lot of this last year. Parents hate the Coach because of this play call, players don't respect the Coach because he treats them like crap....this is where leaders are created. I believe player should talk about the feelings of the team with the Coach and see what happens. It could be eye opening....
1). The majority of Coaches today coach how they were coached...hard, strict, no no nonsense, and with total power. They also instill offenses/defenses that they learned.....20-30 years ago. They are now coaching kids who've grown up in a society of being able to freely ask questions...this doesn't bode well with an abundance of coaches. The majority of coaches are "do as I say...and that's final", so this rubs the kids the wrong way, thus creating disdain towards the coach. I mean look at the MLB, it took a genius from Princeton to change how the game IS NOW played....of course people didn't like him or his thoughts, but they prove to work. I firmly believe in discipline on issues such as being late, being disrespectful, and not attending class, but I believe kids have disdain because they believe they can't freely ask questions when something is going wrong. I believe that Coaches should have an open and honest discussion with players when discussing plays, sets, formations, down/distance, situations, etc..looking through multiple lenses is NEVER a bad thing.
with all of that said.....
2). We also live in a society where parents/fans believe they know more than the coach. When something does go wrong, they bad mouth the coach and talk about how stupid of a play this was or that was in front of the player thus creating doubt in the mind of the player. This isn't the remedy either. Of course every dad/guy in the stands likes to discuss the glory days and how they used to do this and that, but comparison is idiotic. Parents/Fans need to learn to keep their mouths shut IN FRONT of the kids. All that it's doing is creating a divide that teams don't need.
I feel that GW had a lot of this last year. Parents hate the Coach because of this play call, players don't respect the Coach because he treats them like crap....this is where leaders are created. I believe player should talk about the feelings of the team with the Coach and see what happens. It could be eye opening....
You hit right on man and I know I more than guilty in the department of talking bad about him. And I don't feel one bit bad about it. But that is only because of what the kids I've coached and the other coaches on his staff have told me. He runs things like a tyrant and basically refuses to use his coaching staffs collective knowledge. And he absolutely hates to be criticized in any way. And he has proven many times that he is easily out coached. 90% of us played during the time of no bs coaching and if you didn't like it leave and that's fine. But he takes it beyond that according to the players I mean last year this is a man who got into a fight with another coach! We aren't just losing pissy kids we are losing coaches. Idk people can be mad at me over what I've said and that's fine. But if you're in the know around GW you'll she how few really like him.
Casto is a great coach. You can tell by the way his players conduct themselves on the sideline. They're amped but focused. I became an instant fan when I moved here.
I don't know anything about the GW situation so my observations are in general about kids and coaches in this day and age.....
It comes down to trust. It did in 1955, 1985, and 2015. And it does today. The difference is that in 1950 the kids and parents trusted the coaches and school administrators unconditionally based on their position. By 1985 this had changed but there was still respect for a person in a position such as a coach simply because he was the coach.
But today a coach has to earn the trust and respect of the kids and parents. There are a ton of ways to do this. A coach can do it simply by showing the kids that he cares about them as kids more than players. He may be able to do it based on his immense base of knowledge of football, but eventually that will wear off if the kids don't think the coach cares about them.
Bottom line( in my opinion) it comes down to the fact that the kids must know the coach cares about them. If they believe that, then the coach can be a hard on them as he wants because they will run through a brick wall for him as long as he is fair. Kids don't need to like the coach but they need to respect him and the easiest way to gain kids respect is to be genuinely interested in seeing them grow into good men. At that point you can start helping them become good football players.
Even back in the day, the great ones at the high school level were guys who were truly good men who taught more than football. Not a day goes by that I don't apply some of the lessons my coaches taught me in my daily life
But you can do all of this and still not win a ton of games. Because that takes athletic talent and sometimes you might have an incredible group of kids that will do great things but are small or slow.
Again, just my two cents
It comes down to trust. It did in 1955, 1985, and 2015. And it does today. The difference is that in 1950 the kids and parents trusted the coaches and school administrators unconditionally based on their position. By 1985 this had changed but there was still respect for a person in a position such as a coach simply because he was the coach.
But today a coach has to earn the trust and respect of the kids and parents. There are a ton of ways to do this. A coach can do it simply by showing the kids that he cares about them as kids more than players. He may be able to do it based on his immense base of knowledge of football, but eventually that will wear off if the kids don't think the coach cares about them.
Bottom line( in my opinion) it comes down to the fact that the kids must know the coach cares about them. If they believe that, then the coach can be a hard on them as he wants because they will run through a brick wall for him as long as he is fair. Kids don't need to like the coach but they need to respect him and the easiest way to gain kids respect is to be genuinely interested in seeing them grow into good men. At that point you can start helping them become good football players.
Even back in the day, the great ones at the high school level were guys who were truly good men who taught more than football. Not a day goes by that I don't apply some of the lessons my coaches taught me in my daily life
But you can do all of this and still not win a ton of games. Because that takes athletic talent and sometimes you might have an incredible group of kids that will do great things but are small or slow.
Again, just my two cents
As a old fart that grew up in the 50's and 60's, you certainly made several very valid points.
Back in the day, the " family" was defined in terms of Dad, Mom, and kids. Today it is very
Different.......You got Dad & Dad, and Mom and Mom.....well you know.
Things have changed for our youth. Times have changed. Our family values are much different.
Society in general has changed so much now, than what it was after WWII. I am not sure
How much of the changes I like, or how much I just shake my head and wonder what is
Going to happen next.
Things have changed folks, and time will define what was Good or bad for our Youth. As for me,
Well things began to change when our leaders removed our Religious time from our schools.
I know that several may disagree with that, but that is where I'll hang my hat.
May God Bless all our Families, regardless of their make up. May God Bless our leaders that
Guide our youth, and may our youth respect one another.
It is just about that time of the year, My Friends. Let's all hope for a good season for our schools,
And most of all, a safe and healthy season with good Sportmanship.
Back in the day, the " family" was defined in terms of Dad, Mom, and kids. Today it is very
Different.......You got Dad & Dad, and Mom and Mom.....well you know.
Things have changed for our youth. Times have changed. Our family values are much different.
Society in general has changed so much now, than what it was after WWII. I am not sure
How much of the changes I like, or how much I just shake my head and wonder what is
Going to happen next.
Things have changed folks, and time will define what was Good or bad for our Youth. As for me,
Well things began to change when our leaders removed our Religious time from our schools.
I know that several may disagree with that, but that is where I'll hang my hat.
May God Bless all our Families, regardless of their make up. May God Bless our leaders that
Guide our youth, and may our youth respect one another.
It is just about that time of the year, My Friends. Let's all hope for a good season for our schools,
And most of all, a safe and healthy season with good Sportmanship.
Very well said Chilwar. And I'm very glad to hear from you again this year my friend. I hope all is well with you and your family.
Last season GW Coach tried to sideline the Nowers kid the rest of the season because of whatever reason. Unfortunately for HC the AD at GW, saw it differently maybe because his son is the QB and he only had to sit out the first round of playoffs. When GW played Sussex the GW Coach tried to prove his point to the Nowers kid that they could win without him. In the first half he touched the ball one time and was noticeably frustrated, their last two processions of the game he caught eight passes but it was not enough.
Nowers is not getting the exposure at GW he should be getting because the coach doesn’t like him. He is a smart kid, one of the top players in the state of Virginia. Without him I don’t see GW getting as far as they did last year, but no fear blaster they won’t be without him, GW or RR are the only two teams he will be eligible to play for. Don’t be surprised to see him carrying the rock in GW’s opener.
Nowers is not getting the exposure at GW he should be getting because the coach doesn’t like him. He is a smart kid, one of the top players in the state of Virginia. Without him I don’t see GW getting as far as they did last year, but no fear blaster they won’t be without him, GW or RR are the only two teams he will be eligible to play for. Don’t be surprised to see him carrying the rock in GW’s opener.
Right on my friend I've heard some of the same coming from my sources. He's an amazing young man and one hell of an athlete he deserves to be on the team and deserves his spot. But as you said or oh so great hc isn't a big fan. most of the kids aren't that big of a fan of his so hopefully it'll all work out.
Chilwar, I second what Master Blaster said, it's great to hear from you. I hope and pray your health and your family are doing well.
As far as the values you stated, I'm 100% with you.
