VHSL-helper's 2009 news

2009 site & VHSL news

Sun., Dec. 13, 10:30 a.m. : Upon further review, I've decided that yesterday wasn't so bad for SW VA after all. Even though Northside was the only school west of 220 to win the title, a couple of other SW schools popped up on my radar last night. Div. 1 champ Altavista's head coach Mike Scharnus is a Va. Tech alum, while the winning Div. 2 & 3 coaches, Todd Jones and Burt Torrence, both played for Lou Wacker @ E&H.

Here's some big news from the "wait 'til next year" department. On Tuesday, I said that Paducah Tilghman had eight losses last season. Well, one of those was an admin. forfeit, so they actually won 3 games. Still, they got 1-upped yesterday down in Winston-Salem. Wallace-Rose Hill went 2-10 last season, then ended Mt. Airy's 31-game winning streak in the 1-A finals. Roanoke's Northside completed a nice little turn-around, too. The Vikes were 2-8 in 2007 and 1-9 in 2006.

I've not had a chance to look over the schedules and see for myself, but Dan Callahan says Pulaski Co. had the toughest schedule in the state this year. Of their 10 opponents, 8 made the playoffs, 5 got to the semi-finals and 3 made it to the finals. I think he may be right.

Sat., Dec. 12, 9 p.m. : Well, it wasn't a good day (or year) or SW VA teams. Radford got shut-out and JI Burton lost (but they DID score). Only Roanoke's Northside was able to claim a title today, their first-ever. Results are listed on the pairings page.

Across the border, Reidsville won their 48th straight game and their 3rd stright title (and 5th this decade) in NC (2-AA), but Mt. Airy fell short in OT in the 1-A title game after their kicker was injured.

App. St. is in a hurry to get back to Boone tonight. No, they weren't able to upset #1 Montana today, but QB Armanti Edwards walks tomorrow at 2. He completed his degree in graphic arts and imaging technology in 3 & 1/2 years. Way to go !

The "Tribe" played their last football game last night. Not only did William & Mary lose to Villanova after leading by 10 at the half, but the school will be getting a new mascot next Summer. No, I didn't say a new name... they'll still be the Indians, but the NCAA didn't like their head-dress logo, and Col. Ebirt was a flop, so the higher-ups held a "contest" to solicit suggestions for the new nickname. And it was announced yesterday that those hundreds of entries has been whittled down to five (which I would list in the order of best to worst based on my opinion, but that would require me to actually have a favorite), which are ... Griffin, King and Queen, Phoenix, Pug, Wren. Just from a rolling-off-the-tongue-with-ease PoV, I'd have to go with Griffin. The winner is expected to be announced next Spring.

But let's not forget there's still one more game to be played in the Old Dominion this year... the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl in Salem. Do I even need to say who'll be there? Yep... for the 5th straight year, Wisconsin-Whitewater will battle Mount Union, who's won 3 of the 4 meetings and 9 of the last 13 titles. Kickoff is set for 11 a.m. Saturday on ESPN2.

I read this week where the NCAA is investigating UT's football recruiting practices, including the use of hostesses to attract top players. My first thought... Twinkie-gate. I also found this headline "Vols punch bowl ticket". I was then able to put 2 & 2 together... the hostesses have been spiking the punch bowl!

UNC-Charlotte's move towards football took another big step yesterday. Their trustees unanimously approved the plan that would provide $40.5 million in funding to build a field house and permanent stadium, which will begin with 15,000 seats and be expandable to up to 40,000 seats. Thier timeline shows coaches to be hired in 2011, redshirt freshmen enrolled by 2011, and the first game & stadium completion will be in 2013. Their conference affiliation is still TBD.

Thur., Dec. 10, 6 a.m. : Updated the pairings page with directions to Salem & Lane Stadiums.

With that-son-of-a-Hog Cody Grimm winning the Dudley Award, most media outlets overlooked E&H's Caleb Jennings winning the Willie Lanier Award. The ODAC offensive PoY (and former Blue Tornado) had 14 TD's and nearly 2,000 all-purpose yards, which ranked THIRD in the nation.

A U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee has taken the first step in disbanding the BCS for a playoff system. Oddly enough, H.R. 390, which Pres. Obama favors, was sponsored by a Republician from Texas (Joe Barton). While some ppl. say Congress has more pressing matters to worry about, 1 Congress-person said "we can walk and chew gum at the same time". Unfortunately, I don't think the gum will last very long.

Tues., Dec. 8, 3 p.m. : Let's start with the obligitory "I've updated the pairings page", and yes, it has a overhead view of the area so you can see the parking lots. The VHSL also has some info on Tech & UVA here.

But I've got a lot more stuff for ya this week.

It was an exciting, but long, weekend of high school football across the state, thanks to Saturday morning's snowfall. Radford & C'burg had their trips ppd. thanks to Holston & C'burg Mountains. Bruton was already at John Handley, but it was snowing to fast to keep the lines in the Bowl visible. And the 2 AAA games in NoVa were ppd., because ppl. up there just don't know how to drive in the snow. And the field conditions and weather played havoc with the games that were played. Burton won by a safety by a FRESHMAN on a blocked punt. Gretna had two drives end inside the 5, which let Essex win on a reverse with :10 left. But a Richmond game seems to be drawing the most attention.

With a record-setting QB about to be bogged down, the Oscar Smith coach lobbied to get the game moved not only to a better, dryer (read: artificial turf) field, but to one in his neck of the woods. Alabama-bound QB Philip Sims, who rewrote the VHSL record book with 10,725 career passing yards and 119 TD passes, was held to just 45 yards as the nationally-ranked Tigers lost in OT. (Funny, I don't rem. him complaining about the snow a year ago when the Tigers won the title at Tech.)

And a record-setting QB usually helps a teammate or two to set some records. Unfortunately, Kicker Ryan Troutman is one of them. He broke Haysi's Allen Owens' record of 174 career extra points made early last month. I believe he ended up with 194.

And another record-setting QB took another SW VA player out of the record books. Essex QB Lyndon Garner has a Group A record 40 TD passes (and counting) this year, breaking Brad Robbins' mark of 37 set at Powell Valley in 2004. (Yes, Vic Hall had 39 that year, but Gretna was still in AA then.)

Up in Wheeling, WV, the Friday night lights shown brightly on Bluefield. The Beavers, who were held to just 13 offensive yards in the 2nd half, and 88 total, beat Wayne 27-8 for the AA title. How, you ask? The 2 first-half TD's came on short fields... the "drives" were 27 & 13 yards. The 2 second-half TD's came on huge, HUGE defensive plays... a 98 yard pick and a strip-return of 94 yards. Wayne had five turnovers, and didn't score in six trips to the red zone. The 6th-seeded Beavers ended the season by beating the top 3 seeds, all undefeated at the time, on the road. And do you remember who the Beavers lost to this year? Gate City (and Charlotte Country Day). Their 10th state title comes on the 50th anniversary of their first.

In KY, the closest team to make the finals was undefeated Somerset, which fell to a SIX loss Paducah Tilghman team that beat the 2x defending champs in the semis and had eight losses last season. (See : Louisville, Lexington or their scores.)

In TN, Elizabethton lost in the 4A finals to Giles Co., extending UET's dry-spell to 37 years.

And a couple of our neighbors in NC will be trying to defend their titles this weekend - Mt. Airy (1A) & Reidsville (2-AA). The 2x defending champion Rams avg. 47+ ppg and and have the nation’s second-longest active winning streak at 47. Thry'll face last year's 2-A champion, Newton-Conover. Missing from the finals will be powerhouse (Charlotte) Independence, which suffered their worst loss this century. (See stories in the Charlotte Observer.)

A few comments from the college scene... Alabama plays Texas for the national championship in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 7th. The Longhorns are 7-0-1 all-time against the Tide, and the last time Alabama was ranked #1 going into their bowl game, they lost (24-23 to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl)

#5 Florida's head coach Urban Meyer will face his alma mater, undefeated #4 Cincinnati, in the Sugar Bowl. In the "BCS-Buster Bowl", we'll have a pair of unbeatens from conferences without automatic bids when #3 TCU battles #6 Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl, which hosted the first "championship game" back in Jan. 1999. Both teams avg. 40+ ppg. TCU handed the Broncos their only loss last year, 17-16, in the Poinsettia Bowl.

The Hokies will finally get to face the Vols again, albeit not in Bristol. They'll play in the Ga. Dome on New Year's Eve (7:30, ESPN). In their only meeting since 1937, a Fr. QB led the Vols to a 45-23 win in the 1994 Gator Bowl. (So, whatever happened to Peyton Manning ???) Both teams have losing records in Atlanta bowl games.

WVU will meet 80-year-old former head coach Bobby Bowden in his final game as FSU head coach in Jacksonville's Gator Bowl on Jan. 1st. The Gator dared to pass 4 other ACC teams with better records partly because the ACC and the Big East are being replaced next season with the SEC & the Big Ten, and because his first bowl win at FSU was over WVU in the 1982 Gator (31-12). Add in the fact that Bowden already has Gator wins over Nehlen and Rich Rod, and that soon-to-be-promoted asst. Jimbo Fisher is from Clarksburg, and this seems like a no-brainer.

In the FCS, App. St. upset defending national champion Richmond in the Spiders last game at UR Stadium, while William & Mary won on the road. They'll both travel again this weekend in the semis.

Along with a new stadium, Richmond will have a new head coach next year. Mike London is replacing Al Groh at UVA, which, ironically, opens next season by hosting the Spiders on Sept. 4th.

And another FCS school has dropped football. Not only that, but it's another Colonial Athletic Association school. Following in the footsteps of Northeastern, Hofstra is leaving the gridiron. The CAA will come out about even in the long run, though, as they'll add ODU in 2011 & Ga. State in 2012. Of course, it'll be a while before they'll be challenging W&M, JMU, Richmond or App. State for the title.

And if you haven't heard, former Tazewell Bulldog Billy Wagner is on his way back to the NL. After a brief stint in Bean-town, the Tannersville native will be in Hot-lanta next year.

Mon., Dec. 7, 10:30 a.m. : Updated the pairings page. Will have more info tomorrow.

Sat., Dec. 5, 6 p.m. : The snow played major havoc with today's schedule, but about half of the games WERE played, and all are finals now, so I've updated the pairings page.

Tues., Dec. 1, Noon : How is it that the VHSL can't release the official schedule until Tuesday morming? Geez - there's only 12 games being played in the ENTIRE STATE... I guess they had to send someone out to check all 12 fields.. but it looks like they coulda started Sunday and dome PART of the state and released PART of the schedule Monday... or used two, or maybe even three people... but, NOOOOOOOO... they have to wait until ALL TWELVE games are set before releasing info on ANY of 'em. GEEZ!

(BTW - there were no changes to the previously posted SW VA info - Holston will play at Emory.)

(To be fair, remember - this is how they've been doing it for years.)

Again, folks, things like this is why I've had a website for OVER 10 YEARS... sometimes they just don't have a clue in 'Hoo-ville.

updated Noon Tues. : fixed Radford's record, semis times and added finals info

Mon., Nov. 30, 9:15 p.m. : STILL waiting for the VHSL to release the "official" info on the semis.

Sun., Nov. 29, 7:45 a.m. : Updated the pairings page.

Sat., Nov. 28, 3:15 a.m. : Updated the pairings page.

Wed., Nov. 25, 9:30 p.m. : Updated the pairings page - changed the location of 2 games, dates of 2 games and added some more general tidbits.

The Kingsport paper has parking/shuttle bus info for fans going to Wise since stadium parking has been restricted due to construction.

Va. Tech has finished their schedule for next year. With Western Michigan opting for Notre Dame, the Hokies had an opening for mid-Sept. It just so happened that VMI wanted out of their game with JMU that same weekend, so the Dules will be paying a visit to Worsham Field. But JMU still has a hole in THEIR schedule, thanks to the recent announcement that Northeastern U. is dropping football.

ESPN/ABC has "tweaked" their coverage areas for Saturday's games. Tech-UVA will be on ABC in the 5-state area, along with SC & Ga. Here's the updated weekly schedule of college and OoS playoff games.

Mon., Nov. 23, 4:30 p.m. : Updated the pairings page with EVERYTHING you might want to know, including directions!
10:30 p.m. : Changed Bath @ Holston start time; added info on who hosts in the semis.

Sun., Nov. 22, 8:30 p.m. : Updated the pairings page and added more historical info. Official dates/times are TBA sometime Monday by the VHSL.

Thur., Nov. 19, 9 p.m. : The Region III, Div. 3 R.E. Lee @ Liberty (Bedford) game has been pushed back to 7:00 Sat., and MAY be moved to a diff. field according to Waynesboro's News-Virginian.

And let me sent a great big HELLO out to Sarah Palin, who told Sean Hannity that she reads "...everything online". Guess she has a lot of time to kill now on that bus.

Wed., Nov. 18, 1 p.m. : Is it time for a change in Charlottesville?

As some of you know, I've defended the VHSL a lot in the past, mainly when it comes to stuff that the membership or the regions control. But this time, there's no excuse, there's no passing the buck. The head honchos in 'Hoo-ville demonstrated this week that they don't know what they're doing.

(Time for a history lesson : NC has a weird bracket system that the fans understand better than the officials. The NCHSAA releases brackets on the Sat. morning after the regular season ends on Friday night. THEN they need about 3 hours to fix all of the mistakes. TN started a new format this year. They pulled an all-nighter on Friday and did a radio show on Sat. morning to unveil the brackets, and made around half-a-dozen mistakes. It took THEM a few hours to put together corrected brackets. KY has a simple system based on district standings, and WV uses Va's old 12-9-6 +1 system, and I can't remember them having any problems. And I can't remember VA having a major problem... until now.)

When the VHSL released the Region B, Div. 2 pairings, it wasn't what everyone else had... because everyone else was following the procedures outlined in the Handbook. But it seem they have their own little system in the main office that DOESN'T follow the Handbook. First, they use a spreadsheet program, which isn't mentioned in the Handbook. Now, that's not really a biggie, and should actually be expected. The problem is that the spreadsheet rounds the final average off to the nearest tenth, which is NOT stated in the Handbook. That created a "virtual tie" between Gretna and Clarke County. And even though Gretna's ACTUAL 24.2222 was higher than Clarke's 24.2000, Clarke Co. was given the #1 seed based on the tie-breaker procedure.

I was one of many people who e-mailed the VHSL about this. I included passages from the Handbook which detailed the procedure and pointed out the fact that neither "tenths" nor "rounding" nor "truncating" were mentioned anywhere. The reply I got from the office manager and rules intrepreter basically said 'this is how it's always been done, and we'll discuss it at a future meeting".

In other words... Nevermind that it seems to have always been done wrong. Nevermind that we refuse to follow the procedures that our membership approved. This is how we do it, so live with it.

Someone pointed out that the Northwest Region had a similar tie, but the tie-breaker worked out in such a way that the team which had the actual higher rating got the higher seed, so no one really noticed. But if this had been to determine which team MISSED the playoffs, I'd hope the outcry would've been a LOT louder.

As I mentioned yesterday, NC did the right thing by allowing a team to re-enter the playoffs, even though their rules say that isn't allowed. It's too bad VA can't do the right thing, too, and say "we screwed up and we're going to make it right".

Now, add this to the fact that ANOTEHR 9-1 team missed the playoffs this year, and I think the best solution is to scrap the entire present system, go to a 5A or 6A set-up, take the top 2 teams from every district, and MAYBE keep the ratings system as a tie-breaker. Otherwise, let's get some people in the front office that actually know how to READ and who will ABIDE by the Handbook.

I also added some more info to the pairings page, which is basically an ongoing process for another month.

Tues., Nov. 17, 11 p.m. : Where do I start? Oh, yeah. I've updated the pairings page with what's official, for the time being. You see, the VHSL messed up this morning with the Region B pairings, saying that .2222 = .2000. Then, that "tie" led to a tie-breaking procedure that caused the team that everyone thought, no, calculated, to be the top seed, Gretna, to drop to #2. But I can't find anything in the Handbook that allows for "rounding", so I sent the VHSL an e-mail telling them that they did NOT follow the listed procedures, and I HOPE they'll correct themselves Wed. morning (although I'm not holding my breath).

Also missing from this year's playoffs are defending Div. 5 champ Varina, because they lost a couple of games by 1 point, and a 9-1 Meadowbrook team (maybe this will push the Central Region to expand their playoff field in 2011).

I also updated the weekly schedule of college and OoS playoff games.

As I mentioned this morning, the defending Div. 3 state champs had to forfeit some games yesterday. As expected, James Monroe's appeal was denied, which has a lot of people out east upset because a bunch of innocent players are being punished for an administrative snafu. But that's the rules. Here's the story from Fredericksburg's Free Lance-Star.

Down in NC, a forfeit situation has come to a strange semi-ending. A Fayetteville HS self-reported playing a kid that wasn't eligible. The principals down there seem to change grades at will, and a question existed about whether or not the kid had really passed English. Some parents of the other players and the boosters got together and filed suit in a local court to put the school back into the playoffs last week. The judge agreed to since the case wouldn't be decided by Friday night. Terry Sanford won, then the parents lost their case in court. The NCHSAA, which has never done this before, said the team that got beat WILL be allowed to return to the playoffs. Seems that they had already given them a forfeit win last week before the court said TS could play, and, believe me, HS associations do NOT like to be told by a court how to run their show. And since TS lost in court, they TECHNICALLY should not have been on the field Friday night, so the team that "lost" is only regaining their rightful spot in the 2nd round. Here's stories from the Fayetteville Observer, an F.O. preps guru, Raleigh's WRAL and Wilmington's paper.

Another weird forfeit deal has happened up in Maryland. A playoff team had to forfeit 4 games for playing a kid who didn't meet residency requirements, but they didn't lose their playoff spot. Why? They had to forfeit 2 games they had lost, so their record was only reduced by 2 wins, and 6-4 was still good enough to make it into the post-season. Here's the story from the Washington Post.

And the VHSL hasn't posted any info from the R&R meeting yet.

Tues., Nov. 17, 4 a.m. : Well, this is going to be a busy week.

First, the defending Div. 3 state champs may have just eliminated themselves from the playoffs.
Fredericksburg's James Monroe HS Updated the forfeited 6 wins yesterday for using an ineligible player. The head coach/AD was preparing his playoff roster when he realized he had been playing a fifth-year senior. The VHSL will hear an appeal today.

I've updated the pairings page with what I think I know at this point... apparently, no one else in the state knows enough about ratings points to be able to say who got in from the regions that had regular season games last night. What a shame. Anyway, everything should be finalized by this evening.

I'm also following a forfeit in NC that is currently being heard in a Fayetteville court. That one MIGHT be settled by the end of the day, also.

And the VHSL's R&R committee meets today to take a first look at the enrollment numbers for the 2011-2013 cycle.

Mon., Nov. 16, 7 p.m. : Just a quick update : I've been out of town (and out of touch) since late yesterday morning. I just found out that a AA team up north forfeited some games, AND they're appealing, AND their Region is still playing regular season (make-up) games tonight.

Sun., Nov. 15, 10:15 a.m. : Updated the pairings page.

Sat., Nov. 14, 2:45 a.m. : Was finally able to update the pairings page.

Sat., Nov. 14, 1:15 a.m. : Since Lee beat Thomas Walker earlier, the Region D pairings for next week will be :

           Div. 2                            Div. 1     

#4 Powell Valley @ #1 Gate City     #4 Thomas Walker @ #1 Clintwood
#3 JJ Kelly @ #2 Lebanon            #3 Haysi @ #2 J. I. Burton

Fri., Nov. 13, 8:45 a.m. & 9:30 a.m.; Thur., Nov. 12, 10:15 p.m. : Updated the pairings page.

Thur., Nov. 12, 1:45 p.m. : How many of you are familiar with Ida? No, not Aunt Ida, or Ore-Ida, but that nasty little weather system that, last week, looked like it wasn't going to get anywhere near Va. Well, she changed her mind, and has been wrecking havoc over most of the state, leading Gov. Kaine to declare a state of emergency, and causing school closings as far west as East. Mont. today. Well, she's messing up the football schedules, too. Games are being pushed back or even moved to other schools' fields. I'm updating my pairings page as I find out about'em. An even more up-to-the-minute place to look is my changes thread at Va. Preps.

From the "somebody should be fired over this" file... a few thousand Styx, Reo Speedwagon & Night Ranger fans will be fighting for patking spaces with a few thousand football fans tomorrow night in Bristol. Why, WHY schedule a concert at Viking Hall on a Friday night in November? But then again, why didn't the Tenn. High and Daniel Boone coaches agree to a Sat. game? Sheeeeesh!, mind games.

And thanks for the nearly 1500 page views yesterday.

Wed., Nov. 11, 2:15 p.m. : Just found out about Robert Anderson's story on the 2nd round pairings in today's Roanoke Times, so I updated my pairings page based on his word (I've known him for years).

Wed., Nov. 11, 11:30 a.m. : Added a simple pairings page. It has info which the VHSL has scattered across multiple pages, info on incomplete pairings of Regions still playing, and will have some bonus stuff like rematch info, previous playoff info, and directions and map links. It'll be updated every couple of days as I find stuff to add. I also updated this week's schedule to include OoS playoff games.

Here's a weird story out of NC - a 16th-seeded team didn't want to travel 4 hours and get crushed in the playoffs, so they decided to forfeit the game. Then they changed their mind. (I think the fine might have had something to do with it.) See WRAL's HS OT story.

I've seen lots of msg. board chatter about how some ppl. don't like the expanded playoffs because teams with losing records (like Narrows and Rural Retreat at 3-7) are in. Folks, I've got news for ya... we've got it good. Here's what I've found in some other brackets...

In NC, three 1-win and five 2-win teams qualified, & a 3-8 team (SE Halifax, 1-AA, or Div. 2) got a home game.
In TN, a 1-9 team got in (White Co., 5-A). In KY, TWO 0-10 teams got in.
And guess what... they all use DIFFERENT qualifying systems.
So just SHUT UP ALREADY !!!!!!!

Sun., Nov. 8, 9 a.m. : Updated the standings and ratings points... 1 game still to be played Friday night.

Here's a remodeled Region D schedule for the 1st round ...

           Div. 2     if TW beats Lee      Div. 1     

#4 Powell Valley @ #1 Gate City   #4 Haysi @ #1 Clintwood
#3 Lebanon @ #2 JJ Kelly          #3 Thomas Walker @ #2 J. I. Burton

           Div. 2     if Lee beats TW      Div. 1     

#4 Powell Valley @ #1 Gate City   #4 Thomas Walker @ #1 Clintwood
#3 JJ Kelly @ #2 Lebanon          #3 Haysi @ #2 J. I. Burton

Wow. Because of the expanded playoff formats, the only games west of Wytheville this weekend are in Marion, Tazewell & Ben Hur, meaning Bluefield and Corbin might draw some extra fans.

Sat., Nov 7, 7 p.m. : With Graham & PH-R winning this afternoon, the Region IV playoff seedings should look like this ...

         Div. 4                   Div. 3

1. Salem                       1. Cave Spring
2. Hidden Valley               2. Richlands

3. Christiansburg              3. Marion
4. Carroll Co.                 4. Tazewell
5. Magna Vista                 5. Graham
6. Bassett                     6. Grundy

Sat., Nov 7, 3 a.m. : If I added all my numbers right, the Region C playoff seedings should look like this ...

         Div. 2                   Div. 1

1. George Wythe  212          1. Holston
2. Chilhowie     209          2. East. Mont.

3. Fort Chiswell 207          3. Bath Co.
4. Radford       206          4. Covington
5. Giles         197          5. Rural Retreat
6. James River                6. Narrows

In Region D, the teams are known, but their final spots aren't ...

         Div. 2                   Div. 1

1. Gate City                   1. Clintwood
2. JJ Kelly or Lebanon         2. J. I. Burton
3. Lebanon or JJ Kelly         3. Thomas Walker or Haysi
4. Powell Valley               4. Haysi or Thomas Walker

Lebanon will be #2 & Haysi #3 if Lee upsets Thomas Walker next Friday.
Lebanon will be #3 & Haysi #4 if Thomas Walker wins.

Region IV is a bit more complicated because of a couple of games Saturday. I'll update Region IV sometime after 4 p.m. Ratings and standings won't be updated until Sunday morning... I need a break !!!

5 a.m. : Decided I should go ahead and update the standings.

Thur., Nov 5, 7 a.m. : After scanning the message boards the past few days and talking to a couple of people, I don't see anything else I can do with the cheat sheets until the games are played. BUT, I did find 1 mistake... I shorted Bath Co. 1 possible bonus point when I was adding up the numbers, so change "1-3" to "1-4" and change their max to 183 (L) and 199 (W). Unless something else unexpected comes up, this will be the last update until after the games Friday night.

The playoffs gets underway in TN & KY this weekend. Ky. had a couple of 0-10 teams get in; in Tenn., not only did a 1-9 team get in, but FOUR 3-7's will host a first round game.
Here's the 1st round pairings for Tenn. I was unable to find a similar "easy" listing for KY, so here's the listing by class and for this weekend.

I mentioned a couple of days ago that Tenn. had some problems with their pairings. Here's a couple of newspaper stories ... from the Knoxville News Sentinel and the Johnson City Press.

Just a reminder ... Va teams do NOT earn ratings points from post-season games, so Va. High fans don't have to root for the Vikings anymore.

While checking neighboring states for any late forfeits that might cause a change in the Va. ratings, I ran across a couple of interesting newspaper articles. The Charleston Daily Mail ran a story about the possibility of introducing 8-man football to WV, and Louisville's Courier-Journal spotlights a female center.

I've updated the standings to reflect a Tuesday night game that didn't cause any change in the ratings and updated the remaining weekly schedules.

Now, about Friday night and the pairings.... I expect it'll be 11:30 at the EARLIEST before I can get the stuff posted here. Since I'm already on the message boards trading scores, what I know will get posted there first. Region C is the only one that will finish the regular season Friday, and those scores are usually the last ones I get. Region D could be a bit messy because there will still be 2 games left to be played that give rider points to some teams AND 1 game next week. And Region IV's pairings CAN'T be known until the 2 Sat. afternoon games are over. I also found out that Matewan's game is Sat. night, so the Div. 3 pairings may not be known until 9:30 or so. Since I'll be using (and double-checking) my cheat sheets, the standings and ratings won't be updated until around 5 a.m. (if all goes well).

One other thing, mainly for those of you outside of SW VA who aren't on the local sports boards. You can listen to my scoreboard show at 10:30 & 11:05ish by going to WGTH and clicking on "listen live". If you don't have WinAmp, you'll need to download it (so don't wait). I'll get to the pairings around 11:15.

Guess that covers everyting for now.

Mon., Nov 2, 12:30 p.m. : I seemed to have forgotten some MORE things over the weekend.

First, Tennessee revamped their system over the Summer... they kinda copied VA by going with 3 Groups with 2 Divisions in each, but they divide them at the state level, which leads to a playoff system that is, well, a little complicated. The TSSAA decided the best thing to do would be a 2-hour Saturday morning web/radio broadcast to release the pairings. Woulda been even better if they had gotten them RIGHT. Thamk goodness for message boards.

2nd, my cheat sheets are a "work in progress". I'll be adding things along the way this week as I get questions... mainly "what if" numbers at the bottom. I also have a correction/addition in Region D on Powell Valley's possibility of a D2 berth.

3rd, I changed the format around this year to make them a little more compact (meaning fewer sheets of paper for me to keep up with on Friday night), but I didn't provide an explaination. Basically, I show the least/most points a team can get if they lose or win. For the rider points, a "-" means the team WILL get 1 or 2 points from that game because they've played both teams; a "/" means they'll get the point/s ONLY if the team listed first wins. Some games are listed with both ... that means they beat the team listed first (and will get a total of 2 points if that teams wins) and lost to the team listed second (and will get just 1 point if that team wins).

Finally, I forgot to throw up a quick list of who's in, so ...

Region IV, Division 4 : Salem's the #1 seed; Hidden Valley, Carroll Co. & Christiansburg are in, and 4 teams are fighting for the last 2 spots : Magna Vista, Bassett, Blacksburg & Pulaski Co.

IV-3 : Cave Spring & Richlands will have a first round bye; Tazewell & Marion are in, and either Grundy, Graham or Patrick Co. misses out.

D-2 : Gate City's the #1 seed; Honaker and JJ Kelly get in with a win; Powell Valley could win the LPD outright or get in as a wildcard, and Lebanon & Va. High are hoping at least 1 of the above teams leaves room for them to get in.

D-1 : Clintwood & J.I. Burton will host; the St. Paul @ Thomas Walker winner is in; Haysi grabs the final spot with a win at Honaker - otherwise, Hurley or Appy gets it.

C-2 : George Wythe is in; 5 teams are vying for the top seed; only PH & Auburn are definately out.

C-1 : Holston will have a bye, as will either East Mont or Bath; Covington, Rural Retreat & Narrows are in and fighting for a home game.

Sun., Nov 1, 8 a.m. : (I think.) Updated the standings and ratings points since Williamson won yesterday. I also realized I'd forgotten to give Haysi those 12 important points for their win Friday night.

The cheat sheets for Region C and Region D are finished (I hope!!!) and I tweaked Region IV a tad. You really should look at all 3 and compare how things are going. For example, Regions D & IV are down to 3 teams going for the 2 #1 seeds. But over in Region C, 5 teams are still chasing the top seed in Div. 2. And while Region C has a couple of 3-win teams already locked in, an 8-1 team is on the bubble.

And of the 15 districts I keep track of, only ONE has an outright champion at this point... a BIG change from years past. Four of those district titles will be decided when teams with no district losses square off this Friday night. Oh, speaking of... I found out that the Carroll Co. @ Graham game is Saturday at 1:30 p.m., so it could be 4:00 before the Region IV pairings are finalized. Of course, Region D might be in limbo another week if the Lee game is a factor for someone (and I won't be surprised if it is).

If you've got a question, I'm a bit more willing to answer them this week, so hit 1 of the msg. boards and I'll get back to ya.

And the hits just keep on comin'! Man, I feel like Casey Kasem now ... 2200+ page views yesterday. Glad y'all find my stuff useful... I sure do on Friday nights. That reminds me... I also updated this weekend's schedule.

Oh.... one more thing. I MIGHT head down to Norton tomorrow evening and try to explain some of this stuff on TV... not sure yet, though.

AND DON'T FORGET TO VOTE TUESDAY !!!

Sat., Oct. 31, 11:45 a.m. : Updated the Region IV cheat sheet. Will have Regions C & D up tomorrow morning.

DON'T FORGET to set your clocks back an hour tonight.

Sat., Oct. 31, 3:30 a.m. : Updated the standings and ratings points... 2 "rider point " games are still out.

News from the 'Burg is that Tech's football game next season against Boise State WON'T be moved to Labor Day Monday... BSU said that would've made for a difficult week. Awwwwwwwww. So the game is still Oct. 2nd at FedEx Field in Landover, Md.

We have our first serious candidate for Game of the Century ... and it happened up at Wheeling Island Stadium. Too early for the state finals, you say? SO? Gotta get ready for basketball. Will a 77-71 game do the trick?

Wed., Oct. 28, 4 p.m. : Finished the cheat sheet for Region C and tweaked Region D a tad.

I'm not surprised to see that the VHSL denied Ocean Lake's appeal to overturn 6 forfeits in football a few hours ago. However, I WAS surprised that the vote was just 3-2. Anyway, here's the stories from the Newport News Daily Press & Norfolk Virginian-Pilot.

Tues., Oct. 27, 8 p.m. : Posted the cheat sheets for Region C and Region D. These will updated again this weekend, in a lot more detail.
I should have Region IV up Saturday and Regions C & D up Sunday. (Having to work on Sat. mornings doesn't help).
Don't bother asking me "what if such-and-such"... there's still too many games left to be played. That's why I post the numbers... you can play wih them all you want in your spare time.

Mon., Oct. 26, 11:30 p.m. : Posted the updated standings and ratings points (which didn't change), reflecting Montcalm's 58-31 loss to Iaeger. The Generals only dressed 12 players tonight... the flu bug hasn't been squashed yet.

Mon., Oct. 26, 6 p.m. : Posted the Region IV cheat sheet. Will have Regions C & D up tomorrow evening.

Sun., Oct. 25, 8 a.m. : Updated the standings and ratings points... Montcalm plays Monday. Here's the weekly schedules.

And if you have one of those older atomic clocks, it's probably wrong right now.... Daylight Savings Time ends NEXT weekend, thanks to a 2007 "adjustment" by Congress.

And thanks for the 1,630 visits yesterday.

Sat., Oct. 24, 4:30 a.m. : Updated the standings and ratings points... 3 "rider" games are still out.

A handful of teams clinched a playoff berth last night ... Salem, Cave Spring, Fort Chiswell, and Gate City, which has already grabbed the #1 seed.

And there was another flu-forfeit over in KY last night... this time Magoffin County got bugged. And a local WV game, Iaeger @ Montcalm, was moved to Monday due to the flu.

It finally happened. A locker-room "beat-down" was posted online and now the JV team at Northampton is through for the year.

Could it be, that the mother of ALL losing streaks has finally ended?

What a day yesterday was. Weird Al turning the Big 5-0 made me wonder just how old Madonna is now. Then it got worse when I heard that Marshall's most famous alum, Soupy Sales, passed away Thursday.

I'll start work on the regional "cheat sheets" tonight and probably have Region IV up Monday and Regions C & D up Tuesday.

Tues., Oct. 20, 1:15 p.m. : Updated the ratings points to add 1 to Covington and update the notes; updated the remaining weekly schedules.

I don't log in every day, so I don't keep up with the numbers, but I noticed I had 810 page views yesterday. Thanks, y'all. It's nice to know that so many of you are interested in this stuff. I just wish that I had more time to put into it. Just so ya know, don't expect any more new stuff until Saturday.

Sun., Oct. 18, 7:30 p.m. : Updated the standings to fix James River's wins and updated the ratings points to fix the Reg. IV, Div. 3 leaders "L" numbers.

Congrats to Powell Valley coach Phil Robbins, who picked up career win #300 on Friday night!
His Vikings shut out previously undefeated JJ Kelly, on the 10th anniversary of the Indians huge upset which ended a 33 game winning streak.
(Yeah, but only 253 of those have been at Powell Valley... the others were at C'burg & John Battle.)

And here's an amazing stat... Robbins currently has the second-most wins among active VA coaches, but he's more than 100 behind the leader, Hampton's Mike Smith, who also got his first job as head coach in 1971. It's tough to keep up with someone who AVERAGES more than 10 wins per year!

We have our first forfeit of the season... for the time being.

If I've read all the article comments and message board stuff right, and if I were to believe all of it, here's the situation ... the kid's mom is in an OoS hospital & his dad has been shipped overseas. The kid moved into the house of a coach over the Summer, transfered to his school, and has been playing football all season. After he played against his former school, they notified the District chair, who got together with a couple of other principals and determined that this violated the residency rule (28-6-3, [7]) and that his new school must forfeit all 6 of their wins. His new school has filed an appeal with the VHSL to overturn the forfeits.

Now comes the kicker. Based on the above info, I'd say the appeal is a waste of time. I mean, come on... he moved in with a coach. How obvious is this? But something I've never seen in the past 10 or so years makes this unique. Speculation is that the appeal is based on his age.
If the guy is already 18, and he's no longer considered a minor, does this rule apply to him?
The Va. Beach school will get an answer around the 28th. Here's the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot story.

And there was a forfeit over in KY this weekend. The Hazard Bulldogs picked up a win Friday night because Jenkins has been hit hard by the flu.

Sun., Oct. 18, 6 a.m. : Posted the updated standings and ratings points. Will have more stuff posted tonight.

Tues., Oct. 13, 10 a.m. : Posted the updated standings and ratings points and updated the remaining weekly schedules.

I had a personal "perfect storm" last weekend... out-of-town company dropped in around lunch-time Friday, my kitchen light fixture decided to, ummm, detach itself from the ceiling, and I had a change in my work schedule. Like they say, "when it rains, it pours". So I wasn't able to get anything posted over the weekend... I'll post a bunch of stuff this Saturday (if nothing else pops up). Having to work Fri. nights and Sat. mornings this year is really messing me up, so I don't know what time I'll post.

And look at the schedule closely... some of you might be able to see 3 games this weekend.

Thur., Oct. 6, 7 a.m. : Posted the current standings, the first look at the ratings points and updated the remaining weekly schedules.

Thur., Sept. 17, 2:30 p.m. : There's some confusion about who Twin Valley plays this weekend, so let me clear it up.

The original plan for Friday was St. Paul @ TV and Phelps @ South Floyd, but that game, for some reason, had to be moved to 10/23, which meant Phelps had to drop TV. But TV got lucky, because they shared an open date with St. Paul. So they agreed to move that game to 10/16, which meant TV & Phelps would both be open on 9/18, and they could "re-schedule" the game. So St. Paul is open tonight, and TV hosts Phelps.

And, no, this isn't something that happened in the past few days. It was finalized in mid-August, after most of the schedules had been printed up locally, but before the newspapers did their previews.

The VHSL will hear appeals on Divisions next Wed., the 23rd. It's no surprise that both Haysi & Clintwood both want to drop to Div. 1. But, would you believe that a school wants to play UP??? Yep... one of those teams out east doesn't want to be in Div. 5. I know.. you're thinking Hampton, right??? Well.... I would have, too. But a story in todays (Newport News) Daily Press says it's Bethel. The Bruins have been in D6 for a while, but their latest ADM caused them to slip down to D5. Maybe they've been hanging out with those Richmond schools that are smaller than Abingdon but refuse to drop to AA. Or maybe they just don't want to face Hampton or Phoebus in the playoffs. Hmmm....

And from the WTF department... You're playing on 9/11, against a team that lost a player DURING their season opener, so you have a pre-game prayer. Now, just why are people surprised that you got a letter from the ACLU ??

Oh, and BTW, Iaeger's final Homecoming game is Friday night.

Thur., Sept. 3, 3 p.m. : Here's the weekly schedules for this season. (And I have NO idea why Hurley @ St. Paul was moved to tonight.)

Tues., Aug. 25, 2 p.m. : The VHSL STILL hasn't released an updated master schedule... the latest one still has some mistakes involving both in-state and out-of-state games. But since the regular season is already here, I have to post this week's schedule "as-is". I'll add the rest of the stuff in a few days.

Tues., Aug. 11, 7 p.m. : Here's a big list of pre-season scrimmages that should take place over the next couple of weeks.

Since this is the beginning of a new 2-year scheduling cycle, there's been some issues on the master schedule that needed clarified, but haven't been yet, like the TN school that has 2 games in 3 days and the shared stadium which is hosting 2 games at the same time. There was also a problem over the Summer with a WV school cancelling, then re-instating their season, which led to some confusion. And a KY school rearranged their schedule in mid-July, but they didn't tell a VA school they had been dropped, so THAT school is currently looking out-of-state (again) for a 10th game. So I'm still working on the weekly schedules and waiting to see how many of these issues get fixed soon.