VHSL & site news
This is the hot spot. Here you'll find my little comments about the state of the game and other football goings-on.
Aug. 29
Greetings. Working on the info for this year. should be up by Sat. aft.
Thur. Nov. 15, 6 a.m. :
Added the starting times for the regional games (below) and added a link for those needing directions to the Region 4, Division 3 games Fri. night at GHS.
Sat. Nov. 10, 4:30 a.m. :
All scores are in and here's the playoff lineup :
Region 4 - Fri. Division 4 - 7:30 Division 3 Magna Vista @ (1) Martinsville Laurel Park @ (1) Graham 7 p.m. Richlands @ Marion Dan River @ Grundy - 8 p.m. Region 3 - Fri., 7:30 Division 4 Division 3 William Byrd @ (1) Pulaski Co. Rustburg @ (1) Gretna - 7p.m. Salem @ Blacksburg Brookville @ Liberty Region D - Sat., 1:30 Division 2 Division 1 JJ Kelly @ (1) Powell Valley Twin Valley @ (1) St. Paul Gate City @ Haysi Rye Cove @ Appalachia Region C - Fri., 7:30 Division 2 Division 1 Floyd Co. @ (1) Giles Rural Retreat @ (1) Bath Co. Grayson Co. @ Chilhowie Eastern Montgomery @ Galax
For want of a point ...
Who go stung by the ratings scale this year? The Bees !!!
Brookville's upset loss at Jeff. Forest created a tie for 1st place in the Seminole District. Not only did they join Liberty at 5-1 in district play, but both teams had 102 ratings points with 2 more possible. Liberty got both, but Brookville only got 1... the other team which could have have given them a point (and the district crown, since they had beat Liberty in the regular season) lost by ... 1 point!!! (BTW, it was homecoming night at Liberty when they lost to Brookville.) It looks like they'll meet this week at Liberty.
And if Grundy had made their 2 point conversion in OT against Graham - they would have won the game by a point, Richlands would be the SWD champ, and Grundy would have the home field in Div. 3 by 1 point over Graham.
In Region 3, Division 3, I'm not positive that they get the # 1 seed. Before the season started, the VHSL said they were going to play it (the Dogwood) by ear (since it's a split-district). They went undefeated and earned the most points, but I'm not sure if they get seeded as a district champion or not.
And congrats to the Hawks on being named the top team in the WDBJ-7 poll, beating out six 9-1 teams.
Updated the current standings and power ratings.
Should have more info on the playoff games ready by Sat. night, and completed by Mon. night.
Fri. Nov. 9 :
Congrats to Grundy and their great effort to not run up the score last night. Even though they had a 51-0 lead at the half, it's hard to NOT score a TD when their punter whiffs and the ball lands at the 1 yard line.
While updating the standings and power ratings, I fixed a couple of errors on the ratings page and an unrelated error on the notes page about some of the possibilities around tonight's games (I'm still not used to Gate City and Lebanon being single A).
It looks like all of the close bonus-point situations involve games which SHOULD be easy to get scores from .. IF the Piedmont people get off their butts this week. I plan to stay up all night and should have the first update around midnight (after I double-check the scores), then again every hour until it's all done.
Leave it to the VHSL to come up with a new twist on an old standard... introducing - "the un-forfeit".
According to a story in yesterday's Roanoke Times, a Blue Ridge District split has been proposed. William Byrd, Northside, Lord Botetourt and Alleghany - along with incoming schools Cave Spring and Hidden Valley - have declared their intention to withdraw from the BRD, leaving William Fleming, Salem, Pulaski Co., Blacksburg and Christiansburg. This could allow the old BRD to become a "combined-district" with Franklin Co. and Pat. Henry (R) from Group AAA. Stay tuned... this one could get messy.
Word from Texas is that former Rangers & Orioles manager (and Hokie catcher) Johnny Oates has a brian tumor like the one that took the life of Royals reliever Dan Quisenberry 3 years ago. He will undergo surgery later this month in Richmond, just up the road from his home in Matoaca.
Mon. Nov. 5 :
CORRECTION : Fixed the Region 4, Div. 3 stuff (Laurel Park has NOT clinched the #4 seed... Patrick Co. & F-C still have a shot.
GAME CHANGE : The Hurley @ Grundy game has been moved to THURSDAY night at 7:30.
You Make The Call ...
If I saw 2 teams combine for less than 75 yards offense in a quarter, did I just see (a) great defensive efforts or (b) offenses that stunk?
Are the officials shrinking, or was it just my view from the press box?
Just HOW can a defense receive TWO five yard penalties or first down, then break the huddle to see the offense with a 1st & 2 ????
(note : The 2nd penalty WAS corrected, giving the offense a 1st and 1 !)
Did Rural Retreat REALLY got this penalty ? (see next-to-last paragraph) [IMHO, "they worked" the typist too hard that night.]
Just how many sisters do these guys have?
3 games went to a 3rd overtime before being decided Fri. night.
OT's are SO much fun ...just ask Ole Miss & Arkansas.
Don't count your chickens just yet ...
Remember, ANYTHING is possible (that's why the games aren't played on paper, right?). Before you give up hope or plan on a home game, ya gotta let the boys take care of business. All it takes to knock off a # 1 team is for the RB to get leg cramps and the QB to suffer an ankle injury. Just ask Northside.
When will the VHSL put together a reporting system that WORKS?????
Why wasn't Greensville-Park View reported? Why did it take 3 hours to find a Dan River score? Maybe, just maybe, if the VHSL had a pow-wow with the media, SOMETHING could be worked out to make sure that ALL games are reported.
How about a rule that says the home team is required to contact their local TV station(s) by 11 pm or face a stiff (maybe $5,000) fine?
Come on, do we still have schools in our grand state without a telephone???
At least the local guys know the difference between RE Lee-Staunton and RE Lee-Springfield.
And WHY do I keep seeing Salem (Salem) ?
Sat. Nov. 3 :
Congrats to : St. Paul, Chilhowie and Bath Co. which won their districts Fri. night.
Magna Vista, Laurel Park, Blacksburg, Salem, William Byrd, Rustburg, Gate City, Powell Valley & JJ Kelly all clinched a playoff spot.
Only 1 spot remains in AA, and that belongs to the Marion-Abingdon winner.
Nine spots are still open in Group A, thanks to the strength of the MED & Three Rivers Districts. I've never seen races so tight going into the last week, as bonus points will be VERY important for EVERYBODY fighting for one of the wild-card entries.
It would literally take PAGES to type up all of the possibilities, so I've done a lot of condensing this year; but I give you my notes where I played with the point possibilites.
Posted the updated standings and power ratings.
Sun. Oct. 28 :
Posted the updated power ratings with ALL games reported.
Congrats to the following teams which clinched playoff berths over the weekend : Richlands, Martinsville, Dan River, Grundy, Brookville, Gretna, Liberty & St. Paul.
With 2 weeks left, a LOT of slots are still empty. Here's the rundown :
IV-4 : Rich & Mart have qual. Both have a shot at winning their district. Either Marion or Abingdon will win the Highlands. Magna Vista will either be dist. champ or battle the Highlands runner-up for the 4th spot.
IV-3 : Graham will open at home. Grundy & Dan River are in. Laurel Park will try and hold off Tazewell, Patrick Co. & Va. High for the 4th spot.
III-4 : Pulaski Co. will host as long as they win, up to the state finals. Only 2 of the other 9 teams have been eliminated at this time.
III-3 : Brookville, Gretna & Liberty have all qualified. Rustburg tries to hold off the counties of Prince Edward & Nelson for the 4th spot.
D-2 : Haysi will host a 1st round game. 4 LPD teams will battle for the other 3 spots.
D-1 : Appalachia & St. Paul have qualified. Rye Cove has a shot at their dist. title, or they could miss the playoffs. Only Ervinton has been eliminated.
Region C still has 7 teams battling for the 4 spots in each Division. No one has clinched anything there yet, and the only absolute for this weekend is that the Chilhowie-Rural Retreat winner claims the Hogo crown.
The other BIG games this week have Magna Vista @ Dan River & Giles @ Floyd.
Sat. Oct. 27 :
Posted the updated standings and power ratings.
Haysi was the only SW Va team to clinch their (BDD) title this weekend.
Will have a more complete update Sun. morning.
Mon. Oct. 22 :
Posted info about the first forfeit of the season (in central Va.), plus a little info about 3 forfeits recorded after the last season was over.
Will update the ratings again on Wednesday... I did not get a reply today from an e-mail I sent to a school about a conflicting outcome which would provide a bonus point to Dan River.
Sun. Oct. 21 :
Posted the updated standings and power ratings.
Congratulations to Group AA newcomer Pulaski Co., which is the first SW VA team to clinch their district title (BRD) this season. Two other schools claimed a post-season berth this weekend : Graham & Appalachia.
Here's an overview of how things look with 3 weeks left :
Graham should win the SWD. The Piedmont is very tight, as the top 3 teams still have to play each other. The Highlands race also will probably be decided on the final night.
Pulaski Co. set a school scoring record Friday night and is now averaging almost 50 points per game. The Cougars, who dropped from AAA over the Summer, are ranked #1 by the AP and should be in the state title game. Gretna was just a few power points short of clinching the Dogwood title, but they aren't a dominate team, having won their last 5 games by 7 points or less ... I don't think they'll make it to 10-0, but should clinch this weekend.
Sat. Oct. 20 :
Posted the updated standings and power ratings, although I'm short about 5 games that might provide power points. Also corrected the standings to reflect a Blacksburg WIN over Alleghany last week instead of a loss.., weird that I did the ratings right but messed it up in the standings. Oh well, still a bit rusty. Not used to having to work on Sat. mornings.
SW Va. is down to 2 undefeated teams now ... Floyd & Pulaski counties. Floyd still has 2 teams left that are 6-1 right now. Pulaski's got 2 games against 3-4 teams. I think the Cougars may be the only 10-0 team this site of Roanoke this season.
Mon. Oct. 15 :
Found those out of state scores I was missing; have posted the updated power ratings with all games accounted for.
Also, I finished compiling the remaining schedule for all teams which have an impact on the ratings.
Sun. Oct. 14 :
Updated the power ratings and standings, although a couple of out-of-state game scores still aren't posted online anywhere.
Will post the upcoming weekend's schedule for western Virginia sometime in the next couple of days. The NASCAR rain-outs threw a wrench in my schedule.
Fri. Oct. 12 :
I've had the worst luck with getting my computer upgraded. Something about the BIOS not handling the new hard drive. And my registry got corrupted somehow. Anyway, the news I'd gathered over the Summer is still unaccessable, but there's a lot going on right now. It's week 7 and some weird things are happening. There's a district in SW Va. that STILL has 4 undefeated teams, and the other teams have winning records. They're 27-3 combined. That's incredible!!! And there's a good possibility that the winner of tonights Grundy-Graham game will get the home-field up to the finals. And since it's homecoming for the Wave, a huge crowd should be on hand.
I've posted the current power ratings and standings, and should have them updated by 6 p.m. tomorrow. It looks like that will be the time to shoot for the rest of the season, unless my computer starts acting better.
I've got quite a bit of news stacked up. Here's some of the most recent:
As I expected, the Blue Ridge District is going to be a bit weird next year. According to a story by Robert Anderson of The Roanoke Times, 2 more teams will join the BRD next Summer.
BRD officials agreed on Sept. 10th to admit both Hidden Valley & Cave Spring high schools, creating an 11-team district.
That Thursday, the VHSL Executive Committee approved (22-4) to let Cave Spring drop to the BRD in all sports but football next year.
VHSL executive director Ken Tilley assigned Hidden Valley to the BRD (which he has the power to do).
Cave Spring, currently a Group AAA, Western Valley District school, will lose a bunch of students to the new Hidden Valley High School, which will open in SW Roanoke Co. next Summer.
The BRD absorbed former AAA schools Pulaski County and William Fleming this past Summer, and now has a big problem with scheduling other athletic contests. Cave Spring already has their football schedule set for next year, playing 5 schools each from AAA and AA. Hidden Valley is trying to put together a 10 game slate for next year.
Personally I hope that the BRD splits so that Salem, Pulaski Co., B'burg & C'burg can re-form the New River District in Region IV, which could then pick up Carroll Co. from the SWD.
In other news from the Executive Committee meeting, the VHSL decided NOT to change the playoff dates to allow schools to make-up games that were cancelled on Sept. 14th because of the national day of mourning. However, they WILL allow schools to make up those games anytime they can (except Sundays), meaning you may see a Friday game moved to Thursday, a make-up game on Wednesday, then the Friday game moved to Monday. BUT, if a school refuses to make-up the game, no penalty will be incurred by either team. And the VHSL also said that schools can NOT schedule a DIFFERENT school so they can have 10 games.
About 40 games were not played in Va. Word is that the majority of those will not be rescheduled, but a couple of the Richmond area games might be played on Tues., Oct. 23rd.
Here's an interesting tidbit from Region II. It seems the VHSL made a mistake !!! Back in the Spring, when schools sent in their enrollment numbers, the typist gave Harrisonburg High an additional 100 students (959 instead of 859). The VHSL corrected the error, and moved H'burg DOWN to Div. 3 and Turner Ashby (867) UP to Div. 4. TA was informed of this on opening day, and filed an appeal to stay in Div. 3 (hey, who wouldn't?). The VHSL Executive Committee rejected TA?s request 16-8, with two abstentions.
And from the Wash. Post, the VHSL MIGHT move the boys basketball tourneys from Liberty Univ. because of remarks made by Jerry Falwell following the terrorist attacks last month. They have already contacted other facilities about that possibility. They decided to leave the football finals there ONLY because it would be almost impossible to make other arrangements on such short notice.
Finally, did you know the VHSL now allows athletic competition on Sundays?!?!? The Committee okay-ed Grundy, Colonial Forge, Hayfield & Great Bridge to participate in the "Beast of the East" Wrestling Tournament in Delaware on Sat. & Sun., Dec. 15 & 16.
That's all for now. And DON'T put aluminium-foil wrapped bricks in library bathrooms!