Introducing the New PV head Coach

[sup-rbeast]

Best hire for PV IMO, Travis knows the game and I think hes smart enough to run whatever kind of offense and defense he has the players for. Also hes an LPD guy and the players are gonna know who he is and respect him...Im not so sure when I was in high school I wouldve been too responsive to a coach like Palmer no matter how good of a coach he may or may not be, hes from the Cumberland Dist
rict and as bad as some of his teams have been I can see players questioning him

Palmer's not a bad coach..there have been several Cumberland District coa
ches do well before or after coaching in the
Cumberland..a few that come to mind are Don Williams, Bill Houseright, BI Salyer, and Sarge Reed..these guys can coach anywhere, the problem with most CD teams is the Jimmys and Joes..not the X's and O's,

[Gotch]

Best hire for PV IMO, Travis knows the game and I think hes smart enough to run whatever kind of offense and defense he has the players for. Also hes an LPD guy and the players are gonna know who he is and respect him...Im not so sure when I was in high school I wouldve been too responsive to a coach like Palmer no matter how good of a coach he may or may not be, hes from the Cumberland District and as bad as some of his teams have been I can see players questioning him

I'm not disappointed in the choice. In fact I'm hopeful that this could turn out very good for PV, BUT a little history lesson might be in order. When Mark Palmer played at Ervinton they were an LPD school. His senior season they were very competitive with nearly everybody on their schedule as I remember. In one of his best games he led them to an upset of Appalachia. (Going by memory so I'm not 100% but I'm pretty sure I'm right.)

He has done very good things while working with very little personnel. He knows the game and without question he knows more about physical conditioning than any other coach in the area. He is not the type of person that a kid does not respect, that would not have been an issue.

[sup-rbeast]

In the early 80s..I'm thinking 1983, Ervinton handed PV a district loss as well.

[Gotch]

It wasn't '83 because that was Phil's first year and they went 10-0 regular season after being picked 5th in the pre-season. Might have been '81. I should have the scores here somewhere if I can dig them up.

Palmer was a very good running back in his day.

[Gotch]

It was '81. I found the scores. Ervinton beat PV 21-7 that year. Palmer would have been on that team too. They also had a starting quarterback who played noseguard on defense and was pretty good at both positions. I think his name was Robinson. Tony Robinson maybe.

[imported_blue52]

That may be true I dont know the guy or have anything against him. Just thinking the average high school player at PV is going to know who Travis Turner is and remember him playing and how good he was as a player, just that they wouldnt be as familiar with Palmer

[centennialdawg]

That may be true I dont know the guy or have anything against him. Just thinking the average high school player at PV is going to know who Travis Turner is and remember him playing and how good he was as a player, just that they wouldnt be as familiar with Palmer

True on that, but on the flipside of that coin, Palmer has always been a "household" name in that area and in his day, was just as good as Travis was when he played. Palmer was something else to watch play. I remember him well.

I also look at it this way, too. He already has a coaching job at a Wise county school, and with this coming out that he had applied for the job at P.V. leads me to believe that he wasn't too happy where he is. Just a thought.

[joedirt]

It wasn't that Mark was unhappy at St. Paul. He just felt like he couldn't pass up an opportunity to coach at a school rich in tradition like PV. Too close to not give it a shot.

[Gotch]

It wasn't that Mark was unhappy at St. Paul. He just felt like he couldn't pass up an opportunity to coach at a school rich in tradition like PV. Too close to not give it a shot. But, as is the case in many of these situations, the job was already decided and they really weren't "interviewing", just covering their tails.

Yeah, it think that is actually true. It's been pretty much a forgone conclusion for several years as to who the next PV coach would be. I didn't even think anyone else would have a chance until I heard here that Palmer had applied. Then I thought that anyone with good sense would or should give him serious consideration.

[SWVA-Football]

I found some information about the upset over Appalachia in 1983. I checked the other scores in the '80s and 1983 was the only year from 1980 to 1989 that Ervinton defeated Appalachia. I see that they only played a handful of times, too, so they didn't even play one another every year in that span.

Here is the information I found, posted by one of our own members in another thread here on this very forum:
http://www.hostboard.com/forums/lpd-...years-ago.html

Ervinton held off Appalachia, 12-6, on two touchdowns by Mark Palmer in a Lonesome Pine District thriller. Palmer caught a 37-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Ross Hawkins in the first quarter for a 6-0 lead. Appalachia answered with a 1-yard touchdown run by quarterback Matt Dysart. Palmer put Ervinton up for good in the third quarter with a 42-yard touchdown run. Palmer had 118 yards on 14 carries.

Here's another snippet about Palmer's playing days at Ervinton regarding a close win over Norton:
HISTORY WITH HAYES: Nicknames a large part of prep football's past | TriCities.com

October 7, 1983
Behind 129 rushing yards and a touchdown from Mark Palmer, Ervinton eked out a 17-12 win over Norton.