From the BHC...

Jeffrey Atwell has a certain passion in his life. One he shares with folks throughout Southwest Virginia.

"I have always loved high school football," Atwell said. "It is football in its purest form. The kids play it because they love the game. The coaches coach because they love the game. And for the fans, high school football builds a great sense of pride in the community ... they live and breathe for that game under the Friday night lights."

Since 2001, Atwell has been sharing his love for high school football with fellow fans in Southwest Virginia and abroad. The Bluefield native is the operator and web master of a site dedicated to football (and other sports) in the area.

His Web site is one of the area's most popular and according to his calculations, his site and its message boards have had nearly 18 million hits since its inception.

The internet has become a big player on the local high school sports scene in recent years. Pages dedicated to schools, districts and high school sports in general have sprung up at an amazing rate.

There are sites dedicated to teams (Richlands' football team, Virginia High's baseball team and Abingdon's baseball team are just a few examples), districts (forums and sites dedicated to the Clinch Mountain District, Lonesome Pine District, Cumberland District and Hogoheegee District have been created to name a few) and sports like wrestling and track and field have their own domains.

And the sites are popular.

"I think the majority of sports fans at our school visited these sites," said Virginia Intermont College freshman Haley Odle, a former star at Gate City and Coeburn high schools. "Not to mention, posted against rival schools on a very regular basis."

The Forums

Most of the Web sites dedicated to high school sports include message boards for fans to offer their opinions. These forums stay busy.

"I think it's great that Web sites and message boards are available to promote our kids' athletic endeavors and for fans to express their points of view in an open forum," Atwell said. "I've "?met' lots of great people through the internet who are as passionate about high school football as I am."

The boards can also be reliable to coaches come tournament time.

"Very helpful in scouting an opponent," Chilhowie baseball coach Jeff Robinson said. "You can get information on individual players, such as statistics, injury status, suspensions, etc. and get info on teams like overall performance ? with both bias and unbiased commentary ? and schedules ? especially helpful during baseball with so many postponements and scheduling changes."

However, sometimes these boards can feature trash talk and plenty of smack talk.

"I do discourage the athletes that I coach from posting on these particular message boards," Holston football coach Jason Matlock said. "I think that is acceptable to see what other people are saying on the various message boards, but the minute you start posting you run the risk of saying something to give another team added incentive. You do not want to give another team any bulletin board material."

No matter what the purpose, people are still logging in.

The Web Master

As for Atwell, he continues to pursue his labor of love. He stays busy as high school football season unfolds.

The Graham-High School graduate, known on his site to most people as the G-Man, does it with a smile.

"I think the greatest satisfaction I get out of running the web site are the e-mails I receive from people who are no longer in the area, thanking me for "?keeping them in touch' with what's going on back home," Atwell said. "I've had e-mails from folks who live all over the United States, from folks in our Military serving our great country both at home and abroad, and even e-mails from people who live and work in different countries."