swva athlete

[anselmo2]

Who is the best athlete to have played in swva in the past 15 years. This can include anything done in Little League, the playground, high school, college, professional, etc. They should also be from swva, not someone who played ball at Clinch Valley or others and is from Richmond. I will mention mine after a few people post. If you can't narrow it down to one list a couple of people.

[biggamesjames]

As an all around athlete my vote would probably go to Justin Hamilton. If you go with individual sports I would say:
Football: Thomas Jones
Basketball: Brad Knuckles
Baseball: Billy Wagner
Track: Grady Kring

[orange tiger]

Football- Heath Miller\Julius Jones
Basketball - Calvin Talford (may have been 16 or 17 years ago)
Baseball- Billy Wagner
Track - Is that a real sport?

[biggamesjames]

I think its hard to go with Julius over Thomas at this point...if you break it down Thomas had the better career of the two in H.S. even though Julius was great in his own right. Thomas also had the better career in College. Its too early to tell as far as NFL goes because both are still playing...even though I would say Julius is the more talented of the two he still has not produced at the same level that Thomas has(yet). As far as Heath Miller goes he had a great H.S. career but not on the level of either of the Jones boys. He had a great college career as well finding his true position. He had a really nice rookie year just to be able to start but the jury is still out on how good of a TE he will become in the NFL. Based on what they've done so far I would say its 1. Thomas 2. Julius 3. Miller...all have been pretty impressive.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ May 17, 2006 05:56 PM: Message edited by: biggamesjames ]</font>

[gobigred]

grady kring in track...are you serious? mike owens was a better track athlete than grady kring.

track is certainly calvin talford

[biggamesjames]

I would agree its Talford but he said last 15 years...Don't think Talford's ran any track in the last 15 years do you?

[biggamesjames]

Well I would figure you would atleast have to win a state championship in something to be considered the best in that sport. I wanted to put Mike in there cause he's my boy and I need a loan but as awesome as Mike was in track I wasn't able to find his name in the state champion column where as Grady Kring's and several other swva names were there. I will admit that I don't know alot about the sport and kinda have to agree with orange tiger's assessment about track but I did go back again and look it up and there were a few from swva who had more impressive #'s than Kring. I just threw his name out there because he was the 1st to come to mind. The candidates who one of which would have to rank #1 in the last 15 years would be between:

Julius Jones, 4 time state champion in 3 different events.
Major Griffey, 3 time state champion in 2 different events.
Sam Daniels, 2 time state champion in 2 different events.
Joel Davis, 2 time state champion in 2 different events.
Justin Hamilton, 2 time state champion in 2 different events.

I can't believe I'm talking this much about track [img]smile.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ May 18, 2006 11:08 AM: Message edited by: biggamesjames ]</font>

[anselmo2]

I would pick Thomas Jones. I read an article about the Jones boys in recent ESPN magazine. That got me thinking about the post topic. Funny thing about that article. They referred to PV as Big Stone Gap High School. I only say TJ play once in high school. PV was playing Richlands. The media was hyping the game as Jones vs a linebacker from Richlands(I can't remember his name). You can guess who won that battle. I don't remember how many yards he had but Jones made them look like a LL team.
Talford was a little before '90 I think. I'll never forget him in the NCAA dunking contest. Dickie V and Jimmy Valvano were flipping out.
Did Billy Wagner play anything other than baseball?

[Dunduin]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ May 18, 2006 10:39 PM: Message edited by: Dunduin ]</font>

[Dunduin]

I thought the topic was players you've actually played against. With that in mind i'll list em.

Football: Heath Miller. Ryan Wallace intercepted two of his passes and then Heath Miller broke his rib pads. Heath Miller was a badass.

Basketball: I didn't play but from what i've seen i'd give the best to knuckles

Baseball: Again didn't play but from what i've seen. Jordan Compton or Heath Miller

Track: This is tough. Tyler Powers might just take region this year in four events but Zack just broke Mike's 200 record and I think tied the 100 but i'm not sure there. Then again Rob Colley won a state championship in the 800 and Ryan Wallace or Jake Colley could beat teams on their own with the points they made at track meets.

So pick one and i'd agree
Track: Tyler/Zack/Rob/Wallace/Jake

As far as track being a real sport it is much more of a sport than baseball.