LPD Principals Propose 4th District

What'll they call it? The Lonesome Pine District West? The Lonesome Pine District East? The Lonesome Pine District South?


Here's a better suggestion: let's call it the District Formerly Known as the Highlands.


On Thursday, the LPD principals considered five different proposals for absorbing the VHSL's assignment of Virginia High, Lee High, John Battle and Lebanon. The plan that emerged from that meeting will send Coeburn out of the LPD into the Cumberland and Ervinton out of the Cumberland into the Black Diamond.


Gate City, meanwhile, will say goodbye to its short, happy dominance of LPD sports to join the Bearcats, Generals, Trojans and Pioneers in the formation of a new Group A league.


What these schools all have in common is that they have all been members of the Group AA Highlands District at one time or another. The only missing components are Abingdon and Marion - apparently headed for Southwest District membership. The only tie this proposed new district has with the LPD is Gate City. And those ties, while historic, have been tenuous at best.


Unlike Powell Valley - which was clearly unhappy with the extra mileage involved if the Vikings had been successfully shunted into the proposed new district - the Blue Devils were excited from the outset at the prospect of a new league.


"The district was one that I'd chosen along with coach (Nick) Colobro," said Gate City principal Mike Brickey. "Gate City is happy with it. I think it will be good for Gate City and I think it will make the region stronger."


Sweetening the deal for Gate City were commitments from Powell Valley, Appalachia, J.I. Burton and Clintwood to keep the Blue Devils as a nonconference opponent in 2007-08 and 2008-09.


It seems likely that those schools - Powell Valley for certain - would renew those contracts into the foreseeable future. Gate City has been picking up more interstate opponents in volleyball, basketball and baseball in recent years. A new district may also create opportunities for interstate football matchups in the future.



Brickey's only misgiving about what emerged from Thursday's meeting is that the new district is comprised entirely of the region's largest Division 2 schools. But in the long run, that objection may be moot. The formation of the new league may encourage undersized Southwest Virginia Group AA programs that have been playing over their heads to apply for asylum in Region D.

"I think Group AA in Southwest Virginia has been propped up by Group A schools for years. You take them out of Group AA and there's not much left," Brickey said. "I'd like to see Grundy, Graham and Tazewell come in eventually. I think the more big schools we have in Region D, the better."


Neither Coeburn nor Ervinton are expected to have trouble with their respective assignments under the proposed plan. Cumberland membership is something the Blue Knights have sought in recent years. Geographically, Ervinton shouldn't be any the worse for wear traveling in the BDD. Battle, the newcomer with the coldest feet, seems to be warming up to the idea.


Still, there will be room for arguments and objections prior to the final vote in Wednesday's Region D principals meeting. The proposal will require a two-thirds majority to pass. Proposed new members Lebanon, Virginia High, John Battle and Lee High all will have a vote.


If that proposal passes, it will be forwarded to the Virginia High School League R&R Committee for consideration during its February meeting.

Looks pretty good to me.

I like it too! I just hope GC can pick up some of those TN teams in the near future. I am also glad we are going to keep PV on the schedule. [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

I like it, maybe then GC fans wouldn' have to listen to people whine about the differences in student enrollment, we can just go back to the old system without the Blue Devils in the LPD so the Vikings and Dawgs can swap the LPD conference champs year in and year out.

It will hit in Regions though for Lee High and VA High are bigger than GC. And I believe Lee is about to return to being contenders in football. Lee is going to be single A arent they?

Best plan that I have seen so far.

Will really hurt this region in baseball. Virginia High has the best baseball coaches in the entire state, and John Battle is not too shabby either.

Bristol is a baseball town/city.

I agree. You take the good with the bad I guess.

I agree Tn High, Va High, Battle...but then again compare them in football, and Tn High is probally the only team who could give GC/PV a game.

I used to love the GC vs. TN High football games in the ninties. I think they only beat us once.

VA High has the athletes to be pretty good in FB. Just have to get them out on the field to play.

The game where we stopped them 8 times inside the 5 yard line was great. I still have the video of that game and watch it occasionally. That was great.

They certainly were great! What year was that?

I found it.

Gate City holds back THS 14-10
By BUCKY DENT

Bristol Herald Courier

ESPN has been running ads inviting viewers to attend Bristol University on NFL Sundays. Gate City's defense taught some lessons of their own on goal-line stands Friday night.

The Blue Devils kept Tennessee High out of the end zone on six plays inside the three-yard line in the fourth quarter, preserving a 14-10 victory in the season opener before a near-capacity crowd at the Stone Castle.

"I can't say enough about our kids," said Gate City coach Nick Colobro. "We were down inside the 10 on what, eight plays? The kids did a super job. I'm tickled to death."

Scared to death might have been a more accurate term as the Vikings started the game-deciding drive at the Blue Devil 28 after a 20-yard punt return by Derek Gilliam.

Travis Williams reached back to snare a Robbie Spencer pass for an 18-yard gain, setting up first and goal. After a seven-yard run on first and goal by Jon Ewing, Gate City dug in.

Two running plays gained one yard, forcing a fourth down pass. However, the Blue Devils were flagged for pass interference, giving THS first and goal from the one.

After a six-inch offsides penalty on Gate City, a first down sneak was stopped a football length short of the end zone. The Vikings then hurt themselves by taking a delay of game penalty, moving the ball back to the six.

Ewing ran off right guard to the three on second down, but two more running plays managed just one yard as the Blue Devils stayed low and stacked up Tennessee High runners.

"We sucked it up and came off the ball. The front line did a good job," said Gate City linebacker Andy Smith, who delivered his share of crushing hits in a physical no-holds-barred contest. "We like to step it up when the ball gets inside the 20."

Houseright thought the pass interference call gave the Blue Devils energy to hold off the Vikings on the second series of downs.

"That interference call got us pumped up a little bit," he said. "We knew we had to go. Everyone's adrenaline was running and we just happened to stop them."

Tennessee High coach Tommy Hundley thought about employing a play-action pass on the second series of downs, but figured his team could punch it in by running.

"You want to come back and second-guess yourself that we should have thrown a play-action pass", he said. "We were so close we figured we could stick it in with two quarterback sneaks. But we just never did it."

The Vikings' inability to muster much of a surge showed most of the night, as THS managed just 47 yards in 24 rushes. Even though the Vikings used a variety formations- running as many split back sets as they did their heralded Run-and-Shoot- they still found room tough to come by against the well-drilled Gate City D-line.

However, Tennessee High still scored the game's first points on a 36-yard field goal by Andy Stoots with 10:14 left in the first half. The score was set up when Chuck Arnold recovered a Blue Devil fumble on the GC 35.

But the Viking lead lasted all of 16 seconds. On the first play after the kickoff, Houseright ripped 65 yards for a touchdown, taking advantage of huge block from right guard Zeke Spivey and right tackle Smith, then kicking into a gear he didn't have last year to outrace two defenders with an angle on him.

"I ran track during the spring and think it helped me a whole lot," Houseright said. I believe I'm faster now than I was last year. That was a huge hole, they couldn't have done a better job.

After displaying his new-found speed, Houseright went back to his power style for a four-yard TD run with 43.4 seconds left in the half, winning a head-on collision with a defender at the goal line to reach the end zone.

Lefty quarterback Matt Osborne turned in two big passes on the drive, hitting Brandon Seaver for 16 yards, then lofting a 24-yard strike to Adam McClellan on fourth down and three from the THS 33.

Spencer, the Vikings' highly touted sophomore quarterback, showed off his arm in the second half, throwing for 102 yards. Over half came on Tennessee High's lone touchdown.

From the Viking 48, he lofted a screen pass to sophomore Justin Horn, who cut from right to left, got a pair of crushing downfield blocks from Arnold and Gilliam and found paydirt at 6:39 of the third quarter.

Tennessee High had one more possession after getting turned away at the goal line, but went three-and-out as an aroused Blue Devil rush-line hurried at the Vikings into two incompletions.

Houseright finished with 166 yards in 23 carries despite battling leg cramps most of the second half for Gate City, which starts Highlands District play next week at Virginia High.

Tennessee High opens up Big Six Conference play next week in the Stone Castle against Sullivan South.

1 2 3 4 Final
Gate City 0 14 0 0 14
THS 0 3 7 0 10



Gate City Tennessee High
First Downs 12 8
Rushes-Yards 53-213 24-47
Passing 44 123
Comp-Att-Int 3-4-0 7-16-0
Fumbles-Lost 3-3 1-1
Penalties-Yards 8-56 9-60
Punts 5-28.8 7-37.9

i still think three districts would be better.
cumberland
twin springs
castlewood
st paul
coeburn
virginia
john battle
lebanon

lpd
powell valley
gate city
lee
kelly
appy
burton
rye cove

bd
honaker
haysi
clintwood
pound
ervinton
twin valley
hurley
council

way more balance top to bottom and no give me districts
all districts are fairly evenly mixed div 1 and 2

I like 4 because it gives more out of district games to play. For instance GC has 3 now but in the other district we will have 6 I think.

its by far the best plan!! it keeps everybody with their rivalries (PV and GC has promised each other to keep playing in EVERY sport) and it makes the regional tourney a lot more fun (NO BYES). 8 teams will be in every regional tourney except for football!! This will make the regional tourney more interesting every year. It could also prevent some of the rematches that we get sick and tired of every year in football!!

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
i still think three districts would be better.
cumberland
twin springs
castlewood
st paul
coeburn
virginia
john battle
lebanon

lpd
powell valley
gate city
lee
kelly
appy
burton
rye cove

bd
honaker
haysi
clintwood
pound
ervinton
twin valley
hurley
council

way more balance top to bottom and no give me districts
all districts are fairly evenly mixed div 1 and 2



[/ QUOTE ]

You forgot Thomas Walker, but who doesn't...

sorry thomas walker would go to the lpd with lee and rye cove.thanks

with 4 districts you will be more likely to leave 1 or 2 or your better teams at home at playoff time."in football"
lets say 4 district champs in div 2 or div 1.say powell valley,lee,honaker and coeburn make the playoffs but powell valley,lee,gate city and lebanon are the four best teams.just dont like to see playoff spots gave to the undeserving.

I dont really know how this would work but if you could make 6 playoff spots instead of 4. I know it would tack on an extra week to the season, but with the added teams to the Region its going to leave a whole bunch of quality teams sitting at the house.

D1 would be the same I would think and the good part is Coeburn would have a good chance at beating Rye Cove and keeping their sorry asses out of the playoffs and leave them at home where they should be every year.

D2 would be alot different, you are right.

As far as having more playoff teams, I dont think thats an option and it wouldnt be very fair that region D would have to play an extra game whereas nobody in A, B, and C has to play an extra game.

With the addition of Lee alot of D2 teams would be eligible to drop to D1 status. It would probably end up giving D1 alot of trouble.

Thats a good point, I would like to know where the cut off point would be. Could it be a real possibilty for PV to be D1? That would be scary.

My understanding is they can be in the District, but as for Playoffs they will be AA, like the team's in the Dogwood. Lee won't be eligible for A playoffs only AA, I didn't see anywhere that they are getting single A staus. If that happened there would be a lawsuit by people from Appy and Norton within a day of that happening.

Well ok, say Lee is in the district, wouldnt that basically cripple their chances of making the AA playoffs? I mean it would destroy their powerpoint totals to play all of those single A schools wouldnt it?

No this plan has Lee playing single A, not a combination district.

But VAhigh is dropping to single A right? That means Clintwood could drop to D1 and any other school that is Clintwoods size. How many are eligible then for D1?

That would make more sense....they would be applying for some kind of travel hardship since all of the other schools would be single A. Their closest AA competition would be Abingdon and Marion, but could you imagine going to Richlands, Graham and Grundy if you are Lee...That would be horrible.

Pound was able to play D1 this year because they had less than half the enrollment of Region D's biggest school, Gate City.

If things go through as planned and that appeal is still available, and Lee High is classified as single A with 830 students, then a lot of schools could appeal and qualify as D1, most of them in fact. But I don't see that appeal being available from the VHSL with the new region setup.

Hell, the D1 playoffs will be as bad then as Region B then, any school below what 430 could apply to be in D1 then. That still doesn't solve anything.

It would solve one thing. The proposal is from the LPD. It gets the one school that most want gone out of the LPD. Personally I can live with it.

Who wants GC gone from the LPD? I'm glad they are here, especially in football.

It would make things more competitve against other regions, but the truth is they might as well make a sub D1 because Burton, Appy, St Paul, etc just cant compete with those kinds of numbers. I realize the only thing Lee High can win is a pill sniffin contest but sooner or later, the numbers will catch up to the smaller schools.

I know that RC doesn't deserve to be in the playoffs as much as we are but even if Coeburn did come to the Cumberland...they wouldn't have it locked up

I"ve said that before mega. I was hoping for 4-5 districts or divisions based on size of enrollment. But that isn't going to happen.
I don't know about the 50/50 rule if it stays in effect what is to keep this current plan working?
The VHSL is basically telling Region D to fix the problem here when they ain't doing anything to fix it up the road themselves. With their split divisons.
All they care about is an even number in the regions, that's fine but the numbers still don't work like they should.
If anything why not 2 small schools divisions and 2 uppers school divisions or districts. 5 teams in each division and choose who you want to play for your other 5 games.

I enjoy the LPD also. But in the past the majority of what I've seen seems to want GC to go back to where they came from. Not all but most.

man, I was j/k, that was directed at War Eagle Pride's dilusional butt if he is reading lol.

Alright man...that's cool