Month: August 2019

Fort Chiswell Pioneers 2019 Football Preview

Head Coach: Chris Akers- 1st yr at Fort Chiswell – ( Overall record 21-33) Last Season – 5-6 ( lost in the first round to Radford )

Asst. Coaches: Josh Wingate, Cory Mabry, Danny Dunford, Chucky Brown, Bill “Pops” Akers, Wade Wisman, Anthony Wisman

Returning offensive starters: 3 Returning defensive starters: 3

Players to watch: QB/ DB Dylan Bailey -Jr., OL/DL Jon Gregory- Sr., DB/ WR Levi Morris- Sr., RB/DB Isaac “Bevo” Dunford- Jr., OL/DL Matt Lowe – Soph., RB/LB JP Poole- Jr., OL/DL Donovan Stroupe- Soph., RB/WR Ezra Varney-Soph., WR/DB Tyler Crigger – Soph., DB/WR Eli Jones – Sr.

2018 summary: Lost in the first round of playoffs to Radford 22-0. Lost their head coach one week before the start of the regular season. Josh Wingate was named interim head coach and lead them to playoffs. Lost 12 seniors from last season.

2019 Outlook: Coach Akers is the fifth head coach in eight years. He comes from being the head coach at Gate City and also was head man at Rural Retreat. Coach Akers said,” We have a tough schedule. We are young, inexperienced and need to build depth at a lot of positions. Can’t afford injuries as we are building this program.” The coach then remarked,” We are trying to find out what we do best on both sides of the ball. Offensively we may run some spread and some veer. Defensively we may go with 34 front nd miss things up.” The Pioneers face Geo. Wythe, Radford, Galax, Graham and Grayson Co. to name a few of the tough teams. They open their season Aug. 30th at Rural Retreat.

 

Radford Bobcats 2019 Football Preview

Three Rivers District- Prediction 1st

Head Coach– Matthew Saunders (13th season) Record at Radford: 83-60, Overall 92-71 Last Year: 12-2( lost in state semifinals to Graham)

Asst. Coaches – Josh Woods- 8th yr., Roger Hollins- 7th yr., Greg Ridpath- 11th yr., Josh Smith- 4th yr., Cameron Sellers- 4th yr., Sergio Render – 2nd yr., Grayson Howard- 2nd yr., Tanner Dotson- 1st yr.

Returning offensive starters: 5 Returning defensive starters: 5

Players to watch: RB/ DB PJ Prioleau (5-10, 165, Jr.), QB/ DB Zane Rupe ( 6-2, 200, Jr.), OL/DL Ben Cox ( 6-5, 290, Sr.) committed to Vanderbilt, WR/LB Justice Marshall ( 5-8 ,160, Sr.), OL/DL Kip Green (6-5 285, Sr.), K Conner Lytton ( 6-2, 195 Jr.), DL/ WR Ethan Hoffman ( 6-3, 195, Sr.), OL/DL Andrew Olverson ( 6-0, 325, Sr.), OL/DL Spencer Perdue (5-11, 225, Jr.), OL/DL Alex Kanipe ( 6-1, 210, Jr.)

2018 Summary– Bobcats went 12-2 after going 2-8 in 2017. They lost to Graham in state semifinals 57-13. 1-1 after losing to Galax 41-21 the Bobcats then won 11 in a row. They finished 9-1 at the end of the regular season. The playoffs saw them defeat Fort Chiswell 22-0, Gretna 20-7 and defending state champs Appomattox 28-25. PJ Prioleau, Zane Rupe, and Justice Marshall helped lead the Bobcats last year.

2019 Outlook– The Bobcats have some very experienced and some very athletic players returning off of last years state semifinal appearance. Head Coach Matthew Saunders said,” We lost some really good senior leadership last year. Some of the guys returning will need to step up for us to be as good this year. We not that deep in places and we need to avoid injuries. We lost some players on offense and defense. Upfront we could be really good. Offensively we are ahead og our defense. We not as strong on defense as last year. We may be faster on that side of the ball, though.” Coach then added,” We will be multiple sets on offense. We will have RPO’s from the spread. Defensively we will go with the 4-4 look. The secondary will be man-to-man and zone, depending on the team and circumstances.”

 

Bear season canceled

Bland Co. Bears 2019 football season has been cancelled, due to lack of players. The Bears under head coach Harrison Hart was in his 15th year as the head man. The Bears had less than 12 players on their roster. The junior varsity squad has postponed their season, as well.

Tigers end summer travel with Championship

Lynchburg… The NRV Tigers 18U travel baseball team finished their summer circuit winning a championship at Liberty University. The championship game saw the Tigers defeat NRV Post 59 6-5 as Caleb Pritchard single in two runs in the seventh to capture the title. Carter Plunkett got the mound win as he tossed four innings striking out two and gave up just two earned runs. Pritchard finished the game going four-for-four scored one run and knocked in two.

The Tigers got the weekend started by beating Roanoke Rails 7-0 behind the pitching of Taylor Newcome. He struck out 10 going five innings. Plunkett had three RBI. They would beat Short Pump Bandits 8-3 Saturday afternoon, as Andrew Shaffner pitched five innings. He struck out four, walked two. He gave up one run on four hits. Pritchard, Shawn Campbell, Leighton Dunford, and Punky Foster led the hit attack.

Then on Sunday, the Tigers beat the Rebels 7-6 as Caleb Pritchard hit a two-run walk-off triple to back the pitching of Sean Gibbons. They would then beat the West Virginia Red Devils 6-5 when Nathan Funk hit a two-run double in the sixth to propel the Tigers into the championship game against NRV Post 59.

The weekend saw Pritchard knock in nine runs to lead the Tigers. He was followed by Campbell and Plunkett both had seven RBI each. Pritchard, Andrew Neighbors, Nathan Funk, and Campbell had seven hits each. Funk led the Tigers with six runs scored. Campbell scored four times as Pritchard, Cam Upton and Shaffner three runs each.

Tiger head coach Todd Davis remarked, ” What a weekend. We win three games by one run and those came in our last at-bat. Got great pitching and timely hitting. What a team effort all weekend.”

The Tigers with their five wins finished the summer with a record of 16-4-1. They won their last eight games in a row and 11 of their last 12.