There’s a great line in the 1970s iconic movie Blazzing Saddles: “What in the Wide Wide World of Sports is a-gonna on here.” So far through this brief VHSL High School Football season that’s an interesting question
Start with what is most likely extreme consternation in the City of Salem. I’ve said time and time again Salem doesn’t half-ass anything. That includes Salem’s High School Football team. The Spartans are the third winningest program (tied with Riverheads) when it comes to State Championships. They won a total of 10 but haven’t won a title since 2020 and that’s a long time in Virginia’s Championship City.
The Spartans are in a very unfamiliar position. They are 0-2 and with William Fleming on the horizon for Friday night, run a real risk of being 0-3. When is the last time that happened? You have to go back 31 years to 1994 when Willis White’s team lost its first three games. Before that, it was all the way back to 1980 and 1981 when Salem opened both of those seasons 0-3. They were at risk of doing it also in 1979 and managed to win their third game by beating ironically enough William Fleming.
I really don’t believe there is cause for alarm. We’ve seen Salem struggle before only to regroup and win a State Championship. Could that happen again? Well of course it could, but high school football is a strange game sometimes and some years you have it and some years you don’t. Whether it ends with a championship or a failure to make the post season won’t be a surprise either way.
Speaking of William Fleming, anyone who kicked dirt on the Colonels after an opening night thrashing by Varina is probably now trying to dig out of that hole. First, Varina is one of the best teams in the State and William Fleming is just too well coached to not be a factor in Region 5D. With Patrick Henry posting two impressive wins at the start of the season, next Friday afternoon’s game between the Colonels and Patriots at Patrick Henry looks all the more interesting.
It was a bounce back week for the Mountain Empire District. After all of its members losing their opening games, George Wythe, Grayson County, Giles and Auburn were all winners. Giles posted the most impressive win giving new coach Sam Wright his first victory on the road at Radford while Auburn’s was probably more significant. The Eagles have struggled for years and cancelled the 2024 season due to a lack of healthy bodies. Another long losing streak was also broken when Tunstall won for the first time since 2023.
As expected, William Byrd and Patrick Henry are off to good starts. Northside is 2-0 and with struggling Hidden Valley on tap Friday night, the Vikings are likely to be 3-0. Franklin County is a surprising 2-0, suprising only because of last week’s win over Salem. It’s rare when the Eagles beat the Spartans.
And then there’s little ole’ Craig County. Craig has won its first two games and hasn’t surrender a point. The Rockets are playing schools that are their size so sizing up the competition is a bad argument. The system is designed for similar size schools to compete against each other and Craig isn’t just competing, they are dominating. Will that continue when District play begins? Who knows, but the wins they are piling up will go a long way toward earning a playoff spot.
Long before Riverheads starting winning Class 1 or 1A championships every year, the class of that level was Altavista. With Juan Thornhill pulling the trigger at Quarterback the Colonels went back-to-back in the mid 2010s. And Altavista may be taking back over the top spot in Region B. The Colonels beat Riverheads 29-25 on Friday night in what figures to be the first of two meetings this season.
Finally, this week’s most interesting game comes from far Southwest Virginia where Graham hosts Union. These two schools have built quite a rivalry over the past few seasons. The past three years Graham has ousted Union in the Regional playoffs to advance to the State quarterfinals.
They’ve met 6 times in 3 years…3 in the regular season and 3 in the playoffs. This meeting is on Thursday night at Tazewell High School. Graham is using Tazewell for this “home game” and Richlands for another “home game” in late October. The other three will be played at their field next to the school on Saturday afternoons beginning with an October 4th game with Marion. Graham is 1-1 but just 0-1 on the field after Galax forfeited last week’s game. The G-Men will play Union, then have another open date before a trip to WV powerhouse Princeton on September 26th. The Graham matchup with Union in the regular season is often for home field in the regional playoffs and given the acrimony between the schools it should be a wild Thursday night in Tazewell.