ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 2, 1995 TAG: 9512030012
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
BOTH GROUP A football teams hope the single wing is their ticket to a championship.
A wiseacre may say that Timesland's high school football hopes rest on the single-wing and a prayer.
Both Giles and Bath County arrive at the state semifinals today aboard the same arcane offense. Yet the single-wing is one reason that the Spartans and Chargers ought to have more than just a prayer when each tangles with a defending state champion.
Giles invades Big Stone Gap for a 1:30 p.m. meeting with undefeated Powell Valley in the Group A Division 2 semifinals. Bath County will entertain defending Division 1 champ Appalachia at 1:30 p.m. at Alleghany High.
The Giles-Powell Valley clash matches the 1993 champion (Giles) with last year's titlist. It also reunites two coaching rivals in Giles' Steve Ragsdale and Powell Valley's Phil Robbins, who coached at Christiansburg in the early 1980s when that school and Giles were both in the New River District.
Therefore, Robbins is more than a little familiar with preparing a team to defend against the single-wing, a formation that does not have a quarterback and features a direct snap to the backfield.
``It isn't easy when only about 25 teams in the whole country use the single-wing,'' Robbins said. ``Our players haven't ever seen it.''
It is just as likely that the Spartans haven't seen the likes of Powell Valley's record-setting tailback, Thomas Jones, who has 2,634 yards rushing and 43 touchdowns this year. Jones, as good as he is, isn't the whole story for the Vikings, who are big, strong, and talented at virtually every position. Some veteran observers of football in the far southwest have said the Vikings have the best Group A teams they've seen.
Matched against it is one of the best teams ever at Giles, which won a Group AA championship in 1980 to go with the Division 2 crown two years ago. Only a 7-6 overtime loss at James Monroe of West Virginia separates Giles from a perfect season.
That was one of two occasions when the Spartans' offense has been slowed down, the 20-7 victory over Radford in the opening round of the playoffs being the other. Giles scored 391 points and rolled up 3,730 yards during the regular season. Between them, tailback Reggie Hoston and fullback Kevin Slusser have more than 2,000 yards rushing.
The last time Bath County progressed this far in the playoffs, 1989, it played at home, against Appalachia. The Bulldogs prevailed 27-23 and went on to win the championship.
``That's kind of where we turned the corner,'' said Appalachia coach Tom Turner, whose team added another crown in 1992 and has been to the semifinals each of the past five years.
This year's team has only three senior starters.
``We thought we were about a year away,'' Turner said.
The Bulldogs have admirable balance. Behind leading rusher Dub Varner (more than 900 yards), a T-formation fullback, Appalachia has two other backs (halfbacks Travis Clark and Jason Hiter) with more than 500 yards and quarterback Travis Turner, who has thrown for over 1,000. Travis Turner is the coach's son and Travis Clark is Thomas Jones' first cousin.
Both Appalachia and Bath County got hot after difficult losses. Appalachia won two playoff games after being creamed 55-6 by Powell Valley the last game of the season. Jones rushed for over 300 yards in that one.
Bath County has won five straight after losing in consecutive weeks to Stuarts Draft (a Division 2 semifinalist) and Riverheads. Since then, Chargers fullback Ivan Franklin has broken loose and now has close to 1,300 yards rushing. Jamie Carroll, the tailback, has nearly 1,200 yards.
``We stopped asking Ivan to run the offense so much so he could just concentrate on his running,'' Bath County coach Steve Isaacs said. ``It's made him a better player; it's made us a better team.''
The game with Appalachia (9-3) had to be moved from Bath County because the Virginia High School League said the Chargers' field was inadequate for a semifinal game. A threat from an unnamed individual (presumably from Bath County) to seek an injunction to halt the playoffs because the Chargers couldn't play at home never materialized.
Bath County school superintendent Michael Sams said the threatened legal action did not originate at the school.
LENGTH: Medium: 79 linesby CNB