Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 18, 1993 TAG: 9311180099
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RAY COX
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
As the old-time pioneers used to sing as they trudged through the mountain passes to the promised land beyond, "A new life's going to be mine."
And a new life is just what some of these teams need, considering the old one was fraught with fallen arches, iron-poor blood, and chronic hiccups.
That most definitely is not the case with a couple of the local entrants in the sudden-dismissal postseason that starts Friday. If defending Group AA Division 6 state champion Pulaski County and Giles, which is in the Group A Division 2 tournament, look approximately as splendid in the playoffs as they did during their undefeated regular year, then the citizens of those outposts should be advised to tune up the musical instruments and brush up on their most flamboyant dance steps.
Now maybe you think that teams such as 5-5 Blacksburg and 4-6 Radford are not of the proper pedigree to be invited to this ball. Certainly, you would find no shortage of apologists for this view.
But what would you have these Indians and Bobcats do? Fall to their knees with tears in their eyes and say that they're unworthy? Vote not to go? Suggest that 9-1 G.W.-Danville, shut out of the Division 6 playoffs unless a flabbergasted court system comes to its defense, be given a spot in the Region IV postseason because there is no room in the Division 6 inn?
Self-sacrifice can be a lovely virtue, but not in football. Take that bid and run as far and as fast as you can with it, that's what these crawling-from-the-wreckage Bobcats and Indians should do.
And that is what they will do, too.
Look out for Blacksburg. Call me touched in the head should you so desire, but I said it at midseason (as a number of bemused witnesses will attest) and I say it now: The Indians are the regional champs in waiting. This you may find hilarious, which would be your right. But the ones with the big grins, after a routine execution of Carroll County tonight and next week Lee High (who is going to beat Grundy in the opening round), will be those warpath-trotting Indians.
Radford's circumstances are more perilous. The Bobcats have spent most of the season checked into Heartbreak Hotel after as many near misses as your average bikini-clad damsel has with the hatchet thrower at the county fair.
There are a couple of things that will work in the Bobcats' favor. One is that they played Graham only last week and will turn right around and play them again. Graham won, but it was only 7-0. A nip here and a tuck there and it isn't too much of a stretch to see that outcome reversed.
Plus, Radford has another card to play. This is the last year in AA for the Bobcats. Wouldn't it be grand to leave the big boys something to remember them by? Be assured that exhortations to that effect have been going around the Radford camp all week.
A word of advice to the would-be upsetters: Work extra hard on the play-action pass package this week. The trick to beating Graham is to catch them in one of their numerous defensive stunts and the quick-strike throw after a run fake could be just the ticket to eternal happiness, not to mention the end zone.
Narrows will entertain Bath County in a match of worthy teams. The Green Wave is going to hook its postseason wagon to a stout defense and running back Whitey Blankenship and that should suffice against the Chargers.
But those people who are interested in that game ought to put in a big stock of stomach settlers. Bath County isn't going to go down without a heaping dose of bile and belligerence. The next week won't be any easier. Parry McCluer will await, rest assured of that, and the Fighting Blues are in the playoff mode now, which means they'll be breathing fire and other dangerous elements. Narrows is going to have to buckle its chin traps extra tight for that one.
That leaves Pulaski County and Giles. At this writing, Pulaski County wasn't even sure if it was going to be playing on Friday night after some G.W.-Danville parents threw the matter of the snubbed Eagles into the courts. It matters not, really, the course of this jurisprudence. The Cougars are going to beat either G.W. or Hylton, whether they play this week, next week, or next month.
Nevertheless, the anxiety level at the Cougars field house has been running high. Not knowing whom to prepare for two days before game time is not the way things are supposed to be done. You reach the 11th outing of the season and you can't afford to be leaving anything to chance.
Pulaski County is going to show people how good it really is this year because the Division 6 playoffs look like a barbed-wire grid over a minefield. Highland Springs, Lloyd Bird, and Thomas Dale are all great teams in the Central Region; Indian River is a hard-nosed bunch from the Eastern. Gar-Field, which is in Pulaski County's Northwestern Region, is top-ranked in the Washington Post's poll of teams in the metropolitan area. Lake Braddock of the Northern Region is 9-1 with eight shutouts.
I'll take Pulaski County against the field.
That leaves Giles, which like Pulaski County, hasn't had a close game yet, overmatching every Group A team it's played. As a matter of fact, the Spartans would have done swimmingly had they still been a member of the New River District. Remember, now, Giles beat both Blacksburg and Radford, the top two teams there.
There have been folks this year who questioned the Giles schedule, the thinking being that it wasn't sufficiently strenuous to prepare the Spartans for the rigors of the postseason. A news flash to the skeptics: Blacksburg, Radford, Narrows and Floyd County aren't exactly pureed spinach.
So it doesn't look good for Chilhowie, Giles' opponent Friday. Neither do I think much of the chances of either undefeated George Wythe or the Maroons' opponent, Lebanon, the following week.
Giles has speed. Giles has quickness. Giles has depth. Giles has tradition.
And mercy, are those boys tough.
Giles coach Steve Ragsdale was chuckling recently at a visitor who became squeamish and required smelling salts after being witness to a practice there. People don't do it like Giles does much anymore. The idea being that wide-open, full-collision, foamy-mouthed mayhem in practice has a way of rendering a distressingly-high number of players unable to perform some of the fundamentals of the game, such as tying shoes, breaking huddles, and reaching for the water bottle.
But hey, this is football. As the philosopher once said, they don't play this game in short pants.
Ray Cox covers New River Valley sports for the Roanoke Times & World-News
by CNB