2019 Region A Football
- Thread starter D3vilMan
- Start date
Rapp, Essex, W&L in that order for Region A. Northumberland, West Point, and Colonial Beach will all be good but take a little step back in my humble opinion.
It's so rare I get to see any NNK teams, so I'm chomping at the bit to see how W&L and Colonial Beach fare in Greenville. Hostile environment against the team to beat. Hats off to both teams for scheduling the Gladiators. The fun starts 8/30. To the OP, I have no idea what to expect except that Numberland probably peaked last year.
It does indeed look like this is Rapp's year to dominate Region A.
I will be pulling for the Raiders to do so (well, unless they are playing Northumberland, of course).
The last time that I remember the Raiders in the State Final Four was in 1988 season? v 2A Strasburg (back then was really hard to make in Group A).
I will be pulling for the Raiders to do so (well, unless they are playing Northumberland, of course).
The last time that I remember the Raiders in the State Final Four was in 1988 season? v 2A Strasburg (back then was really hard to make in Group A).
It will be interesting to see how Essex does this season. Essex is still a football powerhouse but seems to be not the guaranteed NND and Region A champion anymore.
Teams like Northumberland and Rappahannock used to know it was over before the game even began. That fear of Essex and intimidation by Essex appears to have faded in the last couple years, at least for now....
Can Coach Jones return the swagger?
Will Essex be able to develop a passing QB this season? Or will they solely rely on the big D and running game like last year?
Good luck to Coach Jones!
Teams like Northumberland and Rappahannock used to know it was over before the game even began. That fear of Essex and intimidation by Essex appears to have faded in the last couple years, at least for now....
Can Coach Jones return the swagger?
Will Essex be able to develop a passing QB this season? Or will they solely rely on the big D and running game like last year?
Good luck to Coach Jones!
Many people are picking W&L to go far...Maybe...great coaching staff will have them playing as well as possible.
Colonial Beach - great coaching and Spartan culture will keep the Drifters competitive. Did I hear that they lost their star RB? That dude was scary fast. Will be hard to overcome that weapon loss.
Northumberland - (I may be a bit biased but I expect them to surprise many people by having a very successful season). The Indians did indeed lose some big stars (lots of awesome seniors, 16 or so) and it is indeed a rebuilding year.
However, we will get to see how NHS Coach Lewis and staff handle this adversity. Can they create a dark horse contender? Lewis continues to add quality people to his strong staff.
Lancaster - I hope that they can field a team. They have lost some quality people (staff wise) and may struggle. Good luck to them.
Colonial Beach - great coaching and Spartan culture will keep the Drifters competitive. Did I hear that they lost their star RB? That dude was scary fast. Will be hard to overcome that weapon loss.
Northumberland - (I may be a bit biased but I expect them to surprise many people by having a very successful season). The Indians did indeed lose some big stars (lots of awesome seniors, 16 or so) and it is indeed a rebuilding year.
However, we will get to see how NHS Coach Lewis and staff handle this adversity. Can they create a dark horse contender? Lewis continues to add quality people to his strong staff.
Lancaster - I hope that they can field a team. They have lost some quality people (staff wise) and may struggle. Good luck to them.
Not sure. I thought I heard or read that he left CB- transferred somewhere? I do not know any details. I may be mistaken.
I wouldn’t call it hype. They are going to be good. I’m just not seeing dominating Region A just yet. As for W&L and Colonial Beach heading to the mountains to play Riverheads, get your cardio training in. I noticed a lot of my Trojans last year gasping for air in the 1st half. After Dameron ran that long TD run, he was done. Never looked like he recovered from that run. As we all know, the air in higher elevations is thinner than down here in Region A.
Yes. Serious on both parts. But on what part are you talking about...Rapp or higher altitudes?
Altitude. I just didn’t think kids would be affected by 1,000-ft difference. I admittedly don’t know the science. I figured it would need to be 3,000+ before you start feeling it. Denver is 5280?
Thanks for confirming. Interesting.
Vegas just increased W&L's odds at a strong winning season despite a very tough schedule....
CB's odds went in the other direction.
Lol. Ya never know. Tappahannock is 46 ft above sea level and Riverheads area (Staunton) is 1,417 ft. It’s not mile but still higher than here. I’m not a Scientist but I do know Essex players were gasping hard mid game. Not taking anything away from Riverheads as a team. Just a thought I wondered about. I know every time I went up that way my ears popped like when I fly. That’s because of the altitude right? So I figure if it pops my ears, it could be harder on breathing for those of us in the low lands. Lol.
Essex Trojan1 has been sounding like a Rapp hater lately & I can only assume its bc Essex hasn't been picked as favorites of the NND.
Remember when he said "I doubt Bishop Sullivan was at the Mathews 7v7".....I promise if Rapp wasnt being praised he wouldn't have said anything.
Fact is Essex has some question marks bc they lost their top RB, top ol/dlmen, & top db. What is your Essex synopsis?
Never a hater...just my opinion. Sorry if it’s not what YOU want to hear me say. As for Bishop Sullivan, a poster had posted a list that had another private school on it. Then another poster said Bishop Sullivan won it. Soooo that’s when I spoke up saying it was another private school there not Sullivan from the list I saw. THEN, someone corrected it and said it was Sullivan. That’s when I questioned why would a Team like BS, who be nationally ranked, do a 7v7 with mostly 1A programs? NEVER did I say anything to hate on Rapp. Fast forward to today. Uvacav1 said Rapp will dominate Region A. I replied “Nah...they have a shot”. Where does it sound like I’m hating on Rapp? As for Essex, they don’t need to be praised with pre-season posts. We take a hit of about 15 (give or take) every year due to graduation. That’s nothing new. We just fill holes and end up still playing in December.
Essex has relied on KJ to anchor that offense for the past 3yrs & I really don't think they will have an offensive identity this year. I will say I think Essex will still possess a solid defense but will struggle to score vs solid teams which they kind of have a weak schedule this year anyway.
So if Essex offense & defense were both A's last year, my thought is they will have a B- defense and a C- offense. Again I ask, what's your Essex synopsis?
So if Essex offense & defense were both A's last year, my thought is they will have a B- defense and a C- offense. Again I ask, what's your Essex synopsis?
If you noticed, last year Day & Banks were getting a lot of touches running the ball with KJ. As for a weak schedule...Since Rapp and Essex plays the same 5 other NND teams, the only way to see who has a weaker schedule of the 2 is to look at the Non district. Essex non district: Sussex, Franklin, Surry, Charles City( didn’t like that add) and 2A King William. Rapp’s non district: West Point, W&L, 3A Southampton, Mathews and Nandua. If you wanna be real about it, neither team has a tough non-district. Essex’s toughest will be Sussex, KW and maybe Franklin. Rapp’s will only be W&L in my opinion. I say that because Southampton, Nandua and Mathews are weak. I’ll give you a maybe with West Point. They are a BIG question mark based on what’s been said on here about star players leaving. My synopsis for Essex is...I posted that on her a few weeks back. On a scale of 1-10 of them playing in December, I’ll go 8 1/2 as of right now.
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I stated earlier that Essex may struggle out of the gate but will be standing as a contender in Late November .
Rappahanock for the 1st time in a long time has the the talent, experience, and lack of competition to advance deep, but Essex will be their boogy man of sorts can they overcome the mental dominance of the Trojans? This is there shot ( Rapp) Next year Essex will greatly dominate. It's now or never for the Raiders!
Rappahanock for the 1st time in a long time has the the talent, experience, and lack of competition to advance deep, but Essex will be their boogy man of sorts can they overcome the mental dominance of the Trojans? This is there shot ( Rapp) Next year Essex will greatly dominate. It's now or never for the Raiders!
Well Rapp beat W&L twice last year so they have to be the favorite in that matchup. As far as mental toughness, they went down 14-0 to Essex in the 1st qtr and came back to tied the game. Score was 20-20 with about 6 mins left until Essex got like 45 penalty yards in one play after Rapp recovered a fumble that the refs said the player was down. The discipline hurt on those penalties but idk how you question there mental toughness
Nnk
Rapp will be good and many will have them at the favorites to win the district and the region. However, Essex has been the top dog for a while and while it may be closer they still have to be the favorites imo. Washington and Lee seems to be #3 there with Northumberland and CB battling for 4/5. If Lancaster could string together a few wins they could be a playoff team.
Tidewater
West point will still be the best 1A school in the district even with the loss of key players. Mathews seems to be a team on an uptrend and with a lighter schedule than last year could win 4-6 games and have a shot at making the playoffs. King and queen could win 4-6 as well. If Middlesex is the better of those 3 teams I could see them winning up to 8 games but they won't play KW so I'm unsure if they will be eligible for the playoffs. And hopefully Charles City has a team.
Eastern shore
Northampton has trended upward the last 3 years winning more games each year and even played Essex tough last year for half of the game. But it's hard to say because nobody really knows what's going on over there. Chincoteague isn't ever eligible for the playoffs but will probably be a win for the few tidewater teams that play them.
Playoff picks
1. Essex
2. Rappahannock
3. Washington and Lee
4. West Point
5. Northumberland
6. Colonial Beach
7. Northampton
8. Mathews
Lancaster or King and queen could very easily be the #8 team.
Rapp will be good and many will have them at the favorites to win the district and the region. However, Essex has been the top dog for a while and while it may be closer they still have to be the favorites imo. Washington and Lee seems to be #3 there with Northumberland and CB battling for 4/5. If Lancaster could string together a few wins they could be a playoff team.
Tidewater
West point will still be the best 1A school in the district even with the loss of key players. Mathews seems to be a team on an uptrend and with a lighter schedule than last year could win 4-6 games and have a shot at making the playoffs. King and queen could win 4-6 as well. If Middlesex is the better of those 3 teams I could see them winning up to 8 games but they won't play KW so I'm unsure if they will be eligible for the playoffs. And hopefully Charles City has a team.
Eastern shore
Northampton has trended upward the last 3 years winning more games each year and even played Essex tough last year for half of the game. But it's hard to say because nobody really knows what's going on over there. Chincoteague isn't ever eligible for the playoffs but will probably be a win for the few tidewater teams that play them.
Playoff picks
1. Essex
2. Rappahannock
3. Washington and Lee
4. West Point
5. Northumberland
6. Colonial Beach
7. Northampton
8. Mathews
Lancaster or King and queen could very easily be the #8 team.
Question for Rapp/W&L posters. Why are they still playing twice a year? Is it still because they can’t find teams to play? Essex played Rapp twice a year for 4 years (2007-2010) until Essex started scheduling non-district games with schools like 2A Goochland & Gretna, 3A James Monroe, 3A Thomas Jefferson(R), 4A King George and 5A Deep Run. This makes 7 years in a row that they will be playing twice during regular season. Is it still hard to find a team to fill that non-district spot for either schools?
Maybe gate money?
This year W&L/Rapp, Matthews/Middlesex, Middlesex/K&Q, and Northampton/Arcadia all play twice. 3 of those games doubled up didn't happen last year and you would think if they didn't want to play twice they could find another opponent out of this group
This is not my prediction, just an interesting data set that shows the delta between the number of seniors lost and the number of (presumable) returning rising seniors and juniors based on last season's rosters. Returning experience is a factor. Obviously, I don't have a crystal ball to see what the actual rosters will be this fall. The website stopped responding before I could access Lancaster's 2018 roster. Correlation is not causation, so it will be interesting to see if the teams returning the most experience kids will have a bearing on the outcome of their season.
Colonial Beach +12
Essex +9
Mathews +8
Rappahannock +6
W&L +5
West Point +5
KQ +4
King William +3
Northumberland -3
Middlesex -5
Northampton -6
Rappahanock must play with swagger, boldness, cockiness, this year if not they will struggle with Essex . They the players must elevate mentally to beat Essex, Essex dose not respect Rapp, sorry I truy believe that. Rapp has never earned the respect of big brother. Once again Rapp can't hide in the bushes this year they are known but not respected by many teams. If they don't win the district/Region A it's a failure of a year.
This is Rapp opportunity, they will get a ton of experience against wing t formations also. This is key if they must face the Champs. They also need not to play down to competition.
Being that Essex and Rappahannock have been MAJOR rivals for many years, I’m pretty sure the feelings are mutual when it come to respect. They’ll show respect when it comes to sportsmanship but other than that it’s a rival. No different than Bama/Auburn, VT/UVA, Miami/FSU, Ohio/Michigan and so on.
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You are right Trojan 100% agree. Rapp wants to be new bully on block but must face kid taking the lunch money lol.
Rapp going to take the lunch money, backpack & girlfriend. Just saying
Wonder if Essex gonna run that offense that Todd ran at W&L....he prob should stick to the wing set bc they dont have the tools to go back spread.