Congrats to the students at Blacksburg High
- Thread starter 1bburgfan
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That is downright amazing, and way beyond 'impressive." Not including cheerleading, I think there are 21 or 22 varsity sports in which Blacksburg competes. Bruin teams finished in the top two in the state in nearly half of those sports!
And, to win both athletic and academic WF Cups in the same school year? Flat out unbelievable. Awesome job by the entire Blacksburg High community.
And, to win both athletic and academic WF Cups in the same school year? Flat out unbelievable. Awesome job by the entire Blacksburg High community.
This is the first time I've looked at the WF Cup results. For the most part across all 6 divisions, it seems as if the same school wins most of the time....and by a significant amount of points. I think there was on one division where the competition for 1st place was close at all. So what's the secret? I don't buy an argument that the athletes in a small sliver of the state are better than anyone else? Is it primarily high school coaching or a great youth-league program that gets these handful of schools prepared for multiple sports?
I think quality coaching and community support are the two biggest factors. It's all in what is valued by a particular community. Obviously, Grundy and Christiansburg put a ton of emphasis on their wrestling programs, so those schools' wrestling teams always excel. Here's a mind-blower: since 1986, there has been exactly one year when neither the Golden Wave nor the Blue Demons won a state title on the mats. Yet, most of the rest of the sports at Grundy and C'burg are usually nothing to write home about, with the notable exception of the Motley era in C'burg.
Here in Salem, football is king. If other sports do well here and there, the general reaction seems to be, "Oh, that's nice." But football must succeed. So, while the overall level of athletic success across all Spartan teams would probably not be among the top ten or fifteen schools in 4A year-to-year, football is usually a serious contender.
I have no kids, so I can't give a very good answer. As far as I know, we have a very good youth football league here, with a high level of participation, and coaches who mirror the way things are done at the high school level, as much as is possible for grade schoolers. I'm sure many other Salem posters can tell you much more about it than I can.
Youth coaching is a great perspective on this topic. Having coached youth football in Blacksburg (3rd-7th graders ), I can say that the number of kids coming out for the sport decreased each year I coached. Why? Other sports that were seeing success at the high school level such as soccer began drawing the kids in at a younger age and at the club level as well. We used to have a saying: if you want to win championships at Blacksburg HS, play soccer. Same could be said for the running sports now as that program has grown in success and at the middle school level as well. Another factor is coaching. During my time, almost every coach and assistant was a dad and they moved on when their kids did. Therefore, there was no consistency in the coaches and little involvement from level to level. Quite a difference from a football powerhouse such as Salem from what I know.