What the hell has happened to Buncombe county football?

[Ahscougar]

For a couple years you have been seeing this, but this year is the most obvious case so far that Buncombe county football has dramatically gotten worse in the last few years.

Asheville has won 1 game barely and gotten blown out in 2. They should be 0-3
Reynolds has won 1 game barely and gotten blown out in 2. They should be 0-3
Erwin is 0-3.
Tc Roberson is 1-2 and been blown out in 2 and should be 0-3.

Asheville Reynolds and Roberson have 3 combined wins by a combined 7 points.

It’s not that we have bad records, which is bad enough…. It’s the manner in which we are losing. We aren’t even competitive! Crest could have named the score against us last night. Reynolds was blown away at home last night giving up nearly 50 points and losing by 4 touchdowns. Erwin had high hopes this year and will likely start the season 0-6.
Roberson has tons of talent walking their halls and they should be 0-3 and have been outscored 76-6 the last 2 weeks.
I don’t buy the “oh well football isn’t as popular anymore” excuse.
It’s popular in Boone still apparently. It’s popular still in Charlotte and Cleveland county and Greensboro. What the hell is going on in Buncombe county? Oh but we have a good middle school team…..

 

[Vik-Val 86]

I know Freedom has seem to step it up with their football to what it was. I know they are not in Buncombe Co. Even where I live in Rowan Co the teams here in the county are not strong like they use to be.Salisbury has fallen off this year. West Rowan use to be king at one time. In Cabarrus Co AL Brown and Concord use to be the power teams and now with the demographic changes now the strong team seems to be JM Robinson. I guess over time things changes with the sports. Hopefully we will see AC Reynolds and some others get back to where they were.

 

[beamer24]

Local radio guys were talking about some of the teams with low numbers. These kids grew up during covid and missed 1 maybe 2 years of youth/middle school ball and some stopped playing. Couple that with helene last year in the mtns and that may have something to do with it. Crest QB would probably still be at ACR without the hurricane

 

[Vik-Val 86]

I agree Beamer24, I thought about the covid issue how it interrupted the football at one time. Also factor Helene in. Time will tell to see if some of the mountain schools like ACR and others in Buncombe Co will get back to what it was. I believe it will.

 

[kyleheel30]

I posted this on another thread but there's a lot of Buncombe talent playing for Christ School, Asheville School (who is pretty good now and producing D1 talent every year), and a few for other private schools as well.

Asheville is predominately being flooded with people moving in from other states and a lot of older folks and people not associated with football culture let's say. It is one of the most expensive cities in the southeast to live in. I work in Asheville and know many of the high school coaches and assistants. A lot of the best talent gets poached right out of middle school. Some of the kids reclassify and it gives them another year to improve and get on college radars.

 

[spiderpig]

Maybe it's the ebb and flow of the Jimmys and Joes. I know this current Cougar squad is no where near as experienced and talented as the '02 team that was equal to Mallard Creek in the playoffs

 

[beamer24]

Maybe it's the ebb and flow of the Jimmys and Joes. I know this current Cougar squad is no where near as experienced and talented as the '02 team that was equal to Mallard Creek in the playoffs

Yeah wasn't that long ago Asheville was upsetting some Charlotte schools in playoffs

 

[DeBoer31]

This isn't a smart A remark - I swear. All of what has been said above may be true.
But one thing that is true in all the cases you initially point out that has not been mentioned: A lot of those Buncombe County teams' games were played vs. teams from the piedmont/foothills. I know you are a proud bunch. The mountain teams are always tough and well coached..... but with bigger populations and so forth the play is just different elsewhere in our state.

 

[Panther97]

Helene like Katrina displaced a lot of people, New Orleans was a city of close to 1.5MM people before Katrina a year after the estimated population was 800k. Helene did the same to Western NC, not as many people but the percentages are probably close to same.

 

[Ahscougar]

We have been bad for 10 years. Covid and the hurricane were 2 of those 10 years. And everybody dealt with Covid.

 

[Carolinafan2025]

I know Freedom has seem to step it up with their football to what it was. I know they are not in Buncombe Co. Even where I live in Rowan Co the teams here in the county are not strong like they use to be.Salisbury has fallen off this year. West Rowan use to be king at one time. In Cabarrus Co AL Brown and Concord use to be the power teams and now with the demographic changes now the strong team seems to be JM Robinson. I guess over time things changes with the sports. Hopefully we will see AC Reynolds and some others get back to where they were.

Robinson isn’t even that good, cabarrus county is just terrible. They have no chance against Cleveland county or others in playoffs.

 

[Goldendomer10]

We have been bad for 10 years. Covid and the hurricane were 2 of those 10 years. And everybody dealt with Covid.

I have no idea but how has men’s soccer been at Asheville. Doesn’t Asheville High also have lacrosse now. I’m wondering if there has been more of a flip to those sports with the gentrifying of the city continuing to occur.

That doesn’t speak for all the county. Erwin had no youth football just a few years back. Erwin would have made a run last year but ran into the absolute wrong team. Their line is small and young and that seems to be what’s keeping the skill positions from doing their thing. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Erwin winless in non-conference and still win the conference.

TCR is shooting for average most years in football and has almost as long as I’ve been alive.
Reynolds will just be in a down year, I believe. Pretty good group of ballplayers hanging out in 9th and 10th. Not football related but it wouldn’t surprise me to see Reynolds compete for a baseball state championship over the next few years.

If you haven’t seen the amount of people at the Buncombe County Sports Park in the evenings, it is quite a crowd gathered for soccer, so some are definitely going that route while youth football leagues fold or miss years due to numbers.

 

[Ahscougar]

In the last 10 years of Asheville high football. 2015-2024. We are 65-44. We have 0 seasons with double digit wins the last 10 years.

The 10 years PRIOR to that, 2005-2014. We were 103-31-1. We had 7 10 win seasons in that 10 year span

And that DIDNT include the 11 wins in 02, the 13 wins in 03 and the 12 wins in 04

and this was when we had fewer students

 

[Goldendomer10]

I would almost certainly say that has to do with the changing population of the city. I think you all have the right coach now. Every place has changed in the last 20 years but Asheville really has and I’d say the majority of that change in population isn’t football minded.

 

[Ahscougar]

Well again, we have more students now than we did during those great years and the demographics of the football team are the same too. Asheville high doesn’t exactly have 22 former soccer players playing football