Last Saturday afternoon, twelve teams started out on what would be the final leg on the Road to the Title. Win or lose, for these twelve teams just to be able to traverse the road to this point was an accomplishment. Six of the twelve would complete the journey they started sixteen weeks ago. This year’s trip, like so many in the past, was highlighted by the drama of week-to-week, close competition and fraught with opponents bent on each other’s destruction. It was a perilous journey to say the least. Let’s look at some of the oddities of this years post season play. First of all, you had all of those rematches in the Regional Title games. Of the twenty-four regional championships contested between all three classes at all four of their respective regions, there were an inordinate number of rematches. Of the eleven rematches at this level of play, eight of them were reversals of the outcome of the first contest. This was another high figure. Being undefeated guaranteed you nothing. James Robinson, Bayside, Mills Godwin, and Potomac, in Division Six, Culpepper County in Division Five, Northside in Division Four, and Robert E. Lee in Division Three, all seeded number 1 in their regions, never made it past their Regional Championship. When the smoke cleared from Regional Competition, only five were left and only two of those would win state titles.

In the Division Six Championship, the Deep Creek Hornets would spot the Centerville Wildcats a 28 point lead through the middle of the third quarter. The Hornets would then stage the most unbelievable comeback in less than a quarter and a half before falling short of a tie by two points. For Deep Creek, it was their second effort at a state title only to come away empty. For the Centerville Wildcats, it was their first ever title. They faced two undefeated opponents on the way to the title and found a way to win.

In Division Five all Heritage High School had to do was get past the Hampton Crabbers AGAIN. After beating the Crabbers in the regular season there wasn’t a sole in the state, myself included, that thought they could do it again. It was 17-6 the first time and 41-0 the second. The Hurricanes blew the Crabbers away. After that game, I don’t think anyone had a chance against Heritage and certainly not the Dinwiddie Generals. For the Hurricanes it was a perfect 14-0 season and some here in the Peninsula say that the “winds” of change have arrived. We will leave that thought to future history.

Double A Division Four had a team seeded number three in its region trying to repeat as State Champion. To get to the Championship Game the Salem Spartans were going to have to play and defeat two teams that had beaten them during the regular season. That simply wasn’t going to happen, or was it? Against Lord Botetourt, Salem avenged a 10-7 loss with a 41-0 victory. The next hurdle was undefeated Northside. This one was tougher. The Spartans here avenged another loss, 16-6 during the regular season to the Vikings, with a 10-6 cliffhanger to win the Regional Championship. The next round would take the reigning Division Four State Champs a little further down the “Road to the Title” for a stop at Ridgway Virginia for a meeting with 11-1 Magna Vista. On paper this appeared to be a mismatch. Here is where the journey would end for the Spartans. Well, a mismatch it was, but not the way it was expected. Salem High School survived yet again with a 43-0 rout of the Warriors. The Spartans had at least made it to the Championship Game. Salem, now, had only to get by the Park View Patriots which, by the way, was the same team they played and defeated by one point last year for the State Title. The Patriots came in the title game 12-1 fueled by the memory of last years one point loss. For sure this is where the road would end for Spartans .The game was tied 7-7 at the half and again at 10-10 at the end of the third quarter. This contest would not be tied at the end. Salem would win it’s third State Title in four years and it’s second in a row by defeating Park View 17-10.

In Division Three, it was another third seeded Regional team working its way, seemingly against unbelievable odds, into State post season play. The Rustburg Devils faced the Liberty Minutemen in the region three Championship. During the regular season, the Devils lost to the Minutemen 28-10. The second time around things would be different. Rustburg overran Liberty 44-7. Next up was undefeated Gate City. This would be a defensive struggle during which only one score would be made by either team. That score belonged to the Devils who escaped with a 7-0 victory that catapulted them into the Championship game. Their opponent in this game would be the Knights of Turner Ashby. The Knights ascension to this level was no fluke. They had played well all season and had persevered throughout post season play. Arguably, this could have been the best of the Championship games. It would be the foot in this game that would decide the outcome. A field goal by the Devils would give Rustburg its third State Championship dating back to 1990.

Single A play was equally exciting. In Division Two action, New Kent faced King William in the Region A Championship. During the regular season, the New Kent Trojans had defeated the Cavaliers of King William 32-15. The rematch, you guessed it, would be a reversal of that outcome but it wouldn’t be easy. There would be only one score in this contest and that would be without the extra point, as King William would win the Region A Title with a 6-0 victory. The Cavaliers next stop on the “Road to the Title” was against Buffalo Gap who had the previous week ousted Madison County, the reigning Division Two State Champs, from competition. Here King William ran roughshod over the Bison 44-0. In the State Title Game at Liberty University, the Cavaliers would face the undefeated Tigers of Honaker. Statistically the Tigers had the edge. On the field of play, it was a different matter. King William would win their first State Championship by handing Honaker its only loss of the season by a score of 25-15.

After the ninth game of the regular season, the handwriting appeared to be on the wall for the Riverheads Gladiators. They had handled everything that had come their way including then undefeated Stonewall Jackson. The Region B Division One Championship game appeared to be another matter. Their opponent would be the Chargers of Central Lunenburg. Since 1970, this school had won 4 Single A State Football titles. This program is steeped in football heritage. They had not won a title since 1993. The Chargers were hungry. This game was all about offence. During this contest, both teams were posting big numbers. In the end, three points would be all that separated these two combatants as Riverheads prevailed over Central Lunenburg 31-28. The next stop on the “Road to the Title” would be against the Cougars of Surry County. At this level of competition, experience plays a big role. Surry County held all the cards her as they were not only the reigning Champions of this division but also had won that title the previous year as well. The Cavaliers were virtual neophytes at this area of play. An old colleague of mine once said, ”If you have the horses, you can tow the wagon.” Riverheads did indeed have the horses and they did tow the wagon to the tune of a 17-6 victory over Surry County. The title game would have the Cavaliers facing yet another former State Champion in the form of the Chargers of Bath County. Riverheads appeared to be a little tight in their first ever title game and at times appeared to be their own worst enemy. At the half it was a 12-12 tie. In the second half, the Cavaliers settled down and did what Riverheads had done best all year and that was to play football. In the end, the Cavaliers would not be denied as they won their first ever State Football Title 26-12. It was a very interesting season.

Of the six new State Champions crowned this last Saturday afternoon, only Salem and Rustburg had won titles before. For Centerville, Heritage, King William, and Riverheads, it was their first ever State Title in Football. They are certainly to be congratulated. Of the six new Champions, Riverheads and Heritage were the only two remaining undefeated teams and they were the only surviving number one regional seeds to survive post season play.

Before closing the curtain on 2000 scholastic football season, I would like to tell you about another occurrence that happened during post season play. It started at Todd Stadium during the Regional Semifinals and while it may have peaked the following week at the same place it never ended. In fact after those two weekends, it probably never will as long as this site, SPORTSCOMBINE.COM, still exist. It began with a desire that I had back in the early and middle eighties while doing post season games. During those early years, at those games, I keep getting asked during those games about scores involving other playoff opponents. Needless to say, they were not available. This year we changed all of that. Days before the Regional Semifinals and Finals, Bob Killen, the Eastern Region Coordinator for Sportscombine, and myself, were on the phones to different people connected with the different schools involved in post season play. What we wanted to do was set up a network with all of the schools so as to not only get the final scores, but get updates on games throughout the evening. To my knowledge, no one, including the media, had ever tried such a venture. This required a lot of people being at these games calling in scores. To implement our plan, Bob and I employed the source of our success over the years, our people. We had a group of twelve people that helped us throughout the season. Bob Killen,Todd Cales and Clarence Bell created a network that provided me with scores from all over the state of Virginia and augmented them with the resources available at Sportscombine, especially John Reeves and Donny Samson, who were our major links to the Northern Region. What actually occurred was beyond our wildest belief. All of the information during the evening was to come to me at Todd Stadium. From there, we put the information out to the crowd at our game and then started passing out scores to the fans and to one of SportsCombine’s affilate partner’s, WBYM Radio Station 1490. To handle all of the incoming calls, I went to Susan and Tim Lorentz. These are two people who have been instrumental in assisting me over the years. We had three cell phones up in the Press Box. We had geographically split the state in half assigning each half to a different phone using the third cell phone as a spill over in case the other two were busy. Susan was to man the phones, take the scores down, pass them to me to be put out over the P.A. system, and then use the stadium phone to call the scores in to WBYM 1490 as we got them. Ten minutes into our game, the phones started ringing. The scores started pouring in. We were getting all the Triple A, most of the Double A, and a spattering of Single A games being played that night. They were coming in from everywhere. We truly did not know what to expect of this venture. We had to be prepared for everything if it went as we had hoped. Our preparations were well founded. Susan stayed busy all night. We literally had them all. If you have ever wondered what it might be like to sit at CBS News on election night and see all of the races at once materialize over the course of an evening, that is what I would have to tell you it was like. At the conclusion of our game we had most all of the final scores. Some games were still being played. We still did not know what our listening audience thought of our performance or for that matter if they even cared. That answer came immediately upon exiting the press box. I was besieged by people asking about updates on the unfinished games. They kept asking how we had gotten the scores. Days after the game, people were still talking to me about what we had done and sharing with me the interest they had about the outcome of the other games. Sportscombine kept this up throughout the State Semifinals and Finals. Reflecting back on this endeavor, it was successful because of our people. Paul Polombo, the Eastern Regional Football Director, kept us abreast of what was happening on the Southside and the Division 6 games. Todd Cales was covering the Pulaski County/Culpepper County game and giving us scores there. Then we got a call from him on the Potomac/ C.D. Hylton game which was a hike away from where he was supposed to be. We later found out that he had enlisted the help of one of his friends Clarence Bell and he was covering the Northwestern Regional Division 6 contest and calling the scores back to Todd Cales and he was in turn calling them both in to us. Todd Cales was literally everywhere. Two people who have been with me for years and have worked almost everything I have done in the line of sports also played a major role in this project. Don Lancaster, Eastern District Coordinator, kept me informed on statistics in our game and was in turn passing off data to the TV people and newspaper people in attendance. Mike Houser, Peninsula District Coordinator, was assisting in all of those ventures, plus spotting for me and being an extra set of eyes, while I was away handling other things. Jimmy McDonald, Bay Rivers District Coordinator for SportsCombine, was covering the games in the Bay Rivers District. We figuratively had everything covered. Sportscombine’s John Reeves and Donny Samson were covering the Northern Region area in Triple and Double A competition. In short it was an incredible evening. Looking back at this whole adventure, I am amazed not at where we have been, but rather where we are going. Sportscombine is still in it infancy chronologically. They are a little over a year old, but I will say this , and I can because I am not an employee, with the people they have in place and their willingness to go the “extra mile”, I am not aware of another Internet Service that would have done what their people accomplished. When Bob Killen got me interested in this network last year he had some very lofty ideas as to where this was going. I did not think that it was possible. The accomplishments of a small group of truly dedicated people changed my mind. I don’t think there is anything we cannot accomplish with people like we already have. I believe that when we work basketball this year, we will be able to put what we learned during the football season to work for us and we will surpass this effort then. We will continue to improve. The overall objective of Sportscombine is to track every athlete, in every sport, in every school, in every state. That is a tall order. I now believe it can be done. Stay with us and watch us grow.

Basketball is here. I am already working games. Will this be the end of “The Road to the Title”? For Football, yes it will. I will be back at the beginning of February to pick it back up as we close out the regular season for Basketball and prepare for the post season in that sport. If you haven’t already figured it out, I am truly dedicated to high school sports. I believe for the money, it is the best show in town. Get out and catch a game. I will be all over the Eastern Region working the sport. Anyone wishing to join me in a game, e-mail me at netport@erols.com. I will let you see first hand what we do. For those of you that have followed me throughout the football season, I want to take a moment to wish each of you a very Happy Holiday Season.

Bill Nettles