[BelfryJustice]

Buffalo Gap High School is the Virginia State Division I Champions

As you all know here on Bluegrassrivals.com I am a Pirate fan with all my heart, but today I was a Pirate Fan who got a state championship. I took one of my friends from Virginia and a Buffalo Gap graduate to Louisville on a football road trip that was seven hours long one way to watch my Pirates. We left on Thursday around 4:30PM. We watched the Pirates and then jumped back into the car disappointed of course. We did get to see a great game in Louisville, but not the outcome we wanted. We arrived back home in Virginia around 2:30AM Saturday. We were back up at 7:00am Saturday and on the road by 8:30AM. My buddy from Buffalo Gap took my wife and I to watch his Bison’s win there first ever state championship with a score of 28-19 in SalemVirginia. Which by the way, was only a 4 hour around trip compared to the 14 hour trip I took him on to watch the Pirates. I guess we may be a little crazy, but we love high school football and had a blast. Two championships would have been nice, but in a way a Belfry Fan got a state championship this weekend. You had a great season BuffaloGapHigh School with a pirate fan on board. The Bison’s finish their perfect season 14-0 with a great win over a pretty good ClintwoodHigh School team (9-5). Thanks for a fun weekend Buffalo Gap, Louisville Central, Belfry, and Clintwood. I know this is a KY site, but this was a fitting story that ties two people from two different states together as friends by football.

PS: I told my friend that we need our teams to do this on opposite years. I may be getting a little too old for that long of a trip again. LOL

[Cards09]

Congrats Buffalo Gap on winning your first State championship

[Playboy5]

Was rooting for Clintwood in this one. Only about 25 minutes from where I live!

[Playboy5]

But congrats Buffalo Gap on the win!

[BelfryJustice]

Was rooting for Clintwood in this one. Only about 25 minutes from where I live!

Clintwood is much closer to Belfry than Buffalo Gap. Clinwood has some great fans and players. They appeared to be a good community. This area (Bufflao Gap) is full of great perople also and is typical small town America also. This was their frist appearance in a title game. I had to take them under my wing after being in this area for 12 years. I told my daughter that a Pirate would eat a Bison in real life. She will be a Bison.

[mrfootball03]

how does the virginia football championships compare to kentuckys' state championships?
what kind of stadium do they play in?.. what kind of crowd?

[If...Then]

school sizes?

[Playboy5]

They play in many areas across VA and has many different classes and divisions. Sometimes play in an everyday high school field for a state championship.

[Redneck]

One of my old roommates and teammates at PC played at Clintwood. His lil bro starts for the Green Wave. But congrats to Buffalo Gap.

[BelfryJustice]

school sizes?

1A

[BelfryJustice]

how does the virginia football championships compare to kentuckys' state championships?
what kind of stadium do they play in?.. what kind of crowd?

I feel as if the format is better in Kentucky. There will be two 1A champions in Virginia and they played today in the same stadium (Salem Stadium). They play one less week in the playoffs than Kentucky. I would like to see one week added and the two 1A teams play it out for an outright title. Some may disagree and like the fact that more teams win a title in the state. Games were played at different locations with each class. No way to watch all the games that are played in the state as demonstrated in Kentucky. The stadium was very nice. No set backs like Louisville, but a well taken care of facility. No replay was available. Both teams had very good crowds. I don’t have the numbers on this game. I do feel as if Kentucky does a better job with making it bigger I guess. The Gap fans appeared to maybe have a small edge over the Green Wave faithful. I would say that there were around or over 5,000 in attendance for this game.

[red_devils_rule]

Congrats Buffalo Gap

[BelfryJustice]

Here is a link to some pictures of the facilty in Salem.

http://www.salem.k12.va.us/shs/sports/fo...adium3.htm

[OffTheHook]

Man, You really must love football.

[BelfryJustice]

Man, You really must love football.

I had never watched a Buffalo Gap game until today. My friend had never seen a Belfry game until Friday. We have talked all year about the two teams and we followed both with the newpapers and talk. I bet there are few that have done what we did this weekend. Not sure if I could do it again, but we had fun. I got to see my sister that I see only see a few times a year.

[If...Then]

is any type of talent on these teams maybe a little bit of the reason you went?

[mrfootball03]

Here is a link to some pictures of the facilty in Salem.

http://www.salem.k12.va.us/shs/sports/fo...adium3.htm

thats a nice stadium.. i like the two colors of green field turf.. i wish they'd done that at belfry

[Pond Creek]

Here is a link to some pictures of the facilty in Salem.

http://www.salem.k12.va.us/shs/sports/fo...adium3.htm

It reminds me of old Fairfield Stadium. The original home of the Thundering Herd. I'm glad you had a safe trip. I wish you would have seen two victory's also. I know it seems like a lifetime away but there is always next year. Congrats on the one victory. If you are a fan of theirs they have to be good!

[Playboy5]

I Love That Field And Complex At Salem!!

[BelfryJustice]

I Love That Field And Complex At Salem!!

It was a very nice facility, but Louisville is something else.

[VHSL-helper]

don't know about crowd sizes this year.

about the stadiums - they changed that a bit this year.
First, a quick breakdown.
We have 3 Classes for all sports
Sizes - AA is about 700-1500 students in grades 9-12 two years ago. AAA is bigger, A smaller.
In football only, each class has 2 Divisions, and we play a double-header at 3 diff. stadiums.
AAA had been "out East" - Richmond, Hampton and Newport News have all hosted recently, but changed this year to UVA's Scott Stadium.
AA has been hosted in Lynchburg the past few years at Liberty (a.k.a. Falwell) U.
A had been at JMU - moved this year to Salem, just outside of Roanoke. It's a high school stadium, but HUGE, located about 100 yards from Salem Civic Center. They've hosted the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl (NCAA Div. 3) the past few years and put in turf over the Summer.
Haven't played at an "everyday" h.s. field since the late 90's.

All 3 SW VA teams lost today - Clintwood (East of Jenkins), Gate City (2 counties S. of Jenkins) and Richlands (2 counties S. of Pikeville).
If you've got high speed, I've got aeriel views of some stadiums on my playoffs pairings page (links at the top and the bottom).

http://www.angelfire.com/va/vhsl/news.html

[Playboy5]

I went to camps with Thomas Jones from Powell Valley and he had always wondered why Va didn't make such a deal about playing in bigger stadiums when making it to the state championships. He said he had always felt like they never made it a big deal. Well it is good to know that they reward the young men by letting them play in that kind of atmosphere! Thanks VHSL helper for the info..

[BelfryJustice]

No fee for parking in Virginia and the tickets were the same price.

[VHSL-helper]

yeah - tickets.
All semis are $8. All finals are $10 "carnival" tickets - pay one price to enter, then stay 'til closing. Schools get something like 500 tickets on Tuesday and keep $1 from each sold b4 Fri.