[big orange T]

In the past 5 years off the top of my head:

Middlebsoro defeated Union (who was ranked) handily last week 27-6

Shelby Valley (historically weak) defeated Grundy last week 50-26 and Hurley 42-14

East Ridge (histroically extremely weak) defeated Twin Valley (historically very weak) 36-12.

Hazard has defeated Clintwood (who were defending 1A champs one year and I think runner-ups the other) twice.. 23-17 last year and 32-7 in 201

Harlan County has defeated Gate City (48-7, 55-0) Lee County (42-0, 36-6, 40-14, 44-21) big a couple times, as well as Powell Valley (36-7, 35-0)

Belfry also scrimmaged Richlands this summer (widely considered the best team in SW Virginia annually) and George Wythe (defending 1A Champs) this off-season and were on a completely different level to the point Virginia people were talking about never seeing a team dominate Richlands like Belfry

To defend the VA teams... Harlan County is larger than any of those schools and Hazard was State Champs and Runner-Ups in 1A respectively.. and Belfry is on a completely different level to most EKY teams.

You gave me 1-5 years. I wanted you to give me a history of the last 10-15 years. You know why you didn't, because there isn't any. The teams in SWVA during the 90's up until about mid 2000's were putting out some dang good teams. It didn't seem that too many EKY teams wanted to play SWVA teams. You had plenty of D1 talent and NFL talent (Jones Bros, H. Miller, J. Hamilton, A. Bradshaw) just to name a few and SWVA football was better than EKY football. EKY football might be better than SWVA football right now in 2013 but I think as a whole, VA football is better than KY football.

Where was Union ranked? Preseason maybe but not AP ranked as of 10/4/13 but Union is a decent team. Middlesboro was ranked #6

Shelby Valley beat Grundy (503 kids) & Hurley (190 kids). Shelby Valley should beat Hurley when you have 190 kids in grades 9th-12th. compared to SV's 580 to 600 kids. Grundy has been weak for several years with only 1 winning season in the last 8-10 years.

If East Ridge with 650 kids couldn't beat Twin Valley with 225 kids and only 30 victories in the last 11-12 years then I would take up the pads after the game.

The Hazard/ Clintwood game is the best game of the ones you mentioned. Both teams at the top of their game in their classification. Hazard was the better team both years. PERIOD

Harlan County,not much argument here, they are better than Gate City, Lee High (never been much in the 1st place) and Powell Valley towards the end before they consolidated with Appalachia.

Belfry is on another level and they did kick the crack out of Richlands. I think if they had played Richlands in 2011 and 2012 when they had 2 D1 recruits and 3 more signed to play college football, it would have been different.

I was thinking that the George Wythe/Belfry game was 2-2 in the scrimmage. I went and watched Belfry play GW, Marion and Richlands but I don't think Belfry beat GW, I think they tied.

So for the tally, 3 of the EKY teams(Belfry, Harlan, Co., Hazard) are really good and I really respect their program. The other 3 (Shelby Valley, East Ridge, Middlesboro), I still respect their program but I wouldn't thump my chest to much on their victories.

Just for the record, I do support and follow any Mtn. teams from Eastern Kentucky when they make the playoffs. I'm just glad that EKY and SWVA can field teams to discuss because it seems like kids are more interested in Xbox and playstation 3 & 4. Times are really different.