The high school football season is now over and the post season awards are starting to stack up for players around Hampton Roads.

The U.S. Army All-American Bowl has recognized two players from Hampton Roads this year. Phoebus quarterback Tajh Boyd and former Western Branch quarterback Kevin Newsome. Newsome played for Hargrave Military Academy this season.

Being named U.S Army All-American is one of the top honors a high school football player can receive. There are currently over 80 former U.S. Army All-Americans in the NFL today, including six first-round draft picks. Reggie Bush, Adrian Peterson, Tim Tebow, Tedd Ginn Jr and Chris Wells are just a few of the great players to make this list.

In the 8 year history of the U.S. Army All-American game, 9 players from Hampton Roads have been honored. That list includes: Kai Parham, Carlos Campbell, Levi Brown, Chris Bell, Xavier Adibi, Elan Lewis and Tyrod Taylor. You could say the path to this great game played in San Antonio, Texas goes thru the 757 area. Ninty players from across the nation make up both the east and west squads and two players from the 757 will be there this year.

With so many national awards to go around, I’ve always felt that being named to the All-State team was the top honor a player could recieve. A long time ago I was named to the Carnation All-American team. Also named that year was some guys named Doug Flutie and William “The Refrigerator” Perry. Dont get me wrong, It was a great honor, but being recognized as a top player in your state is hard to top.

If you would like to see Newsome and Boyd perform at the US Army All-American Bowl game, you can see the game live on WAVY TV, January 3rd at 1:00.

Don’t mess with the Eastern Region!

If you think your gonna line up against this area’s best football players and come away with a win, think again. The titles have been handed out and Hampton Roads makes it 3 for 3. Oscar Smith, Phoebus and Franklin are king of the hill in Virginia.

Dinwiddie, done! Osbourn, ouch! Clintwood, crushed! And the damage doesn’t end there. Boston College, bumbed! Villanova, vanished! Players from the 757 took a big bite out of the competition and made a statement on the grandest stage.

Here’s a tought question. Who had the best weekend?

Does the honor go to Phoebus battering ram Shawne Alston? All he did was run wild on Dinwiddie. The West Virginia bound recruit weaved his way for 237 yards and 2 touchdowns. How about teamate Tajh Boyd. All he did was throw 3 touchdown passes in the final game of his high school career.

Maybe the best performance was in the Oscar Smith blow out over Osbourn. Tim Smith only caught 6 balls. But 4 of those catches went for touchdowns and they were all long. His touchdowns covered 34, 64, 54 and 54 yards. How about his runningmate and future Virginia teamate Perry Jones. Jones rushed for 150 yards and 2 touchdowns. Smith and Jones had games they will never forget, but the best of the bunch goes to Phillip Sims. All he did was throw for a state championship 6 touchdowns. Sims had 5 touchdown tosses before halftime. It was a good thing Oscar Smith took it’s foot off the pedal in the second half, or else Sims would have torched Lane Stadium like never scene before. Instead he finished with 334 yards passing. Keep in mind, the kid is just a junior and yes now more than ever, schools from near and far will be busting down his door!

Now Franklin had it’s share of studs too. Quarterback Donzelle Shearin capped off a great season with 2 touchdowns in the state title game.

No doubt these kids will go on to great careers in college. It seems like just yesterday we were praising Tyrod Taylor and Rodney Landers. Taylor ran for 2 touchdowns and was named the ACC Championship game MVP. Landers almost single-handidly led James Madison to the Div. 1AA semifinal. He threw 3 touchdowns and ran for another. The former Tallwood star was the games leading rusher.

Yes you could say the boys from the 757 made a statement this weekend. The path to football greatness goes thru Hampton Roads.

Revenge is sweet!

The Phantoms of Phoebus high school waited 365 days for redemption against Stone Bridge and now that they have held up their end of the bargain, it’s time to set their sights on a title. You see Stone Bridge was the defending Division 5 state champions and they were the monsters of the Northern Region. They thought they were going to come into Darling Stadium and plow over the Phantoms. But coach Bill Dee and his team had other plans for the Bulldogs.

Yes Stone Bridge has a great offense and yes we know they average 50 points a game, but have they gone up against a defense like the one at Phoebus? You know a suffacating, in your face, relentless defense that makes all your nightmares come true?

The Phantoms harassed the Bulldogs all day long and forced 5 interceptions. This game wasn’t even close! 38 to 8 was the final score. Ding dong the witch is dead! Stone Bridge was the last team to beat Phoebus since the 2006 season and now the Phantoms have a clear path to thier 4th state championship. All coach Bill Dee and his team has to do is stick to the game plan and smother poor old Dinwiddie next weekend in Blacksburg and once again the Phantoms will be back on top.

Now I’m not a coach and I certainly know that anything is possible when young football players line up for a championship, but I will be stunned if Phoebus does not bring home the trophy next weekend. You know what they say about what wins championships. Well Phoebus has as good a defense as you will find and next weekend, Dinwiddie’s championship dreams will be sitting next to the dreams of those poor kids from Stone Bridge. If it were a movie you could call it the Dinwiddie disaster and you’ll find it in the horror section at your local video store. But at least for one more week, those kids can dream of the championship….a championship that will be back in Hampton next weekend.

Who has the better football team? Is it Phoebus or Oscar Smith? You can debate this all you want, but the sad reality is, we’ll never know. The only way to get a true answer to that age old question is for those two teams to play each other, and that’s not gonna happen.

Thanks to breaking up schools in divisions, the two best teams in Hampton Roads rarely play each other. So as it stands, Phoebus is the best Division 5 team in Hampton Roads. Oscar Smith is king of Division 6.

But wouldn’t be great if after the season these two teams squared off and decided who was the real king of high school football in Hampton Roads? You could rent Dick Price Stadium at Norfolk State, hype the game and sell it out as the High School Super Bowl. Pundits would say that adding one more game to the grueling schedule would be too much for these kids to handle. Hogwash! These seniors would love to play one last football game in front of thousands of local fans.

There is so much debate over college football and how they crown a champion. The BCS has it’s flaws. Some say adding one more game to the college schedule is the answer. How about doing the same here in Hampton Roads for high school football?

Sure I know having one extra game to decide the true Eastern Region Champion will never happen and that means we will never know who the better team is between Phoebus and Oscar Smith. But I guess we don’t need to have an extra game, because everybody knows that the Phantoms would crush the Tigers!

Why have I lost interest in NASCAR? Is it the long season? The lack of personality? Has it become too predictable? What is missing?

So many unanswered questions. I find that this sport is not as compelling as it used to be. Sure history was made this weekend when Jimmie Johnson rode off with his 3rd straight championship, but is that good for the sport? How is one team dominating and making it look so easy fun to watch?

I have nothing against Johnson. He seems like a very nice guy. He’s nice looking and articulate. He’s got a great looking wife. (Don’t they all!) I remember speaking with both of them several years ago in Norfolk. I was impressed back then with his humble attitude. I’m happy for him and all his success, but I feel his winning has taken away from the sport.

The car of tomorrow was supposed to level the playing field and maybe it has, but how is JJ so much better than everybody else? What happened to Jeff Gordon? Has he gone soft since becoming a father? What’s wrong with Dale Earnhardt Jr? Don’t those three guys share the same information and data from week to week? If so, how come they arent out there banging fenders for the win?

My father got me interested in racing when I was a little kid. Way back before restrictor plates. When drivers would cross the line and pound on each other just for looking at you funny. Richard Petty used to dominate back then, but it didn’t seem to take away from racing. Why has JJ’s success zapped the excitement from the sport?

Sorry for so many questions on why I’ve lost interest. But I’ve known the answer all along. Don’t blame it on Jimmie Johnson, blame it on football!

Now that the New York Mets have missed the playoffs for the second straight year, what does star third baseman David Wright do with his free time? He could be drowning his sorrows in some trendy bar in  Manhattan. Or the all star could hop a jet and fly to far off lands and chase skirts into the wee hours of the morning. Sounds good, but that’s not D. Wright’s style. If its Friday night, Wright is in the stands or on the sidelines for high school football here in Hampton Roads.

Yes, the face of the Mets organization was back in Chesapeake recently to see the Hickory-Western Branch football game. Wright was front and center to cheer for his brother Daniel. “I wish I was playing right now, but to be able to come back and see my brother play in his senior year is pretty special. He comes to New York as much as possible, so I enjoy coming out and supporting him and Hickory.”

Daniel Wright is a senior middle linebacker for the Hawks. He’s the captain of the defense and in big brother David’s opinion, “He’s the tough one in the family!” Daniel does not play baseball, but instead of swinging a bat, he swings a mean lacrosse stick.

Big brother David has plenty of time to reflect on yet another season that ended up down the drain, but he told me that things will be different next year. ” Its tough. Hopefully it makes winning that much more special when we finally do. We have the right tools, we just have to put them together. We have to go out and make some changes. We all need to do things individually to get better than I’m sure Omar Minaya and the front office will go out and make some changes and get some good players again.”

But havent we learned that going out and getting, “some good players” doesnt always work? Look at the Mets, Yankees and Tigers. How did going out and getting ”some good players” help them? More often these days, the youth movement seems to be working. Smart drafting and development in the minors could be a better rout than breaking the bank on some free agent. 

But getting back to Wright. How did he asses his season. ” Thats the thing about baseball. your never satisfied. It’s a game of failure. I left a lot of runs out there. Your just never satisfied. So I’m doing everything I can this offseason to make sure next year we go out there and win the division.”

That means you probably will not catch Mr. Met in that trendy New York night club or chasing skirts with the rest of his teamates. He’s enjoying seeing brother Daniel play out his senior season at Hickory and work hard at perfecting his craft. “I get a chance to play a game every day that I love, so I go out there and play like its little league, to have fun, smile, laugh and joke. To be able to do that in New York for a championship caliber team, I love it.”

The New York Mets are lucky to have a player like David Wright, so hopefully one day in the not too distant future, David can drop the “caliber” preface and play for a real championship team.

So who will be the next local baseball player to crack the  major leagues? That might be a tough question to answer, but according to Greenbrier Christian Academy baseball coach Gary Lavelle, there is some young player out there destined for greatness.

Lavelle knows a thing or two about getting players to the next level. He has 4 players on his current team already committed to play division one college baseball. Lavelle played several years in the major leagues and recently told me that he believes that there are peaks and valleys when it comes to the talent pool here in Hampton Roads. Some years are better than others.  “As long as the enthusiasm for the game is there among young players, the can succeed. Because that’s when development takes place, in that 8 to 15 year old age group, that’s when the skills are learned and if that continues than I don’t see any reason why this area can’t produce future big league players.”

Lavelle says that he gives his players a “blueprint” for success and then its up to them to follow up and work to get the most out of their talent. Lavelle says, “Some common mistakes that are made…everybody wants their son to be the best, its fine to want that, but I think the player has to want it. They have to put in the work and they have to be willing to do the things necessary to get better. As much as you would like your child to be the next BJ Upton or David Wright, it’s got to take the individual to really apply themselves to get to the next level.

Lavelle has coached hundreds of local kids and says that keeping the game fun is as important as teaching the fundamentals. “I think when kids are having fun playing and there is not too much pressure to be this or that, they enjoy it more and they want to work at it and get better. It becomes a cycle of enjoyment. Hard work and success. If you let them do that and have fun then they will let you know if they want to do it or not.”

So how do you know if you have a Michael Cuddyer, Justin Upton, Mark Reynolds or even Ryan Zimmerman on your hands? Lavelle says just check the signs. “You follow the 5 tools of baseball. Speed. Hit for average. Hit for power. Good glove and good arm.” Develop the five tools, make sure your little player is having fun and let them do the rest. You may not see your son get to the major leagues, but you and your little star   will enjoy playing a game that was meant to be fun.

So just how hungry are ODU fans for football? Hungry enough to pack Powhatan stadium just to catch a glimpse of their new team in action. Not a real game, just a scrimmage. No score was kept. No enemy team in town, just coach Bobby Wilder and his staff throwing two sides against each other. Just turn on the lights, open the gates and let the kids have some fun.

Quarterback Tommy Reamon Jr said he was surprised at all the attention the scrimmage generated. He had heard about the great fans at Old Dominion during the recruiting process, but he said it was great to see it first hand. Likewise for Ricky Nichols. ODU’s first football commitment said the crowd that came out Saturday night was just a small indication of what we will see next year when the Monarchs actually play a real game.

Yes the game was sloppy at times with defense ruling the night, but the players appreciated the chance to get away from the normal everyday practice grind. And that can be extra daunting when you consider that these players will not play a real game for another 11 months!

Quarterback Bobby Cooper had the best night out of all the QB’s. Cooper was 10 for 23 with two touchdowns and 67 yards passing. Walk on running back Jamar Parham burst through the middle and scored from 51 yards out on the first series of the scrimmage. It gave the nearly 3200 fans in attendance something to think about as they await the start of next years special season.

The team will not practice this week, but they continue to lift and run. Ah the joy of being a team in limbo. The 2009 season can’t get here soon enough.

The official start to the 2008 Norfolk Admirals hockey season is still a couple weeks away, but don’t tell the players. They’ve been training hard all summer long in hopes of advancing their careers. For the first time in years Admirals training camp opened up this week at the home barn. Not at Chilled Ponds in Chesapeake, but at Norfolk Scope. Nobody is more happy about being at Scope than the guys that tote the equipment back and forth.

Twenty nine players were invited to camp. Thirteen players are either under contract with the Admirals or the Tampa Bay Lightning. Being under contract is nice, but it doesn’t guarantee a spot on the team. So that means they have to make an impression on new head coach Darren Rumble. Rumble said that he remembers being nervous at the beginning of his early training camp days. He also said that the teams first scrimmage was a big sloppy, but that was to be expected.

This being the start of camp, the players were put through a gut wrenching, leg burning skating workout. It was easy to see which players were in shape at the end of practice when they did the “bag drill.” Fifteen laps around the nets in under 4 minutes. Not once, but twice! Made me yearn for the days when I was in training!

The new scoreboard and end zone video boards look really cool and I saw some fresh paint on the barn floor, so you Admiral fans are not going to recognize the place! Yea right! With the parting shot in place, just want to say, I’m looking forward to seeing the new team in place and working on a winning season. See you at the game.

Chris