Published: November 18, 2009 09:53 pm      

Tazewell-Graham excitement leaves lasting memories

On the ball

Remember me — I’m in the midst of withdrawal right now. Since Tazewell is now out of the playoffs, Dr. Bob Brown and I will have to wait until August 2010 to get back in the Bulldog Stadium press box. We are now officially rooting for all area teams, including our two county neighbors, the G-Men and Blue Tornado, to keep going and bring home some hardware. So many of “our” fans have again this season been gracious and complimentary, thanking us for the mention of the kids, calling a game with hometown bias to an extent but always taking care to mention players and good plays by both teams on the field, and simply enjoying being at the game with our friends.

Friday night’s game, won by Graham, was a heartbreaker in one sense but thrilling. Having worked for several years at both schools makes it easy to appreciate the winner and feel sympathy for the loser. Over the past few years these two teams have played a series of back-and-forth battles that hold the fans in suspense. Last year’s 43-14 win by Tazewell and this season’s 46-20 Graham victory are the exception and not the rule.

Close competition is an annual event. The schools are very close in size and the match ups reflect that. I hope the Bulldogs and G-Men always maintain their good relationship because the close contests where truly either team can win on any given night makes this an ideal rivalry.

Over the past couple of seasons, former Pocahontas Indian players like Brandon Pauley, Jon Corner, Chris Short, Zach Pauley, Tivo Wilborn, T.J. Salyers, and others, have enjoyed some great success in this rivalry but it was another Poca native, Tanner Howell, who took part in the game-breaking play along with GHS quarterback David Marrs the other night. Marrs’ key 31-yard pass with less than four minutes left which Howell went parallel to the ground to somehow catch set up David’s eventual game-winning TD.

Tanner’s dad, Robert, was a terrific competitor years ago at Pocahontas and No. 31 evidently has a lot of that in him, too. Uncle Tommy Howell was a state scoring champion while playing basketball at PHS a generation back and the bloodline is still producing quality players. I believe Tanner is one of the area’s top wrestlers, too, and will no doubt leap from one sport into the other. By the way, he certainly warmed a reporter’s heart by mentioning he read the paper to find out just how big that play was.

It looked like Tazewell, relying on touchdowns from seniors Lathel Mountain and Aaron McReynolds, and a crowd-pleasing conversion run by Shaquille McDonald, had the game won until that great play. All it would have taken, most likely, was bringing up fourth down and long and THS would have had a decided advantage. But big time players make big plays.

It happened several times for players on Tazewell’s side, and Graham, as well, while at the end the G-Men carried the day at crunch time. One always feels a special connection for the seniors who play so hard and then finish their career often in dramatic and heartbreaking fashion. It was that way for the THS seniors who had battled valiantly with victory seemingly in their grasp. Games which take late emotional swings are tougher on coaches, players, and fans than blowouts, as all sports people usually point out. For the winners, the last-minute style wins are the sweetest of all. Marrs has been a Dallas Cowboys fan for a while, if memory serves. His dad, Rick, likes the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Rick happened to make the statement earlier this week that America’s Team had just lost for the second time to the Cincinnati Bengals. Now Dallas, the National Team for more than 20 years, did not play Cincy this season and I am counting on David to remind his father of that slip-up at the appropriate time.