The brand new Southern Gap High School Eagles Coaches

I am fascinated by Virginia geography, but I don't know this area at all. I guess I have a hard time visualizing four high schools being combined in to one. Will there be cases where kids will have to travel extra long or extra treacherous distances to get to this new school? I am sure they will love the concept of having a new school and probably won't mind at all, but it just sounds challenging. Assuming that all four schools were Class A, what classification will this new school be?

longtimerhsfan25 said:

I am fascinated by Virginia geography, but I don't know this area at all. I guess I have a hard time visualizing four high schools being combined in to one. Will there be cases where kids will have to travel extra long or extra treacherous distances to get to this new school? I am sure they will love the concept of having a new school and probably won't mind at all, but it just sounds challenging. Assuming that all four schools were Class A, what classification will this new school be?

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Travel times for some will be 45 minutes and if you get behind a coal truck and add some snow, then you're over an hour One Way. Southern Gap will combine from 4 very small Class 1 schools and will have borderline low Class 3/high Class 2 numbers. The school will be Class 2, but probably in the top 3 largest Class 2 schools in the state when it opens. The population in far SWVA continues to drop and in 5 years, Southern Gap will be an average size Class 2 school.

These are tough people and have lived in difficult economic conditions for decades and they know hardship. A 45 or 50 minute bus ride for them is just another day and they know how to overcome.

Thanks for the input. It will be interesting to see how they compete against Graham, Richlands, Tazewell, etc. assuming those will be their rivals.

longtimerhsfan25 said:

Thanks for the input. It will be interesting to see how they compete against Graham, Richlands, Tazewell, etc. assuming those will be their rivals.

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In wrestling, they will dominate the SWD and compete well against every team in the district in every sport (Richlands, Va High, Marion, Lebanon, Tazewell), with the exception of Graham in football and basketball. The largest school of the 4 combining is Grundy. Grundy's old home before they had signifcant population losses and once a Div 4/Class 4 school before steadily dropping to Class 1......was the Southwest District. Grundy was a longtime member of the Southwest and in one sense, Southern Gap (largely Grundy) is coming back home with a new name and some additional kids from the county.

At one time many years ago, Grundy was solid in sports. Had guys like Cary and JK Perkins and was some kind of force in the 70s, 80s and 90s until population decline hurt them.