High School

One team comes from the coalfields, the other from a mill town. One is known primarily for its size and power, the other for its speed and quick-strike ability. One has a winning tradition dating back for generations, the other is treading on entirely new ground.

Yet Clintwood and Galax are linked by one common thread – having spent few Friday night hours in friendly downtown Independence this fall.

Well, that and the fact that they’ll meet one another in the state championship game Saturday.

If one thing stands out about Lonesome Pine District football in general, it is the tradition.

From the athletic tape on the front of each Clintwood player’s helmet scrawled with ‘LPD PRIDE’ to the fact that the official Clintwood roster includes the names and numbers of former players who have had their numbers retired, all the way back to 1949, to the fact that the school has had all of three head football coaches since 1953, it’s just a football culture to be found in the pocket communities that dot Virginia’s far-southwest mountains.

HILLSVILLE –– As the first light snow of the season was falling outside the Carroll County gym Tuesday evening, the first shots of the basketball season weren’t. But despite what could be one of Carroll’s better offensive teams in years managing just 35 points, Emily Hiatt sank the two that mattered.

Hiatt’s slashing layup with less than five seconds to play spelled the difference as the Cavaliers opened their 2011-12 season with a 35-33 nondistrict win over Patrick County.

 EMORY –– Former Galax High School volleyball standout Jamie Cockerham has been named to the Old Dominion Athletic Conference’s second-team all-conference squad, ODAC officials announced recently. The all-ODAC teams are selected by the league’s 11 head coaches.