The first day of official Virginia High School League fall sports is scheduled for Monday, August 25, but the Lord Botetourt football team can’t wait that long. The Cavaliers have a regular season game this Saturday.
Lord Botetourt has replaced all five of the non-district games with new opponents from last year’s schedule. In doing so the Cavaliers had a hard time matching up five opponents for the first five weeks so LB petitioned the VHSL to play a game this Saturday against Rye Cove. Their request was granted and the Cavaliers will meet the Eagles Saturday at 7 p.m. at Emory & Henry University’s Nicewonder Field in Emory, Va.
The game has some meaning for both teams. Lord Botetourt coach Jamie Harless is a graduate of Emory & Henry and most of the Rye Cove coaches are also E&H graduates.
“Their defensive coordinator was my line coach at Emory,” said Harless.
The Eagles are Class 1, the smallest VHSL classification with about 230 students, as compared to LB’s student body of over 1,000. However, Harless isn’t taking this game lightly as Rye Cove has a strong football tradition. The Eagles were 13-1 last year and went all the way to the state semifinals before losing to Grayson County, 40-34.
Lord Botetourt comes into the opener having played just one scrimmage. The Cavaliers scrimmaged New Kent at Hampden-Sydney College on August 9, but last week’s scheduled scrimmage with Dobyns-Bennett was cancelled. Harless doesn’t mind the early opening date. In fact, he welcomes it.
“I think it’s great,” he said. “I’ve been an advocate of starting the season earlier. We’ll have two open dates this year, on September 5 and October 3.”
Lord Botetourt will be at Rustburg when everyone else opens, on August 29. The Cavaliers don’t have a home game until September 12 when Altavista visits Daleville.
James River will open at Auburn on August 29. The Knights had their first scrimmage last Friday night when they went up against Craig County in New Castle.
“I thought we performed well,” said first year River coach Jack Baker. “We moved the football for most of the night and we gave a good effort.”
Photos by Brian Hoffman
River’s second scrimmage will be this Friday when the Knights travel to Nelson County.
Both the River and LB volleyball teams were scheduled to have home scrimmages on Tuesday of this week. Both will open the season next Tuesday, August 26, as James River hosts Liberty High and Lord Botetourt is at Abingdon.
The high school cross country season won’t open until Thursday, August 28. Both the LB and James River teams will be running in the “Bengal Clash” at the Smith River Complex in Axton, hosted by Bassett High School.
Look for previews of the high school football, volleyball and cross country teams in a special section of The Fincastle Herald next week.
