Greenwave Ready to Win State Title for LPD Community

It’s tired. It’s old. It’s such the cliché.

But ask any Clintwood football player about the team’s success this season, and chances are it’s the answer you will hear.

“Take it one game at a time,” senior running back Chris Robinson said. “We wanted to go at it one game at a time.”

“We just took it one game at a time,” agreed Heath Counts, the Greenwave’s senior quarterback.

“The biggest thing,” says head coach Rick Mullins, the final word in all things Greenwave, “is taking it one game at a time.”

Clintwood earned a second-consecutive Virginia High School League Group A, Division 1 State Championship berth on Saturday when the Greenwave walloped Holston 41-21 at Ralph Cummins Stadium.

For Clintwood fans, reaching the 2008 championship bout was the fulfillment of the pre-season pandemonium created by 12 seniors returning to a team that lost to Buffalo Gap in the 2007 state title game.

But for Clintwood (12-1) players and coaches, it was a slow climb up a steep mountain, each game serving as a new foothold in achieving the team’s three main goals: the
Lonesome Pine District Championship, the Region D Championship and the Virginia state title.

While the Greenwave began the 2007 season 4-4 amidst a series of injuries and illnesses – making them a long-shot to enter the title game – the 2008 Clintwood squad was ranked the No. 3 team in the state when the first polls were announced.

“This year,” Mullins says, “we felt like we had the pieces of the puzzle pretty much in place from the start. Anytime people call you the favorite, it means you’re pretty darn good.”

And they were.

With a healthy roster and the team’s veterans entrenched in their positions, the Greenwave won its first six games by an average score of 45 to 9.5.

When press clippings began inflating players’ egos, Mullins didn’t have to lift a finger to deflate them. Locker room justice would always prevail.

“Most of the time we kind of rag on Chris [Robinson] for the Volunteer game when he got hit pretty good,” senior linebacker Alec Osborne said. “We pick on him about that all the time. It’s funny. He gets mad every now and again about it, [but] we keep egging it on.” 

Not every obstacle could be canvassed over with locker room humor, however.

On Oct. 10, the Greenwave lost its first game of the season 28-27 to Gate City at Cummins Stadium.

“It was heartbreaking,” Robinson said. “We fought hard to win that game, and I think they just played their best against us … like it was their state title game.”

Compounding matters was the team’s looming match up with John I. Burton, the game that would all but decide Clintwood’s first goal – winning the LPD title.

After defeating J.J. Kelly 42-0 on Oct. 17, Clintwood welcomed an undefeated Burton squad to Cummins Stadium on Oct. 24. Playing in a continuous rain shower and muddied field, the Greenwave defense dominated the Raiders in a 28-13 Clintwood win.

A 67-0 win at Pound the following week wrapped up Clintwood’s first LPD championship since 1999.

But there were still whispers.

The swampy conditions against Burton, some around the LPD said, had negated the Raiders’ team speed. When the two teams met again on the artificial turf at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise stadium in the Region D Championship, the outcome would flip-flop.

“We played on the same field,” says Robinson, who rushed for 232 yards and three touchdowns in the Nov. 24 win. “We deserved a lot more respect [for beating Burton] than we got.”

After the Greenwave defeated Thomas Walker in the first round of the playoffs, they matched up again with Burton, this time at UVa.-Wise for the Region D Championship.

The score was closer at 22-19, but the end result was the same.

Clintwood defeated Burton to lay claim to yet another 2008 season goal – the Region D Championship.

And after thumping Holston on Saturday, the Greenwave now have a clear path to their season summit: the school’s first state football championship since 1978.

All they need to do is defeat Franklin this Saturday at 12 p.m. in Salem, Va.

“My junior year we lost [in the state championship game],” Robinson said. “Our seniors got a second chance. Very few people get second chances. We have to win it this year.”

And if they do, says the senior runner, they’ll be bringing home the hardware not only for their hometown, but for the whole LPD.

“All the teams around us – Pound, Appalachia, whoever – believe the state championship should be here,” he said. “It’s the LPD. It’s for everybody in the whole region.”

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