Greenbrier East’s football team ended the season Friday, Nov. 4, with a 58-14 loss to Spring Valley, the no. 2 team in the state. Coach Ray Lee’s comments about the game, and the season: “Playing the no. 2 team in the state was an experience. They were a good football team. When I say outmanned, we were outmanned by 100 pounds per player. Our guys never quit playing; they played right up until the end. We had a few bright spots, being ahead near the end of the first quarter. We were going to make them run after us, it was working for a while. We had two touchdowns called back. It was hard-fought football game, that’s not taking anything away from them, they’re not no. 2 in the state by accident. A skilled football team. Big in the trenches, their line on both sides of the ball was big. They had enough players so they didn’t have to play people both ways.”
East actually led Spring Valley with three minutes left in the first quarter, 8-7. But at that point the offensive explosion began, with Spring Valley scoring twice at the end of the quarter, and then lighting it up for 29 points in the second quarter, to take a 43-8 lead at the half. The size and speed took their toll, as did the number of players on the sideline. Spring Valley has a lot of young men trying out for their team.
“They have built the program over a period of years. When you see schools like that, you want to eventually get to where you have that many kids out, and that many players out, where you can actually run a platoon system,” said Lee.
“It was a good season, considering what we lost from last year’s team, the number of seniors we lost from last year, and playing a number of young players this year. We played a lot of freshmen, a lot of sophomores. I felt like we ended up having a decent season at 4-6. You always want to have a winning season, but to salvage a season like we did, we had a chance of making the playoffs if we had beat the no. 2 team in the state. That’s a huge if. I’m proud of our guys, just the work and the dedication they put in. Keep coming, keep fighting.
“We’ve had a drought, in all of the years that we’ve been here, last year going to the playoffs for the first time in 17 years, now is the time to build that culture, that winning tradition, it’s going to take everybody. Not just one or two people who support the program, it takes everybody to get behind these young men and let them know they have the support of the whole community. If we’re going to change the athletic culture around here, everybody has to be positive and everybody’s got to support each other,” said Lee.
Greenbrier East will hold winter workouts for the 2017 season beginning in mid-January.
