The Mighty Red Raiders at Pisgah.

[SPRaiders78]

I’d like to say there were 8 to 10 Pisgah fans sitting on the visitors side on the scoreboard end behind us. A couple guys probably in their mid thirties brought their kids. These future BEARS were I’m guessing between 7 and 10 years old. These young men knew the names of half the Bear starting offense and a couple defensive players. They were huge fans who watched and understood the game.
I wouldn’t mind any of those folks moving to Belmont and living next door.

The adults from Canton like us agreed the coaching staff lost the game, not the kids on the field. I’ve sit around Raider fans who were much more obnoxious than these guys. I’m now a part time BEARS fan. Good luck next year PHS

 

[redraider73]

I’d like to say there were 8 to 10 Pisgah fans sitting on the visitors side on the scoreboard end behind us. A couple guys probably in their mid thirties brought their kids. These future BEARS were I’m guessing between 7 and 10 years old. These young men knew the names of half the Bear starting offense and a couple defensive players. They were huge fans who watched and understood the game.
I wouldn’t mind any of those folks moving to Belmont and living next door.

The adults from Canton like us agreed the coaching staff lost the game, not the kids on the field. I’ve sit around Raider fans who were much more obnoxious than these guys. I’m now a part time BEARS fan. Good luck next year PHS

We had the same experience with the Pisgah fans when leaving the game. All class.

 

[SPRaiders78]

I ask one of the Pisgah fans why he wasn't sitting on the home side?

His answer, I simply can bring myself to sit over there. Meaning of course, the Tuscola side.

We all had a good laugh 🤣😂🤣😂

 

[Ouduckfan]

All the Pisgah fans I encountered were really friendly, a couple of the ladies at the concession stand were especially friendly! And surprisingly had all of their teeth!

 

[bears man]

They weren’t ready for the moment…

D@$& LYNN..DA and you think yours would be .. looks like we're playing basketball.. saw a couple new faces... transfers maybe... hummmm.. I hear there's more to come..

 

[PisgahBear9975]

All the Pisgah fans I encountered were really friendly, a couple of the ladies at the concession stand were especially friendly! And surprisingly had all of their teeth!

I saw you on the top row, but I wasn’t able to go over and meet you. Glad Big Bear got to meet you though.

 

[SPRaiders78]

Maybe next time y'all can come down to Belmont. I promise there will be a welcoming committee there to greet you!

 

[Pisgah Bears]

Let’s go raiders!! Hey sea dog when you look across from the visitor side at all that red and black just know there ain’t enough teeth over there to make a pair of dentures.

Saw where another one of those coaches you guy ran off will be playing in the third round Friday.You guys run off winning coaches and winning players.The fans like you could be the problem.

 

[RealityRulz]

Saw where another one of those coaches you guy ran off will be playing in the third round Friday.You guys run off winning coaches and winning players.The fans like you could be the problem.

Happy for him, but he wasn't a winning coach then. Tuscola needs to quit hiring people with zero experience or people with 30% winning records. They have had a couple of great coaches that were run off for not playing favorites. You have to play the political game in Waynesville, you know, kiss Nolte's Pisgah ass, have incompetent Administrators make horrible Coaching hires, be nice to the 'boys', start all the business leaders kids, make sure the church in Clyde gets to run the press box, and you know, be as average as possible and put zero effort into anything. Do as little as possible, this goes for the most of the community and the Coaches hired. All are guilty. The old school people have either aged out or tired of told to do it the 'Florida way.' All Tuscola had to do was keep running Tommy Pursley's offense. That was EG's coaches mistake. People forget that Pursley won 21 games in two years with average talent and they wanted him gone because he didn't 'play by the rules.' I guarantee you they would have many more wins and a much more disciplined program still running South Point's offense. EG's coach had no scheme or game plan, same as Enka's coach and NB's x2, Freedom, and whatever team he quit on next, when he was there. Two of the three are very different and much more successful now. I think Coach Sexton has done a great job at Enka in one year and should get Conference Coach of the Year. The real issue is most of the Parent's in Waynesville are trying to get their kids to go to Private schools, where the Coaching and Academics are much better. In fairness to our below average Coach, if he had the six starters we lose a year to other schools he would have a much better chance of success. Tuscola has at least 6 to 7 D1 athletes no longer at the school. The talent that has left Tuscola for several sports has been ridiculous the last 5 years. Hats off to any Parent who tries to maximize their kids potential, no matter where they go. Different mindset in Canton, no one ever wants to leave there and go anywhere else, even for their own betterment. It is a cultural thing.

 

[seadog28]

RealityRulz, we are dealing with a similar problem. Know it all, helicopter liberals migrating in. I pray every night tradition shuts them down!

 

[strikerHHS]

I ask one of the Pisgah fans why he wasn't sitting on the home side?

His answer, I simply can bring myself to sit over there. Meaning of course, the Tuscola side.

We all had a good laugh 🤣😂🤣😂

LOL this is fantastic. Nothing but respect for that now Pisgah Legend.

 

[RealityRulz]

LOL this is fantastic. Nothing but respect for that now Pisgah Legend.

That is the correct answer too.

 

[bearfan4life]

I noticed the crowd on Pisgah's side Friday was much less than expected. Home side was about 40% full at best. I know this is a trend with a large majority of high schools as support has dwindled, especially in the past 5-10 years for many communities. I was just surprised to see so many seats empty for a 2nd round game. It was not that cold for a mountain game.

I’m not going to lie it was underwhelming I hate to be this guy to say it but I guess I’ll be the elephant. A lot of fans wouldn’t come because it was at Tuscola. Some people are gonna ridicule me for it or say that’s just an excuse but I heard it from several folks. Personally, I think that’s cheap I wasn’t overly crazy about it but the county needs the revenue and the kids deserved better from the fans. Heck just do like me and sit on the SP side. It was an impossible situation to keep all fans happy this year. I also think not having a true home game this year started taking an effect on fans more as the year went on, thank goodness the kids never seemed to blink. The crowds seemed to dwindle as the year went along, when normally a 10-1 team should have been attracting bigger crowds. I’ll admit I think it did make for a weird vibe as a fan, just something about traveling every week took away from the atmosphere or feeling of your hometowns football. If the kids wouldn’t have played with such heart I think you would have seen really bad attendance. Something similar sorta happened in 04 (also a really good team who played eventual state champion Charlotte Catholic to the last play, might be a good omen for you SP fans 😉)with the crowds. Not having a home game is just tough on everyone. Logistically getting yourself or family there for some people is hard on Friday evening after work especially when we were playing in buncombe county this year, financially (especially right now), and spirit wise. Just my two cents.

Edited to add: thank you to all the schools who loaned our program a football field and/or locker room including Tuscola. Some other schools took up money donations at our games for flood relief and all that is first class. Still a lot of great people in the world.

 

[DeBoer31]

I’m not going to lie it was underwhelming I hate to be this guy to say it but I guess I’ll be the elephant. A lot of fans wouldn’t come because it was at Tuscola. Some people are gonna ridicule me for it or say that’s just an excuse but I heard it from several folks. Personally, I think that’s cheap I wasn’t overly crazy about it but the county needs the revenue and the kids deserved better from the fans. Heck just do like me and sit on the SP side. It was an impossible situation to keep all fans happy this year. I also think not having a true home game this year started taking an effect on fans more as the year went on, thank goodness the kids never seemed to blink. The crowds seemed to dwindle as the year went along, when normally a 10-1 team should have been attracting bigger crowds. I’ll admit I think it did make for a weird vibe as a fan, just something about traveling every week took away from the atmosphere or feeling of your hometowns football. If the kids wouldn’t have played with such heart I think you would have seen really bad attendance. Something similar sorta happened in 04 (also a really good team who played eventual state champion Charlotte Catholic to the last play, might be a good omen for you SP fans 😉)with the crowds. Not having a home game is just tough on everyone. Logistically getting yourself or family there for some people is hard on Friday evening after work especially when we were playing in buncombe county this year, financially (especially right now), and spirit wise. Just my two cents.

Edited to add: thank you to all the schools who loaned our program a football field and/or locker room including Tuscola. Some other schools took up money donations at our games for flood relief and all that is first class. Still a lot of great people in the world.

Excellent post. I love what Pisgah still has there. Hope ya'll keep it up.....because there aren't many places like it left in NC and that's a shame.

 

[RealityRulz]

I feel like everyone did the best they could with an unfortunate situation. To be fair, there were many people from Waynesville who did not like the situation either. The bad part is someone needs to step up and relocate Pisgah's stadium and build a new one out of a floodplain. I realize the historical implications of closing the existing stadium, but no one should have to go through this again. You think between FEMA, insurance companies and any government agency that the right call would be made. BearFan you are correct in your post. I didn't think that was anywhere close to being one of the best Pisgah teams personnel wise, but those kids played well past their athletic abilities. Playing as a team in the current climate is a very big deal now. Especially playing with passion. Coaching matters, but playing with heart is taught at home well before they ever play sports. That is the difference between one side of the county versus the other, not in all cases, but in general.

 

[BlueVols]

I feel like everyone did the best they could with an unfortunate situation. To be fair, there were many people from Waynesville who did not like the situation either. The bad part is someone needs to step up and relocate Pisgah's stadium and build a new one out of a floodplain. I realize the historical implications of closing the existing stadium, but no one should have to go through this again. You think between FEMA, insurance companies and any government agency that the right call would be made. BearFan you are correct in your post. I didn't think that was anywhere close to being one of the best Pisgah teams personnel wise, but those kids played well past their athletic abilities. Playing as a team in the current climate is a very big deal now. Especially playing with passion. Coaching matters, but playing with heart is taught at home well before they ever play sports. That is the difference between one side of the county versus the other, not in all cases, but in general.

Honestly, Haywood County should plan and build a multi-purpose stadium with a track, artificial surface baseball & softball park, maybe even a mini-arena like Cherokee HS. Put a cross country course around the facility. Continuing to re-build athletic facilities in a flood plain is just begging for this to happen again. At some point, FEMA is going to cut the money spigot off.

Wouldn't it be nice for our track and field athletes to host a meet once in a while, instead of constantly traveling to Henderson Co. and Franklin? I'm sure our restaurants would love to have folks coming in for basketball or soccer tournaments.

Unfortunately, Haywood County leaders have never been known for long-term planning and foresight. (i.e. our current jail situation. It was only the last decade that the county commission cut a pod out of our now inadequate jail to "save money".) They short-changed both high schools 55+ years ago with aging or increasingly obsolete facilities and lack the fortitude to remedy it now.