By Brian Hoffman
The Glenvar football team will host James River this Friday for the annual battle for the Virginia Media Rocking Chair. The Highlanders are looking to keep the colorfully painted chair that has been residing in the Glenvar High library.
Virginia Media includes the Fincastle Herald and Salem Times-Register newspapers, covering both participants, and it’s been an annual right since Glenvar left the Pioneer District for the Three Rivers in 1996. The two teams had been big rivals in the Pioneer and it added a little incentive to the game, even though the two teams were no longer district rivals.
Well, it’s 26 years later and the two teams are district rivals again, as James River has since joined Glenvar in the tough Three Rivers. Now the chair has even more meaning, as the game counts in the district record and is often a key source for points in the Virginia High School League playoff system.
The Knights haven’t had the chair since 2013, when they beat Glenvar 27-20. The Highlanders have an overall edge of 18-7 in the 25 previous years the rocker has been on the line. There have been several chairs since the initial rocker, and Glenvar bought a very sturdy chair and put a new paint scheme on it prior to the 2019 season, with all the scores from the past 25 years painted on the chair. It’s painted red, black, green and gold to represent both schools.
The Highlanders won last year’s game at James River in a thriller, 24-21, in a game played on Monday night after the first meeting was postponed. The Knights would like to return the chair to Springwood for the first time in nine years, as no one on this year’s team has ever sat in it. “Our kids don’t really know much about the rocking chair, the series is so lopsided in their favor at this point the rivalry has sort of faded,” said River coach Tim Jennings. “We don’t really even talk about it to be honest. We focus on trying to get the best game plan together and then just get better.
“Glenvar is the standard in the district, and so our goal is to try to emulate that as much as we can, but you have to be competitive to do that. We lost a close one last year so we’re hoping to be in a position to get over that hump on Friday. The Rocking Chair would only be an added bonus.”
Likewise, the Highlanders would like to keep the chair as they’ve become somewhat attached to it.
“We want to keep the chair but it’s more important to just win the game,” said Clifford. “This is a huge game for us. It’s a rivalry game and a Three Rivers game and we want to be 2-0 in the district.”
Glenvar opened district play in Hillsville last Friday with a 42-14 win over Carroll County. The Highlanders pounded the Cavaliers into submission with a relentless ground attack as Elijah Carter rushed 19 times for 258 yards and four touchdowns, averaging 13 and a half yards per carry. Jackson Swanson ran three times for 83 yards and a score, Jake Stanley had 42 yards on 10 attempts and Nick Woodson had eight carries for 40 yards.
Glenvar didn’t really need to pass, but for good measure Brody Dawyot was four for seven for 83 yards, hitting Swanson twice, Carter once and Woodson once.
On defense Jack Camper led the Highlanders with nine tackles. Dawson Anderson had seven tackles and an interception, Lucas Birdlebough had five tackles and a sack and Ty Bolling had a pick six.
With the win Glenvar is now 3-2 after dropping their first two games, and the Jayvee team also won last week, 40-0.
This week will be Homecoming to add to the festivities. Clifford is hoping the Homecoming Queen has a nice seat to rock in when she visits the library next week.