Dogwood District's balance of power in state of flux

At the start of this season, Appomattox second-year coach Ben Martin anticipated there would be five legitimate contenders in the seven-team Dogwood District race.

Two obvious candidates were Gretna and William Campbell, which have won the last nine district titles, capturing six state championships in the past seven seasons.

The rest included the Raiders, who last won a district title more than 10 years ago, Altavista which last made the regional playoffs nearly 20 years ago, and Dan River.

After the Raiders (7-2, 4-1 Dogwood) upset Gretna 28-26 last week to move into a tie with Altavista (8-1, 4-1) — a half-game ahead of the Hawks (6-2, 3-1) — atop the Dogwood standings, two of the dark horses have become frontrunners.

“William Campbell and Gretna have dominated for so long and now you’re seeing other programs narrowing that gap between them and everyone else,” said Martin, whose team travels to Dan River tonight for a key contest starting at 7. “The district’s about as even as it’s ever been.”

Both Gretna and William Campbell are under the direction of new coaches — former Generals coach Kevin Saunders replaced Chris Thurman at the helm of the Hawks while Dwayne Hamlette, who once played for Saunders at William Campbell, took over for his mentor Brad Bradley in Naruna.

But Martin said those changes didn’t cause the district shakeup.

“Being at the (Group) single A level, everybody goes in cycles,” he said. “Sometimes your up and sometimes you’re down. It seems like the Dogwood is a constant cycle of good teams.”

Martin said Altavista, which hasn’t had a winning season since finishing 6-4 in 1999, has made an amazing transformation since the time he served as an assistant coach there from 2000 to 2003.

“Coach (Mike) Scharnus has definitely brought some excitement to the football program over there,” Martin said of the second-year coach who previously guided Rustburg to a Group AA, Division 3, state title in 2000. “I used to coach at Altavista and at one point, we were down to maybe 17 kids on the varsity team. For him to take the program from that point to where they are now — they’re No. 1 in the Division 1 rankings — he’s done an outstanding job with those kids. To be able to bring it back up to where it is now, at that time was unimaginable.”

Saunders believes the Hawks are still the favorites, noting they currently are rated No. 1 in Region B, Division 2, as their season-opening loss at Liberty Christian Academy doesn’t count in the VHSL power points formula.

“I don’t know if it’s a shift in power,” he said of the Dogwood competition. “Gretna’s always right there. We’re still in first place. We haven’t gone anywhere.”

But the Raiders and Colonels have proven themselves to be formidable postseason players.

Appomattox finished 8-3 in each of the past two years, losing only to Gretna and William Campbell in the regular season before falling — to Gretna and Clarke County, respectively — in the first round of the Region B, Division 2, playoffs.

If the season were over today, the Raiders would travel to Gretna for a rematch of the 2007 regional semifinal against the Hawks, a 55-0 setback.

“Most likely, you’re going to have to face Gretna if you want to get out of the region,” Martin said. “Even last year, if we would have won that first round, we would have faced Gretna again.”

“We’d like to play them again,” Saunders added.

Martin said defeating teams like the Hawks and Generals — as Altavista did last week and Appomattox accomplished on Oct. 9 — for the first time was a psychological hurdle.

“When you have teams like William Campbell and Gretna that have stayed on top for so long, playing them is more of a mental challenge than a physical one,” he said.

He has stressed the physical in the offseason and the mental in pre-game preparations.

“Last year, neither one of those games (against the Generals or Hawks) were competitive,” Martin said. “That was our selling point. They were so much more physical and stronger than we were. We told them they had to get in the weight room in the offseason and get stronger and faster. That’s what’s helped us this year.”

The same has been true for the Colonels, who gained confidence through conditioning which has translated to success on the field.

“No doubt, the players have bought into commitment to the weight room and it’s showing the dividends,” Scharnus said.

Scharnus has emphasized finishing well this fall, after the Colonels started 5-1 last season and ended up 5-5.

“We started out strong last year and fizzled at the end,” he said. “Our goal at the beginning of the year was to finish games stronger and finish the season stronger and so far we’re doing that. We had to learn how to win some big games and we’ve done that.”

Altavista is off today before closing its regular season against Nelson County, which is winless in the Dogwood District after giving Chatham its first district win in overtime last week.

“We’ve really been focused on the next game,” Scharnus said. “We don’t need to get excited yet. We’re really focused in on next week’s opponent.”

Saunders said Gretna, which dealt Altavista its only loss this season, 22-0, is still in the driver’s seat.

“We still have have a shot at the district title and home-field advantage in the regional playoffs,” he said. “We have to win out. The kids know what’s at stake. We’ve just got to win. We can’t control anything else, only what we do.”