2006.06.10
Titans win girls' soccer title
Hidden Valley's girls' soccer team beat Charlottesville for the Group AA championship, 3-2, joining the James River softball team as the lone Timesland teams (or individuals) to win state titles this weekend at Radford University.
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The paper’s June 10, 2006, article by Jim Reedy (Round 4 Goes to Hidden Valley) and the June 11, 2006 article by Andee Sears (Titans Tackle Title) seemed to highlight the personal tragedies of Marie Pelzer of Blacksburg and Emily Perrin of Charlottesville respectively. Hidden Valley’s accomplishments, unfortunately, got short changed in this process. They were not balanced articles. You need to do a better job of reporting the sports news and less on looking for the personal angel in every story. The young ladies of Hidden Valley did an outstanding job. They were aggressive, they were focused and they won the title. Where was that in your paper?
Comment by Hidden Valley Supporter — June 11, 2006 @ 8:53 am
Very disappointing Roanoke Times coverage/reporting of the Lady Titans district, regional, and state soccer run this spring. While starting the season with some inconsistencies,(and injuries)the ladies put their game in order when they needed to and brought a state championship to southwestern VA that we should all be proud of. An over-all record of 19-2-4 indicates clearly that the state championship was no fluke--the ladies won every game they had to win; and won them in convincing style (while the state semi-final win against Blacksburg was 1-0, Blacksburg did not really threaten the HV goal and a large part of the game was played in BB's half). Wins against Salem, Cave Spring, Blacksburg, Liberty (Seminole District Champs), and Charlottesville (21-0 until the loss to HV) were all quality wins against quality teams. I find it perplexing that this paper kept trying to find reasons why HV's opponents lost rather than giving credit to the team that outplayed them. The Roanoke Times did a poor job. You are right up there with the local Fox station. I'll keep an eye out for your important upcoming stories of Elvis' return to earth in an alien spaceship and front page story of the cat-in-the tree rescue. Congratulations to a very talented group of young ladies (and coach Lax) who knew what it meant to play as a "team" and to play with confidence and heart when no one else apperared to believe in them (except their parents and supporters). Victory is always the sweetest revenge.
Comment by HV Soccer Fan — June 12, 2006 @ 11:34 am