At 5,729 feet above sea level and straddling the Grayson County-Smyth County line, Mount Rogers is the highest peak in Virginia.
Saturday, the Grayson County High School football team will try to scale the top of the mountain in the VHSL Class 1 ranks with a band of brothers leading the ascent.
Who makes Grayson go? Try senior Mac Goad and his identical twin brothers, juniors Maverik and Makray Goad.
The Goad brothers combined to score all six touchdowns last Saturday in a 40-34 road victory over Rye Cove in a state semifinal where the lead changed hands three times in the final 4 minutes, 18 seconds of the game.
Maverik Goad’s 1-yard run with 27 seconds remaining erased a 34-33 deficit and moved Grayson into its first state final in school history. The Blue Devils, sporting a 10-3 record in 2024, will face 2023 Class 1 runner-up Essex (13-1) in an 11:30 a.m. championship game at Salem Stadium.
“It’s obviously going to be a great atmosphere,” Grayson County coach Stephen James said during a break in preparation for the biggest game in the in the 37-year history of the consolidated school. “You hope it doesn’t overwhelm them. The way they’ve approached everything, it’s kind of workmanlike. Hopefully they’re not going to get too bright-eyed when they come out of that locker room right before kickoff.”
For most of Saturday’s semifinal against Rye Cove, it appeared that the Blue Devils would be spending this weekend back in Grayson, where most of the county’s athletic success has been owned by nearby private-school basketball powerhouse Oak Hill Academy.
Grayson County trailed 28-13 after Rye Cove scored a touchdown on the opening play of the fourth quarter.
However, the Blue Devils responded with three TDs in less than seven minutes for a 33-28 lead that was quickly erased by a Rye Cove TD with 2:10 to play.
Grayson’s final answer was a 1-yard run by Maverik Goad that earned the Blue Devils their ticket to Salem.
The Goad brothers combined for 355 yards total offense and all 40 points scored.
Maverik, a 5-foot-11, 165-pound junior, completed 14 of 24 passes for 283 yards and four TDs. He ran for 66 yards and two scores on eight carries. Mac (6-1, 175, sr.) caught seven passes for 150 yards and three touchdowns. Makray (5-10, 165, jr.) had four receptions for 65 yards and a TD while rushing for 6 yards and a two-point conversion.
The production came as no great shock to their head coach.
“All those guys are very good competitors. They work hard at it,” James said. “Maverik, this past summer, didn’t miss a single workout. He missed some vacations just because he wanted to stay here and work out and work on his quarterback [skills].”
The only real surprise is that all three Goad brothers have made it to the finish line in one piece.
Makray was a freshman quarterback in 2022 until suffering a concussion.
“They kind of told him that maybe he shouldn’t be playing, then about midway through the year last year he decided to go ahead and come back,” James said. “It ended up helping us last year late in the season.”
That Mac Goad is playing now seems nothing short of miraculous.
The Grayson County senior detailed a lengthy medical history over the past three years that has included knee surgery, a broken leg, a broken thumb and a ruptured kidney.
He underwent a procedure called a Medial Patellofemoral Reconstruction during his sophomore year to correct some knee problems. During a 2022 playoff game victory over Galax he broke his thumb and “didn’t tell anybody,” James said.
Mac Goad went in for an X-ray the following day. He had been bothered by what he believed was a strained calf. The doctors checked that too. When the results were read, Mac was in for a surprise.
“They said, ‘Well, do you know you have a broken leg?’ ” Mac said.
He navigated the 2024 season unscathed until he said he “twisted funny” catching a touchdown pass in a midseason game against Bluefield (W.Va.). Then while making a tackle during a game against George Wythe, he said his kidney ruptured.
“It was some of the worst pain I’ve had,” he said. “My kidney had so much fluid it was like a water balloon.”
Mac Goad said he received clearance from a doctor and permission from his parents to continue playing during his history-making senior year. He missed just one full week with the injury and took the field only to hold for Makray’s PAT kicks in the next game.
While Grayson boasts a solid run game led by Aaron Peterson’s 1,179 yards and 15 TDs this season, the Goad brothers are on center stage.
Occasionally, James says he has to tone down the act.
“Sometimes I’ve got to tell them to shut up with each other because, you know, they’re brothers and they act like it sometimes,” the coach said. “They’ve got advice for each other a lot of times.”
“We definitely argue sometimes, but that’s just our nature trying to make each other better,” Maverick said. “It’s a joy playing with them.”
“It’s definitely fun,” Mac said. “You have the bond out there that you’ve had since you were little, doing things together.”
The communities of Independence and Fries had to learn to get along after decades as rivals.
Grayson County High has operated since 1988, although the consolidation between Independence and Fries did not fully take place until the following year. Fries remained a high school through the 1988-89 school year and actually played Grayson County in football in ’88 with the Blue Devils winning 27-0.
Grayson County has employed just three head football coaches: Bill “Bird-Eye” Strong from 1988-2005, Brett McPherson from 2006-2000 and James for the past four seasons.
Strong also coached Independence High in its final 10 seasons. Grayson County’s playing surface is named “Bill Strong Field.”
Yet postseason football success has been limited to a school primarily known for its baseball program. Grayson County has hardware from two only two state championships in the school’s trophy case: Group A baseball in 1997 and Group A girls tennis in 1990.
The Blue Devils have 12 victories and 25 losses in playoff football games. Seven of those triumphs have during James’ brief tenure as Grayson has posted 10-win seasons in each of the past three seasons.
Grayson County’s three losses this year have been to a pair of out-of-state opponents — 21-20 to Alleghany (N.C.) and 21-18 to Princeton (W.Va.) — and 22-18 to Class 3 Carroll County.
Not all of Grayson’s hurdles have been on the football field.
Hurricane Helene hit Southwest Virginia hard on Sept. 27, and Grayson County was hit harder than most. According to a Virginia Tech report from the Virginia Cooperative Extension Agents, the country suffered $61 million in agricultural losses, roughly 38 percent of the state’s total.
The storm closed Grayson County Public Schools for two weeks. Parts of U.S. Highway 21 were destroyed, closing the road for three weeks.
“Here at the school it wasn’t extremely terrible, but good Lord, the county there was a lot of bad places,” James said. “When [Route] 21 went out, obviously all our kids on that side going to Wytheville, it added about 35 minutes to get to school. A lot of other places there were roads, of course damage from trees. We didn’t have power in a lot of places for five or six days.”
Grayson County has made a significant investment in its football program. During James’ brief tenure, the school system has installed an artificial turf field and a small, turf-covered indoor practice area.
“We love it,” Mac Goad said. “The community’s great. The school’s great.”
James, who was an assistant at George Wythe High in Wytheville during the COVID-delayed 2019-20 season, said he believed Grayson County could compete statewide in Class 1 football. The Blue Devils are near the top of Class 1 in enrollment with 336 students currently in grades 10 through 12. Grayson is competitive in the Mountain Empire District, which has produced a VHSL state finalist in the last six seasons.
“We thought there was potential over here,” the Grayson coach said. “Playing in our district is obviously a tough matchup year-in, year-out.”
James has coached a previous state semifinalist. His 2013 Fort Chiswell High team reached the Class 1 semis before losing 38-13 at Essex. It was the final game at Fort Chiswell for James, who left Wythe County for the coaching vacancy at Pulaski County.
And just who did James replace at Pulaski? None other than current Essex coach Todd Jones.
Jones spent four seasons as Pulaski County’s head coach from 2010-13, with James leading the Cougars for six years from 2014-19.
Jones led Essex to the 2009 Division 1 championship with a 30-0 victory over Radford and was on the losing end of last year’s 7-6 loss to Galax when Maroon Tide freshman Yandel Vera bounced a 42-yard field goal over the crossbar with 12 seconds left in the game.
The Goad brothers watched last year’s game from home on the NFHS livestream, but the intensity crackled nonetheless.
“It’s going to be exciting, nerve-wracking, all types different emotions,” Mac said. “I think we’re ready. We’re going to go down there and play our hearts out.
“It’s going to be a really cool experience,” Makray said. “It’s going to be something we’ve never done before. It will be nice to do it with the brothers.”
Maverik spoke for all his teammates and a Grayson County fanbase that has waited a long time for Saturday.
“I think a lot of players here just want to get to that point and get the game going,” he said.
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