Marty Gordon
Contributing writer
Growing up in Blacksburg, Eddie Sloss was offensive lineman on several outstanding teams for the Bruins. He had even been assistant coach under one of the state’s greats in Dave Crist.
Eddie Sloss brings enthusiasm to the Blacksburg High School sidelines this year as head coach. He is a former Blacksburg assistant that spent the past four years as the head man at Carroll County High School.
But his journey took a different route four years ago when he was named the head coach at Carroll County High School.
Sloss endured the battle of convincing youngsters who drove almost 30 minutes to attend the Hillsville school to play football. There was also the underlying responsibility many of those same kids were growing up on a farm, which placed a heavy burden on them to work after school.
Sloss and his wife both had worked in the Montgomery County school system. But because of the long drive to Carroll, they packed up their bags and moved south, visiting family back here in the New River Valley during their free time.
Twice, Carroll seemed on the verge of putting together winning ways. Then there came the decision to play in the Three Rivers District, one comprised of 1A schools while Carroll was still 5A classified because of student enrollment.
At one time, Carroll had the largest enrollment in southwest Virginia.
The move to the Three Rivers District did allowed the school to cut down on travel. There was also the fact that the new affiliation brought back several natural rivalries for the school in the form of Galax and Grayson County.
School administrators said it was tough to draw a crowd for a home game. They had hoped the move to Three Rivers would help with that.
The crowds rose slightly but the wins did not. When the opportunity opened back in Blacksburg, Sloss was the first one to apply. The bottom line was that Blacksburg was home.
“I’m very blessed and fortunate to be in this position. I’m surrounded by people that I’ve coached with before and that have even coached me back in the 80s,” he said.
Sloss played both sides of the line as a player at Blacksburg and had brief stint for the Roanoke Rush semi-pro football team after attending Radford University, which did not field a football team.
But he knew his love of the game was in the coaching profession. He had times as an assistant at both Blacksburg and Christiansburg high schools where he learned the true concept of football on Friday nights.
“Blacksburg is home, and I’m glad to be back. Blacksburg is a special place,” Sloss said recently.
He takes over a program at Blacksburg that has had a lot of success over the past two seasons including a state 3A title in 2016. He believes that success will continue as he steps into the role as head coach.
Blacksburg opens its season Aug. 24 against Giles High School, a team Sloss knows well from his playing days.
This time, he will be making the decisions from the sidelines as head coach of the Bruins.
