Bristol Herald Courier
Southwest Virginia has lost a coaching icon.
Former John Battle, Christiansburg and Powell Valley High School football coach Phil Robbins passed away on Sunday at the age of 81.
Robbins won seven state football titles while helming the gridiron program at Powell Valley to go along with a pair of track and field champions while leading the Vikings.
A former quarterback at McMinn County High School in Athens, Tennessee, Robbins later played both football and baseball in college at Emory & Henry.
The son of a reverend – Wilbur Robbins – Phil had a different career calling.
After a four-year stint as an assistant coach on Roy Miller’s staff at Patrick Henry, Robbins was hired to take over the program at John Battle in June 1971.
He went just 15-42-3 in six seasons at the helm of the Trojans and when he resigned the headline in the Bristol Herald Courier read, “Robbins resigns at Battle, hopes to remain in coaching.”
Well, he would stay in coaching and become one of the best in Virginia High School League history.
After going 32-28-1 at the helm of Christiansburg from 1977-1982 and leading the Blue Demons to the program’s first playoff berth in 1981, he was hired at Powell Valley in 1982 and the course of Southwest Virginia football history changed forever.
Just check out his first play call at Powell Valley, which came against the Jonesville Bulldogs in 1982.
“We ran a bootleg pass. We started to the right, came back and bootlegged it left,” Robbins said in a 2010 interview. “We had Dennis Blagg at quarterback and he hit Wayne Gilley for a 17-yard gain. … That was kind of the gist of what it was. I still remember that.”
Robbins went 268-81 at Powell Valley from 1983 until the school’s final football season in the fall of 2010. That included state titles in 1985, 1989, 1990, 1994, 1995, 1997 and 1998.
His Powell Valley teams played in some of the most memorable games ever contested in the coalfields of Southwest Virginia and his 1998 squad is considered by many as the best prep football squad to ever take the field in these parts.
NFL running backs Thomas Jones and Julius Jones were the most famous players who called Robbins coach, but he produced countless college standouts over the course of his career and many guys who got into coaching because of Robbins.
“Phil Robbins had a confidence about him that I particularly loved,” Former Powell Valley running back/linebacker Matt McCoy said in a 2007 interview with the Bristol Herald Courier. “His talks in the locker room before the games made you want to run through a wall. He would have us so mentally dialed in we felt we could beat a college team.”
Robbins also guided the Vikings to state track and field titles in 1994 and 2002. There were also numerous individual champs he mentored.
Big Stone Gap became his home as he remained there from being hired to lead Powell Valley in 1983 until the end of his life.
“One of the first things when I came down here, someone said, ‘What’s the difference?’ ” Robbins said in a 2009 interview with this newspaper. “I said, ‘Well, I can name you the five people standing at the fence when we made the playoffs in Christiansburg. Down here, you’re looking more at naming the five people who weren’t there.’ ”
Robbins was known for his candid assessments and outspoken opinions as he didn’t mince words.
“Coach Robbins wore his heart on his sleeve,” Jake Stepp, the quarterback on Powell Valley’s 1998 powerhouse, said in a 2017 interview. “Whatever he was feeling he was going to let you know. If you were doing well, he would pat you on the back and when things weren’t going according to his liking you knew about it. … What set him apart was his ability to adjust on the fly. When things weren’t working how he planned we were immediately moving on to something else.”
Robbins remained active in the community following his retirement and had spent the past few years helping out with the football team at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise.
Phil Robbins Field was christened last year at famed Bullitt Park, home of the Union Bears. That’s the school that was born after Powell Valley and Appalachia consolidated in the fall of 2011.
The Robbins name also remains in coaching.
The youngest of Phil and Patty Robbins’ three kids, Brad, is the offensive coordinator at the University of Tulsa and Phil Robbins proudly watched his son put on quite a performance on Friday in a 19-12 upset win at Oklahoma State.