Bleedred4life said:

Understood. The days of the mass crowds are gone. Personally, I'd like to see more student interest at the games. The big question is, how do you increase the population at games and not have the bad behavior. I think that Ridge has a pretty good thing going, from what I remember, they have always had good crowds. (I have memories of watching a game, as a young kid, from the sidelines because there was no room in the bleachers.) Alco has a few other issues that they need to address. Hopefully, brighter days are in the not-too-distant future. Fort Hill has something special going on. Alkire, Shook, and company have a once in a lifetime thing going on and kids should really be doing everything that they can to be part of this experience. OK, I got off topic a little. The older I get, the more this happens! Sorry.

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Something I've noticed when watching video of teams from downstate, many seem to have much more student involvement. Could possibly be because the rivalry has been so one sided over the last decade plus.

Understood. The days of the mass crowds are gone. Personally, I'd like to see more student interest at the games. The big question is, how do you increase the population at games and not have the bad behavior. I think that Ridge has a pretty good thing going, from what I remember, they have always had good crowds. (I have memories of watching a game, as a young kid, from the sidelines because there was no room in the bleachers.) Alco has a few other issues that they need to address. Hopefully, brighter days are in the not-too-distant future. Fort Hill has something special going on. Alkire, Shook, and company have a once in a lifetime thing going on and kids should really be doing everything that they can to be part of this experience. OK, I got off topic a little. The older I get, the more this happens! Sorry.

Bleedred4life said:

Wow! That will really increase the numbers at the gate.

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At this point you almost have to ask what numbers. Except for the Allegany game is there ever more than friends and family at the game...of course that's not counting the band. Without the band it truly would feel like a funeral. It is truly sad that local football has died in terms of fan support. Please don't try and excuse this by talking about the population. I'm not talking the 5,000 or more that were regular back in the day...I'm talking about 1,000 people for a town of 18,000 and basically two high schools doesn't seem unrealistic.

Wow! That will really increase the numbers at the gate.

bigdawgrefwmd said:

anyone else think it's crazy FH games starting at 6:30? I mean for years kickoff was 7:30 and then they went to 7pm and now even earlier, I would think that will also kill the gate

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All Friday games in Allegany and Garrett County are 6:30. It's the New World Order of Fear and Safety. More fences being built too. Kids must be with an adult at all times, etc.

anyone else think it's crazy FH games starting at 6:30? I mean for years kickoff was 7:30 and then they went to 7pm and now even earlier, I would think that will also kill the gate

Waggle Pass said:

Is North expecting to be strong this year (or next?) Just trying to figure why they would want to schedule FH especially with what FH will have coming back.

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Everybody makes the playoffs. FH is good, but you can always count on 6-8 kids having to play both ways. Same with Bridgeport.

TDHelmick said:

Ironically, FH will host North Hagerstown that same weekend Alco will host Keyser. What I didn't realize was that FH has played North Hagerstown 64 times since their first meeting in 1936 (the year FH opened). That includes the years there was only one Hagerstown school prior to them splitting into North and South in 1957.

No one has played more football games against FH other than Alco and Martinsburg.

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Is North expecting to be strong this year (or next?) Just trying to figure why they would want to schedule FH especially with what FH will have coming back.

Ironically, FH will host North Hagerstown that same weekend Alco will host Keyser. What I didn't realize was that FH has played North Hagerstown 64 times since their first meeting in 1936 (the year FH opened). That includes the years there was only one Hagerstown school prior to them splitting into North and South in 1957.

No one has played more football games against FH other than Alco and Martinsburg.

westernMD said:

I'm surprised the oldest rivalry in the area wasn't given the Friday night spot. Usually, the local matchups are given priority.

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Keyser is not considered a local priority team anymore when it comes to area teams playing each other. So they would no longer get Friday precedence. They used to get Friday precedence when they played both Alco and FH.

Northern and Southern are quite frequently reduced to Thur or Sat games at Greenway. Those are true local WestMac schools who play both Alco and FH. Week 1 Alco gets the Friday slot hosting Hollidaysburg while Northern will have to play FH on Saturday for both team's opener. So even the true local teams don't get priority when sharing the field.

Mountain Ridge is guaranteed to be a Friday game. Sharing a stadium has an unwritten policy that both Alco and FH work out fairly well. When both share an even number of home games on the same week, they split them down the middle. One team gets a Friday and the other gets a Friday. When the number of games shared is an odd number (like in years when they share the stadium three times) they rotate who gets the two Friday slots. Seems pretty fair. Not sure how else you split it evenly. Both school ADs usually work it out.

I'm surprised the oldest rivalry in the area wasn't given the Friday night spot. Usually, the local matchups are given priority.

Bleedred4life said:

The real kick in the teeth here is that the school suspended the HC. All he did was play a kid that his bosses said was legally able to play. I guess that all coaches should have a crystal ball to ensure that all his players are legal.

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Absolute Truth!!

cumbfanatic said:

Are they in the playoffs?

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They are eligible for the playoffs but will lose their top seed. Sound familiar?

The real kick in the teeth here is that the school suspended the HC. All he did was play a kid that his bosses said was legally able to play. I guess that all coaches should have a crystal ball to ensure that all his players are legal.

TDHelmick said:

It's painfully obvious that school administrators, athletic directors, coaches and local county BOE officials will have to add more to their workload in an effort to make sure student-athletes are who they say they are (age), where they live (which is almost impossible to be 100% accurate with) and where else they played high school sports. Not as difficult in a small community such as this area, but in the city with so much population I have no idea how they would accomplish this and be fullproof with it.

At some point in time I suspect high school will become like college, where kids can attend school wherever they wish and transfer any time they wish without say-so from a higher authority or regardless of where they live. For the time being, high school sports are doing all they can to maintain and implement rules that have been around for decades in an effort to keep high school sports amateur. But with NIL already approved at this level, good luck with that. There just are not enough employees in the system to monitor such.

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Or you could adopt the new WVA transfer rules, where you can basically transfer schools in between innings of a softball game. Half truth, half sarcastic. Getting close though. LOL

In Maryland. everyone makes the playoffs.

It's painfully obvious that school administrators, athletic directors, coaches and local county BOE officials will have to add more to their workload in an effort to make sure student-athletes are who they say they are (age), where they live (which is almost impossible to be 100% accurate with) and where else they played high school sports. Not as difficult in a small community such as this area, but in the city with so much population I have no idea how they would accomplish this and be fullproof with it.

At some point in time I suspect high school will become like college, where kids can attend school wherever they wish and transfer any time they wish without say-so from a higher authority or regardless of where they live. For the time being, high school sports are doing all they can to maintain and implement rules that have been around for decades in an effort to keep high school sports amateur. But with NIL already approved at this level, good luck with that. There just are not enough employees in the system to monitor such.

Bleedred4life said:

Wow, as a Fort Hill fan, I can feel the pain for these kids. Hopefully they can look at this as they would a season ending injury, then step up and kick butt in the playoffs.

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Are they in the playoffs?

Wow, as a Fort Hill fan, I can feel the pain for these kids. Hopefully they can look at this as they would a season ending injury, then step up and kick butt in the playoffs.

They both applied and the transfers were approved. Both already committed to a college to play. Frankfort’s fb and lb who was offense player of the year in the area transferred last year from Keyser to Frankfort and it was definitely in the best interest of the student athlete.

"The wild west" is spot on. The State has created a mess that will take years to set it right. Anyway, Mom and Dad need to take care of their sons and daughters as far as transfers go. It's really their call to make. I would not have done it for any of my kids, but we each get to call the shots for our own children.

What I do like in WV is the thought of making 5 classes using only school population. Kudos to the guy who put it together. With the exception of the top class, there is not much difference between the schools with the most and least populations. I hope that the powers to be in WV give it a shot.

Commercial Video said:

ALCO and FH both show home games on Friday 10/17 Will one be moved to Thursday or Saturday?

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North Hagerstown at FH on Friday
Keyser at Alco on Saturday

Alco schedule I posted is a misprint on that date.

ALCO and FH both show home games on Friday 10/17 Will one be moved to Thursday or Saturday?

TDHelmick said:

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Hypnotoad