Yes, I think so. They had 3 players transfer I believe, which made them much better than expected.

cumbfanatic said:

I don’t know anything about Roane County. Frankfort is balanced good running game and good passing game. It’s hard to stop both. More competitive games may have helped as they usually replaced the starters early. At the same time when making the schedule they didn’t know they were getting the transfer from Keyser who has broke out and exploded on both sides of the ball.

Click to expand...

Didn’t the starter at tight end transfer from Fort Hill?

I don’t know anything about Roane County. Frankfort is balanced good running game and good passing game. It’s hard to stop both. More competitive games may have helped as they usually replaced the starters early. At the same time when making the schedule they didn’t know they were getting the transfer from Keyser who has broke out and exploded on both sides of the ball.

ultrawalt said:

That’s the worst part. It has happened far too much across all jurisdictions in the state and I certainly understand fairness but in many cases adults do their best to maximize damage to the teams. Just last year in PG County, after a preseason and early season check approved Flowers roster, it conveniently is discovered after a playoff game that the initial check missed something in relation to a players eligibility and ended the school’s entire season right there. In that situation it was pointed out that the athletic office happened to have a connection to the Roosevelt staff that benefited from the exact timing of the “revelation” by getting a bye to the state quarterfinals instead of a likely defeat.

Click to expand...

In my theory that is why I believe FH was the anonymous tip. Trying to get out in front of it before it got to late. Much like the Flowers situation from last year. My spidey senses tell me that FH was never comfortable with this particular transfer situation.

That’s the worst part. It has happened far too much across all jurisdictions in the state and I certainly understand fairness but in many cases adults do their best to maximize damage to the teams. Just last year in PG County, after a preseason and early season check approved Flowers roster, it conveniently is discovered after a playoff game that the initial check missed something in relation to a players eligibility and ended the school’s entire season right there. In that situation it was pointed out that the athletic office happened to have a connection to the Roosevelt staff that benefited from the exact timing of the “revelation” by getting a bye to the state quarterfinals instead of a likely defeat.

Coach Lattimer was a Fort Hill graduate, played on Maryland's only National Championship team, and I believe that he spent some time on the Redskins. (would have to confirm with Todd or Berry.) With that resume, a two-year high school record wouldn't mean much.

A student is eligible until they are ineligible. That's the nutshell.

The people who declare a student eligible are the same people that declare them ineligible. RETEOACTIVE PUNISHMENT is the stupidy of poor leadership. Beyond asinine.

I totally agree with your post. I understand the process, and the resources of transfers. That's why Baltimore changed over to the magnet school program years ago. Eliminating loopholes for deception of residence. My concern is, how to fix the problem. You make the same point that I have made in other threads. The same board that deems you eligible, is the same board that deems you ineligible. My contention is that a student athlete is eligible until he is found ineligible. Much like the player who is failing math. Said player is eligible until the failing grade post. Once his eligibility status changes, now the school/team becomes the responsible party. It's my understanding in this particular case, FH questioned the county school board on 3 separate occasions about this particular transfer before allowing him to play. (Even sat him out the first game, waiting for the 3 time go ahead he's eligible) My question remains the same. How do we stop this from happening. Whether it be residence, grades, age, etc. How do we hold a school/team responsible for something they don't control. Punishment after the fact, for something you approved just doesn't work. Unfortunate circumstances doesn't work either. I'm not sure of the fix, but in my opinion, the player in question only was on the field with a piece of paper saying eligible. Never saw the field holding a piece of paper saying ineligible. As far as the vacated vs forfeits. It was my understanding that only FH record changes, from 7-2 to 2-7, but that say Mountain Ridge record stays at 5-4 instead of 6-3. That's how I read it. I may have misunderstood. It did change the 1A west seeding. Thanks for your very informative and insightful post. There just has to be a better way.

The problem of transfers and forfeits is a issue of resources. The MPSSAA itself doesn't and can not verify attendance for every student participating in athletics throughout the state. They simply state that a student must be "authorized to attend under the regulations of the local school system". The trap for coaches, assuming that they aren't purposefully trying to circumvent rules and laws (a la Hayfield in Virginia) is that each school has a registrar and students register with the documents requested and are enrolled. It's impossible for a high school to get a investigator to track kids to determine true address and at the point of enrollment and approval from the registrar the student is 'authorized to attend' and has the right to participate in athletics. Considering the amount of constraints on coaches of any sport, if a kid shows up and is enrolled a coach can't unilaterally stop them from participating because that is not their role/authority and would earn you a stern talking to or worse if a coach tried it. So coaches and to an extent the registrar have to trust the student and their family to be honest about their documentation. With all of this, all it takes from there is one person, coach or parent to complain about one student possibly being out of area, through no fault of the school or coach and you have investigators following that student and finding that they may have falsely enrolled. Never mind the fact that investigators tend to focus disproportionally on athletic transfers, now the coach and team are penalized by the county board of education (again the MPSSAA places that responsibility with the school systems) for playing a student that for all intents and purposes was authorized to attend by that same school system. The school system having the latitude from the MPSSAA could remove the student from the school and interpret that despite the deception they were authorized to attend and participate at the time they participated and simply remove them from the school but to prevent bad actors from taking advantage feel obligated to punish the teams/coaches for something that may not be (and likely isn't) their fault to discourage worse issues. It is unfortunate and unfair but unless resources (money and manpower) are given for every transfer at every school in the state to be throughly investigated before they can enroll and start classes we're stuck with a unsatisfying status quo. As for vacating instead of forfeiting, with the playoffs having a minimum divisor for seeding games becoming vacated could have worse impacts on the opponents of a vacating team than the loss might have (if, for example they started with the minimum divisor of 8 games and have 2 vacated games instead of forfeit wins they are left with whatever points they might have gotten over 6 games divided by 8).

TDHelmick said:

There is so much more to this story. I will cover it once the season ends from all angles and interviews. It's embarrassing to say the least and opened up a huge can of worms that should lead every coach to shriek.

Click to expand...

Well season is over. Hope that they can find a solution to this continuing problem. Would like to know the whole truthful story, not to place blame, but to change the process to insure no repeats. Overlooked is not just the impact on local teams, but the degrees of separation it caused other teams, and teams of teams in MD, West VA. Virginia and Penn. that this impacted by their season record, and seeding being changed, and or displaced during the playoffs. Question for MPSSAA. Would't it have made more sense to vacate those wins as oppose to forfeit them. There is a difference. Forfeits change every teams record, and point, bonus points for every team, no matter how many degrees of separation. Vacated wins only changes FH record.

RedFootball said:

Heard a new school was going to open.

Click to expand...

No new school is slated to be built in any of the three SMAC counties.

Interesting that Charlie Lattimer had a losing record at Bridgeport (4-12-2) and was still hired as head FB Coach at Fort Hill. Betting most fans didn't know he even coached there.

TDHelmick said:

If someone finds out why Patuxent lost so many students please share. I don't know and google has no answer.

Click to expand...

Heard a new school was going to open.

Is it August yet? 🤣

One thing overlooked (even though most have been aware of since December 2023) is that the entire OL needed replaced. Every hole was filled with sophs and juniors. Too many fans wanting plays called without taking all this into account as if this was the same OL as last year. The entire second half of the season, the OL started 3 sophs/2 juniors and size wasn't top end. This offense was scaled back massively from the season before intentionally. I was told by coaches back in August that FH will work on 5-10 plays and that's it. This new line will learn how to block those 5-10 plays in their sleep and until they can block those plays, that's the playbook. As the season progressed they added more plays, but not a ton. Formations are one thing, but blocking assignments are another.

This is where I think much of the FH faithful was spoiled. When the blocking isn't there not much works at any level. I am a firm believer that it all begins on the OL. That dictates what playbook gets opened. The OL improved but it was still undersized and extremely young/no experience. See the big picture. Ross and Bender are good runners, but being light on the scale they need space that wasn't frequently there against the tougher opponents. They are not power pile pushers. Those type of backs were not a good fit for what the OL was capable of. Read what Phil Carr said after the title game. Jabril was stone cold stopped on many plays, only to break tackles and break their backs.

I have also stated a 100 times through the years, the backs have to be able to block in the Wing-T. And if they don't, it's a problem. I remember the 2022 season. The lack of backs blocking was a major issue.

Next season there will be a deep well of linemen to choose from. Very deep. From tackle to tackle - they all return. It's a way better outlook than when 2024 started. I see Younger as having a massive upcoming season getting a load of handoffs. His holes should be much more plentiful. He is primed for a monster season and currently at 210 pounds (would love to see 220 pounds of added muscle), he should get some college looks. Expect another handful of current frosh (that will be sophs next fall) that just completed an undefeated season to contribute and push at the varsity level. Tons of players coming back everywhere

Not to mention the defense started 4-5 sophs all through the playoffs. Only 3 seniors started on defense this season...one that allowed less than 25 rushing yards per game the last 9 weeks.

TDHelmick said:

I had mentioned this, but I saw where Northern Calvert did a massive upgrade to their facilities that was to be completed in 2019. Wasn't sure if the expansion allowed for some redistricting.

LINK: Northern Calvert builds new facility

Click to expand...

The new building didn’t figure redistricting, it was just sorely needed especially considering the growth in the area and sorry state of the building before the new facility. Any shuffling that would ever need to happen would be between Northern and Huntington but none of the four Calvert High Schools are over capacity at this point.

ultrawalt said:

That’s where they lost students, mainly 9th and 11th grade classes, 12th is a bit higher there. If they included 12th graders in the numbers they wouldn’t have dropped classes.

Click to expand...

I had mentioned this, but I saw where Northern Calvert did a massive upgrade to their facilities that was to be completed in 2019. Wasn't sure if the expansion allowed for some redistricting.

LINK: Northern Calvert builds new facility

I think it became so much about Jabril, then Younger, that Ross and Bender got lost in the offense the second half of the season. One thing we overlook is that Ross had 7 long touchdowns called back, plus several other 20+ runs called back as well. Maybe 300-400 total yards. I think he and Bender had better years then their numbers would indicate.

I thought before the season that Ross would be at or near 1000 yards. Inexcusable for someone with his juice to only get 3-4 touches a game. Hoping to see more RPO with House at QB next season.

TDHelmick said:

Even the king Dunbar found out today it isn't so easy. The 8-6 loss to Patuxent ended a 50 game win streak and their run for the state record books to win four state titles in a row. The Poets had not lost a single game in four seasons.

There are only two MPSSAA teams that have won four straight state titles. Urbana (1998-2001) and Fort Hill (2013-2016).
Tomorrow FH goes for that number four again for a second time. I don't care if it's Class 1A or Class 1A/2A. It's not as easy as one thinks.

Click to expand...

This has been my point every time somebody says 1a is weak. FH makes it look easy in most years. This year because they had to travel to CSD and P'ville and were trailing in both they looked almost average at times. Playing away from Greenway has always made a huge difference in the playoffs for FH. I've witnessed some heartbreaking losses over the years and it has always appeared FH, as most teams, just doesn't look as comfortable on the road.
Anytime somebody dominates there will always be haters and if it's that 1a is weak and winning a title isn't that hard then why isn't anybody else doing it?
So what are your season ending thoughts and outlook for next year. Is it possible there will be any coaching changes or additions. You have mentioned FH receivers don't know how to run routes and if they are ever going to it would seem like we need a coach who can teach that. I think it was a pretty popular topic this year, more so than most, that the play calling was more than questionable at times. Why have a starting qb that isn't the best thrower so you bring in somebody else on third and long but that backup is by far and away a better runner. So if he's a better passer and he gives you the option of running why is he not starting? You have a kid with rare speed that hardly ever touched the ball. Obviously these things don't really matter in most games but when you play Dunbar and BW they matter. If you are adding Bridgeport to the mix and you expect to win you're going to have to have way more creativity and ingenuity or you aren't winning. I know we were young and inexperienced and we'll be stronger next season but it won't make a difference if the offense is handled the way it was this year.

TDHelmick said:

By the MPSSAA reports Patuxent lost 104 students in 2 years. But that is only grades 9-11.

Click to expand...

That’s where they lost students, mainly 9th and 11th grade classes, 12th is a bit higher there. If they included 12th graders in the numbers they wouldn’t have dropped classes.

ultrawalt said:

It’s come down a bit but not 300 students down. One thing that will be interesting when this gets finalized is whether the committee shifts them up. There would be a good chance of that if they were at the top of the football 1A numbers but it could still happen being that they are sitting at 4th or 5th largest simply because of the geographical anomaly they would be in 1A. Looking at the recommendation for 1A East that’s a small fortune in travel costs. A region that goes from the North Eastern Border with Delaware to Princess Anne in Somerset and Lusby at the southern tip of Calvert is insane.

Click to expand...

By the MPSSAA reports Patuxent lost 104 students in 2 years. But that is only grades 9-11.

ravemwp said:

In the thread State Title Games from Friday, Todd Helmick mentioned that Patuxent enrollment may be lowered by some 300 students. Not knowing why. Enrollment has to come down for drop to 1A.

Click to expand...

It’s come down a bit but not 300 students down. One thing that will be interesting when this gets finalized is whether the committee shifts them up. There would be a good chance of that if they were at the top of the football 1A numbers but it could still happen being that they are sitting at 4th or 5th largest simply because of the geographical anomaly they would be in 1A. Looking at the recommendation for 1A East that’s a small fortune in travel costs. A region that goes from the North Eastern Border with Delaware to Princess Anne in Somerset and Lusby at the southern tip of Calvert is insane.

TDHelmick said:

The FH weight room is open today on Sunday. No time to wallow in the past. 🤣🤣

Click to expand...

I love it!!!

ultrawalt said:

I don’t know where anyone said Patuxent lost 300 kids, they are down about 100 9th-11th graders from last reclassification. The culprit for that is a small 9th grade class this year from their feeder middle schools (really school and a half) but the trend from lower grades likely takes them back up in class in a couple years.

Click to expand...

In the thread State Title Games from Friday, Todd Helmick mentioned that Patuxent enrollment may be lowered by some 300 students. Not knowing why. Enrollment has to come down for drop to 1A.