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Allegany and Fort Hill need 8 games in 2015

I dunno. I can kinda see both sides of it...if youre going to play Sherando, why not Martinsburg. On the other hand,Martinsburg is on a level far higher than any other school within a 1.5 hour radius. They are simply a fantastic 4A sized school. They are of a caliber FH will never see in 1A football. So whats the real point?

The biggest problem I have is when people talk about past teams 20 years ago playing Martinsburg as if thats some accomplishment. MHS occasionally had good years, but for the most part was not even competitive. A 2A FH in 1997 loaded up against a mediocre CVAl schedule, the DC Public schools beating a so-so 6-4 Dunbar in the finals is not really something that convinces me of any scheduling arguments.

I have to bite and say something when anyone brings up Martinsburg. Who gives a friggin turd ..its a lame argument.
 
Originally posted by bigsavage:
Polk

One of the reasons I suggested playing Mooney was because of this statement by the original poster.

"When I speak with other Athletic Directors around the state they say "Are you kidding me, gasp!"

I took that to mean teams around the state are afraid to play Fort Hill,

This post was edited on 11/11 9:38 AM by bigsavage
Honestly if you took it that way then you should've taken it that he was saying teams around the state are afraid of FH and Alco since he posted that they are both looking for 4 games.

Would love to see both teams play a schedule like this. I know I live on Fantasy Island.

Chesnut Ridge
Central
Ligonier Valley
Frankfort
Keyser
Mt. Ridge
Northern
Southern
OPEN
Homecoming
 
Huh? How are you going to tell me how I should have understood something when I read it? And why am I even responding to you??? lol




This post was edited on 11/11 5:49 PM by bigsavage
 
Lag, how did you understand the original post? It would seem that you took it the same way I did judging by your original reply...
 
I took it exactly the way Todd meant it.

Probably because I'm not constantly look for something to complain about tho. ;)
 
towpath,

btw Beings that the original poster is a FH guy I didn't suppose he would be calling Ad's around the state talking about Allegany and their problems.... Supposing that the conversations with the Ad's surrounded FH's scheduling I assumed that Ad's responses were to FH's scheduling issues.. if you needed an explanation...
This post was edited on 11/11 6:17 PM by bigsavage
 
Martinsburg is a fantastic 4A size team that FH could have beat 4 to 5 times in the past 10 years. Martinsburg has been winning championships but they have not been world beaters. They have been great but FH could have beaten them last year. They would be one less game on the schedule we have to worry about. Those AMAC games are really filling up the schedule.

People need to get off Frankfort's back for not playing from FH and trash talking Northern not being able to run from a playoff game. FH has won 90 percent plus of their games in the past six years so there is a reputation that makes others in the area fearful of a loss. Thank god for CR, MR, and SOA for sticking with FH and Alco. It has to be nerve racking for the powers to be to have to keep finding games year in and year out. I was one of the biggest critics of SOA being on the schedule but I was there at SOA last week and the program loves playing FH. One staff stated it has become sort of a rivalry for them which is amazing given that they have a completely different set of players each year.

This post was edited on 11/11 6:17 PM by LinemenWinGames

This post was edited on 11/11 6:18 PM by LinemenWinGames

This post was edited on 11/11 6:19 PM by LinemenWinGames

This post was edited on 11/11 6:21 PM by LinemenWinGames
 
LinemenwinGames,

I agree 100% if FH didn't prematurely jump ship and leave the CVAL they wouldn't have these scheduling issues. People want to trash talk Northern and Hancock. And FH would jump at the chance to beat the snout out of Hancock, but when it comes to playing teams that they can't pencil in as a win in the summer time. We get all kinds of excuses.... Just be fair and stop with the excuses and hypocritical BS.... Now I'm off to work have fun children...
This post was edited on 11/11 6:22 PM by bigsavage
 
How about schools around the outskirts of Pittsburgh ? Like Monroeville, McKeesport area?

This post was edited on 11/11 7:50 PM by GREEN75
 
Originally posted by bigsavage:

towpath,

btw Beings that the original poster is a FH guy I didn't suppose he would be calling Ad's around the state talking about Allegany and their problems.... Supposing that the conversations with the Ad's surrounded FH's scheduling I assumed that Ad's responses were to FH's scheduling issues.. if you needed an explanation...
This post was edited on 11/11 6:17 PM by bigsavage
If I remember correctly (I could be wrong) Todd helps any team in the area when it comes to schedules and that he made some calls for Alco when the whole MATHs thing went down.
 
Originally posted by bigsavage:

Lag, how did you understand the original post? It would seem that you took it the same way I did judging by your original reply...
I took the need for games to mean that teams we should be playing, in our own classification or 2A, don't want any part of Alco or FH. As a result, we have continued trouble scheduling games. So, I made a joke out of it. But, realistically there are other factors which Todd has related many times.

I didn't take the AD comment as necessarily saying that they were responding for their specific school. But it easily could be taken for that. We have had so many conversations on the subject one could read it to simply say, "I don't want any part of playing schools that will kick my ass - gasp."
 
Size had nothing to do with it and you know it. If size was the reason, FH wouldn't play Walter Johnson.

FH and Allegany both dropped Martinsburg as soon as they couldn't beat them consistently.

What linemen was eluding to was that Martinsburg didn't ever complain and drop us when FH and Allegany were throttling them on a yearly basis.

Not everything is an attack on Fort Hill.
 
Some good arguments and view points here. Lots of disagreements and that's not a bad thing. However, I will stand behind one disagreement that I have with some of you...

When people ask me what the biggest difference between playing high school football and Florida State football was, most will assume the answer was size and speed. While that certainly was noticeable, it wasn't close to the correct answer. I found out the very first day in Tallahassee when they stuck me on defense. We ran seven straight plays at full speed and I could barely hold my head up or breath from being gassed. I thought how is this possible? I never came off the field in high school for four whole quarters and was fine. Seven plays and I'm dead here. It was then I realized that you have to take plays off in high school. You absolutely cannot go 100% full speed on every play or you would burn out by the second quarter. No if, ands or buts. In college they film everything. You have to go full tilt every minute of every play.

What does that mean? It means that when you play teams with the numbers to play kids one way, it is a freakin HUGE difference. Many don't agree. For those that don't, I'm here to say you have no idea what you are talking about. Just like I told Capitol Christian when they were leery about scheduling FH at first. Coach, this much I promise...they will be good, but they will be 1A good. That means every player has to go both ways except maybe 2-3 kids. Last year was an exception as FH was able to platoon their entire line of scrimmage. That was the biggest reason they won state in my book. That and when you have the numbers to platoon, you also have a better ability to overcome injuries. If Alco or FH start to get just a few kids injured, they are in big trouble.

Teams who have the ability to platoon a large number of players won't be on the schedule. This is not an Allegany/Fort Hill problem. It is a 1A problem. But I also understand that teams like Walter Johnson may have a 76 man roster due to sheer school size. But they still don't platoon their players. Of course there is a difference between having a large roster compared to a large roster of quality players. FH usually maintains a 32-42 man roster. For some reason they have 56 kids this year. But I assure everyone there are only 13-15 players qualified to play at a competitive level.










This post was edited on 11/11 9:19 PM by TDHelmick
 
how about they man-up and schedule Paw Paw


laugh.r191677.gif
 
Originally posted by TDHelmick:
Some good arguments and view points here. Lots of disagreements and that's not a bad thing. However, I will stand behind one disagreement that I have with some of you...

When people ask me what the biggest difference between playing high school football and Florida State football was, most will assume the answer was size and speed. While that certainly was noticeable, it wasn't close to the correct answer. I found out the very first day in Tallahassee when they stuck me on defense. We ran seven straight plays at full speed and I could barely hold my head up or breath from being gassed. I thought how is this possible? I never came off the field in high school for four whole quarters and was fine. Seven plays and I'm dead here. It was then I realized that you have to take plays off in high school. You absolutely cannot go 100% full speed on every play or you would burn out by the second quarter. No if, ands or buts. In college they film everything. You have to go full tilt every minute of every play.

What does that mean? It means that when you play teams with the numbers to play kids one way, it is a freakin HUGE difference. Many don't agree. For those that don't, I'm here to say you have no idea what you are talking about. Just like I told Capitol Christian when they were leery about scheduling FH at first. Coach, this much I promise...they will be good, but they will be 1A good. That means every player has to go both ways except maybe 2-3 kids. Last year was an exception as FH was able to platoon their entire line of scrimmage. That was the biggest reason they won state in my book. That and when you have the numbers to platoon, you also have a better ability to overcome injuries. If Alco or FH start to get just a few kids injured, they are in big trouble.

Teams who have the ability to platoon a large number of players won't be on the schedule. This is not an Allegany/Fort Hill problem. It is a 1A problem. But I also understand that teams like Walter Johnson may have a 76 man roster due to sheer school size. But they still don't platoon their players. Of course there is a difference between having a large roster compared to a large roster of quality players. FH usually maintains a 32-42 man roster. For some reason they have 56 kids this year. But I assure everyone there are only 13-15 players qualified to play at a competitive level.










This post was edited on 11/11 9:19 PM by TDHelmick
Great post. Thank you.
 
"Teams who have the ability to platoon a large number of players won't be on the schedule. This is not an Allegany/Fort Hill problem. It is a 1A problem."

Looking at the schedule this is obvious. I didn't understand why it was such a big problem on this board when I noted that FH has not played a Top 50 Maryland public school in over two years? If somebody is knowledgeable about MD prep ball it's pretty clear. I said several times it was an observation not a criticism.
 
BoyzinBlue, the reason I took /take exception every time you mention FH not playing a Top 50 school is because it's a red herring argument, which I think I even called it that before. I hear what your saying, but why say it?

It's the same as telling a D3 college that they are less of something, because they don't play any AP ranked teams. It's apples and oranges. If a D3 college wins a D3 championship by playing other D3 schools - are they any less a champion of their division than an Alabama or Florida State is of theirs? So what?

If say Frostburg State wins a football championship (purely rhetorical mind you) people say "way to go! FSU won the championship" is your first reaction, "well yeah, but they don't play WVU or Ohio State". Moot.

That's why people have a problem with what you are saying, you are doing it solely, only, absolutely positively only because you want to find some way to down FH. Fort Hill is the best 1A school in the state as of the last year, and they are once again trying to do the same thing. You don't like that, so you say "well yeah, but they don't play Gilman or Urbana".

You're posting under the guise that you are just some concerned casual observer. No one else is buying the act.


Todd outlines perfectly why Fort Hill doesn't play teams that are larger and have more two-way skilled kids. LinemenWinGames tries to say that FH would beat Martinsburg 4 out of the last 5 years, and I'm sorry...I'm one of the biggest homers around here, and I know that's baloney. FH might beat Martinsburg once or twice (if the Dogs play badly) every five years. Martinsburg has skill players that match up toe-for-toe with every skill player FH has...and as TDH states, they bring nearly a fresh 11 on each time they switch sides. FH doesn't.

Martinsburg..and Good Counsel and Linganore etc...would simply wear FH down. Our kids are some of the best conditioned athletes in the state, but at the end of 3 quarters, they are are going to be far more burnt out than 11 kids who have only played half as much time in a game. I would envision FH hanging with these teams for about 3 quarters, and then simply just not being fully able to play the 4th as crisp and quick as the first.

The schedule is what it is. No, FH isn't stacking the schedule with powerhouse teams...news flash, they haven't in 30 years. We look at the last two championships in 2013 and 1997 and I think you could easily interchange both FH teams and they both would have fared the same with both schedules. That's just the reality of it.

Schools don't want to play FH because they don't have to. Regardless of why...conference obligations, travel, competitiveness, whatever...scheduling sucks. Talking about what we had 15 years ago does nothing to solve the problem we have today.



This post was edited on 11/12 10:12 AM by FHHSAHS
 
As an alumni of Southern High, I agree that we have never dodged anyone but have you checked with FH AD into who dropped who? n looking @ the big picture, what does it accomplish for FH to play SHS? We have not had a winning season in 16 years, we went 0-10 this year. They get the points for beating us and that is it. They don't get any extra because, sad to say, we don't beat anyone. True our DI team won the championship this year, true we have players in the pipeline but if I was a FH fan ( which I will be this week because you are playing a team that dodges people, NORTHERN) I would rather play a team that could give me more points. I have heard that our incoming freshmen will be playing both FH and ALCO, so maybe in a year or two, we will see you guys again @ the varsity level.
 
FHHSAHS,

Well said but you know the haters will hate and common sense means nothing in here. Lol. But good try. It's been said probably 50 times in here just a little different each time. Each time it makes sense to those who realize FH does have one of the top 1A programs in the state if not the top. They won't be happy until we play a Martinsburg, hurt the talent we do have, and not make it out of the 1A West. I've always said they play Martinsburgs best talent against ours for 4 quarters while substituting under the same conditions 1A typically has to and yes, we clean their clocks most years. But we all know those rules don't apply. It's a school who loves football like FH and there is a huge emphasis on football there. So the depth of talent runs to deep and that's just reality.
 
No problem with Southern dropping the county schools in football. But they should never be allowed in the playoffs by their own admittance. Same applies to Hancock. Of course they should be playing teams of their size and ability, but they should never take a playoff spot away from someone they refuse to play for competition reasons.
 
Understand your sentiment, Brian - but really I doubt Southern (currently) has playoff aspirations in mind. I think they are just trying to straighten out their football program, not "sneak in" to the playoffs. I hate to lose another game, but I can see why Southern is doing it. I don't doubt that they will try to get back on FH's schedule eventually.

Hancock on the other hand, has been purposely avoiding regional teams for years with the goal of getting into the playoffs. I understand the concept of scheduling a certain way to maximize your potential for getting to the playoffs, but purposely avoiding teams within your own region to do so doesn't make sense. You have to play them eventually.
 
"But they should never be allowed in the playoffs by their own admittance" What exactly does that mean? I did not see any post with that statement because I know for sure it was not in my post. There have always been teams that play patty cakes schedules, get into the playoffs and get destroyed. SHS is not one of them. I believe SHS, Keyser, & Mt Ridge are the only area schools that play both FH & ALCO! The coaches are working hard to keep a, once, great program alive and if that means dropping some teams to do that, well that just needs to be done. I'm not happy that SHS program has gone down the road it has but the coaches & players are working hard to change that. Trust me, I believe we will be back to playing FH & ALCO in the future.
 
Wait a minute, didn't Northern play: KEYSER, Allegany, Frankfort, playoff bound Pendleton County, and a 5 win Clear Spring team? Sure Berkeley Springs, Smithsburg , Tucker County and Mountain Ridge had down years but those are always competitive games and Southern, well it was a shame their season was as bad as it was, certainly didn't think we'd see Southern fall that far.

So, Who is Northern "dodging"? FH? I ask you and everyone else the same, what does it benefit Northern (or FH for that matter) for Northern to play FH on a yearly basis when you and I both know 29 years out of 30 it is going to be a 35 point rule loss for Northern? Northern plays a good schedule for a school our size, if anything probably a more difficult one than they should be playing. If Northern had 800-1000 students and 40 players on Varsity like FH then yeah they should be playing but having around/just under 500 students and 18 on varsity, don't you think that's a bit of a problem and competitive disadvantage? Does anyone on this board honestly think Northern/FH would ever be a good, competitive rivalry?

Let's look at the schedule Northern played this year:
Smithsburg 1A West team finished 3-7
Tucker County finished 4-6 (Southern also plays)
Keyser in WV AA Playoff team finished 7-3
Frankfort in WV AA Playoff team finished 10-0
Clear Spring 1A West Team, finished 5-5
Pendleton Co WV Class A playoff team finished 7-3
Mtn Ridge MD 2A West finished 2-8 (Southern also plays)
Allegany 1A West team finished 6-3 (Southern also plays)
Berkeley Springs finished 2-8 (Southern also plays)
Southern finished 0-10
 
I said I agree. Southern is just fighting to keep a football program alive right now. Most everyone seems to support what they have to do.

I'm just saying if by some chance they get to 6 or 7 wins and in playoff contention while they keep this schedule then they should volunteer to step out of the playoffs. Even more so for Hancock. Kudos to Hancock. They have less than 200 kids in that school and should be playing teams in that same boat. But they should not be taking anyone's playoff spot like Alco last year.

On the other hand if say FH girls basketball starts to struggle, they should not have to play Southern. One has to see both sides if it happened to you.

FH doesn't want to play Northern, Hancock or Southern every year. But they should have to play one of them at least on a rotating basis. As people will find out this Friday night it's brutal to watch those mercy clock beatings. At the same time it's idiocy that both Alco and FH have to out point those teams for playoff spots.
This post was edited on 11/12 4:24 PM by BrianH1974
 
FH only 30 students short of being 2A

Looking at the enrollments and proposed classifications for 2015-2017 on MPSSAA site, FH is only 30 students short of being 2A like Mt Ridge. Maybe when the new Allegany is built there can be some redistricting. If FH would move back into 2A, I think they would have a much easier time with scheduling. There is little benefit for bigger schools to schedule a 1A team. The 2014 Sentinels would have won 2A West in football this year.

As far as current scheduling goes, I think the Cumberland schools should use any and all local pull (Mike McKay's district is both in Allegany and Washington counties) to try to join the MVAL. A 60 to 90 minute drive on I-68 and I-70 is much safer and more fuel efficient than driving the windy and sometimes dangerous roads of West Virginia and Pennsylvania. It's time for "One Maryland" to be more than a slogan. Time that Washington and Frederick counties accept the 3 Allegany County schools into their league.
 
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