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Hoops....

Keyser has hopes of being decent this year. I know Ridge blew them out, but I wouldn't count Keyser out. Im not sure what the name of the point guard for Ridge is. The FSU coach name is Sean Brown Sr, Im guessing the kids last name is Brown. I will know tomorrow night.
 
I’m confused by what you are trying to say here. If you are saying that Southern fans enjoyed dropping Fort Hill , ALCO and Mountain Ridge, then you are geatly mistaken. Once again, they were only trying to Allow their football program a chance to survive and recover. It was not done to avoid losses or in hopes of making a playoff. I don’t think you realize how very close the program came to being dropped. Even after those teams were dropped, they still went out and “ got their teeth kicked in” every week but at least thankfully no one that I am aware got seriously injured.
I understand FH and Alco are having down years but that is OK. You can’t always be top dog in every sport. I’m sure their programs will be back soon. These things seem to wax and wane. But, I do still think they should play BW for the reasons I stated. I don’t know him personally, but BW Coach Prete seems like a pretty good guy. I doubt he would keep the same group that played Southern on the court long versus FH or ALCO. He will probably play his B team or perhaps even get the local BW kids in versus their cross town rivals. Either way, I doubt they will lose by much more than FH’s first 3 round playoff opponents this year. I understand though, it’s much more fun to dish out “humble pie” than it is to taste a piece yourself. Been there, done that.
What is good for Southern in hoops is not good for other area hoop teams. What is good for FH football is not good for other area football teams. A person from a Southern cannot say it's best for everyone to play BW in hoops as it will make them better any more than a person from Fort Hill can say it's best for everyone to play a football team from Florida as it will make them better.

When a program is struggling, like many area hoop teams, playing BW is of zero benefit. FH basketball is dead, hasn't competed for a region title in like 8 years and wont win 6 games. Hampshire has won 3 games in two years. Alco got crushed by Southern and may win 4 games all year. Playing BW doesn't prepare them for squat. To say AlCo and FH are having down years but they should still play BW is very hypocritical. I would think any Southern fan would surely get that.
 
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If I had to rank the area teams right now I'd have:
1) BW
2) Southern
3) Mountain Ridge
4) Frankfort
5) Northern

What happened to Cumberland (Alco/FH) basketball? I can't remember any year when neither one of the schools could compete. Any theories?
 
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What happened to Cumberland (Alco/FH) basketball? I can't remember any year when neither one of the schools could compete. Any theories?
That's why our coach stepped down. He didn't wanna go through these next few yrs struggling to compete.. I thought now FH would step it up but I guess not..
 
MR can't hit a shot, BW has played 11 or 12 guys already, MR's new star player Sean Brown isn't playing, he broke his leg, speedy recovery to him, that will be a key loss until he returns
 
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BW went deep on the bench. A local player that played for BW last year even played and took shots the first half. BW bench is good. They have a guy 6'11 on the bench that usually doesnt get much playing time Mountain Ridge good point guard and FSU coaches son Sean Brown is not playing, fractured leg out about 6 weeks
 
74-20 Final, MR just never got anything going, BW played their entire team with mostly all subs the entire second half.
 
Next up for BW is Lincoln out of Philly and the Slam Dunk to the Beach right after Christmas to close out the year
 
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Southern, Frankfort, Mountain Ridge, Keyser, may be good games. I don't know anything about Northern. Mountain Ridge losing Sean Brown, the point guard is going drop them down a good bit.
 
Fort Hill should be all right by mid January. They will be one of the better teams in the area by that time. Lots of talent on the team, just can't execute the half court game yet. That should be fixed by then.
 
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What is good for Southern in hoops is not good for other area hoop teams. What is good for FH football is not good for other area football teams. A person from a Southern cannot say it's best for everyone to play BW in hoops as it will make them better any more than a person from Fort Hill can say it's best for everyone to play a football team from Florida as it will make them better.

When a program is struggling, like many area hoop teams, playing BW is of zero benefit. FH basketball is dead, hasn't competed for a region title in like 8 years and wont win 6 games. Hampshire has won 3 games in two years. Alco got crushed by Southern and may win 4 games all year. Playing BW doesn't prepare them for squat. To say AlCo and FH are having down years but they should still play BW is very hypocritical. I would think any Southern fan would surely get that.
You are correct in one statement, a person from Southern CANNOT say what is best for all other local schools, nor SHOULD they. If you read my thought in the post, I only offered an alternative thought on why local teams may want to keep them on their schedule for as long as BW allows it. At some point , they will probably reserve their “starters” for competitive , similar talented teams and IF they continue to play local schools, it will be versus their JV or 2nd team. Beating schools in our local region is not the goal for BW and their coach going into this venture. They have far loftier goals!
As far as your “hypocrite “ statement , all I can say is “wow”. So you are calling me a hypocrite and arguing that FH should not play a local BW school because they have much more talent and your team is not as good. Really??....Really??? How many times in the past years have I seen you and others degrade the “lesser thans” in the area for not playing the football dynasty that is FH? I simply offered somebody thoughts on why a team may want to play BW while they still can. If they choose not to, so be it. No judgement from this “hypocrite”.
 
A nice article from Mike Burke this morning, some will still disagree but he does a nice job putting his opinion out there.

https://www.times-news.com/sports/l...cle_4942b498-f9f0-578f-b8af-9cc14b76826c.html

Yea, I disagree. I have an idea. Let's combine private schools in all sports like most states and St. Frances can compete for all the 1A state titles. Much like BW competing for the AMAC. Then Maryland, like Pennsylvania, can form its own organization of public school ADs and Coaches to protest the fact private schools are competing against public schools for the same trophies.

Mike Burke misses the point, like most private catholic school supporters...no one is saying BW should not be doing what it is doing to save the program, the ACIT, the school, whatever. Nobody I know is condemning BW for their efforts. So stop being defensive. Get off that already. Geez. This is about a PRIVATE school who recruits kids from around the world competing against local area PUBLIC school kids who haven't even won a game yet this year.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS SHOULD NOT BE COMPETING FOR THE SAME TROPHY, PERIOD. Not sure why some people just can't understand this. It's as stupid as asking DeMatha to compete for a Class 3A basketball state title and it's as stupid as asking St. Frances with their 180 student population to compete for Class 1A state football title.

Really looking forward to the Times-News All-City Basketball Team this year. Should be a good one. Hey, BW is a city league team. They should be entitled to the same awards as the other kids from Cumberland. Even though none of their All-City nominees are actually from anywhere near here.
 
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Here's the solution then Todd, don't play BW, nobody is forcing anyone to play. If the other AMAC schools don't like it, then all get together and say we won't play BW in boys basketball, the schools that still want to play them can if they want. Until that happens nobody can get mad at BW for winning. Again nobody cared when BW had kids from Keyser, Romney, Meyersdale, or had exchange students before, especially when Allegany was beating BW by 60 and FH bearing them by 30 the last few years. This is only a problem because adults don't like losing now. BW doesn't care or need the AMAC for boys basketball and quite honestly winning that shouldn't mean a damn thing to Southern or Allegany either when the region and state titles are the goal. You act like BW is preventing teams from winning titles that matter, they aren't. I know we won't see eye to eye on this but honestly our opinions arent that far apart because I don't see where the local games really help anyone outside of one or two teams, but I think some people are getting too caught up over what will amount to a few blowout games and ignoring everything else.
 
I don't think it's a terrible article at all, I just think he took one side of it and ran with it taking the stance if you don't like it too bad kind of attitude. Basically the same attitude a lot of fans of a certain football team have. Look I get the argument for the local teams and the separation of privates and publics, I really do, in fact I have never seen anyone say BW should be competing for state titles. The argument that they should just never play at all in any games I don't agree with, but they shouldn't be forced to play
 
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BW plays at 6 tonight on WCBC btw if anyone wants to tune in, playing a tough Lincoln team from Philly that won th city title last year beating Roman Catholic

Also, I saw Fort Hill and Allegany are hosting their holdiay classic again this year against Silver Oak and Green St Academy. That event used to be fun to look forward to, had some exciting matchups with Goretti a couple years, had North and South Hagerstown a few years as the Two Town Showdown, no excitement for the games this year.
 
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Who does Southern have coming for the Snowball Classic this year, that is always a competitive tournament
 
They have 3 teams from PA playing in the snowball classic this year. Baldwin , Thomas Jefferson, and Uniontown. They also lost to Notre Dame of Clarksburg, WV yesterday 70 to 67.
 
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BW wins 60-48, now 8-0 and play next at Slam Dunk to the Beach against Vermont Academy Thursday and Sanford School (DE) on Saturday.
 
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In a couple weeks they play Oakhill Academy in Kentucky. Oakhill was ranked #2 in the country and has scored over 100 points this year 4 times already. Two of the teams coming to Cumberland for the Bishop Walsh invitational are ranked in the top 10 in the country. Another rankings had one team #5 and the other team #12, in the country. Either way it will be some great high level basketball played in Cumberland. Dematha who will be at the ACIT is currently ranked #6 in the Country.
 
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Two of the teams coming to Cumberland for the Bishop Walsh invitational are ranked in the top 10 in the country. Another rankings had one team #5 and the other team #12, in the country.

Good chance LaLumiere will be #1 in the country next week since they beat Montverde a few days ago and all the other top teams also lost this week.
 
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Has BW had a home game yet? If so, are they packing that gym ? I would imagine a lot of interest from the community would make that gym pretty full! I know their local away games have been packed! The BW invitational a great opportunity for local BBall fans to see national talent right in the city.
 
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BW had one home game so far, it was packed, both sides were full and people were standing on the end. There are a few home games in January and then once the Bob Kirk invitational comes at the end of January they won't leave the area and will have mostly home games until the Maryland state tournament
 
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Busy couple days for area hoops as holiday tournaments are in full swing:

BW vs Vermont Academy
Allegany vs Silver Oak
FH vs Green St Academy
Southern vs Baldwin PA
Mountain Ridge vs Smithsburg
 
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Yea, I disagree. I have an idea. Let's combine private schools in all sports like most states and St. Frances can compete for all the 1A state titles. Much like BW competing for the AMAC. Then Maryland, like Pennsylvania, can form its own organization of public school ADs and Coaches to protest the fact private schools are competing against public schools for the same trophies.

Mike Burke misses the point, like most private catholic school supporters...no one is saying BW should not be doing what it is doing to save the program, the ACIT, the school, whatever. Nobody I know is condemning BW for their efforts. So stop being defensive. Get off that already. Geez. This is about a PRIVATE school who recruits kids from around the world competing against local area PUBLIC school kids who haven't even won a game yet this year.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS SHOULD NOT BE COMPETING FOR THE SAME TROPHY, PERIOD. Not sure why some people just can't understand this. It's as stupid as asking DeMatha to compete for a Class 3A basketball state title and it's as stupid as asking St. Frances with their 180 student population to compete for Class 1A state football title.

Really looking forward to the Times-News All-City Basketball Team this year. Should be a good one. Hey, BW is a city league team. They should be entitled to the same awards as the other kids from Cumberland. Even though none of their All-City nominees are actually from anywhere near here.

I agree, but (as usual for me) I would go further: the entire k - 12 system in sports sucks swamp water. If you attend grade school in one district and transfer to a different middle school district you sit out a year in competitive sports.... shouldn't matter whether middle school or high school. It is, after all only sports. No student should ever be allowed to transfer between public schools for reason of sports without sitting out a year, even if that student's family moves from one city to the next. (And I could care less about the idea of not punishing a kid because his parents needed to move.)

And sure, no public school should play any private school in sports. If a private is wealthy enough to subsidize what is actually a quasi-professional team, fine. If they want to pay a coach twice the amount they pay a regular teacher.... Hey! It's their money.

Instead of the local publications reporting sports championships at the end of the year how about they publish the names of the students achieving the highest SAT scores or those who achieved free academic scholarships to top universities. Those are things to admire. I say play sports for the love of the game; get a real education to advance in life.
 
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What happened to Cumberland (Alco/FH) basketball? I can't remember any year when neither one of the schools could compete. Any theories?
Alco had an amazing decade long run in b-ball, dominating local competition but the run is finally over. Like with football, the numbers are down. 10 kids on varsity and 5 of those are sophomores. Alco gonna take their lumps for a few years.

FH has the athletes but not the commitment to b-ball (or baseball). They expect their kids to be all in for football. I remember when players like Mark Manges dominated both football and basketball. A kid was encouraged to play the big 3: football, basketball and baseball. FH has become a one sport school when it comes to the boys. Been that way under the current head football coach. Not saying that is wrong. Even with good teams like Alco has had in b-ball it is very difficult to win a boys state title in that sport. Just ask Southern. FH is dominating 1A football so it is hard to argue with what they are doing but the other sports do suffer when football is a 12 month commitment. That is my theory.
 
Interesting games this weekend. In the MD top 30 BW is number 13 and Goretti is number 9. They play in a couple weeks at BW. Ive seen film of Goretti and to me BW looks better.
 
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