Less than 3 months from opening night and summer workouts will begin soon. Can almost smell the fresh cut grass and see the glow of Friday night lights on the horizon. So with all of us knowing very little about this years teams other than the returners from last year and a few JV players moving up, thought it would be interesting to see everyone's thoughts on the local teams. For ease of comparison, lets keep it to Western Md and 1A for the rankings. Again just for fun but rank em and maybe give a reason why. Here goes....
1. Fort Hill- lost a lot last year with their graduating class but every year we say this and every year they seem to just reload. I do however feel this year the gap has been narrowed and they will find a few local teams a little more challenging. That being said, to BE the Champs, you have to BEAT the Champs and no one has done that locally for a few years.
2. Southern- Perhaps a surprise here but I put them second for a very good reason. They have the best returning Offensive Line in the area. Four are returning three year starters and they return 8 of 11 on defense on a playoff team from last year. QB is a talent as well. Their Achilles could be this years schedule which returns Fort Hill to the schedule. Good news for Rams is that both Cumberland teams travel to Oakland this year.
3. Alco- Top 3 could easily swap out but Campers lost a lot in last year's Area C0-MVP as well as QB and #25. Good news is #7 has a lot of potential with football genes. Nice arm and good athlete. Not sure their defense returns enough to shut down the top 2 on this list this year.
4. Northern- Lost QB and leading running back along with a few nice lineman. Do return #10 and along with a head coach that always seems to get the best out of the talent that he has available. Nice soph. class that may have to move a few up to help with varsity. North is 1 or 2 years away from a very nice season if they can gel a line.
5. Mt. Ridge- Admittedly know less about this team other than they return a good athlete at QB and have a few nice RB's in the mix. Their line is a question mark.
Ok, VERY early top 5 rankings but hey, why not ... been too long without some football talk.
1. Fort Hill- lost a lot last year with their graduating class but every year we say this and every year they seem to just reload. I do however feel this year the gap has been narrowed and they will find a few local teams a little more challenging. That being said, to BE the Champs, you have to BEAT the Champs and no one has done that locally for a few years.
2. Southern- Perhaps a surprise here but I put them second for a very good reason. They have the best returning Offensive Line in the area. Four are returning three year starters and they return 8 of 11 on defense on a playoff team from last year. QB is a talent as well. Their Achilles could be this years schedule which returns Fort Hill to the schedule. Good news for Rams is that both Cumberland teams travel to Oakland this year.
3. Alco- Top 3 could easily swap out but Campers lost a lot in last year's Area C0-MVP as well as QB and #25. Good news is #7 has a lot of potential with football genes. Nice arm and good athlete. Not sure their defense returns enough to shut down the top 2 on this list this year.
4. Northern- Lost QB and leading running back along with a few nice lineman. Do return #10 and along with a head coach that always seems to get the best out of the talent that he has available. Nice soph. class that may have to move a few up to help with varsity. North is 1 or 2 years away from a very nice season if they can gel a line.
5. Mt. Ridge- Admittedly know less about this team other than they return a good athlete at QB and have a few nice RB's in the mix. Their line is a question mark.
Ok, VERY early top 5 rankings but hey, why not ... been too long without some football talk.