It was nice of WCBC for sticking up for us. Yes, there is free speech, you can say what you want within reason, we're all aware of the 1st amendment. It is honestly silly debating this. Northern was an after-thought in area football until the 1999 team went 10-0 in the regular season, ever since then everyone has been hounding Northern's schedule some 16 years later, lol.
Anyway one of the posters made a post on the Baltimore sun board and honestly some of the FH people just don't get it, so as an alumni and fan, here is my take and 2 cents. I will state although I oppose a NHS/FH series, that FH does have a great program, and Cumberland should be proud of what they have.
One of the complaints was playing Boonsboro instead of FH. If a NHS/FH game would ever be what the Boonsboro game this year was, I'll support a NHS/FH game. Instead we've had 65-16, 33-6, 42-7, 45-6 games, ho-hum, such a gripping competitive rivalry that fills the stands, right? We hear all the time that FH is 1A, so tell me since FH has dropped from 2A where is the rebuilding 2-8, 1-9 type year that true 1A schools deal with every couple years? It hasn't happened because while the MPSSAA may say FH is 1A, FH's program is not 1A level, heck even Allegany had a really bad year a couple years ago, if FH had the same, you might get a little more sympathy and people might be more willing to play.
True we play Mtn Ridge, which is 2A but MR is honestly more of a rivalry and a actually probably a bigger deal than Southern is right now. It's not completely about enrollment school size, its about the competitiveness of the games/series. Other than Tucker Co and Moorefield, every school we play is bigger than us enrollment wise, but again its not totally about that.
It amazes me there are people who want to require a yearly FH vs Hancock/Clear Spring/Northern game. The regions honestly need to go, WV does not use them in football and they are a much larger state geographically. What Maryland needs is a fifth public school class added, and a 1-16 or 1-12 format, you will solve some of these issues if you do that.
From the WV board, I understand Northern has added Moorefield--going to assume replacing Pendleton, which I think is an upgrade even though Pendleton had 2 decent years. Assuming nothing else changed here is what our schedule looks like, with my input as a fan on it
Smithsburg--1A west school, long history of playing dating back to playoffs in early 90's, mostly competitive games
Tucker County--smallest school we play, again long history dating back to early 90's, competitive series should be on the schedule
Keyser- Northern won the 1st meeting in 1995 but hasn't won since, this years game was competitive, probably biggest challenge year in year out
Frankfort- similar size as Northern but bigger, although record is one sided in Frankfort's favor, most of games have been somewhat competitive
Clear Spring-- 1A west school, similar size and program. Should be on schedule
Moorefield--Actually these teams played 4 times in the 70's, upgrade over Pendleton, good add
Mountain Ridge- 2A west school, since consolidating with Beall and Westmar this has been a competitive series
Allegany- 1A West school, mostly dominated by Allegany, but have had a couple close competitive games
Boonsboro--1A west school, the 20-14 OT game probably one of the more dramatic games in NHS history, hope to see the series continue hope the competitiveness remains
Southern- 1A west. County rival, been some lopsided W/L by both teams and dominate stretches by both schools, the Autumn Glory game in 1992 probably one of the best games in county/area history, wish they would make this game Autumn Glory weekend, every year, I think it would make the rivalry great again.
Just curious why that would be a bad schedule, again keeping in mind you can't compare NHS/FH as equal, because they are not. A good year, we may go 8-2 with that schedule (figuring Alco and Keyser as L on a yearly basis), typical year is where we have been 4-6 to 6-4 range. I think that is a good schedule for us, has its challenges, but leaves us with little/no room for error. But it's probably one of the more challenging schedules in the area to be honest, say you take Tucker out for FH, then a best case scenario might be 7-3 (assuming yearly losses to FH, Alco and Keyser), but most years would be between 2-8 and maybe 5-5, by doing that they will schedule themselves out of the playoffs most years.
