Southern V Alco varsity game is cancelled.
- Thread starter FHHSAHS
- Start date
Southern has cancelled their entire 2023 varsity football season. The official release will come out tomorrow but the word is out now on social media since all of the Southern opponents have been notified. They will keep their full JV schedule.
Before anyone tosses out insults know that Southern currently only has 2 seniors and 3 juniors on the varsity roster when fully healthy. The rest were 9th and 10th graders moved up. They still maintained a JV team who got beat by Keyser 54-0. The decision is to move all players back down to JV and try and build off of that.
Cancelling the JV season just to have a varsity team that gets beat by 42 points at halftime wasn't the best choice for rebuilding participation numbers. More important, there were safety concerns. Having 9th graders compete against guys like Carter Hess or Zach Michaels was not an option.
Every Southern opponent is granted a forfeit win. However, the MPSSAA permits teams to add games since COVID. In fact, Smithsburg has now added Tucker County today. Those were 2 Southern opponents. As an example, Alco is free to either take the forfeit win or add another opponent. It's the Campers choice. Fort Hill will obviously take the forfeit win with no time to scramble for an opponent.
Southern will still visit Fort Hill this Monday night for the regularly scheduled JV game. The Fort Hill JV will now be playing the same team their varsity was set to play in Oakland Friday night.
I feel for Southern and small schools in their position. I respect their decision.
Before anyone tosses out insults know that Southern currently only has 2 seniors and 3 juniors on the varsity roster when fully healthy. The rest were 9th and 10th graders moved up. They still maintained a JV team who got beat by Keyser 54-0. The decision is to move all players back down to JV and try and build off of that.
Cancelling the JV season just to have a varsity team that gets beat by 42 points at halftime wasn't the best choice for rebuilding participation numbers. More important, there were safety concerns. Having 9th graders compete against guys like Carter Hess or Zach Michaels was not an option.
Every Southern opponent is granted a forfeit win. However, the MPSSAA permits teams to add games since COVID. In fact, Smithsburg has now added Tucker County today. Those were 2 Southern opponents. As an example, Alco is free to either take the forfeit win or add another opponent. It's the Campers choice. Fort Hill will obviously take the forfeit win with no time to scramble for an opponent.
Southern will still visit Fort Hill this Monday night for the regularly scheduled JV game. The Fort Hill JV will now be playing the same team their varsity was set to play in Oakland Friday night.
I feel for Southern and small schools in their position. I respect their decision.
Absolute correct decision by Southern here. You need to start from somewhere if you want to compete with the teams in this area. This is a good starting point for the Southern program. It takes a lot to get kids interested in doing something with the commitment that football requires. I have a 9th grader that is starting on JV this year and all he wants to do is anything but football.
