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The Peppermint Patsy Trophy

TDHelmick

TDHelmick

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May 29, 2001
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Next August I am going to put a voting panel together to select the local area high school football team (including Washington County) that puts together the worst possible football schedule. The trophy will be named accordingly.

This situation has now gone viral with all West Virginia schools. Since the WVSSAC has decided to shift teams into new classifications for 2016 there is a war going on that will demonstrate which team can put together the worst possible schedule to assure a birth in the playoffs. I'm telling everyone this after speaking with an ungodly amount of WV administrators this week. It's real bad. There is no singling out one team, they ALL are on a quest to put together the worst possible schedule.

Maryland has always operated this way. So the competition to put together the worst schedule (including Alco and FH) will be quite heated. What a world we live in. If you can't beat them, drop them.
 
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what about Northern's schedule is "pansie". The only team that we do not play is Fort Hill! Northern is not going to play Fort Hill useless they have to. We play Keyser, Alco, Mtn. Ridge, Smithsburg and Boonsboro which are almost double our size! We are a small school and I think our schedule is a lot better to most 1a teams in our region. Everyone is quick to bitch about Northern, but let's be honest, it's a huge accomplishment to make playoffs for use in the toughest region in the state. You Northern banshers can kiss my ass!!!
 
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Lots of things is pansy about it. You just joined the Little Sisters of the Poor in the Mountains athletic conference. You're going to be playing Calvary Christian in football (sarcasm!!). Yes you duck FH EVERY year and get your backside kicked in the playoffs and wonder why? Northern bashers don't kiss your @$$, we BEAT your @$$....EVERY time.
 
PWA Docket 7323 said:
Lots of things is pansy about it. You just joined the Little Sisters of the Poor in the Mountains athletic conference. You're going to be playing Calvary Christian in football (sarcasm!!). Yes you duck FH EVERY year and get your backside kicked in the playoffs and wonder why? Northern bashers don't kiss your @$$, we BEAT your @$$....EVERY time.[/QUO

Don't know where u got ur info from, but we are not in that league, northern was asked to join and declined. We are staying in AMAC! And Fort Hill should beat us. Get facts straight !
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Maize13 said:
what about Northern's schedule is "pansie". The only team that we do not play is Fort Hill! Northern is not going to play Fort Hill useless they have to. We play Keyser, Alco, Mtn. Ridge, Smithsburg and Boonsboro which are almost double our size! We are a small school and I think our schedule is a lot better to most 1a teams in our region. Everyone is quick to bitch about Northern, but let's be honest, it's a huge accomplishment to make playoffs for use in the toughest region in the state. You Northern banshers can kiss my ass!!!
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Why don't you play fort hill?
 
Well you can blame WCBC for the misinformation then, it was broadcast the week FH/Northern played
 
For the record, I am not calling any one team out. Everyone is doing it. I'm just curious to see who wins the competition challenge to find the worst schedule.
 
The bottom line, however, is that people are still going to have to fill out a 10 game schedule, or close to it. Take a team like Keyser, lets say they do drop Fort Hill and maybe Bridgeport or whoever, my question is, who in the heck is Keyser going to get to fill those empty slots, nobody else will want to play them either. In the end, some teams are still going to have to play some teams.
 
Keyser is not dropping Fort Hill. Rivalry, tradition, the money the gate brings in, proximity.......that game isn't going anywhere for the foreseeable future. I do believe there were conversations about what teams to let go, and there were suggestions about Fort Hill, but Keyser realized there is too much upside to that game versus the Bridgeport game, thus I think the decision to drop Bridgeport materialized versus dropping Fort Hill. I will say I don't blame anyone in WV AA for trying to put together weaker schedules now. The SSAC just took a system where you needed to play a few tough teams and made it so you can't expect a playoff berth at 7-3. WV has a great playoff system, but a completely incompetent and possibly corrupt governing body.
 
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I see absolutely no problem with Northern's schedule. They play Keyser, Frankfort, Allegany, Smithsburg, Boonsboro and Mtn. Ridge. That is 60% of their schedule right there. Considering they play all local schools besides Fort Hill, the only way I would put them in that category is if they say dropped 2 of the above mentioned 6, other than that, they have a pretty decent looking schedule to me. Northern isn't Fort Hill or Allegany, in size or in tradition when it comes to football, let's remember that folks.
 
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You could make the argument that Northern's schedule is more difficult then Alco's was in 2014. I for one believe that to be the case. And this post isn't made to stir up the Camper faithful. It is simply to point out that bashing Northern for their schedule is ridiculous when you look at other area schedules.
 
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WCBC has to support anything Northern football does. After all, the have to back Garrett Eagan's claim that Northern "is an elite program in the area."
 
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Pigskin45 said:
Keyser is not dropping Fort Hill. Rivalry, tradition, the money the gate brings in, proximity.......that game isn't going anywhere for the foreseeable future. I do believe there were conversations about what teams to let go, and there were suggestions about Fort Hill, but Keyser realized there is too much upside to that game versus the Bridgeport game, thus I think the decision to drop Bridgeport materialized versus dropping Fort Hill. I will say I don't blame anyone in WV AA for trying to put together weaker schedules now. The SSAC just took a system where you needed to play a few tough teams and made it so you can't expect a playoff berth at 7-3. WV has a great playoff system, but a completely incompetent and possibly corrupt governing body.
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I'm ignorant to West Virginia football so could someone explain what their playoff system was and how they changed it? God knows it has to be better than ours!
 
I hope the 2016 Sherando schedule omitting Fort Hill is just an oversight! I don't want to lose respect for Sherando as I did for Clearfield! Sore losers if true...
 
I believe WV shifted a number of AAA teams to AA. To what extent I'm not sure. Makes making the playoffs with more than 1-2 losses a lot tougher.
 
LHSlancerFAN said:
I'm ignorant to West Virginia football so could someone explain what their playoff system was and how they changed it? God knows it has to be better than ours!
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WV takes the top 16 in the state for each class. Ranks them 1-16 doesn't matter region, district, etc.
 
cumbfanatic said:
WV takes the top 16 in the state for each class. Ranks them 1-16 doesn't matter region, district, etc.
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Do you they use the same formula for points as we do or do they have a different method?

Funny that travel is used an excuse for our current playoff system yet one of the most economically disadvantaged states in the country can somehow manage to deal with the costs of travel......
 
The issue for the WV playoffs was the downgrading of a few AAA into AA as someone said. Sort of like if the bottom 3rd of 2A dropped to 1A in MD in a 1-16 format. Dunbar, FH, Douglass PG, couple other good teams all in 1A would make a 7-3 schedule the low end benchmark. No one will want to risk losses, making scheduling a mess.

Forestville and some of those teams would be even more challenged to have less than 4 losses. Def more competitive, tho.
 
FHHSAHS said:
The issue for the WV playoffs was the downgrading of a few AAA into AA as someone said. Sort of like if the bottom 3rd of 2A dropped to 1A in MD in a 1-16 format. Dunbar, FH, Douglass PG, couple other good teams all in 1A would make a 7-3 schedule the low end benchmark. No one will want to risk losses, making scheduling a mess.

Forestville and some of those teams would be even more challenged to have less than 4 losses. Def more competitive, tho.
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Sorry to ask 20 million questions, but did they downgrade based on enrollment or where there other factors? From some of the comments it seems like people think that maybe enrollment wasn't the driving reason for dropping these schools.
 
Enrollment had a lot to do with it but they really created a monster. I think that there are now 50 some schools in AA and twenty something in one of the other classes, I forget which class lost the most teams. In that small group, more teams will be in the playoffs than will be out. I'm sure we'll see some sub 500 teams in their playoffs next year.

The bottom line is that in AA scheduling will be an issue. The goal of every coach and AD out there is to get their kids into the playoffs. If teams aren't forced to play their way in, they will certainly attempt to schedule their way in taking the easiest route possible. It happens in Maryland, and it's been happening in WV, but because of the reclassification, it is now evident in the WV system too.
 
bleedred said:
Enrollment had a lot to do with it but they really created a monster. I think that there are now 50 some schools in AA and twenty something in one of the other classes, I forget which class lost the most teams. In that small group, more teams will be in the playoffs than will be out. I'm sure we'll see some sub 500 teams in their playoffs next year.

The bottom line is that in AA scheduling will be an issue. The goal of every coach and AD out there is to get their kids into the playoffs. If teams aren't forced to play their way in, they will certainly attempt to schedule their way in taking the easiest route possible. It happens in Maryland, and it's been happening in WV, but because of the reclassification, it is now evident in the WV system too.
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That is insane! The one thing I do agree with the MPSSAA on is how they reclassify. There is always the same amount of schools in each class, give or take 1 or 2 and some of the sports (i.e Field hockey). We need to take a page from WV and go to 1-16 and they need to take a page from us on reclassifying and split into even thirds, since I believe they have 3 classes....
 
You guys have spelled it out. The WVSSAC created this bloated monster in AA. And historically, AAA teams dropping to AA always do well. Keyser did when they dropped back down in 2002, Bridgeport has owned AA since they dropped back down (minus a couple games in 2012), Fairmont Senior and RCB, middle of the road programs as far as AAA goes, have been power programs in AA since they dropped down. So when they word came down that AA was getting inflated, all AA programs decided to make mad dashes to downgrade the schedule, because 6-4 isn't going to get you in most years now, at least that's the thought. Keyser, and even more historically powerful Bluefield, went from being upper half of the student-count totals to being bottom half in one afternoon thanks to this stuff. The problem is, no one returns the call for Keyser. Their location in the Eastern Panhandle and their reputation as a quality, physical program has made it so people are not wanting to play KHS. Beating Bridgeport in 2012 and Fort Hill a couple of times in the last few years, coupled with the pretty good level of success they've enjoyed during the last 20 years or so, has apparently put some fear into programs other than their local neighbors and the top AA programs in WV. Frustrating to say the least when other programs with winning reputations don't have teams ducking them. Wouldn't be a problem if Keyser were in a conference with more than 3 other teams where everyone is required to play each other.

On a side not, in AAA, there are now 29 programs. That means with 16 playoff teams, over half of the class will get into the playoffs every year. How in the world does that make sense? In AA, 7-3 will most likely mean a road trip in the playoffs, where as in AAA, 5-5 teams will be making it into the playoffs with more regularity and 7-3 will get your home games more frequently.
 
I posted this link in another thread:
WVSSAC drops 9 teams from AAA to AA

The makeup of the new classifications includes 29 schools in AAA, 44 in AA and 54 in A (44 for football).

WV will still use the same 1-16 playoff format.

The reason I have heard the WVSSAC did this was because the largest AAA schools were at a 2000 student enrollment such as Cabell Midland and Morgantown, while the smallest AAA schools were at 933 students (Ripley). That is over a 1000 student difference. There are not a ton of schools in WV that are big so they had to make an adjustment. So depending on which school you ask, the move was good or bad. Just to demonstrate, in Maryland that's like putting Fort Hill in the same class as Quince Orchard, Suitland, Howard, etc. with more than double the enrollment.

I warned everyone that what has been happening in Maryland for a long while will now be even worse for WV Class AA schools. That is why Keyser doesn't want to play Bridgeport anymore. And no one at FH can point the finger at them for doing this. EVERYBODY IS ON A QUEST TO FIND THE WORST SCHEDULE TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS. If you aren't going to do the same thing to a degree you could easily be one of the best teams in your class and still not make the playoffs while others who are far less competitive intentionally outpoint you while ducking you. It's the same old preaching.

Quite frankly, I have posted my Maryland playoff proposal here many, many times. A 9 game schedule where everyone makes the post season with the Top 8 from each region in a playoff bracket. It would end all this stupid non-sense. Just let everyone in. That's what they want, everybody wants in the playoffs. And if they don't get in, they will do whatever they must to get in which means scheduling your way in.
 
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Seasoned Lettuce said:
Bishop Walsh hasn't played a quality opponent in a few years. Why is nobody busting their chops?
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it's hard to hate on someone like bw, way easier to hate on a program that does things the right way and is on a streak that shakes those envious right to their core.
 
Seriously though, BW's Football Program is deplorable, I mean, who could name even one team they've played the last few years?
 
Seasoned Lettuce said:
Seriously though, BW's Football Program is deplorable, I mean, who could name even one team they've played the last few years?
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cant name one

I think we can all think of some of the offseason conditioning their girls soccer team has been doing though
 
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