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High School punts on football

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by heyabbott, Aug 19, 2017.

  1. cjericho

    cjericho Well-Known Member

    In NJ there's a few co-op football and wrestling teams, but there's too many high schools in NJ, pretty much in North NJ.
     
  2. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    PA does a healthy number of co-ops. I mentioned James Buchanan earlier, which brings in kids from two rural districts to the west. And I'm pretty sure there's a number of such football co-ops up north, like around Meadville, Bradford and Coudersport.

    More than 1,000 in the state, counting all sports.

    Co-ops give small-school athletes chance to compete
     
    Last edited: Aug 15, 2018
  3. expendable

    expendable Well-Known Member

    They were out of my area. It’s been a while, but the couple of years a team I covered ran into them, I remember MP as better than decent.

    Unless I’m thinking of another team from the north end of Region B. You know, the region that ran from Dan River (8 miles from NC) to Clarke County (8 miles from Maryland).
     
  4. Jake_Taylor

    Jake_Taylor Well-Known Member

    I believe Manassas Park has been pretty bad in recent years, but had a good run this century up until 2013 or so.
     
  5. 3_Octave_Fart

    3_Octave_Fart Well-Known Member

    When a team has to raid the soccer roster for 'talent' then things have shifted quite dramatically.
    I have said I expect football to be litigated out of society by the time my boys are my age.
    (They will not go near the gridiron, but I hope they play baseball and tennis instead of soccer.)
     
  6. Bud_Bundy

    Bud_Bundy Well-Known Member

    The two schools merged a few years ago into Bland County HS in Rocky Gap.
     
  7. apeman33

    apeman33 Well-Known Member

    Kansas has 8-man football officially (the KSHAA sanctions it) and 6-man unofficially (there aren't enough teams playing to sanction it yet). Six-man just came into play three or four years ago. Seventeen schools are going six-man this season and they've been playing their championship game in Dodge City. And there are also several places where schools have to co-op just to be able to play eight-man.

    In order to co-op, the two schools have to let the KSHSAA know that's what it wants to do before the classes are set. So if a school finds out in the next few days that it won't be able to field a team (11-man or 8-man), its only option is to cancel the season (the classes for this and next year were set last October). However, that school would be able to seek a school to co-op with next year and those two schools could band together even though it will be the second-year of the two-year cycle. I don't know how they would decide which school's schedule to play, especially if those schools are in different districts.

    Two small schools run by the same district started a co-op athletic program before merging the schools entirely. From what I know, the co-op teams helped ease the transition from two tiny schools (neither had more than 80 students) into one a lot easier than if they had merged the schools first.
     
  8. LanceyHoward

    LanceyHoward Well-Known Member

    I don't follow high school sports but it seems to me that kids specialize more. It used to be that the best athletes played at least and sometimes three varsity sports. But I think now kids tend to focus more on one sport. When I was in high school the pretty girls could not choose between a football and a baseball player. They were generally the same kids.
     
  9. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

  10. pseudo

    pseudo Well-Known Member

    It's almost harder to find a team that doesn't co-op for football in that area: Warren (Youngsville), Sheffield (Abraxas), Kane (East Forest), Otto-Eldred (Oswayo Valley), Coudy (Austin), Ridgway (Johnsonburg), Brockway (DuBois Catholic), Clarion (North Clarion), Union/A-C Valley ...
     
  11. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    The only one of those that surprises me is the Ridgway/Johnsonburg deal, inasmuch as both schools have had some athletic success.
     
  12. pseudo

    pseudo Well-Known Member

    Elkers and Rams had a heck of a rivalry, too. But the last couple of years they had their own program, Burg was flirting with forfeits on a regular basis due to lack of players. As the rural upstate population continues to shrink, that problem isn't going away.

    My alma mater isn't on that list for football, but started co-ops in soccer, golf, and cross country this fall. It's coming.
     
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