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Are Your Area HS Football Games Regularly Played On Saturdays....?

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by BNWriter, Apr 14, 2012.

  1. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty New Member

    PNW, and none. except small schools during the playoffs.
     
  2. sportbook

    sportbook Member

    Canandaigua Academy (a public school) which up until about five years ago had one of the best football programs in upstate New York, still plays its home games on Saturdays. The school does have lighted fields but chooses to play Saturday afternoons. It was a cool atmosphere when they used to be really good.
     
  3. I used to work in an area where, because all the eight schools in one of the county's school districts had to share three public stadiums, most weeks saw a games Thursday, Friday and Saturday. There was one coach who seemingly loved to play in the Thursday games and always scheduled them, and there were some times a morning and afternoon game on Saturday if all the teams were home on a given week.
     
  4. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    San Joaquin Valley in da house! Just about every school plays on Friday night here, with a few Thursday night games when schools share stadiums and some nonconference intersectional games on Saturdays. Otherwise, Saturdays belong to colleges, jucos and Pop Warner.
     
  5. Shoeless Joe

    Shoeless Joe Active Member

    Although not exclusive, it seems most of us in the South are almost entirely chiming in with Friday night. It all goes back to Friday night high school/Saturday afternoon college football being part of the fabric of communities. We will get a few Thursday games each year. That's usually an attendance grab thing where you'll have a couple of huge games locally on the same week. One will play Thursday, the other Friday to draw larger crowds to both games. Here, attendance at high school football games isn't locked into someone's connection with a certain school. Most folks follow their team, but there are plenty who travel around to the game of the week.
     
  6. bbnews60

    bbnews60 Member

    In our section of New York State (Albany area), several smaller schools play on Saturdays due to a lack of lights.
    In our area of the section, two of the seven teams (both small schools) do.
     
  7. e_bowker

    e_bowker Member

    There's a Class 1A Catholic school on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Resurrection, that plays its home games on Saturday night. They share a stadium with another school and are second in the pecking order.
    As an aside, it gives them a big homefield advantage. The closest school in their district is about two hours away because there's hardly any 1A schools in South Mississippi. So most of the opposing teams have to load up on what should be a day off, drive anywhere from 2-4 hours, play a game Saturday night and get home after midnight. It's a big mental thing, in that no one wants to be there.
     
  8. e_bowker

    e_bowker Member

    I grew up in central New Jersey (the Trenton area), and remember Saturday used to be the big day there. Most schools didn't have lights, but there were a few that did and played on Friday night. Some others were located in the middle of neighborhoods and might not have been able to get clearance to put up lights.
    That was in the mid-90s, so I'm not sure if it's still the case or not.
     
  9. e_bowker

    e_bowker Member

    ... And one more. I work in central Mississippi. Like a few others have said, there's not a lot of Saturday football in this state unless weather hits or the lights malfunction.
    I have, however, noticed a handful of scores moving on the Louisiana AP wire every Saturday. It might only be a dozen, max, statewide. They also play some Thursday games there. I assume it's to draw a bigger gate for marquee games, in areas that don't have as many referees available, or in places where they have to share stadiums.
     
  10. dixiehack

    dixiehack Well-Known Member

    Talladega area schools will play the Thursday of race week to avoid traffic madness (and because schools are closed the following day.) Several schools do Thursdays to end the regular season and get an extra day off before playoffs.
     
  11. novelist_wannabe

    novelist_wannabe Well-Known Member

    The Georgia schools without lighted stadiums are in the much-less-prominent GISA. There are a handful of school systems (Atlanta Public Schools, Clayton County, DeKalb County) that have fewer stadiums than they have schools, and in those instances the volume of schools prompts them to play some games on Saturdays. There are also Thursday night games and the occasional Friday doubleheaders. The rest of the state reserves Saturdays for college football.
     
  12. EStreetJoe

    EStreetJoe Well-Known Member

    Here in Mercer County,NJ/northern part of Burlington County, NJ the majority of games are played on Saturdays. I would say it's 60-40 or 65-35 of Saturday games vs. Friday night games.

    The main reason being schools not having lights for their football field. The primary reasons for that are taxpayers not wanting to foot the bill to install the lights and the legal challenges neighbors to the high school file to prevent the lights from being installed because it will be too loud and too bright on game nights which will decrease their property values.
     
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