Mass. high school cancels Thanksgiving Day game

Nothing I hated more as a Jersey sportswriter than Thanksgiving Day football. Unless you're raised and indoctrinated in it, it's the stupidest inconsiderate inconvenience imaginable on a family holiday.

 

The trade off of smaller team is that more playing time for all.
Town I live in has won 4 state championships in a row and has a roster of 60 plus. Unless you are exceptional you won't see the light of day until you are a senior.

For most kids who are not going to go on and play in college are they better off watching in a big program or having a chance to play in a smaller program?

 

I thought the same thing.

Unless Friday does not follow Thursday this week, I don't understand the logic of bumping this game up one day.

 

One thing I should add. The Thanksgiving Day games kickoff at 10 or 10:15 a.m. They don't interfere with anyone's holiday, even a sportswriter's. I'd go home from the game, write, and baste the turkey.

 

Same. Most Rhode Island football games are between 9 a.m. and noon, IIRC. For some divisions, the Thanksgiving game with the final division game, whereas for others the playoffs start a week earlier, then resume the week after. I'd much rather have a scheduled thing like a football game to cover vs. some sort of emergency coverage.

I'm kind of more surprised that a school that gets less then 20 kids coming out for football had a team in the first place. And that they've won three games this season. (Lost seven, but still.)

 

At my tiny private day school in Delaware in the 60s, 200 kids co-ed grades 9-12, we dressed 30. As Boom noted, the plus was that if you dressed, you played. The minus was if you were a freshman or sophomore on the team, you got run over a lot by bigger kids on the other teams.

 

Team in our neck of the woods won a state title with 22 kids. Another one is on its way.

 

Not in Ohio. If a team cancels a game, it goes down as not being played, not as a forfeit. There's a mechanism built into the computer poll used to determine who makes the playoffs for this.
Teams can get forfeit wins, but something has to occur during the game to warrant it.

 

Although I have been away from New Jersey for more than a decade, Thanksgiving was usually the biggest crowd of the year. It was also big because a lot of students went to college out of state, and Thanksgiving was a time when people could get together and reconnect.

 

at a few schools it still is, but there are very few long-time rivalries left. pburg-easton is the biggest and was on espn a few years ago when it was the 100th game. vineland-millville also has been played for a long time, but more schools don't play on thanksgiving than do.

 

Crikey, that's nuts. Aren't there enough days that you can play on without messing this one up?

 

Don't they usually play the game in the morning?

Our team's game was at 10:30. It's sort of a nice way to start the day and doesn't interfere with everything else that's going on.

(Unless you're traveling or you're the one cooking.)

Edit: I should have kept reading before responding. Others have already addressed it.