Thanksgiving Day high school football thread

Thanksgiving Day was one of the few days of the year I wished I'd played HS football. There was something incredibly emotional about those games...probably the fact it was the last game ever for 99 pct of the seniors on the field.

 

I stand corrected. Used to be big Thanksgiving Day rivalries in parts of the state, including McCaskey-Lancaster Catholic, so some players told me a few years back. Figured PIAA playoffs and district points probably did games like that in.

Easton probably doesn't care too much about a PIAA title is because it's basically a Jersey town and the PIAA playoffs pale in tradition compared to that 100-year-old rivalry.

And BYH, I always felt the same way on Thanksgiving. Walk the sidelines covering a game that day (if it's warm enough outside), and you can taste the intensity.

 

Not only does Easton have to play again Saturday in a PIAA Sub-regional (District 11 Class 4A final against Bethlehem Liberty), they also just beat Parkland (State's No. 1 and undefeated this season before losing to Easton last weekend). Three BIG games in eight days!

 

I'm stuck at home tonight, but these WPIAL finals are great. Upper St. Clair up 7-6 on Penn Hills late in first half of AAAA final. I only wish my cable company had Fox Sports Pittsburgh's HD signal.

That's what bothers me about Easton's outlook on it, wicked. The PIAA playoffs never WILL be what they could be as long as schools like Easton and most of the WPIAL look upon Hershey as being anticlimatic.

 

I think the WPIAL schools would view it as more of a climax if the finals were held at, say, Mansion Park.

I tried to watch some of the Class A game earlier but just couldn't get into it.

 

Screw Mansion Park. Just like I say screw the Bryce Jordan Center.

 

I'm sure fans will be thrilled next year when they can't get hotel rooms within 30 miles of University Park come finals weekend.

 

That was incorrect. Game was at 10 (42-0 Lowell). They redid Cawley, FieldTurf and all, the press box was warm (especially the upper level).

EDIT - At least it was warm when I was there the previous couple weeks for soccer games on some cold days.

 

No Thanksgiving Day games here. The stadium is in use by a JV NFL team.

State championship games were today and Saturday. Four each day.

 

Same here. Two undefeated state champs from the area were crowned.. and it was the first state title for both schools.

 

I loved covering Thanksgiving hs football in Massachusetts years ago because it was the last day of the regular season. So not only were the games all rivalries (some of them, like Boston Latin-Boston English, going back over a century), but many of the games had league championships and playoff berths at stake.

Unfortunately, that tradition has never really gotten off where I'm currently at. There's only about four such rivalries in my area, because the vast majority of the towns here, simply put, are posh suburbs that can't be bothered with high-level football, let alone playing it on Thanksgiving.