Football talk before Two-a-Days
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
I love covering the South Central Ohio League football season. This coming season will be the seventh season for me to cover the beat. The first year I covered the league, it was in Fayette County, covering the Miami Trace Panthers and Washington Blue Lions as a college intern.
Since then, I covered part of the 2006 season and one game a week since the 2007 season. I keep an SCOL notebook every week, and the Highland County Press puts out a high school football preview every year. (Call Caitlin or Angie at (937) 840-9490 to advertise in the preview edition).
I have thoughts about the upcoming football season. Two-a-days start on Monday, Aug. 1, which happens to be the same day I start my second annual SCOL football tour … the only one of its kind. It will consist of me, my car, some CDs and my digital recorder (and notebook) as I travel to visit Clinton, Fayette, Madison and Highland County football teams (plus Paint Valley in Ross County) to do what I love most … talk football with players and coaches.
I hope the excitement is starting to hit everyone else … I want you to talk about the game of football. I want to talk about high school football.
Shall we begin?
Here is what I'm thinking in the lead-up to two-a-days.
Just like before the start of last season, I was wanting to know if there was anyone who could challenge the Clinton-Massie Falcons for the SCOL title. They finished 6-0 in the league and 10-0 in the regular season. They have won 32 straight regular-season games, last losing in 2007, a Week 8 loss to the Washington Blue Lions, 35-34.
Since then, the Falcons haven't lost a regular-season game, and since they entered the SCOL in 2005, they have just two league losses. If a team can beat them in league play, and that is a big "IF," they must play a perfect game because we all know one slip-up against the defending five-time league champions can cost a team a game. So if anyone is going to be a threat to the Falcons … my opinion says they better be ready to play an entire 48 minutes.
Next on my mind is this is the last season for the seven-team SCOL look. After 2011, East Clinton will be the eighth member of the league, taking away one non-league game from the schedule.
Last season in non-league games, the SCOL went 13-15, with CM winning four of those games. Three of the non-league losses were to Jonathan Alder, with MT, MHS and WCH falling to the Pioneers. Again, CM was the only SCOL team to beat the Pioneers last season.
So losing a non-league game starting in the '12 season will provide more opportunity to shake up league standings, which will be interesting. I guess you can say I won't miss the seven-team league.
It has come to my attention the numbers for the Hillsboro varsity football program are way down.
I've been told these could be some of the lowest numbers in years; but yes, there will be a season.
Well, last year, I'm pretty sure there was no freshman team, so that hurts this year's team, plus with other issues that surround all athletics and education, added with the the unemployment rate of the county, it is expected numbers will be down. Plus losing the big graduating class from last season … all that wrapped up into a ball can hurt the numbers of any football program.
Again, besides CM (who are like a football factory), the rest of the SCOL intrigues me. The rest of the league has to catch up to the Falcons, that's no secret, plus some teams have to replace their field general, which is never an easy task. I know Hillsboro, CM, Miami Trace and Washington are replacing their quarterbacks. London will return theirs, and so will the Golden Eagles of Madison-Plains. McClain returns their starting QB as well.
Another item for the SCOL is there will be two new coaches in the league. Mike Siders is taking over at Madison-Plains after they finished 1-9 last season. Jerry Wasserman was named the new head coach at London, and he brings an impressive resume along with him. He was the defensive coordinator last season for an LHS team that finished 5-5.
At the Highland County Press, we also cover the Paint Valley Bearcats of the Scioto Valley Conference. This, too, is a good conference to keep track of. PV had a "growing pain" year of sorts last season, but battling through injuries did help this season. How, you ask? Last season gave their younger players a chance to get used to playing at the varsity level, and they did have some standouts.
Also, did you know the last three SVC football champions all went 7-0 in conference play? Last year, it was Adena; the year before, it was Zane Trace; and in '08, it was Westfall. That's what you call diversity (for fans of "Anchorman,” no, diversity is not a old wooden ship).
Isn't this great … we are talking football, and it's not about a lockout, tattoo scandals, wearing ties the first week, free agents or if Carson Palmer will retire.
We didn’t even mention the probable comeback of Brett Fav... and we still aren’t.
Stephen Forsha is the sports editor of The Highland County Press. He can be reached at sforsha@gmail.com[[In-content Ad]]
Since then, I covered part of the 2006 season and one game a week since the 2007 season. I keep an SCOL notebook every week, and the Highland County Press puts out a high school football preview every year. (Call Caitlin or Angie at (937) 840-9490 to advertise in the preview edition).
I have thoughts about the upcoming football season. Two-a-days start on Monday, Aug. 1, which happens to be the same day I start my second annual SCOL football tour … the only one of its kind. It will consist of me, my car, some CDs and my digital recorder (and notebook) as I travel to visit Clinton, Fayette, Madison and Highland County football teams (plus Paint Valley in Ross County) to do what I love most … talk football with players and coaches.
I hope the excitement is starting to hit everyone else … I want you to talk about the game of football. I want to talk about high school football.
Shall we begin?
Here is what I'm thinking in the lead-up to two-a-days.
Just like before the start of last season, I was wanting to know if there was anyone who could challenge the Clinton-Massie Falcons for the SCOL title. They finished 6-0 in the league and 10-0 in the regular season. They have won 32 straight regular-season games, last losing in 2007, a Week 8 loss to the Washington Blue Lions, 35-34.
Since then, the Falcons haven't lost a regular-season game, and since they entered the SCOL in 2005, they have just two league losses. If a team can beat them in league play, and that is a big "IF," they must play a perfect game because we all know one slip-up against the defending five-time league champions can cost a team a game. So if anyone is going to be a threat to the Falcons … my opinion says they better be ready to play an entire 48 minutes.
Next on my mind is this is the last season for the seven-team SCOL look. After 2011, East Clinton will be the eighth member of the league, taking away one non-league game from the schedule.
Last season in non-league games, the SCOL went 13-15, with CM winning four of those games. Three of the non-league losses were to Jonathan Alder, with MT, MHS and WCH falling to the Pioneers. Again, CM was the only SCOL team to beat the Pioneers last season.
So losing a non-league game starting in the '12 season will provide more opportunity to shake up league standings, which will be interesting. I guess you can say I won't miss the seven-team league.
It has come to my attention the numbers for the Hillsboro varsity football program are way down.
I've been told these could be some of the lowest numbers in years; but yes, there will be a season.
Well, last year, I'm pretty sure there was no freshman team, so that hurts this year's team, plus with other issues that surround all athletics and education, added with the the unemployment rate of the county, it is expected numbers will be down. Plus losing the big graduating class from last season … all that wrapped up into a ball can hurt the numbers of any football program.
Again, besides CM (who are like a football factory), the rest of the SCOL intrigues me. The rest of the league has to catch up to the Falcons, that's no secret, plus some teams have to replace their field general, which is never an easy task. I know Hillsboro, CM, Miami Trace and Washington are replacing their quarterbacks. London will return theirs, and so will the Golden Eagles of Madison-Plains. McClain returns their starting QB as well.
Another item for the SCOL is there will be two new coaches in the league. Mike Siders is taking over at Madison-Plains after they finished 1-9 last season. Jerry Wasserman was named the new head coach at London, and he brings an impressive resume along with him. He was the defensive coordinator last season for an LHS team that finished 5-5.
At the Highland County Press, we also cover the Paint Valley Bearcats of the Scioto Valley Conference. This, too, is a good conference to keep track of. PV had a "growing pain" year of sorts last season, but battling through injuries did help this season. How, you ask? Last season gave their younger players a chance to get used to playing at the varsity level, and they did have some standouts.
Also, did you know the last three SVC football champions all went 7-0 in conference play? Last year, it was Adena; the year before, it was Zane Trace; and in '08, it was Westfall. That's what you call diversity (for fans of "Anchorman,” no, diversity is not a old wooden ship).
Isn't this great … we are talking football, and it's not about a lockout, tattoo scandals, wearing ties the first week, free agents or if Carson Palmer will retire.
We didn’t even mention the probable comeback of Brett Fav... and we still aren’t.
Stephen Forsha is the sports editor of The Highland County Press. He can be reached at sforsha@gmail.com[[In-content Ad]]