2019 Mid-State League

ReadyKnightsFan said:
That is one of the best high school games I have even been to, incredibly electric crowd. If Cutler has the same success that he did during his first tenure at Ready, I would mark the calendar in 2 years when we rotate St Charles off the schedule and replace them with DeSales or Watterson.
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Ready had on those black uniforms that were sharp as hell, and probably 240 in the student section (big for D6). I believe “west side, best side” was one of their chants, in fact! That was a decently cold night. It felt like a final four game, at minimum, and like a state championship for D5 or D6 atmosphere wise. Wow!
 
The Dock said:
Saw this as another thread topic and figured “why not?”

Best fanbases in the MSL?

Buckeye
1) Amanda
2) BC
3) HT

Cardinal
t1) BU - incredible broad community support across Berne Twp
t1) FC - hands down best student, alumni support and following
3) GCC

Ohio
1) Bishop Ready
2) Grandview Hts
3) Harvest Prep

Across the whole MSL...

1) Amanda
2) BC
3) Ready
4) FC
5) BU
6) Teays
7) HP
8) GCC
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Great list. I wish I could attend more non-buckeye games and experience them myself. OT but i did get a chance to attend a Marion Local- Coldwater game a few years back and that was a ridiculous environment. I would guess there was 6K people there for a D5/6 game - standing room only.
 
Don't forget that Buckeye Valley moves into the Ohio this year. They start with Delaware, Big Walnut and Mt. Vernon but even if they go 0-3 in those games, don't let them fool you. Almost every year they beat somebody in the conference race (if they aren't in it) that nobody expects them to beat. Last year after starting 0-3, they went 5-2 in league play and beat a Pleasant team that made the playoffs.
 
Amanda-Clearcreek is at risk of cutting all sports including the football team next year. The district is a financial mess and the community absolutely refuses to pass the levies that their schools need. Amanda used to be a great community in every facet and an awesome fanbase but it’s been declining the past ten years.
 
Hamilton Township faces Logan in week 10 this year. We had the Chieftains on the schedule 12 years ago. They were a jaw-dropping team then, cleaned our clocks twice. The cuckoo is still recuperating.

Oddly, it was a 3-year deal - twice at Hamilton Twp, then Logan the third year - but we bowed out of the third year. Looking forward to the trip this year, even if it takes longer to get to than Fairfield Union.

I can't remember the last time the Rangers had a non-league game this late, would have to be over 50 years ago.
 
Amanda, and for that matter Amanda Twp as well as Clearcreek and Madison Twps, is experiencing a handful of the pulling forces that cause levies to consistently fail. In their case, it is the older population that at one point may have viewed a willingness to support a tax increase as a worthwhile decision because of how their children would have benefited from it, but now that their children are grown up and with their grandchildren likely not living in the AC district they see no reason to support it. I think the other elephant in the room are some of the decisions made by Amanda schools in recent years and how upsetting it's been to their voters, including the handling of the superintendent controversy (voters feel as if they were screwed by the board of education with how they handled it) as well as the even more displeasing facilities situation (brand new schools, built as if its a small college campus... and there's no money in the well???) With staffing cuts comes a lot of pressure in the building to keep holding on and trying to get voters to say 'yes.' I think Amanda will still have football even if voters say 'no' this November - it'll just be more of the insanely high pay-to-play that kneecapped the program almost 10 years ago. When it comes to education, you can still get a quality education in any school, but I know from talking to the handful of families I know that used to send their kids to AC but instead have sent them to FC, Lancaster or FCA, the common denominator behind all of their complaints is how the quality of the learning environment and general school atmosphere has gotten worse with staffing cuts (yet they still have a handful of office jobs and secretary positions.)

Amanda still has a great fan base for the following that it does. Nothing compares to "the Pit." I think this season is going to be a huge "through the looking glass" moment for the community and district. I love the community and every community in the MSL-Buckeye, and the MSL-Buckeye needs a strong Amanda in every way shape and form.

Yeah... I think HT will get a win in week 10. Logan is still a year or two away from really making the stride back to being competitive long-term. Beautiful new football facility!
 
Saw that GCC pulled out of their game with Tiffin Calvert so that they can play an inferior opponent.

Pretty hokey if you ask me!
 
The Dock said:
Saw that GCC pulled out of their game with Tiffin Calvert so that they can play an inferior opponent.

Pretty hokey if you ask me!
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GCC is an enigma program. They’re ten years removed from a final four appearance and are the only southwest side program to not play in a league situation that guarantees them to go under .500 every year. I don’t know much about either team they would’ve or are playing, but it does sound kind of distasteful. But we don’t know the full story either. If it’s a win then hey extra L2 points for FC.

Player of the year candidates for the MSL? I’ll give it a shot

Kuhns BC
Starcher FC
Someone from Ready or Harvest Prep
 
Artie Bucco said:
GCC is an enigma program. They’re ten years removed from a final four appearance and are the only southwest side program to not play in a league situation that guarantees them to go under .500 every year. I don’t know much about either team they would’ve or are playing, but it does sound kind of distasteful. But we don’t know the full story either. If it’s a win then hey extra L2 points for FC.

Player of the year candidates for the MSL? I’ll give it a shot

Kuhns BC
Starcher FC
Someone from Ready or Harvest Prep
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You never ditch the average looking girl for the prom queen when it comes time to dance!

Good picks. Javon Eggert from HP is probably their best candidate.

Here’s an article on Starcher, hot off the presses: https://www.lancastereaglegazette.c...and-expecting-huge-results-season/1915570001/

I know he’s gotten some D2 offers, and while he’s had some mild FCS interest I think he’ll find himself in 2020 at a great fit for him in the D2 or D3 level where he’ll feel right at home and have a blast. Go Kaden!
 
The Dock said:
Saw that GCC pulled out of their game with Tiffin Calvert so that they can play an inferior opponent.

Pretty hokey if you ask me!
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Dock, very disappointed in that comment, normally you are fairly reasonable.

Maybe GCC wanted a home again or did not want to travel. Lots of possible reasons including with the recent AD switch at GCC maybe the new AD felt differently.
 
smashmouth56 said:
Dock, very disappointed in that comment, normally you are fairly reasonable.

Maybe GCC wanted a home again or did not want to travel. Lots of possible reasons including with the recent AD switch at GCC maybe the new AD felt differently.
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Smashmouth,

Yeah; I agree that what I said was a below-the-belt shot. Lots of good people at GCC and it was wrong for me to malign them the way that I did. I hope you feel welcome to engage in this season-long conversation despite what I said. I will admit that the tone in which I had posted that comment was driven out of emotion; our league has brought some good things since the re-alignment in 2013, but problems have unfolded — some, like possible underlying tensions or resentments based on competitive balance concerns, may be subjective and forgiveable but other, more pressing concerns such as scheduling have risen to the surface and are causing problems.

To reframe the topic more constructively: on the latter point, I’m really of the opinion that our league situation when it comes to non-league scheduling has become FUBAR and as such we all need to go to bat and eat bad contracts if we have to. The dearth of teams available for games past week 4 means we gotta take what we can get. If it means walking the road and traveling 2.5 hours to get beat up, that’s a small price to pay compared to a playing an incomplete schedule. And for us small private schools in particular, that’s especially not good. I know that they have a replacement game, but they’re going to need to fill that date next year also and it’s going to be tough for them to fill it!
 
agree completely with the non-league scheduling becoming an issue especially post week 4.

rather travel all over to play someone rather than the old league option of a cross division game.

unfortunately at the D7 levels there are a lot of schools hurting for numbers in the state
 
smashmouth56 said:
agree completely with the non-league scheduling becoming an issue especially post week 4.

rather travel all over to play someone rather than the old league option of a cross division game.

unfortunately at the D7 levels there are a lot of schools hurting for numbers in the state
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Yeah, those cross-division games were terrible. And, they weren’t much of an option... LOL!

Any thoughts on GCC/the league?
 
The Dock said:
Saw that GCC pulled out of their game with Tiffin Calvert so that they can play an inferior opponent.

Pretty hokey if you ask me!
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Oh great, who did they schedule? Calvert is pretty much screwed at this point. They were going to play at Heidelberg, which is an awesome turf field in a valley...great setting.
 
The Dock said:
They scheduled Newbury.
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Which is a little interesting itself, since Newbury has had noted numbers issues the last few years.

P.S. Didn’t the new GCC a.d. ink the Calvert contract? I think he’s been there for about a month now. It wasn’t a contract that existed two weeks ago, I don’t believe.
 
i think the one take away all of the schools should be looking at is their feeder systems {youth and middle}, and try to blend them into the varsity and get people excited to attend.
Rosecrans "according to the article" in the Zanesville paper is the poster child of what not to have been done.
Especially the private schools need to get more active and presenting to their prospective pool of parents what advantages their kids would have with a private education {faith, strong academics and the opportunity to play multiple sports}
 
smashmouth56 said:
i think the one take away all of the schools should be looking at is their feeder systems {youth and middle}, and try to blend them into the varsity and get people excited to attend.
Rosecrans "according to the article" in the Zanesville paper is the poster child of what not to have been done.
Especially the private schools need to get more active and presenting to their prospective pool of parents what advantages their kids would have with a private education {faith, strong academics and the opportunity to play multiple sports}
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The Zanesville Rosecrans situation is interesting. Rosecrans is finally in a league now where they can compete (and succeed) with less than 25 football players), yet all the middle school parents sent their kids to the larger area public schools that have been making deep runs in recent years (eg Tri-Valley and John Glenn.) The one freshman they had sign up, ironically, is from an FC feeder school.

I agree with you, though. FC has done a pretty good job at what you’re advocating for these last couple of years, and we haven’t lost hardly as many to Lancaster as ninth graders as we had in previous years. And now there is a lot more traction toward an actual pipeline rebuild that’ll benefit us long-term: we’re bringing back 11-man JR high football this year. With how last season went, and the hype for this year, there’s a lot of excitement and certainly the ability to play at renovated Fulton Field is helping. Even more impressive is how much more attention and enrollment we’ve mustered from outside our feeder system these last two years; football parents in the county now are giving us looks and their kids are wanting to come play for us. I expect that wave to continue the next couple of years.
 
smashmouth56 said:
i think the one take away all of the schools should be looking at is their feeder systems {youth and middle}, and try to blend them into the varsity and get people excited to attend.
Rosecrans "according to the article" in the Zanesville paper is the poster child of what not to have been done.
Especially the private schools need to get more active and presenting to their prospective pool of parents what advantages their kids would have with a private education {faith, strong academics and the opportunity to play multiple sports}
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always was curious how GCC can’t seem to get those numbers out that they should for football
 
The Dock said:
Which is a little interesting itself, since Newbury has had noted numbers issues the last few years.

P.S. Didn’t the new GCC a.d. ink the Calvert contract? I think he’s been there for about a month now. It wasn’t a contract that existed two weeks ago, I don’t believe.
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My guess is the GCC people wanted a win, not a loss. I doubt they'd have beaten Tiffin Calvert.
 
There is a very high-profile jamboree game on August 23. Will post tonight after the coaches inform their players.
 
The Dock said:
There is a very high-profile jamboree game on August 23. Will post tonight after the coaches inform their players.
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Archbishop Hoban, #15 in the nation, is coming to Harvest Prep for a jamboree game (scrimmage played like an actual game.) August 23
 
Zunardo said:
Hamilton Township faces Logan in week 10 this year. We had the Chieftains on the schedule 12 years ago. They were a jaw-dropping team then, cleaned our clocks twice. The cuckoo is still recuperating.

Oddly, it was a 3-year deal - twice at Hamilton Twp, then Logan the third year - but we bowed out of the third year. Looking forward to the trip this year, even if it takes longer to get to than Fairfield Union.

I can't remember the last time the Rangers had a non-league game this late, would have to be over 50 years ago.
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You guys better beat them. Be funny if Logan goes 0-10
 
Hartley1 said:
Looks like Teays Valley & Hamilton Township are both scrimmaging D1 opponents Saturday. TV vs Grove City & HT vs Pick North.
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Green_n_Gold76 was at the HT-PN scrimmage. He said the Rangers didn't fare badly. Defense looked good considering the opponent. When they went to game-play simulation toward the end, Pick North scored the only TD. The good people of Hamilton Gulch wish Sheriff Nate the best, but we're glad we don't have to play his team during the regular season, lol.
 
New helmets for the Irish; and hearing some equally impressive commentary on the defense and especially on the progression and diversity of the offense!
 
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