The Starting Five

Here is a note on Clayton Anders … I know he would not make anything of it himself.
With Boonsboro’s victory over Smithsburg last Friday, Anders reached a personal victory plateau. It was his 150th victory as Boonsboro’s head football coach, where he took over in 1985.
To date, his career record is now 150-112.
I believe he may be the second winningest coach all-time in Washington County. At the top of the list would be Coach Carroll Reid.
Congratulations Coach Anders !

Greg Kellick has resigned his position as head coach of the South Hagerstown football team.
In the time that I have been in Hagerstown, I have always enjoyed talking with Kellick about football and anything else that came into discussion. It was no surprise, after a dismal 2009 season in which the Rebels were expected to be much improved, Kellick tendered his resignation following Friday’s brutal 44-0 loss to North Hagerstown.
Kellick has been a Rebel for life. He has lived and died South High football for the majority of his coaching career.
As we usually do on a Tuesday, we taped our upcoming segment of Inside Sports (Week 11) and I would suggest that you tune in Thursday night at 7 p.m. At the conclusion in our “Overtime” segment, sports editor Mark Keller hits in right on the head with his comments about the situation at South. I won’t say anymore, you will just need to watch and listen. And for those of you that are South followers, I would especially suggest you tune in and remember, if the shoe fits, wear it.
Whether Kellick coaches again or elects not to, I don’t know. I think he’s still got something to offer. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens at South with the selection process. It must be thorough, but yet it can’t take forever.

It was a one-sided performance on Friday night at Mike Callas Stadium.
North Hagerstown continued its recent mastery over South Hagerstown with its seventh straight win in the series, 44-0.
After two years in which the Hagerstown Gridiron Classic game was truly a classic to the end, North went back to what it had done in the four previous wins in the streak — dominate.
It was the fourth shutout in the streak and matched the 2006 victory of 44-0, the largest margin ever in the series and the Hubs now hold a 28-24-1 lead.
(continue reading…)

Prognosticators? Right now the report card on Mark Keller, Bob Parasiliti and myself might not get a passing grade. If you refer back to my Sept. 1 blog, you’ll see how we predicted the Washington County teams would finish. Some of those numbers have taken a hit.

Williamsport was predicted to win 3 games for the year; halfway thru the season they are 4-1.

South Hagerstown we predicted anywhere from 5-5 to 7-3 and right now they are 1-4 and tunless they turn a new leaf, could go anywhere from 3-7 to 1-9.

Boonsboro we suggested would be 6-4 and they are 2-3, but I think there is a good possibility of the Warriors still reaching that mark. So we’ll hold off on that one right now.

The same for North Hagerstown, at 2-3 right now. The Hubs have two tough road games in front of them at Walkersville and Middletown. We thought they would be anywhere from 5-5 to 6-4.

And we were on the money with Smithsburg (ugh, tighten the rope around the neck) when we suggested the Leopards would be anywhere from 2-8 to 4-6. Already with 3 wins, there should have been a fourth against South Carroll. There could be at least 3 wins in the second half of the season which would give them a 6-4 record.

We thought Hancock and Clear Spring would each win 2 games. Hancock has 3 so far and Clear Spring has 2. I now think each team has the chance of winning 2 more games apiece.

We haven’t backed up our prognostication too well … thus far.

You know, I’ve been doing this sports thing for a long, long time. Dealing with coaches over the years, there have been situations when you don’t see eye-to-eye. The same can be said for ADs and other administrators. I’ve taken pride in usually being on the better side of all of them.

HOWEVER, until tonight. When I got back from covering the Greencastle football game, one of my colleagues mentioned to me that one of our stringers contacted a head football coach to get some information on his game that had been played, but not yet reported on.

Now I am not going to call out the individual here nor the school. I will do that with a private phone call maybe on Saturday, but for sure on Monday.

When asked if he “had some time to give information,” his response — “No, I don’t.”

You know, there are several coaches around that for some reason, can’t delegate an assistant or other school representative to call in reports on a timely basis — football, soccer, tiddly-winks … yoou name it. Just this week we had at least five or six contests involving Washington County schools that did not get reported.

Again, this is the responsibility of the coach… It is for the kids … And it should be a mandate from each athletic administrator to insure each of their coaches report their events. Period.

But for a coach to say “No, I don’t,” well, to me, that is worse than any description that I am allowed to say … so, I’ll just say PITIFUL.

Boonsboro High School celebrates 50 years of varsity football this season and I covered the home opener last Friday against South Carroll.

The school has produced a wonderful program scrolling through the years with many items that are sure to bring back memories for those that have been a part of Boonsboro football. It has a team picture from each year with player identifications. It has a few comments from past alumni and their memories. It has several clippings from The Herald-Mail throughout.

There are items about Dwight Scott, Don Lewis and Clayton Anders — the only three coaches in the history of Boonsboro football. An overview of Warrior football, the Warrior legend and the legend of the totem pole are in the program and much, much more.

The program costs $10 and will be available at home games, but I am sure if you went to the school office during the day that it would be OK to purchase a copy. If you are a high school football fan in general, you would want a copy of this program.

The Herald-Mail Insiders had the first taping of Season 2 for  Inside Sports, to be seen Thursday’s at 7 and 11 p.m. on Antietam Channel 30.

There, you’ll find some of our predictions for the upcoming prep football season.

What you will find here are further predictions from Mark Keller, Bob Parasiliti and myself.

TEAM RECORDS:

North Hagerstown — Mark 5-5; Parse 6-4; Tim 5-5.

South Hagerstown — Mark 7-3; Parse 5-5; Tim 6-4.

Boonsboro — Mark 6-4; Parse 6-4; Tim 6-4.

Smithsburg — Mark 2-8; Parse 4-6; Tim 3-7.

Williamsport — Mark 3-7; Parse 3-7; Tim 3-7.

Clear Spring — Mark 2-8; Parse 2-8; Tim 2-8.

Hancock — Mark 2-8; Parse 2-8; Tim 2-8.

Saint James — Mark 2-7; Parse 3-6; Tim 3-6. (continue reading…)

The recent RivalsHigh 100 national high school football rankings include four teams from Pennsylvania and three from Maryland.

Two of the Pennsylvania teams are from the Mid-Penn Conference — No. 43 State College and No. 99 Bishop McDevitt. One of the Maryland teams is from the MVAL — No. 93 Linganore.

West Virginia got no love.

Check out the complete list here.

Don’t forget to look for The Herald-Mail’s top football performers of 2008 online and in Sunday’s print edition.

In talking with Williamsport AD Stan Stouffer, he said five, or six, applicants have interest in the head football position at the school to replace Adrian Custer. Stouffer told me things shoould start rolling toward naming a new coach in mid-January and in the meantime the current staff is helping out with offseason strength conditioning.

Stouffer also said the Wildcats have signed on with Poolesville for next season.

Speaking of games next season, North Hagerstown will play Thomas Johnson and Loch Raven at home and will hit the road to Cecil County to play North East.

Clear Spring High School will not be playing football in the MVAL, at least for the next two years.
A formal request was made during the football season and the league granted the request Monday as the school tries to stabilize the program.
Clear Spring is the smallest school in the MVAL and just couldn’t get the program in gear, winning only three games since it brought back football in 2003.

** Not sure when the formal announcement will be made, but when the MVAL restructures AGAIN, along with the reclassification of schools by enrollment, you’re likely to see a conference setup of one group consisting of Washington County schools, another with Carroll County schools and a third with Frederick County. There is also a possibility of a split with Frederick and Carroll County schools based on their size.

** On the coaching front, Williamsport’s Adrian Custer is stepping aside as head football coach of the Wildcats. He was 15-45 in his six seasons at Williamsport, but will remain at the school teaching physical education.
Custer informed his team of his decision following the Wildcats’ season-ending 40-0 win over Clear Spring.