Last Wednesday night (October 7th), WVSSAC Executive Director Bernie Dolin was gracious enough to appear on High School Sportsline and I thought his most profound statement was “we plan to start the football playoffs on time”! That would mean we have four weeks left in the regular season, already shortened by one week, and the playoffs will begin Friday, November 13th! The head man at the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission also said the decision on how many games a team must play in order to be eligible for the playoffs will be announced soon. In years past, that number of games was always eight, however we all know 2020 is far unlike any year we have ever experienced!
So, where do we stand with games being played? Well, just in case you thought Covid 19 was easing up a bit, take into consideration the coronavirus cost us 16 more games this weekend. According to the Covid map released this past Saturday afternoon on the WV Board of Education’s website, Doddridge, Harrison, Mingo & Upshur counties were listed in the orange category. Barbour, Berkeley, Cabell, Jackson, Kanawha, Putnam and Randolph counties were in the gold category, meaning teams can only play in-county or against other gold county opponents. The 16 games lost for this weekend include nine in the orange counties…..
- Ravenswood at Doddridge County
- Elkins at Bridgeport
- Liberty at East Fairmont
- Fairmont Senior at Robert C. Byrd
- South Harrison at Tygarts Valley
- Roane County at Lincoln
- Tug Valley at Logan
- Shady Spring at Mingo Central
- Buckhannon-Upshur at University
And, 7 more in the gold counties…..
- Ripley at Greenbrier East
- Musselman at Wheeling Park
- Albert Gallatin, Pa. at Spring Mills
- Oak Hill at Hurricane
- Tolsia at Buffalo
- Philip Barbour at Moorefield
- Spring Valley at Cabell Midland
Also, Doddridge, Harrison, Mingo & Upshur counties were listed in the orange category on this past Saturday’s map, which means those four counties cannot play any football games this weekend! Now in the 16 games listed above, don’t think all 32 teams will be idle this weekend. Over the past weeks, I have been super impressed by the Athletic Directors and Coaches, who have found themselves in a similar situation of having games cancelled, make phone call after phone call to schedule other games just so their kids can play! So, I would suggest you check the high school football schedule that is displayed on our website at www.dev.wvmetronews.com! The MetroNews sports staff does a remarkable job in making certain the football schedule is updated every time we have a game changed – and believe me, those changes occur every day of the week!
Also, I would invite you to join Dave Jecklin and me this Friday night for High School GAMENIGHT, presented by Summit Community Bank! We’re on the air from 9:30 to midnight and I promise we will have every score of every game played!
Talk with you Friday night!