55?

[knowitall]

For starters I was marveling, not criticizing.

CV’s seniors were undefeated in Jr High.  They were also 0-10 last year and saw 8-10 seniors graduate.  They have several good football players but putting and keeping 11 on the field is going to be quite a challenge

[GoldenRamsFAN]

55 in 4 grades (9th thru 12th)? That's about 13 boys per class. Seems normal to me for a school that probably doesn't have soccer, golf, cross-country, hockey. And everyone loves a winner. Except for play-offs, they always have a good record. Nice stadium. Nice community. Always had a great band.

Portage does have golf though, and cross country, and I still believe a coop for soccer with BC.

[Manfred]

And wrestling, hoops, baseball.

[PortagePride]

Portage MALE sports are Football, Golf, Cross Country, Co-Op with Bishop Carroll for Soccer, Co-Op with Conemaugh Valley for Hockey, Basketball, Wrestling, Baseball, Track & Field, and Rifle.


As touched on previously and In MY opinion as well it's a lot about culture and tradition here. Growing up as a young boy in Portage, you yearn to put on that Kelly Green and White and represent this small tight knit football loving community on Friday and Saturday's. This town on a home football Friday night is a mad house, you'd think that three times the amount of people would live here the traffic that is around and every business other than Sheetz is shut down. 55 Is definitely back up to a higher number than previous years when we were in the lower 40's, but we've had numbers in the high 60's and in the 70's within the last 10 years as well. But just being a realist here, just because you have such high turnout for a team It doesn't mean that all of those players have the talent/work ethic to be effective on the field. A big reason also for the turnout numbers here and consequently low numbers at some of these other small schools is winning/success. If Portage hasn't had the long lasting tradition of being fairly good year in and year out I don't believe the numbers would always be what they have been. That's the tough thing for a lot of these other school's Is to BUILD a winning tradition and get kids to buy in year in and year out even when times traditionally haven't been good or shown results which causes the major coaching turn around in those programs as well and attempt to buy in starts all over again.


  That's a link to a quick story WJAC did a few years back on Portage and It's attachment to football.

[El-Moldo]

WOW!! That even makes 55 MORE impressive, considering all those other seasonal sports opportunities. Thanks.

[fdc173]

BG has just as much of a community as Portage and “small town teams”.   Get your facts straight before making comments 

[12HankQB]

BG has just as much of a community as Portage and “small town teams”.   Get your facts straight before making comments 

Except for the fact that Portage is an actual community and when your team is driving through stang country...you know it. Every house has green waving. 
You can drive around Cambria, Blair, Huntingdon, Centre, Bedford Counties and not see BG supporters in force. This doesn't mean they dont have a lot of loyal support. They clearly do, but it's a different animal than an entire town. Don't think you can compare the two with fan support because of the private/public difference.

[Crimson's Ghost]

Yeah it’s kind of hard to explain, but growing up when I did. There really was a sense of community and family within Bishop McCort. You had a generation of kids my age wanting to play at the Point Stadium and wear the gold helmet.  There was always big crowds, strong support, and a strong feeder system from the parochial league. And growing up in Westmont, I never saw that sense of community or pride as much. Sometimes, sure but Westmont is a suburb it’s not really a small town. And I think that’s just it. Small towns may have that kind of support and feel but that’s not every public high school, and I think that gets misconstrued. 

And I think some of the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh private schools don’t draw quite as well, but that’s not indicative of all private schools. Just a few years ago, McCort and BG played in the state playoffs for girls basketball and McCort people were upset since they were the higher seed and they placed the game in Altoona instead of Ebensburg, which would have been more neutral. But the reasoning was that they needed the bigger gym. Central Cambria could not have held the crowd for two AA catholic girls basketball teams. If catholic schools don’t draw at all, why did they need the biggest gym in D6 to play a playoff game? 

So my point is, there are some wrong notions about catholic schools, especially the ones in our area.  Not everyone is a gun for hire, there was a real sense of community when I grew up. When I was in grade school running around the games,  we all wanted to be playing for Bishop a McCort just like a little kid running around Portage wanted to wear the green helmet and play for them. It was no different. 

 

[El-Moldo]

I think we got to get our definitions straight about community.
...Usually, community is referred to as a particular area or place considered with it's inhabitants. A group of people living in the same place, such as Portage, Meyersdale, Ligonier.
...It can also mean "a feeling of fellowship with others as a result of sharing common interest, such as organized religion".
...What we're talking about above is the first definition, where all the people in ONE particular geographic area have an interest in what is going on in that area. Big difference.

[Crimson's Ghost]

There is, to an extent. But I think people resonate this sense of community with small towns.  I don't think you see that same kind of fan support in just some suburban school in Philadelphia as you would in a small town in Cambria county. There's a difference. 

So my point is, not every public school has the "the town shut downs for the game" mentality, and not every private school is this school bringing 25 fans to the state championship game. Those are the extremes, more of it falls in the middle.