Ridge to the LHAC?

[CCDevil2012]

To me it seems like a bunch of excuses because they won't get to dominate small schools anymore

Exactly what sports, outside of wrestling (which has one of the toughest schedules of any wrestling tea
ms around) and as of late, football (which doesn't really dominate and has been playing an independent schedule filled with bigger schools anyways) do you think the parents are concerned about not being able to "dominate". In reality, there are 3 sports that can generally be counted on for winning season: Wrestling, Football and Girls Softball. Other sports have good seasons at times but not consistently. I hardly think it's because parents are worried that much about not being able to "dominate"

Right now their basketball team is 6-6 and they're playing teams like Norhern Bedford and Southern Fulton. It was said that wrestling wouldn't be as competitive. I don't see why they can't continue to wrestle in tournaments and don't see them getting weaker by wrestling Westmont, McCort, Johnston, Bedford, Forest Hills etc instead of Sidling Hill teams like they are now. And yes their schedule for football has gotten tougher, but it's not going to get weaker by going to the LHAC. Across the board with all sports, they play schedules that consist of mostly schools smaller than themselves. And whether you want to admit it or not, parents absolutely care about winning, and if tougher competition is going to jeopardize wins and district championships, you better believe they will be against changing to a conference that is going to make that road more difficult.

[Crimson's Ghost]

Right now their basketball team is 6-6 and they're playing teams like Norhern Bedford and Southern Fulton. 

FWIW, Southern Fulton would beat a lot of LHAC teams.

[odoyelrules]

I haven't seen great school by school data, but I did find this for the 2015-2016 School Year.

Bedford County 12th graders = 597, 1st graders = 473
Cambria County 12th graders = 1,342, 1st graders = 1,169
Somerset County 12th graders = 785, 1st graders = 656

So it looks to me like Bedford County enrollment is decreasing faster than the other 2 counties. Which I believe is the opposite of how the prior decade went.

[CCDevil2012]

Right now their basketball team is 6-6 and they're playing teams like Norhern Bedford and Southern Fulton. 

FWIW, Southern Fulton would beat a lot of LHAC teams.

Not saying they wouldn't, but would: Forbes Road, Claysburg, Fannett Metal, Northern Bedford, North Star?? Not saying those teams aren't ever good but I would rather play any of those team in basketball over any of the bishops, Johnstown, or somerset.

[odoyelrules]

Some more info by school for 2015-2016

Bedford 163 12th graders, 107 1st graders
Cambria Heights 114, 101
Central Cambria 155, 124
CHESTNUT RIDGE 126, 97
Forest Hills 150, 132
Johnstown 220, 243
Penn Cambria 110, 102
Richland 125, 99
Somerset 196, 147
Westmont Hilltop 139, 107

I passed on the Bishops, difficult to project their enrollments.

[SportsFan96]

To me it seems like a bunch of excuses because they won't get to dominate small schools anymore

Exactly what sports, outside of wrestling (which has one of the toughest schedules of any wrestling tea
ms around) and as of late, football (which doesn't really dominate and has been playing an independent schedule filled with bigger schools anyways) do you think the parents are concerned about not being able to "dominate". In reality, there are 3 sports that can generally be counted on for winning season: Wrestling, Football and Girls Softball. Other sports have good seasons at times but not consistently. I hardly think it's because parents are worried that much about not being able to "dominate"

Right now their basketball team is 6-6 and they're playing teams like Norhern Bedford and Southern Fulton. It was said that wrestling wouldn't be as competitive. I don't see why they can't continue to wrestle in tournaments and don't see them getting weaker by wrestling Westmont, McCort, Johnston, Bedford, Forest Hills etc instead of Sidling Hill teams like they are now. And yes their schedule for football has gotten tougher, but it's not going to get weaker by going to the LHAC. Across the board with all sports, they play schedules that consist of mostly schools smaller than themselves. And whether you want to admit it or not, parents absolutely care about winning, and if tougher competition is going to jeopardize wins and district championships, you better believe they will be against changing to a conference that is going to make that road more difficult.

You just pretty much proved my point. CR doesn't "dominate" now in most sports, so saying the parents objections are because they want to keep "winning" by "dominating" and beating up on smaller schools doesn't make sense. I also don't recall anyone saying CR "wouldn't be as competitive" with wrestling by moving to the LHAC, I think wrestling parents just wanted clarification as to if the LHAC rule on scheduling would end up precluding them from being able to do things like Powerade and King of the Mountain. ( I don't think it does, because didn't McCort send kids to PowerAde?) I personally don't think moving to the LHAC would hurt wrestling or football, (wrestling would most likely be the top program or one of the top programs in the LHAC and Football will be competitive most years), but I think the parents are concerned about all the other sports. IMO I don't think parents concerns/objections are based off your original post about excuses.

[old school]

Bedford's Enrollment.  Numbers from the Guidance Office as of 12/16

K- 131
1- 118
2- 111
3- 120
4- 145
5- 147
6- 136
7- 146
8- 136
9- 160
10-149
11-145
12-161

[CCDevil2012]

I'm just basing my opinion on what has been brought up in the forum. The first two points were about scheduling. Every wrestling team in the LHAC schedules tournaments so I don't understand where the concern is. Weather is weather and teams won't be traveling when it's bad. But when it's brought up that only one sport wants in to "the detriment of ALL other sports" that's the issue to me. They are a big school that play almost exclusively small schools. And to me it seems that parents would rather have a basketball team go 10-8 and make playoffs against small teams than play similar sized schools and go say 6-12. It may not be dominating in the traditional sense but they donstilk benefit from it.

[hitnrun10r]

Regardless of enrollment numbers, CR is always competitive in football, wrestling, softball, baseball and track. Even when they have a down year, they aren't at the bottom of their league. Basketball may be their worst sport, but I've watched Bedford struggle year after year in the LHAC. CR would compete better than them in basketball in my opinion. Their football program looks promising for the years to come, even at the elementary level. Softball is always at the top of their game at CR with the exception of a down year last year.

There are teams in the ICC and SHL in every sport that could compete in the LHAC competitively with the exception of Fannett-Metal, Forbes Road and Tussey Mountain at the present moment. Those teams that could compete are made to look like rookies when they go up against CR, Everett(sometimes), and Northern Bedford sometimes (depending the sport).

With this being said and everyone else's pros and cons, I think that this move would be very positive for CR.

[CrimsonLion]

I believe wrestling are allowed 22 points. Each Dual against a school is one point, tournaments are three Ridge would have to schedule all of the LHAC teams McCort, Central Cambria, Cambria Heights, Bedford, Johnstown, Richland, Westmont, Richland, Somerset that would be nine points. They would have 13 left to use

McCort particpated in KOTM, Powerade, Escape The Rock and The Ultimate Duals. Their Westmont match was cancelled and never rescheduled and was replaced by Ligonier. They had a match scheduled with Wyoming Seminary which was postponed so they still have one point remaining.

You lose the flexibility of being able to schedule out of conference opponents, but you have the stability of a league schedule.