WestPac no longer "WeakPac"
WestPac no longer
How about we look at it from the perspective on an NBC coach who has been around for all the said years you guys are talking about...
1. NBC is ONE team. It makes them look bad as they were the banner carrier of the ICC vs all basically all WestPAC teams in District 5. TM is now carrying the banner with them this year. There is a lot of focus on NBC because we always end up as one of the better teams in D5 as we end up with a .500 record most of the time. While the WestPAC teams rotate the top dog out of Windber, Mey, CT, and NS...NB is one team basically facing a rotation of 4 from the other conference. In the last decade NBC has beaten Mey, CT, and NS in playoff games as well as Rockwood. We have won several games over the years in the playoffs but we have not won the big one. The reason, we weren't the best team. We lost to NS in the finals, Berlin in the finals, Win, and NS in the semis recently, etc. The same westpac school hasn't won it every year either. Maybe NBC is just on the level of a CT or Meyersdale which is still pretty dang good over the years and we're behind Berlin, Windber, and North Star. We've been pretty stinking good over the past 10 seasons, but we have never been the best team in D5 (maybe we were with Fluke in 2011. We beat CT in the semis without him but couldn't get it done vs NS in a close game).
***PLEASE NOTE- Portage receives the same treatment as NBC as basically the lone flag carrier for the WestPAC in D6 that has done anything. They just don't have that title. So people say they should leave the WestPAC and join the LHAC, etc. No they shouldn't. They are a very, very good WestPAC team that is the envy of many in our area. They aren't weak or bad in the playoffs. They just aren't the best single A team in District 6 most years.
2. NBC did not kick CR out of the ICC. Look at the votes. CR bounced conferences and didn't want to be an all-in participant in the conference. They would get in the ICC if they could get someone other than Penns Valley to try to enter with them. If Portage would try to get in with them, they'd be in I'm sure. It went to an even number and will remain that.
3. NBC did not schedule a weak AAA for schedule points my man. We tried to schedule Meyersdale but TM already had them. This tenth date came about because of a late vote and we had NO OPPONENT. We were without a game for a while and then got this one. For the next two years we are going to play Northern Cambria.
4. We didn't avoid Bellwood. It was how the schedule went for years. We were in a different part of the conference. Avoiding teams is what is happening with teams like CK and Williamsburg now as they play twice. BA doesn't want to play them and they don't want to play BA. Bellwood along with Mt Union also had a long standing rivalry with an out of conference opponent that took at least one game from the conference schedule. Before we were gold and silver, we were geographical. Before that there were conferences with Ridge and Bald Eagle Nittany, Penns Valley, etc involved.
5. NBC did have the opportunity to schedule Central. It would have proved nothing because we are going to be in a spot where we are trying to survive soon and don't need to get drilled by our neighbor just for the heck of it. We had 22-24 healthy kids at most practices this year. I personally asked that we don't schedule them if we still had Bellwood and were still a gold division team. A numbers count was done and we had 2 more kids than TM. We approached them with the idea of going to the gold division instead of the silver division. If they would play there, we would play Central. Bellwood, Central, and Mount Union would be a little too much for us most likely as our numbers are drastically decreasing. There is ONE class at our school with over 80 kids (total) in it from grade K-10. We also have multiple classes in grades 6-9 right now with less than 60-65 total kids in the grade. Our enrollment is decreasing and we also maintain a boys soccer team (nobody else in the ICC other than Everett does). That really hurts and things are getting thin in our neck of the woods. Football and soccer require the most starters so having both when you have 25 total boys in a grade is not fun. Long story short, a proposed schedule was made where everyone was in one big ICC conference instead of divisions with teams locked into local rivals and then a rotation of all the other teams was there (like the Westpac). That didn't fly. TM didn't want to go to the gold for 2 years and switch us. I know I stated that we shouldn't be the martyr then taking every tough game. Our JH team played Central this year and it wasn't pretty. We aren't on their level and aren't close to their level. So, yeah we aren't playing them. It was close to happening and would have under certain circumstances but it didn't. Since BA didn't want teams, teams didn't want BA, teams didn't want one conference, teams didn't want to go back to geographical alignment, etc....NBC decided against being the team that had Central. Everett was also going to lock into CR or something like that...not sure what all ended up being finalized but there is some backstory and reasoning for you.
6. NBC's weak schedule comes from the fact that SH has completely dropped off the map in the last 4 years. In the first half of the decade, SH was loaded and was an ICC power. We also used to be aligned with JV and played them yearly.
7. Scheduling. So what is better?
A- Blacklick, Ferndale, CV, CT, Rockwood, Portage, Berlin, Meyersdale, Windber, and North Star
B- Claysburg, West Branch, Williamsburg, CK, Everett (AA), TM, SH (AA), Mt Union (AA), Glendale, and Punxsy (AAA) or Northern Cambria
I'd say A is better but not by a whole lot especially if Eve or SH is decent. Glendale had been good for the last 5 years as well prior to this year. A team like NS that has the other 9 teams listed above in schedule A doesn't play itself. The bottom teams in the WestPAC have been worse than the lower teams in the ICC schedule.
8. Finally, this wasn't to be the year of NB. That was last year or in 2011. This year many people thought we would win 4-5 games. We had 5 senior players. 1 is strictly a kicker that is really a soccer player. Another was a first year player that came out and helped us at WR and was a nice addition to the team. So really, we had 3 returning senior football players. Those three were good for sure. Take Blake Over off our team and I don't want to be negative towards my own school, but I bet we would have won 2 games this year. We weren't a big, physical line. Our tailbacks were sophomores. We lost all 4 linebackers. We were a finesse offense and that didn't translate well to defense....especially against the run.
9. Lastly, did we have a big let down or did we overachieve in some ways which allowed us to be the 2 seed? We were a team that was obviously on a similar level to Everett based on our game against them. Had we lost week 2 and 3 to TM and Eve we would have been a lower seed. We beat two teams that are even with us or even better than us. The start to our year allowed us to have a nice record that our kids can be proud of. Then mid season came and Diehl became a guy that basically could only go on game nights as he dealt with a pulled groin all year. He is as tough as they come and proved it battling through that all year. Watching him try to run in the 2nd half of games was painful. As the wear and tear of the season went on...we struggled more and more against the run. Now, next year we lose the best playmaker since Nastasi. We'll be a ground and pound team and hopefully we have tough kids. Our kids work hard in the offseason. Our goal is to continue putting out football teams that go at least .500 while getting better as the year goes on. Hopefully, we can maintain that and can keep every kid in the program...in the program as our numbers drop.
If you read this far, you read further than I would have. I didn't need to comment and maybe shouldn't as a coach. For now though I'm an assistant who cares about my alumni and I enjoy being a part of the Northern Bedford football program and I wanted to respond. We are a pretty good football school with a pretty good tradition of hard working kids. I enjoy being a part of it and want to continue helping our program to grow and get better every day.
1. NBC is ONE team. It makes them look bad as they were the banner carrier of the ICC vs all basically all WestPAC teams in District 5. TM is now carrying the banner with them this year. There is a lot of focus on NBC because we always end up as one of the better teams in D5 as we end up with a .500 record most of the time. While the WestPAC teams rotate the top dog out of Windber, Mey, CT, and NS...NB is one team basically facing a rotation of 4 from the other conference. In the last decade NBC has beaten Mey, CT, and NS in playoff games as well as Rockwood. We have won several games over the years in the playoffs but we have not won the big one. The reason, we weren't the best team. We lost to NS in the finals, Berlin in the finals, Win, and NS in the semis recently, etc. The same westpac school hasn't won it every year either. Maybe NBC is just on the level of a CT or Meyersdale which is still pretty dang good over the years and we're behind Berlin, Windber, and North Star. We've been pretty stinking good over the past 10 seasons, but we have never been the best team in D5 (maybe we were with Fluke in 2011. We beat CT in the semis without him but couldn't get it done vs NS in a close game).
***PLEASE NOTE- Portage receives the same treatment as NBC as basically the lone flag carrier for the WestPAC in D6 that has done anything. They just don't have that title. So people say they should leave the WestPAC and join the LHAC, etc. No they shouldn't. They are a very, very good WestPAC team that is the envy of many in our area. They aren't weak or bad in the playoffs. They just aren't the best single A team in District 6 most years.
2. NBC did not kick CR out of the ICC. Look at the votes. CR bounced conferences and didn't want to be an all-in participant in the conference. They would get in the ICC if they could get someone other than Penns Valley to try to enter with them. If Portage would try to get in with them, they'd be in I'm sure. It went to an even number and will remain that.
3. NBC did not schedule a weak AAA for schedule points my man. We tried to schedule Meyersdale but TM already had them. This tenth date came about because of a late vote and we had NO OPPONENT. We were without a game for a while and then got this one. For the next two years we are going to play Northern Cambria.
4. We didn't avoid Bellwood. It was how the schedule went for years. We were in a different part of the conference. Avoiding teams is what is happening with teams like CK and Williamsburg now as they play twice. BA doesn't want to play them and they don't want to play BA. Bellwood along with Mt Union also had a long standing rivalry with an out of conference opponent that took at least one game from the conference schedule. Before we were gold and silver, we were geographical. Before that there were conferences with Ridge and Bald Eagle Nittany, Penns Valley, etc involved.
5. NBC did have the opportunity to schedule Central. It would have proved nothing because we are going to be in a spot where we are trying to survive soon and don't need to get drilled by our neighbor just for the heck of it. We had 22-24 healthy kids at most practices this year. I personally asked that we don't schedule them if we still had Bellwood and were still a gold division team. A numbers count was done and we had 2 more kids than TM. We approached them with the idea of going to the gold division instead of the silver division. If they would play there, we would play Central. Bellwood, Central, and Mount Union would be a little too much for us most likely as our numbers are drastically decreasing. There is ONE class at our school with over 80 kids (total) in it from grade K-10. We also have multiple classes in grades 6-9 right now with less than 60-65 total kids in the grade. Our enrollment is decreasing and we also maintain a boys soccer team (nobody else in the ICC other than Everett does). That really hurts and things are getting thin in our neck of the woods. Football and soccer require the most starters so having both when you have 25 total boys in a grade is not fun. Long story short, a proposed schedule was made where everyone was in one big ICC conference instead of divisions with teams locked into local rivals and then a rotation of all the other teams was there (like the Westpac). That didn't fly. TM didn't want to go to the gold for 2 years and switch us. I know I stated that we shouldn't be the martyr then taking every tough game. Our JH team played Central this year and it wasn't pretty. We aren't on their level and aren't close to their level. So, yeah we aren't playing them. It was close to happening and would have under certain circumstances but it didn't. Since BA didn't want teams, teams didn't want BA, teams didn't want one conference, teams didn't want to go back to geographical alignment, etc....NBC decided against being the team that had Central. Everett was also going to lock into CR or something like that...not sure what all ended up being finalized but there is some backstory and reasoning for you.
6. NBC's weak schedule comes from the fact that SH has completely dropped off the map in the last 4 years. In the first half of the decade, SH was loaded and was an ICC power. We also used to be aligned with JV and played them yearly.
7. Scheduling. So what is better?
A- Blacklick, Ferndale, CV, CT, Rockwood, Portage, Berlin, Meyersdale, Windber, and North Star
B- Claysburg, West Branch, Williamsburg, CK, Everett (AA), TM, SH (AA), Mt Union (AA), Glendale, and Punxsy (AAA) or Northern Cambria
I'd say A is better but not by a whole lot especially if Eve or SH is decent. Glendale had been good for the last 5 years as well prior to this year. A team like NS that has the other 9 teams listed above in schedule A doesn't play itself. The bottom teams in the WestPAC have been worse than the lower teams in the ICC schedule.
8. Finally, this wasn't to be the year of NB. That was last year or in 2011. This year many people thought we would win 4-5 games. We had 5 senior players. 1 is strictly a kicker that is really a soccer player. Another was a first year player that came out and helped us at WR and was a nice addition to the team. So really, we had 3 returning senior football players. Those three were good for sure. Take Blake Over off our team and I don't want to be negative towards my own school, but I bet we would have won 2 games this year. We weren't a big, physical line. Our tailbacks were sophomores. We lost all 4 linebackers. We were a finesse offense and that didn't translate well to defense....especially against the run.
9. Lastly, did we have a big let down or did we overachieve in some ways which allowed us to be the 2 seed? We were a team that was obviously on a similar level to Everett based on our game against them. Had we lost week 2 and 3 to TM and Eve we would have been a lower seed. We beat two teams that are even with us or even better than us. The start to our year allowed us to have a nice record that our kids can be proud of. Then mid season came and Diehl became a guy that basically could only go on game nights as he dealt with a pulled groin all year. He is as tough as they come and proved it battling through that all year. Watching him try to run in the 2nd half of games was painful. As the wear and tear of the season went on...we struggled more and more against the run. Now, next year we lose the best playmaker since Nastasi. We'll be a ground and pound team and hopefully we have tough kids. Our kids work hard in the offseason. Our goal is to continue putting out football teams that go at least .500 while getting better as the year goes on. Hopefully, we can maintain that and can keep every kid in the program...in the program as our numbers drop.
If you read this far, you read further than I would have. I didn't need to comment and maybe shouldn't as a coach. For now though I'm an assistant who cares about my alumni and I enjoy being a part of the Northern Bedford football program and I wanted to respond. We are a pretty good football school with a pretty good tradition of hard working kids. I enjoy being a part of it and want to continue helping our program to grow and get better every day.
Make sure you Like BleacherCoaches.com on Facebook! Make it easier for us to reach you!!!!
http://www.facebook.com/bleachercoaches
http://www.facebook.com/bleachercoaches
-
Ramblerman24
- Sophomore
- Posts: 66
- Joined: October 11th, 2012, 3:04 pm
Re: WestPac no longer "WeakPac"
Coach I took the time to read every word of your post. It was a great one and explained a lot to me. I hope you don't think I was disrespecting your team. I was just confused on how they are always a high seed but seemed to loose in the playoffs. I do believe you ran into Shade just when the kids were beginning to find out that they were a pretty good football team. They almost beat Windber and Myersdale. Look for Shade next year to be a very good football team. They will have 8 wins or more in the West Pac in 2014
-
QuoteTheRaven
- Official BleacherCoach
- Posts: 594
- Joined: February 1st, 2012, 10:55 am
Re: WestPac no longer "WeakPac"
My hats off to you guys and I respect a man who comes to the plate. You guys have had a solid program over the years, just never the best. And there's no shame in that. NB has nothing to hang their heads about. They have a very good season.
"Hard work pays off, dreams do come true. Bad times don't last, but Bad Guys do!"
Re: WestPac no longer "WeakPac"
good stuff coach, not that you needed to explain your school's position, but you stood up like a man and did it....
good luck in the future....
good luck in the future....
-
Blueandwhitefan
- Official BleacherCoach
- Posts: 930
- Joined: September 9th, 2013, 5:46 pm
Re: WestPac no longer "WeakPac"
I have never called the west pac, weakpac on here. But, I do to my friends from portage. And I laugh as they cringe. After all. What are friends for? 
You're only young once, but you can be immature forever!!!
-
HSFootball88
- Sophomore
- Posts: 96
- Joined: July 15th, 2013, 5:24 pm
Re: WestPac no longer "WeakPac"
RamblerMan24, is Nash Walker (the QB for Shade) a senior? If he isn't, I believe they will have a solid year next year as well.
-
WPIAL~Titan
- Official BleacherCoach
- Posts: 3837
- Joined: September 5th, 2003, 6:15 pm
- Location: Titan Town, PA
Re: WestPac no longer "WeakPac"
That was a great post Coach. People need to remember that it's just a game being played by young student-athletes.
"Those who say it can't be done are being interrupted by those who are doing it."
Author unknown
Author unknown
Re: WestPac no longer "WeakPac"
Coach....Tussey has picked up Central for the next two years as their first game.
“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.”
-Henry Ford
“Gentleman, this is a football. Before we’re through, we’re gonna run it down everybody’s throats.”
-Vince Lombardi
-Henry Ford
“Gentleman, this is a football. Before we’re through, we’re gonna run it down everybody’s throats.”
-Vince Lombardi
-
Ramblerman24
- Sophomore
- Posts: 66
- Joined: October 11th, 2012, 3:04 pm
Re: WestPac no longer "WeakPac"
HSFootball88 wrote:RamblerMan24, is Nash Walker (the QB for Shade) a senior? If he isn't, I believe they will have a solid year next year as well.
Nash is a senior but they have a lot of talent coming back and had a darn good JV team
WestPac no longer
I know Husker... I'm replying to the guy saying we ducked CHS and explaining why. Had we switched divisions we would have had them. I think it's about goofy that we have two divisions anyway...especially because it is based on size when we have soccer. Geographic alignment made better sense OR just be one division...but some teams weren't interested in playing others which is really strange since we are all in a conference.
Make sure you Like BleacherCoaches.com on Facebook! Make it easier for us to reach you!!!!
http://www.facebook.com/bleachercoaches
http://www.facebook.com/bleachercoaches