BLEACHERCOACHES GAME OF THE WEEK ---- WEEK 1!!!

[Head Roadie]

Don't get too excited about being Single "A", unless Ridge has an extremely small class (or two) it won't happen. If 101 of the 269 male enrollment is in the Soph class then the other 168 Ridge males equates to 84 per class. Even if Ridge averaged 75 males per class they would be at 225 and still a very healthy "AA" in all-sports. They would have to go under 70 males per class on average to be in the "A" ballpark.

Currently it should be noted, CR is the largest AA playing basketball school in Pennsylvania, only 1 student from AAA...something that has some of the Sideling Hill League "A" schools squirming a little bit.

[CRLionDawg]

If as much time was invested in dealing with what you have control over in "any" sports program as to what size you are the opportunity to succeed would prevail. Its not how big you are its how you ise what you have.

Training, developing, motivating, creating a winning attitude, and just old plain hard work.

I was visiting with a lady yesterday whose daughter played hs softball. They were beat in the the state semis by a score of 1-0 to a team that was only 5 athletes away from being in the next class up. Her school on the other hand was only 5 athletes into the bottom of the class. She was arguing that the reason they lost was due to a disparity in size. I melted down and flamed out.

Give me a break. It was 1-0. The other team won because they played the game and scored 1 run while holding the other team to no runs. What does size have to do with it???? Just close the pie hole, grab the bat, ball, glove, and head to the field and practice.

This size thing is overused all the time everywhere. Quit looking for reasons to justify mediocrity.

"We arent good, because we are to small?" BS.

[old school]

Well said dawg.

[HOLLYWOOD]

I know you can win at a small school if you do it right. I am talking about Ridge playing all smaller schools and less talented schools and win but lose to the tough teams every year. Look what they did in the LHAC?? YOU need to test yourself more in the regular season.

[Head Roadie]

Points well taken Dawg, I would agree that it is used as an excuse too many times (and that was not, by the way, the point of my post...just pointing out that CR is and will always be biggest of the ICC/SHL schools)
But while you can say it's too often used as an excuse, it is a contributor...a factor in success.

Look at CR's history in football and I'll bet you'll notice a correlation between all-time series records and sizes of schools. More wins vs smaller schools and fewer wins vs bigger schools.

I don't think playing 1 class "up" is much of a factor but playing 2 classes up is tough. AA's playing Quad's or A's playing AAA's winning a lot tougher.

Dawg says: "This size thing is overused all the time everywhere. Quit looking for reasons to justify mediocrity." While I agree it's overused, CR used that reason to justify their own mediocrity when jumping the LHAC ship a few years back If I recall.

[southpaw]

HR: CR left the LH because it was going all-sports and the other sports didn't want to move! Period. end of discussion!

Once again the size question rear's its ugly head. Makes no difference in A/AA. Ridge graduates the same number of kids as they did in the 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's! And guess what so does practically everbody else in the county!

As I said last year on this subject you didn't hear NB and Tussey and the rest complaining in the 70's about Ridge being so big when Fred Glasgow and NB ran it up on Ridge Seventy somethin to 6! Or Pasierb at Shade beating us up every year 40-0!

Not until the mid-to-late 80's did things change and Ridge started to win some games did all of you so-called small, disadvantaged, hayseed schools start whining about how big Ridge is.

Just shut up and play and quit making excuses and be ready this year because Ridge will be kicking you know what and taking names this year.

[Goodwill]

I can't help it if Chestnut Ridge has had lousy football times. Hopefully you Ridgers don't enlarge the current players egos and maybe CR can put two winning seasons in a row together.

[old school]

Wow lefty...did you get out of the wrong side of the bed today

[Ol'Man]

School is right.. someone must have went in your wheaties this morning and for your sake I sure hope your right after that rant

[Head Roadie]

Lefty.....Hope the Lions roar like you did in your last post...re-read my post...I think you'll see I was agreeing in part with CRLionDawg but did stipulate that it does have an effect.

Did I say Ridge left the LHAC because of size...NO...what I meant although I didn't spell it out very well, was WHEN they left or at the time they were considering many of the comments coming out of Ridge fans and coaches mouths were....We're not doing well over here because we're playing bigger schools.

Again, I agree A/AA isn't a big factor...it is minimal....A to AAA or AA to AAAA is much different in my humble opinion.

And did I whine about Ridge being big (which they are bigger than they were in the 60's and 70's...only school to have grown enrollment wise in BedCo) at some point in my post....just stated some opinions, basically agreeing with Dawg to a point.