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I can't imagine Gouse doing this without talking to 5 or 6 comittees before unofficially or putting serious "feelers" out first. Does this really have a chance?

Whether or not district 6 let them out, i can promise that the district 5 comittee doesn't have the balls to let them in and take championships away.

I'd like to See Claysburgh come to District V. Half of there school district is in Bedford County.

Portage does border Chestnut Ridge at Blue Knob State Park.

There's a lot of garbage in this thread... I can't believe all the ripping on Gouse. You know what, most of you complain about Bishop this and Bishop that and then rip this. What if every single A school in D6 would have done this to prove a point? I know they didn't, but I think many of you would have been happy if that happened, but since Portage is involved Gouse gets ripped on. I don't really care either way. I just don't see it all being blamed on the private schools being involved in d6 because teams tried to leave the district once already. I didn't agree with the whole size thing because A is A and both districts have schools right next to the limit, but perhaps his quote was taken out of context or something. No matter what I have a lot of respect for the hard work that Gouse puts in as well as his staff. That is a little school that has done some great things recently.

The next thing I felt was awful was saying D5 should just fold up. There are over 10 teams in the league in football and basketball/baseball has even more than that with all of Fulton county schools added in (something like 16). There really is nowhere else to stick all those schools.

Finally, I just don't see a problem here. D5-A would be pretty solid with these teams in the conference. I really thought Claysburg would be a good fit as well...probably the best of all these teams.

I don't see BV being a good fit based on where they are located. They could easily be in the Heritage conference. Ferndale is more natural than them as a fit.

I think 5A would have a solid lineup with-
Eve
TM
Windber
NBC
Meyersdale
C. Twp
Portage
CK
CV
Ferndale
Shade
Berlin
Rockwood

That's not bad for football at all.

Also... I just looked and there are 21 teams in all sports total in the district as it already is...
http://district5.piaa.org/enrollment/index.html

Coach, you do have to question the wording of his quote in the paper...At least make sense when being quoted for a reason for all of this.

I was just editing that in my post Sneaks. I did think that might have been misquoted and if it wasn't I don't agree.

Coach - Yeah, that would be a solid line-up for d5 but consider it from the d6 perspective.

I'll use boys bball for an example. Right now d6A has 19 teams, placing it as the 4th largest Single A district for the number of boys teams. If they would allow all three A schools to switch, d6 would then be tied for the 8th largest Single A district. And one of the districts that would pass it up would be d5. This matters when bids to state tournaments are distributed. That's why I don't think it makes sense from a d6 perspective but that is just my opinion.

and I agree Zonebreaker. I was talking about other posts made in the thread.

Coach I too think gouse gets ripped on way too much.Portage is a solid football school and doesn't get enough credit for what they do.I really don't think they fear bellwood like alot of people are stating on here .Heck ridge has beaten bellwood in the past few years and ridge was destroyed by portage this year.Gouse has commented on the public/ private issue in the past and I happen to agree with alot of what he says. The district 5 comment about folding up is a joke.There are alot of years district 5 is deeper in many sports than district 6.Alot people don't follow all sports on here to know that. I personally think district 6 should shed some of the border schools to make 5 a little closer in size to 6.I guess we will see!

This is DIRECTLY caused by Bishop McCort winning the last two D6A championships after winning two D6AA championships before that. These small towns have "magical" season only every once in awhile.. for the Portage and Bellwood people it's like BM just stole something they waited years for. Portage will be pressed to ever find a team as talented as the two they had the previous seasons, and although Bellwood may be back with another good team soon they missed out on two excellent chances to win D6. Any other year those Bellwood teams are good enough to win it, and when they finally are again the Cambria/Somerset/Westmoreland County all-star team drops to the lowest classification possible. Do you blame Gouse?, because I sure don't! Why play your hearts out all year and lie to your team that you have a shot at the championship you've NEVER won, when in the back of your minds you have to play a team that should be playing AA football and can recruit any athlete they want. This to me is logical, and if Portage is successful it won't be long until many others follow.

One thing that most of you are missing is that D5 is 100% behind this. My friends at CV told me that D5 contacted them and initiated this entire process. It wasn't soley just the D6 Westpac schools just wanting to leave on a hunch. D5 needs more single A teams in its playoffs to remain credible. D5 is recruiting these schools to keep its championships and state playoff bids.

The vote was 10-2. Portage, Blacklick Valley and Conemaugh Valley are "stuck" in District 6.

District 5 could easily be absorbed into District 6. District 8 could easily be absorbed into District 7.

High school athletics is out of hand in this state.