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Re: ridge? bedford? or NBC?

Posted: August 19th, 2004, 3:58 pm
by woody_79
I was just trying to say that hyndman usually has a winning record.......Gunner I think we had this dicussion before but I dont see where bedford is really that tuff if they are winning there district like they are it cant be tuff......I could be wrong.

Posted: August 22nd, 2004, 11:26 pm
by Gunner18
would you like to compare on average how district 6 does at the state level compared to district 5? district 5 has ONE team that is above good...conemaugh. but then again, district 6 has had state finalists...how many teams from d5 have ever gone to hershey? thanks for making my point. one difference between me and u is that i actually know whats what, ive been involved with both districts and u can ask anyone else that has, and they will tell u that d6 is far better than d5. u can take the best 2 or 3 teams from district 6 (class A or AA) and put them against the d5 champ...and i could tell u the winner before kickoff. before u try to shut someone down, walk a mile in their shoes. talk ur AD into scheduling westmont, somerset, ligonier valley, and bishop mccort into ur schedule, and then tell me that district 6 sucks, ill b anxious to hear that one

Posted: August 25th, 2004, 3:40 pm
by CRLionDawg
What do you do when the AD is most interested in taking the course of least resistance?

Re: ridge? bedford? or NBC?

Posted: August 25th, 2004, 7:09 pm
by soccer star
I would like to add that the schools in D6 are bigger than the schools in D5 except for maybe Chestnut Ridge.
On the whole the size is usually bigger which gives them more athletes to pick from so they should be better.
You look at Forbes Road or Hyndman for instance they only graduate about 30 a year , so expecting them to be consistently among the best in D5 even is expecting a lot they are going to have down years becuase of how small they are.
Now lets combine Forbes and McConnellsburg and they would still only graduate about 70-80 per year and would still be among the smaller single A schools in the district .
I would say with those 2 schools combined they would be D5 champs on good years and even on bad years always making the semi`s .
So if you say Westmont which they are the best single A around , or other D6 schools are always better is not quite fair you need to look at the size of the school when you compare them.
Comparing a school that graduates 30 to one that graduates about 150 is not fair not matter how you look at it so lets just let everyone enjoy the success that they have.
Don`t mistake me though Westmont is by far the best on a consistent basis and they deserve all the praise they get.

Re: ridge? bedford? or NBC?

Posted: August 25th, 2004, 7:19 pm
by soccer star
I would also like to add that D6 AA has some horrible soccer teams in it .
I mean you have good teams Somerset, Bedford,Huntingdon is ok, and Ligonier Valley , but some of the teams in there are really weak and they take 6 for districts from what i could tell.
I would be willing to bet that if some of the D5 teams were to move to D6 AA they could make the playoff`s every year such as Conemaugh Twp., McConnellsburg, and recently Rockwood, and Forbes Road .
I mean come on teams like Johnstown, Penn Cambria, and Central Cambria are just plain bad.

Re: ridge? bedford? or NBC?

Posted: August 25th, 2004, 8:44 pm
by kappa644
Gunner, last year Township beat Ligonier, Somerset, Bedford (scrimmage), Huntingdon (scrimmage), and Altoona. They lost to Westmont 1-0 on a pk. You say you could tell the winner of a D-6 team over the best D-5 team before the game started. Only if you think the best D-5 would win.

Posted: August 25th, 2004, 10:44 pm
by Gunner18
soccer star, ill agree with u that d6 AA does indeed have some TERRIBLE teams in it (PC, CH, FH, BC, J-town) but it is definetly competitive when you get to the semifinals. i will disagree however that the d6 schools are bigger than the d5 schools, yes there are some that are bigger, but there r some that r smaller too. westmont is a class A school that plays somerset, bedford and some other AA schools as well as Altoona (AAA) and they almost always win, in all honesty, size doesnt really matter, yes it does help with the amount of talent available...to a point, but there r A schools that i know could beat just about any AAA school u put them against.

as for you kappa, im refering to an average year, please tell me...what is ur record against westmont or ligonier valley? this doesnt mean im knocking ur school...year in and year out u have one of the best teams around and i commend u for that, in the 17 year history of bedford soccer, u guys r the only team that we play almost every year and have never once beaten, bedford's played ligonier twice and lost both times...mccort 3 times, lost 2, tied 1...and thomas jefferson, 1 loss....so theres only 4 teams that have never lost to bedford and u guys dominate that record, so its not like ur a bad team. all im saying tho, is on the average, the best d6 team (class A) will beat the best d5 team

Re: ridge? bedford? or NBC?

Posted: August 26th, 2004, 8:17 am
by Former Wildcat
It is stupid to say that the size of a school does not matter. Of course it does. Schools like Cumberland Valley and Central Dauphin graduate over 700 students per year. That means that they can choose from almost 1500 boys, whereas schools like Hyndman and Forbes Road can only choose from about 60. Even in their best years, good A schools would struggle to compete with schools of this size. Granted, there are some terrible programs at all levels, but the best AAA teams are significantly better than the best A teams because they have more players to choose from. Most of these teams cut 20-30 players per season, however, I do not know of any A schools that make cuts. To say that the size of a school does not matter is ridiculous.

Posted: August 26th, 2004, 12:24 pm
by Gunner18
size doesnt ALWAYS matter...there ill put it like that. hyndman has always been a challenge to the larger schools, most notably Bedford, i think bedford holds a slight edge in the series, but not by much. in 17 years bedford has never once beaten conemaugh twp, westmont has only lost 3 or 4 games in the past 4 years, and they play a mostly AA schedule. having 700 kids to choose from helps when u have 40 that want to play and are good. but there are schools that graduate 30-40 kids a year and could compete with schools 3 or 4 times there size. conemaugh twp beat altoona last year...i could be wrong but altoona probly has as many kids in one grade as conemaugh does in their whole school, how do the numbers work that way? now yes, generally the larger schools will b better than the smaller, but open ur eyes and realize that the lil guys can play too!

Posted: August 26th, 2004, 1:00 pm
by 4him
I was discussing this same issue with my cousin (although we were talking about football). He was making reference to the school in which he attended, Beaver Falls, who is the same size as most of our county schools. They, however, have won state championships. This could be attributed to many things, but I liked one thing that he mentioned. He noted that Beaver Falls' school covers about a 12 block radius so it is an easy walk to and from practice. Then you have Bedford/Fulton/Somerset county schools where kids live vast distances from the school (and many live on farms and have to help with the barn work) and can't always get a ride from practice. Now you say, "what about school transportation?" I would assume most schools provide transportation for kids after practices, but there is camp when every team practices at a different time and games for which transpo is not provided. This becomes a big deal when kids live 45 mins to an hour from their HS.

You want an eye opener in the sacrifice some kids/their-parents make to play sports...Start in Flinstone and head up Black Valley Road. Natalie Dell lives a mile from the Maryland line, nearly an hour from the Everett high school. Now she is not the only one and many have not played sports because that is too far for them. But it is amazing that someone could have 1) the dedication, 2) the time to travel that far, be as successful in athletics as Natalie and still do well in school.