Clairton vs Chartiers-Houston and Fort Cherry... Bitter Fued???

Back in the spring of 2008 when the realignment came out and Clairton was placed in the Blackhills Conference I was extremely excited for many reasons. One reason was I got to see the High School I graduated from, Clairton, take on schools that are very close to where I live.

I live in Houston, and in fact when i'm when I go to Chartiers-Houston games I find myself rooting for the Buccaneers. Its only natural, because I live here and have some friends in the area. I'm not going to go to the away bleachers and root for the away team in spite. I have family that graduated from Chartiers-Houston; including my cousin who played for the 2000 edition that beat Clairton in the first round of the playoffs.

My girlfriend at the time was a graduate of Fort Cherry and I attended some of their games as well. So I also rooted for the Rangers. Again it was natural and made sense.

But something has changed between now and then and it has become a bit hideous to say the least. Not saying Clairton is entirely innocent in all of this, but the rivalries between these 3 schools have turned a bit ugly. It all goes back to the 2008 game between Clairton and Char-Houston where Clairton did some push ups after the game. Then in the 2009 game against Fort Cherry there was a minor pregame innocent and a plethora of personal fouls during the game. And that game also ended with Clairton doing push ups on Fort Cherry's sideline. The 2009 game between Clairton and Chartiers-Houston featured a bench clearing brawl.

When it came for post season awards for the Blackhills Conference, Fort Cherry and Chartiers-Houston made sure that no Clairton player would receive an All Conference Award. Remember the Clairton Bears won the State Title and featured 2 Pitt recruits in WR/DB Kevin Weatherspoon and QB/DE Desimon Green. LB Eddie Ball was the AP Class A Defensive Player of the Year and RB Deonte Howard was the AP Class A Player of the Year. Personal grudges shouldn't have gotten in the way when it came to honoring the best players in the conference but it did and its wrong.

Fast forward to last Friday evening. Clairton beat Chartiers-Houston 48-0 in Clairton. Clairton used its backup QB and threw a touchdown pass late in the 4th Q. Clairton then lines up like its going to go for 2 and takes a knee. I call that perfect sportsmanship, but HC Terry Fetsko obviously disagrees with me in his post game intereview.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/dailynewsmckeesport/sports/s_701317.html

I completely understand his frustrations to a point. His teams has been completely overwhelmed by Clairton the past 3 seasons and had some extracurricular involved in the prior 2 meetings. But to claim that the team that just beat his isn't that good and will get beaten by Rochester is a little over the top. Maybe he's right and Clairton isn't as good as past years, only time will tell. But a comment like that seems to be more or less sour grapes than him being honest with himself and the rest of Western PA.

I'll find it really hard to root for Chartiers-Houston and Fort Cherry in the future, when they're not playing Clairton of course. Has these games reached a boiling point, I might have to say yes. I mean there isn't any respect involved here. You got coach's that isn't humbled when they lose, not voting for players of a Clairton due to grudges, post game push ups, etc. At least when Clairton and Duquesne had their rivalry there was some form of mutual respect, even though those games was much more heated than the current series.

This isn't even fun anymore. I was anticipating these games with all of the enthusiasm in the world. Now I just wished these series would end.

Florida Schools Blowing out the WPIAL Shouldn't Be a Surprise

Any one else tired of seeing Pennsylvania getting destroyed by Florida schools and the rest of the nation respectively? I'm really tired of seeing scores like Cocoa beating Thomas Jefferson 43-7 and Manatee beating Gateway 39-16. And to top it off the WPIAL's record vs Florida is 117-23.

Is this the best the WPIAL and PA has to offer? Could schools like North Penn, Bishop McDevitt, and other top schools out east do any better? That question hasn't been answered yet. But I suspect that they may not fair much better.

But the WPIAL and the rest of the State needs to do something to even this playing field. Just look what they do in states like Florida, Texas, and many states down south. They have spring football for one(which includes a spring game/scrimmage vs a neighboring school in some states), and they start the season a week earlier than we do.

I say either we change our ways ie; having spring football and starting our season a week earlier. And if we don't change then we need to stop playing these games. I'm sick and tired of the WPIAL's Tradition excuse everytime issues like 6 Class's makes it to the floor. Events like Rally in the Wolverena, Rally in the Valley, Kirt Herbstreet Challenge are the furthest thing from traditional.

Anyone that follows football(on any level) will tell you the biggest improvements on any football team is between Week 1 and Week 2. This will also be benificial for the entire state just because we'd be ending the season a week earlier, and if the PIAA and WPIAL could get together and reach an agreement we could end the season 2 weeks earlier but thats another story.

It's all about the money isn't it WPIAL. Its time to at least allow our schools to be more competive. Stop being political when its really your cashflow is stacking higher and higher. Swallow your pride and change, or STOP PLAYING THESE GAMES!

Clairton "Stamps" in its First Win of the Season

Leading into the game there was alot of trash talking, but Clairton did its talking on the field.

The Little Prexies simply had no answer for the Bears swarming defense. Their offense was so anemic their offense gained -24 total yards and gained 0 first downs.

I have to question Mike Bosnic's playcalling in this game. Never did he try to go into a shotgun or do something different to put the Bears defense off balance. Every drive for Washington looked the same; 3 run plays up the middle.

In a game where Clairton wins 41-0, its hard for some to find mistakes in their game. But 3 3rd Quarter turnovers and 2 muffed punts, a few avoidable presnap penalties, its easy to say that the Bears was far from perfect.

Desimon Green had to be the player of the game. He amased 3 sacks, was on nearly every tackle in the first half, 5-5 passing for 105 yards. Josh Page had 5 catch's for 96 yards and 2 TD's; including a spectacular run after catch for a 54 yards.

Clairton used a plethora of RB's with Tyler Boyd leading the way with 6 carries for 100 yards.

Clairton opened the scoring late in the 2nd Quarter on a 13 yard run by Brandon Small and never looked back.

If this is how Clairton treats average 2A schools in the WPIAL, one has to ask does any Blackhills school stand a chance?