As an alum of The Linsly School (Class of 1985), I was not a fan of the news that the Cadets and Wheeling Central Catholic won’t be playing during Week 1 of the high school football season.
The two football teams have played 74 times with Linsly winning 47 of the matchups, but now that the college prep school has increased student population, especially during the last 15 years, the game on the gridiron doesn’t make much sense to CCHS Head Coach Mike Young. This was his call. And, if you look at rosters, it is a decision that makes sense.
There was nothing better than beating the Maroon Knights at anything, but not because of hate. We knew other, played on teams together during the summer months, and we were friends so bragging rights was a big deal. While playing football, basketball, baseball and running cross country as a Cadet, we competed against schools all across the Upper Ohio Valley. Guess which wins and which losses are remembered the most today?
Mike Duplaga was a beast of a running back. Mike Stiglich was unmovable in the paint. And Joe Katona’s curve ball? Wicked nasty.
But that was 35 years ago when 52 young men were graduated by the former military school, and since Linsly opened to young ladies, the campus has grown, a new dormitory soon will be constructed, and it’s likely the Cadets will move up to Class AAAA in the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference. My alma mater always has instructed international students, but these days there are many more bilingual co-eds sitting in those classrooms inside Banes Hall … and, yes, of some have played football.
It’s made a difference, too.
“When I played football for Wheeling Central, we all loved the rivalry against Linsly, and not because we always won but because it was just that, a rivalry that meant a lot to the people on both sides,” said Young, a veteran of 50 coaching season and who is 10-0 in the Super Six Football Championships. “But this decision was made with our kids in mind. We still are playing teams like St. Clairsville, Martins Ferry, Fort Frye, and Shadyside, but Linsly has reached a new level.
“The folks at Linsly have to do what they have to do. They are growing and I’m praying for all of them to be successful,” he said. “I have all the respect in the world for their coaches, administrators, and their kids because some of the best people I have met in my life have been from Linsly. I hope Wheeling Central plays Linsly in every other sport.”
Wheeling Park ceased playing CCHS because a Triple-A high school competing against a team in Class A stopped making sense because of the point system employed by the W.Va. Secondary Schools Activities Commission when it comes to state rankings, and now, when it comes to football, the practicality of the Linsly-Central matchup has reached a point to where sense can’t be made.
I loathe this development for the kids and the coaches and the alumni of both schools. As a former Cadet unable to advance to the sectional, regional, and statewide postseason, competing against the Maroon Knights was our Super Bowl, no matter the sport. When we won, we relished it. When we lost, trust me, we heard about it.
There was a time in Wheeling when the Park-Central game was the first week of the season and the Central-Linsly matchup was the final Saturday of the season, and those contests were part of the culture of this valley. Since those days, though, population has continued to decline and that makes an impact when one school can accept new day students from a tri-state region and the other welcomes children from around the world.
I don’t like it – no one on both sides of this does – but I get it.
