WVSSAC Super Six Football Championships

No Super Six for Charleston but plenty of predictions
Thursday, November 28, 2007
By RICK RYAN - The Charleston Gazette

WHEELING’S always been a gambler’s paradise, from race tracks to table gaming to spot sheets on high school football games (you betcha).

Wonder what the line is on Wheeling retaining the Super Six when the contract comes up for bidding early next year? How about prohibitive?

It looks like Wheeling’s closest pursuer in recent years, Charleston, isn’t going to bother making a proposal when the bidding process starts.

Mayor Danny Jones and Mike Reed, who headed the Charleston Super Six Bowl Committee two years ago, want no part of such an effort.

“It won’t come from me,’’ Jones said Tuesday.

Jones and Reed also know of no local group putting together a possible bid. Neither did Lou Ann Lanham-Henson, facilities manager at Laidley Field/University of Charleston Stadium, where the games would be held.

“To the best of my knowledge,’’ Lanham-Henson said, “it hasn’t even been discussed.’’

The process changes slightly this year, with potential host cities bidding on a three-year contract — with an option for a fourth — instead of two-year deals. Wheeling and Charleston were the only bidders the last time around, on Jan. 25, 2006.

That’s when the SSAC Board of Directors voted 6-2 to award Wheeling another two-year contract — its seventh in a row. Laidley Field had been home for the games from 1979-93, except for 1988, when they moved to Mountaineer Field in Morgantown during reconstruction work at Laidley.

Reed openly wondered about inconsistencies in the bidding process. In the past, Board members received copies of the bids more than month before the presentations, and Reed feels alterations were made after other cities saw what Charleston was offering.

“There’s no doubt in my mind people were sharing [information on] what other communities bid,’’ Reed said. “There were additions made to bids, and it was not supposed to be that way. Everything you bid in December should have been exactly what was presented in January.’’

Reed’s been told that procedure has since changed. But he still thinks Wheeling has a stranglehold on the Super Six for the foreseeable future.

“Thirty minutes before we went in for our presentation [in 2006], Mike Hayden walked by,’’ Reed said of the since-retired SSAC executive director. “He said, ‘You know if you ever have a chance to get the Super Six, you have to do something about the lights at Laidley Field.’ I said, ‘Mike, it’s been in our bid every time to change or clean the lights,’ and he said, ‘No, I’m talking about replacing the lights there and even adding more.’ I knew right then, we didn’t have a chance.

“My feeling is there is not going to be any change until something drastic happens — and I’m not sure they’d do it even then.’’

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Here’s one man’s guess at what’s in store this weekend (in the order the games unfold):

Class AA: Reminds me a lot of last year’s AA finals, when county neighbors Wayne and Tolsia took their rivalry to Wheeling, leading to Wayne’s first state title.
No, Bluefield (Mercer) and James Monroe (Monroe) aren’t in the same county, but they’re only 38 miles apart and have played each other every year in recent seasons. The Beavers edged the Mavericks 14-7 in a great game on Oct. 26.
Both played strong schedules — Bluefield’s rating would have earned the No. 4 spot in AAA (home field for two rounds!) and the Mavericks would have been 10th.
The Beavers obviously have the edge in experience (this is their eighth Super Six trip to Wheeling), and their defense looks a hair stronger. But while Bluefield has cruised through the postseason (outscoring opponents 134-44), JM is battle-tested, having played and survived two close calls — 13-7 over Magnolia and 21-14 over defending champ Wayne.
So will it be a replay of last year? (Tolsia won in the regular season and Wayne in the finals.) I’m guessing no.
Bluefield 21-14
Class AAA: Another matchup of a frequent Super Six visitor (Parkersburg) against a relative newbie (St. Albans).
I mean, the last time the Red Dragons made it this far in 1979, their coach (Derek Christian) was wearing a helmet, not a headset, since he was SA’s fullback.
Parkersburg’s trip is its sixth to Wheeling Island Stadium since 1997, where it’s gone 3-2 in the finals. The Big Reds are also playing their 11th game on field turf this season, and the Red Dragons just their second.
St. Albans has overcome the odds just to make it this far — workhorse tailback Marcus Fox went down in the seventh game, but the team rallied behind its other ball-carriers and a dominating offensive line.

Parkersburg takes aim at two historical accomplishments. A state title would be its 11th, tying PHS for the most all-time with Ceredo-Kenova, which closed in the 1990s. The Big Reds have also never won back-to-back crowns.

Parkersburg, 24-14

Class A: Remember last year’s finals? Pregame talk about Wheeling Central perhaps moving up to AA for more competition in future years, then the Maroon Knights having megatrouble with Williamstown, eking out a 14-7 victory late in the game?

Well, it looks like the same thing’s happening again this year.

Central coach Mike Young admitted that a move to AA is being looked at, in part because so many Ohio Valley teams are dropping the Knights from their schedules. Some reports have Central needing as many as seven games next season.

That’s what happens when you win 32 games in a row, like Central has, and are favored to win a record-tying fourth straight single-A title.

But the part about having trouble with Williamstown? Probably not happening this year. With tons of experience at most of the key positions, this could be one of Central’s best teams ever — and that’s saying something.

Central, 38-14

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If you’re expecting to watch Saturday’s St. Albans-Parkersburg AAA title game live on television . . . well, you’re in for a disappointment.

The three championship games will again be shown on a tape-delay basis by Network West Virginia (Suddenlink Channel 2). The Class AA game is set to be televised at 7 p.m. Saturday, with the Class A game at 3 p.m. Sunday and the AAA game Sunday night at 7.

NWV was the only bidder to carry the games, which is a shame. Hard to believe some other state station/network wouldn’t want the public good will from such a contract.

Remember that the next time a local station floods the airwaves with some sickly-sweet self-serving spot about how community-friendly it is. They’d rather stick a college game, syndicated re-run or infomercial on the air and rake in a few more bucks.