Very Random MD-TX OOS Game

[eaglesinsider]

Just stumbled across this trying to finish the MD schedules,

The Avalon School, a private school with less than 100 boys from MD that went 2-11 last season, is travelling to play at Sulphur Springs (TX), a 4-8 5A team in 2016.

[eaglesinsider]

Avalon also playing a 13! game regular season schedule for the second straight year:

 

Avalon School (Home Games Played at Martin Luther King Jr. Recreational Park, Silver Spring):

Week -1 (8/19)- at Canada Prep (CN)

Week 0 (8/25)- at Ballou (DC)

Week 1 (9/1)- at DeMatha

Week 2 (9/8)- at Sulphur Springs (TX)

Week 3 (9/15)- at Bullis

Week 4 (9/23)- at Gonzaga (DC)

Week 5 (9/29)- Patterson

Week 6 (10/6)- Kingsman Academy (DC)

Week 7- BYE

Week 8 (10/20)- Saint Joseph's (CN)

Week 9 (10/27)- Benedictine (VA)

Week 10A (11/1)- at Calvert Hall

Week 10B (11/4)- at Saint James

Week 11 (11/10)- at Saint Mary's Ryken

[Frosty4024]

Don't get too hype...

Sulphur Springs is breaking in their renovated stadium (that I hear about from my friend EVERY DAY at work...He's a Sulphur Springs Alum).

This is actually a replacement game from some Washington (State) team that backed out apparently.

Sulphur Springs is trying to get back to that 2008-2011 form...They don't have the horses (nor coaching) to get their yet...

If Avalon can run a sophisticated offense (meaning can line up and block without screwing that up) they have a chance...

Otherwise...this is a scrimmage for Sulphur Springs that will end up closer than it should be...

 

Nolebull might hype this up tho 😀

[Gospeeder]

Can someone explain why DeMatha in on their schedule?

[Nolebull813]

There are national websites that coaches can post ads where they need games. If another random team around the country has the same open week they contact the coach and see if they can iron out the logistics. 

SS must have placed the ad and Avalon responded to it. That's how these random matchups usually are made. 

And sometimes the random games can come from a coach having some form of ties to the opponent. Maybe hometown, or used to coach together. A few years ago a small team from St Pete Florida went and played a small team from San Antonio Texas because the 2 head coaches were roommates in college.

 

[PrepGridiron]

Avalon must have players. You don't schedule that with 100 boys without having to feel you won't get maimed

[Nolebull813]

Barringer was another team who was looking for a game in Florida to showcase their QB. 

I tweeted to the FLHSFB handle that they needed a host and Champagnat made it happen. 

Can you believe Champagnat plays 2 oos games and still needs to more games to fill out a schedule!

[MA Fan]

1 hour ago, PrepGridiron said:

Avalon must have players. You don't schedule that with 100 boys without having to feel you won't get maimed

A few years ago they had some aspirations and recruited some big-time transfers--a couple of them fifth-year players IIRC--but they got smoked in almost all their losses last year.

[eaglesinsider]

4 hours ago, Gospeeder said:

Can someone explain why DeMatha in on their schedule?

They're local, willing to play (and always willing to play at DeMatha) and DeMatha has to fill 5 OOC games every year.

Most of the good MD privates end up with at least one random game against a lower level local team because the leagues are small and that gives them one OOC game where they don't have to worry about traveling or paying someone to travel to them.

[TheMaximumHornetSting]

Some interesting Regional school matchups. 

5A 

Thomasville Central(GA) will open their season on the road @ Worth HS(Sylvester) in a Region game. Thats right a week 1 Region game. Last year Central went 8-4 and Worth went 9-3. 

Again these are Decent In state teams not national teams. 

 

4A 

Sandy Creek  will host 5A Creekside in week 1 then play 5A Allatoona in week 2 then open Region Games with Rival Cartersville in week 3

[eaglesinsider]

2 hours ago, MA Fan said:

A few years ago they had some aspirations and recruited some big-time transfers--a couple of them fifth-year players IIRC--but they got smoked in almost all their losses last year.

They hired the coach from Wootton (3A public school), where Trevon Diggs (Alabama SO, brother of Stefon Diggs) had been a freshman All-American, after he was fired from Wootton for spending a lot of money he wasn't authorized to spend on new football uniforms to try to attract more kids into his program.

Before Wootton the HC was a rec league coach, when he jumped to Avalon he openly recruited kids away from the county public schools and, as you said, allowed some kids to play a 5th year. This both ticked off the other coaches in the county and got them banned from playing any MD public schools (because of the 5th year players) leading them to play the most random assortment of teams that range from top 25 to bottom 10,000 in the US. Their HC also brought over pretty much his whole family to join his staff. Almost the entire coaching staff (all but 1 last time I saw them play) is made up of his cousins, brothers and father.

Before the current HC came over Avalon was a typical MD small private school that had started football in 2005, playing other small private schools and rural public schools. In 2014 with Diggs transferring over they went 6-4 against a schedule of entirely small private schools except for Bullis who beat them by 22. In 2015 they brought in more transfers for Diggs' SR year and went 5-6 against a much tougher schedule.Their signature win was a 33-27 OT victory over Woodberry Forest (VA) and they played and lost to SPP by 14. When Diggs graduated they tried to play an even tougher schedule in 2016 for some reason and it turned out very poorly. They lost to Saint Frances by 22, DeMatha by 35, Gonzaga (DC) by 24, Mount Saint Joseph by 29, Archbishop Spalding by 49, Woodberry Forest by 26, Calvert Hall by 28, Football North (CN) by 36 and Malvern Prep (PA) by 22 en route to a 2-11 finish with their only wins being over Riverdale Baptist and National Christian Academy.

[TheMaximumHornetSting]

And for those who want some Thursday Night action! Georgia is your state next Thursday  there will be a sleuth of games to choose from! Next Thursday 

Sleight

Jones County(Gray,GA) @ Houston County(Warner Robins,GA)

Mary Persons(Forsyth,GA) @ Lee County(Leesburg,GA) 

Newnan(ECHSLand)(GA) @  Carrolton(GA) 

[Nolebull813]

10 minutes ago, TheMaximumHornetSting said:

And for those who want some Thursday Night action! Georgia is your state next Thursday  there will be a sleuth of games to choose from! Next Thursday 

Sleight

Jones County(Gray,GA) @ Houston County(Warner Robins,GA)

Mary Persons(Forsyth,GA) @ Lee County(Leesburg,GA) 

Newnan(ECHSLand)(GA) @  Carrolton(GA) 

What channel can I watch these bad babies on? 

[TheMaximumHornetSting]

1 hour ago, Nolebull813 said:

What channel can I watch these bad babies on? 

I'll see if I can find a streaming source I forgot Fox wasnt doing CKC anymore...

[NicholasMalibu]

1 hour ago, eaglesinsider said:

They hired the coach from Wootton (3A public school), where Trevon Diggs (Alabama SO, brother of Stefon Diggs) had been a freshman All-American, after he was fired from Wootton for spending a lot of money he wasn't authorized to spend on new football uniforms to try to attract more kids into his program.

Before Wootton the HC was a rec league coach, when he jumped to Avalon he openly recruited kids away from the county public schools and, as you said, allowed some kids to play a 5th year. This both ticked off the other coaches in the county and got them banned from playing any MD public schools (because of the 5th year players) leading them to play the most random assortment of teams that range from top 25 to bottom 10,000 in the US. Their HC also brought over pretty much his whole family to join his staff. Almost the entire coaching staff (all but 1 last time I saw them play) is made up of his cousins, brothers and father.

Before the current HC came over Avalon was a typical MD small private school that had started football in 2005, playing other small private schools and rural public schools. In 2014 with Diggs transferring over they went 6-4 against a schedule of entirely small private schools except for Bullis who beat them by 22. In 2015 they brought in more transfers for Diggs' SR year and went 5-6 against a much tougher schedule.Their signature win was a 33-27 OT victory over Woodberry Forest (VA) and they played and lost to SPP by 14. When Diggs graduated they tried to play an even tougher schedule in 2016 for some reason and it turned out very poorly. They lost to Saint Frances by 22, DeMatha by 35, Gonzaga (DC) by 24, Mount Saint Joseph by 29, Archbishop Spalding by 49, Woodberry Forest by 26, Calvert Hall by 28, Football North (CN) by 36 and Malvern Prep (PA) by 22 en route to a 2-11 finish with their only wins being over Riverdale Baptist and National Christian Academy.

Random, but did you see the Avalon vs DM game last year? Unreal offensive play calling from Avalon. The OC called a Hail Mary right or left 90% of the time. I may be under dramatic on that. I didn't watch any other games, but I hope that wasn't the normal plan of attack....

[Gospeeder]

2 hours ago, eaglesinsider said:

They're local, willing to play (and always willing to play at DeMatha) and DeMatha has to fill 5 OOC games every year.

Most of the good MD privates end up with at least one random game against a lower level local team because the leagues are small and that gives them one OOC game where they don't have to worry about traveling or paying someone to travel to them.

Thanks for the reply. It seems like they are in a rush to move the program up in status... imo a recipe for some one getting a serious injury. It might be better if they grew the program incrementally each year playing teams that are closer to their level of play ( maybe slightly better so the games would be more competitive ) to raise their players level of confidence and shake the doormat perception. Than at the appropriate time, try the SFA route.

[eaglesinsider]

1 hour ago, Gospeeder said:

Thanks for the reply. It seems like they are in a rush to move the program up in status... imo a recipe for some one getting a serious injury. It might be better if they grew the program incrementally each year playing teams that are closer to their level of play ( maybe slightly better so the games would be more competitive ) to raise their players level of confidence and shake the doormat perception. Than at the appropriate time, try the SFA route.

I definitely think that approach is better as well. Start stringing together winning seasons against equal competition and maybe take on 1-2 tough opponents a year instead of going 2-11 year in and year out. I imagine it's hard for Avalon to find games being a non-sanctioned private school but I'm sure they could find more Kingsman Academy type teams and less DeMatha type teams if they really wanted to.

Most people don't realize that SFA didn't even have a football team a decade ago and spent about half their football history in the MIAA C Conference. I remember when SFA had to forfeit games due to lack of players. They cut their teeth in the C Conference as they built up from their low point.

 

[eaglesinsider]

2 hours ago, NicholasMalibu said:

Random, but did you see the Avalon vs DM game last year? Unreal offensive play calling from Avalon. The OC called a Hail Mary right or left 90% of the time. I may be under dramatic on that. I didn't watch any other games, but I hope that wasn't the normal plan of attack....

I didn't but it doesn't sound much different from when I saw them play when Trevon Diggs was there. 

Except then the game plan was just thrown it to Trevon no matter what. All their transfer talent and they struggled to put away little Saint John's Catholic Prep from Frederick because they had nothing to go to when the QB was having an off night.