Week 5 Howard County Football
Atholton (3-1) @ Centennial (0-4)
Let me just say a few words about this situation. For those that don’t know, Centennial announced on Monday that they would be forfeiting this game. For “safety reasons” blah blah blah. Reality is-Centennial took one look at Atholton’s gigantic OL and said “Nah we good”. It is unbelievable to me that we would allow a team to pick and choose who they are going to play in the league. One immediate impact is Atholton gets 2 weeks to prepare for potentially the biggest game of the regular season vs OM! Meanwhile the CEN coaches are getting paid the same as every other coach in HOCO to NOT COACH. I counted 19 players dressed at the end of the varsity game vs. RH last week. Now, unless the rules of football have changed since I retired, there are 11 players on the field. Not to mention Centennial played a JV game Monday with 20 players dressed. That’s 39 bodies available to play a game Friday night. If anything-you end the JV program and play out the varsity schedule. But no, we let Centennial do what they want.
Does Centennial not have a weight room? Is there no place they can train and get better in the off season? Is there no 7 V 7 opportunities? Can the coaches go to clinics and learn things? Oh wait-ALL of these things are available to them just like every other school in the county. Hell I used to run the hills there while my daughter was practicing at the SAC fields-they’re brutal. When will Centennial ever get better?
How can it be that EVERY other sport at CEN is competitive to good? They have a basketball STATE CHAMPIONSHIP within the last 10 years. The answer is the football program at CEN has been told by athletic administrators that they can’t compete FOR YEARS. Anyone who has been around HOCO football knows that the county schedule has been held hostage by CEN for a long time. “Oh we can’t open with Atholton-we would get crushed and end our hopes for a good season”. And so the entire rest of the league gets shuffled around to accommodate the eagles. How do you think Coach Montag feels over at GP playing a Varsity schedule with NO SENIORS. They are missing 1/4 of the school! Do you think they are telling the kids “we can’t compete”. NO-they are channeling their inner Coach Billick “When you go in the lion's den, you don't tippy toe in — you carry a spear, you go in screaming like a banshee, you kick whatever doors in, and say, 'Where's the SOB?' If you go in any other way you're gonna lose.'" CEN football program has been told they can’t compete for so long THEY BELIEVE IT. The CODDLING is unbelievable. In 2018 they tried to worm out of our homecoming game at RH. They would only agree to play if we did RUNNING CLOCK the entire game! How does that make the players feel-telling them they are that inferior to another school before the game even starts?
“But CEN demographics aren’t conducive to football success”. HORSE MANURE-Marriotts Ridge and River Hills ethnicity demographics are IDENTICAL to Centennials. Yet they still play a full football schedule every year. Mount Hebron is very similar as well. I can tell you this with 100% certainty-Van Deusen would cut off his own arm with a rusty butter knife before he would forfeit a football game, but a mere 5.4 miles away we forfeit games whenever we feel like it. It’s a difference in mentality.
So what do we do now? We could do what we did with OM female athletics and let them play lower level Baltimore County schools for a few seasons. Keep them totally off the hoco schedule. Or how about we make a rule that says if you forfeit a game as a coach you get fired? I still think the Centennial coaches should be docked 1/10 of their pay for every game they forfeit. The expectation is you coach 9 regular season games and 1 playoff game. Every other coach in hoco is putting in that much work minimum.
Oakland Mills (4-0) @ Glenelg (3-1). The clear game of the week in the county. Glenelg sits at 3-1 but has not been overly impressive. Even though they have won their last 3 straight after an opening week loss to Severna Park, they let Hammond lurk around with them for a half and then only beat lowly reservoir by 2 points. Hopefully for OM they are done reading about their impressive victory over Urbana and went to work preparing for the Gladiators. Glenelg would need to play a flawless game to upset these Scorpions, but I don’t see it happening-Scorpions by 2 scores.
Marriotts Ridge (3-1) @ Hammond (0-4). Hammond has shown that they are not just laying down for these other teams. They’ve shown fight so far this year and one of these weeks they will break through for a win. Is it this week? I don’t think so-Ridge by 2 scores
Guilford Park (3-1) @ Reservoir (1-3). Resi with a good shot to get their second win here, but GP is certainly no pushover. Gators by one score.
Long Reach (0-4) @ River Hill (2-2). Battle of the schools that opened in 1996. The Reach is really struggling here as I can’t remember the last time they were 0-4. RH has won their last 2 and is figuring some things out on both sides of the ball. RH by 2 scores at homecoming .
Howard (4-0) @ Wilde Lake (2-2). The lake has dropped their last 2, while Howard remains undefeated. A word of advice to the WL coaches-don’t punt the ball to the best player on the field like LR did. Kick it out of bounds and make them drive on you! Howard by 2 scores.
Mount Hebron (1-3) @ Severn Run (0-4). Hebron picked up their first win last week vs. a scrappy Hammond squad. Can they make it 2 in a row against a brand new Anne Arundel county school? I believe in the Vikings this week. Hebron by a score.
