Long bus rides, hoping someone doesn’t get hurt because there’s not much behind them, not enough players to go 11-on-11 in practice.
Those are just some of the obstacles teams face in rural Division VII football in Ohio.
Manchester faces those challenges on a weekly basis preparing for the upcoming season and its next opponent.
But a change in schedule will makes things a little better for the Greyhounds in 2019, especially in October. Manchester changed its schedule up for the upcoming season, picking up games against teams in the Southern Ohio Independent League, getting an opportunity to play against county rivals North Adams, Peebles and West Union, along with border county rival Southern Ohio Buckeye (primarily Eastern Brown).
Those contests will take place every Friday in October, starting with Peebles on October 4.
Gone are the trips to the greater Cincinnati or Portsmouth areas, or at least not as many.
“Being a Division VII school in the state of Ohio, especially regionally, you look around if we don’t play the county schools we have to go to Scioto County, to Cincinnati and we’re talking a couple hours on the bus every time we travel on Friday nights,” Greyhounds coach Dustin Cook said. “That’s another logistical piece of adding some of these county schools. Set aside the excitement, just being able to hop on the bus and being able to go 25 minutes to go play football as opposed to over an hour is huge.”
Not only logistically, but the excitement from the team and community should help too. These schools get to face one another in basically every other sport, being in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference, now it extends to the gridiron for the Greyhounds.
“Always last year I wondered why we can’t play West Union and all those schools. I just want to play them because it’s fun. We play them in basketball, always play them in other sports but we just haven’t had the chance in football. I wasn’t mad, but just felt like we lost the opportunity to show that we think we’re better,” Greyhounds lineman Carl Ricketts said.
After a 39-year hiatus, the Greyhounds did get to face North Adams last season, a 6-0 victory for the Greyhounds in Manchester. They’ll make the trip to Seaman on October 25 this season. Cook feels the games will help with attendance with less travel and more familiarity with the opponents.
“It’s something as far as the community goes you can definitely promote and their communities are doing the same thing. If you’re just a football fan that wants to go see two local teams play on a football Friday night you’ll have the opportunity now,” Cook said. “It’s definitely creating a lot of buzz and excitement from the boys all the way through to the community. Hopefully people will pack the stands and it will be successful.”
If Manchester can survive the first four weeks against the likes of Fayetteville-Perry, Portsmouth East, Green and Eastern Beaver, things will lighten up starting with a trip to Hannan (WV), followed by a trip to Peebles the first Friday of October.
Members of the SOIL might not create as much of a challenge as an OHSAA sponsored school would. The challenges mentioned at the beginning of the article go beyond that for these teams. With no school support monetarily and not considered as an “OHSAA sponsored team”, these teams are faced with fundraising for themselves, finding facilities to practice on and transportation to and from games. It creates an opportunity for a team like Manchester to not only play local, but gather a couple of victories as well.
With just 21 players on the roster to start the year for the Greyhounds, staying healthy will be a key in that.
“Looking through the first four weeks we play a couple of Portsmouth area teams and then end the season with Eastern Pike who is going to be really good. Those first four or five weeks are going to be really tough on us and then the fun starts on our schedule with the county schools,” Cook said.
The fun also includes some chatter amongst the players from other schools.
“I’m pumped for it. Ever since I found out that we were going to do it, even before the rumors we were going to do it, I was just excited and can’t wait. I know a lot of the guys that play for the other teams and would tell them, ‘I’ll see them during track season or something.’ Now I tell them, ‘Just wait and until I see them on the field.’ I’m friends with a couple of quarterbacks and told them they’ll be getting a big ole’ hug from me, just joking around,” Greyhounds lineman Kris Walters said. “I think it’s going to be really great every Friday night for the people in the county to do and come see us play each other.”
A full team preview will be available on Manchester in Friday’s The Ledger Independent in our annual football preview.
