ESPN family airing 8 high school FB games Aug. 27-29

[EPJr]

ESPN family airing 8 HS games Aug. 27-29

By Patrick Lammer August 25, 2010 12:17 AMESPN's family of networks will air eight high school football games this Friday through Sunday, starting with Friday night's Tampa Plant at Bradenton Manatee game at 7 on ESPN.

Plant-Manatee, which is a Kickoff Classic and does not count against the teams' records, is a rematch of last year's Class 5A state championship game. Plant won the title 21-14.

Both teams come in with highly regarded running backs in Plant's James Wilder Jr. and Manatee's Mike Blakely. Wilder has verbally committed to FSU; Blakely is still sifting through numerous offers, including from Florida and Miami.

The eight-game blitz will also include Rock Hill (S.C.) South Pointe's Jadeveon Clowney, a defensive end who rated by Scout.com and Rivals.com as the No. 1 prospect in the nation.

The rest of the schedule goes like this:

FRIDAY
10 p.m -- Grant (Sacramento, Calif.) vs. Folsom (Folsom, Calif.), ESPN2

SATURDAY
Noon -- Hoover (Hoover, Ala.) vs. Byrnes (Duncan, S.C.), ESPN
4 p.m. -- South Pointe (Rock Hill, S.C.) vs. Northwestern (Rock Hill, S.C.), ESPNU
7 p.m. -- Steele (Cibolo, Texas) vs. Madison (San Antonio, Texas), ESPN
10 p.m. -- Trinity (Euless, Texas) vs. Lee (Tyler, Texas), ESPNU

SUNDAY
3 p.m. -- Good Counsel (Olney, Md.) vs. St. Xavier (Cincinnati, Ohio), ESPN
7 p.m. -- Moeller (Cincinnati, Ohio) vs. Wayne (Huber Heights, Ohio), ESPNU

[89Hen]

3 p.m. -- Good Counsel (Olney, Md.) vs. St. Xavier (Cincinnati, Ohio), ESPN

Road trip.

[GannonFan]

Never a fan of ESPN airing high school sports. Just more feeding the frenzy of misplaced priorities in high school sports in so many areas of the country.

[bluehenbillk]

Never a fan of ESPN airing high school sports. Just more feeding the frenzy of misplaced priorities in high school sports in so many areas of the country.

Uh...mmmm....welll....pot calling kettle black almost....Dude don't you live like 10 minutes from North Penn HS? I know it's not your district, but wanting a super-sized school just so they can be good at sports, and it seems the only sport that works for them is football fits your above description. Surprised they're not on there with Beck's ego as a HC.

[GannonFan]

Never a fan of ESPN airing high school sports. Just more feeding the frenzy of misplaced priorities in high school sports in so many areas of the country.

Uh...mmmm....welll....pot calling kettle black almost....Dude don't you live like 10 minutes from North Penn HS? I know it's not your district, but wanting a super-sized school just so they can be good at sports, and it seems the only sport that works for them is football fits your above description. Surprised they're not on there with Beck's ego as a HC.

Well, I did purposely make sure, when we moved, to not live within the boundaries of North Penn school district almost entirely because of their super-sized high school ( one senior high, so 3 grades, and they are at about 4300 students in the school). So unless pot calling the kettle black means something else, I think I'm being entirely consistent here - I don't like HS's going gaga and hyping up high school sports and I personally made a choice to live elsewhere so that my own kids don't grow up in that environment.

[GannonFan]

Never a fan of ESPN airing high school sports. Just more feeding the frenzy of misplaced priorities in high school sports in so many areas of the country.

Uh...mmmm....welll....pot calling kettle black almost....Dude don't you live like 10 minutes from North Penn HS? I know it's not your district, but wanting a super-sized school just so they can be good at sports, and it seems the only sport that works for them is football fits your above description. Surprised they're not on there with Beck's ego as a HC.

Actually, NP is good at a lot of sports - both boys and girls swimming (again, advantage numbers), and they either won or were runner's up in baseball in 2009. Plus they play and do well in boy's volleyball and water polo, although neither sport is heavily contested in the state. But they certainly have a lot of success in sports other than football, and again, a lot of it is due to the sheer size of the place (Central Bucks, with a similar enrollment, has 3 separate high schools - same with the West Chester district).

[93henfan]

Never a fan of ESPN airing high school sports. Just more feeding the frenzy of misplaced priorities in high school sports in so many areas of the country.

[clenz]

Never a fan of ESPN airing high school sports. Just more feeding the frenzy of misplaced priorities in high school sports in so many areas of the country.

Do either of you follow recruiting at all? If so you are feeding into the frenzy as well

[CrackerRiley]

Never a fan of ESPN airing high school sports. Just more feeding the frenzy of misplaced priorities in high school sports in so many areas of the country.

Not so much the feeding frenzy for me but just the fact that ESPN forces these things like HS football and the little league WS down our throats. I feel sorry for people who have a genuine interest in these things that have no real stake in the game... like your kid actually playing in the game. Outside of the parents, who cares?

Scouts... who don't need ESPN to see these children.

[GannonFan]

Do either of you follow recruiting at all? If so you are feeding into the frenzy as well

I don't actually - I don't go to Scout or Rivals and I certainly steer away from ESPN's coverage of live coverage of press conferences when high school kids go through a series of hats until they stick with one. It's like the LeBron-ization of sports - all about me and the celebrity of me. Never mind about the game, look at me. It's bad enough when adults do it, but to fawn over kids doing it is just too much to watch for me.

[tampajag]

I don't see what's the big deal about showing local and regional games. Now teams travelling across country that's a bit different.

[tampajag]

Never a fan of ESPN airing high school sports. Just more feeding the frenzy of misplaced priorities in high school sports in so many areas of the country.

Not so much the feeding frenzy for me but just the fact that ESPN forces these things like HS football and the little league WS down our throats. I feel sorry for people who have a genuine interest in these things that have no real stake in the game... like your kid actually playing in the game. Outside of the parents, who cares?

Scouts... who don't need ESPN to see these children.

why follow college football? how much stake do we really have in that?

[GannonFan]

Not so much the feeding frenzy for me but just the fact that ESPN forces these things like HS football and the little league WS down our throats. I feel sorry for people who have a genuine interest in these things that have no real stake in the game... like your kid actually playing in the game. Outside of the parents, who cares?

Scouts... who don't need ESPN to see these children.

why follow college football? how much stake do we really have in that?

Why follow any sport at all if you want to use that logic.

But if you can't see the difference between following sports for kids that are basically adults at that point (i.e. college) versus watching sports where the kids are kids (HS, LLWS), then the point is missed on you.

[tampajag]

why follow college football? how much stake do we really have in that?

Why follow any sport at all if you want to use that logic.

But if you can't see the difference between following sports for kids that are basically adults at that point (i.e. college) versus watching sports where the kids are kids (HS, LLWS), then the point is missed on you.

you basically said what I said, I'm just twisting what he said, personally it's not a big deal to me what anybody watches. It's just funny to see that argument come up anytime someone posts a high school tv schedule.

[CrackerRiley]

Not so much the feeding frenzy for me but just the fact that ESPN forces these things like HS football and the little league WS down our throats. I feel sorry for people who have a genuine interest in these things that have no real stake in the game... like your kid actually playing in the game. Outside of the parents, who cares?

Scouts... who don't need ESPN to see these children.

why follow college football? how much stake do we really have in that?

I went to the college.
There is actual talent.

I wanted to scream while watching a little league game yesterday. If I want to watch garbage like that I'll go to my local little league games.

[clenz]

why follow college football? how much stake do we really have in that?

I went to the college.
There is actual talent.

I wanted to scream while watching a little league game yesterday. If I want to watch garbage like that I'll go to my local little league games.

I can garuntee my 7th grade team would kick the shit out of most of those teams on there. My kids are 13 so there isn't a real age difference.

We play on 60 foot mounds, 90 foot base paths, and fields that average 320 to left, 360 to center, and 300 to right.


My team would have had about 150 home runs this year in our games had we played on a 225 foot field

[GannonFan]

why follow college football? how much stake do we really have in that?

I went to the college.
There is actual talent.

I wanted to scream while watching a little league game yesterday. If I want to watch garbage like that I'll go to my local little league games.

Seriously, if you're going to scream over watching little league baseball, maybe it's best that you don't go to an actual little league game.

[GannonFan]

I went to the college.
There is actual talent.

I wanted to scream while watching a little league game yesterday. If I want to watch garbage like that I'll go to my local little league games.

I can garuntee my 7th grade team would kick the **** out of most of those teams on there. My kids are 13 so there isn't a real age difference.

We play on 60 foot mounds, 90 foot base paths, and fields that average 320 to left, 360 to center, and 300 to right.


My team would have had about 150 home runs this year in our games had we played on a 225 foot field

Well, there's a reason why they have age limits in kids baseball - many times a year makes a huge difference. I'm pretty sure most of the time if you have two teams at that age range and one is a year older than the other one, the older team wins the vast majority of the time. All you're proving is that kids grow and develop a lot over the period of a year. Kudos.

[clenz]

I can garuntee my 7th grade team would kick the **** out of most of those teams on there. My kids are 13 so there isn't a real age difference.

We play on 60 foot mounds, 90 foot base paths, and fields that average 320 to left, 360 to center, and 300 to right.


My team would have had about 150 home runs this year in our games had we played on a 225 foot field

Well, there's a reason why they have age limits in kids baseball - many times a year makes a huge difference. I'm pretty sure most of the time if you have two teams at that age range and one is a year older than the other one, the older team wins the vast majority of the time. All you're proving is that kids grow and develop a lot over the period of a year. Kudos.

There are kids in the LLWS that ARE 13. The kids I coach are the same age as these kids. I'm not impressed with what I see in the LLWS anymore like I was when i was younger and watched it.

[GannonFan]

Well, there's a reason why they have age limits in kids baseball - many times a year makes a huge difference. I'm pretty sure most of the time if you have two teams at that age range and one is a year older than the other one, the older team wins the vast majority of the time. All you're proving is that kids grow and develop a lot over the period of a year. Kudos.

There are kids in the LLWS that ARE 13. The kids I coach are the same age as these kids. I'm not impressed with what I see in the LLWS anymore like I was when i was younger and watched it.

Again, it is still a year more of experience and while they are both 13 now, there can still be a 9-11 month difference in age - it does matter. And yes, I'm glad that you think little leaguers are not as talented anymore as compared to when you watched them as a child. When I was 5 I thought college football players were 9 feet tall. Now that I'm in my 30's, they seem smaller. It has to be that college football players are smaller and not as good now as when I was a child, right?

[tampajag]

why follow college football? how much stake do we really have in that?

I went to the college.
There is actual talent.

I wanted to scream while watching a little league game yesterday. If I want to watch garbage like that I'll go to my local little league games.

Just following your train of thought, you only watch games ASU plays? Also there's better actual talent in the NFL. Seems like that would make watching college football useless.
I don't watch llws because I don't wanna have to sit thru kids crying after strikeouts
Personally I think the problems with high school sports are bigger than E$PN televising games.

[CrackerRiley]

I went to the college.
There is actual talent.

I wanted to scream while watching a little league game yesterday. If I want to watch garbage like that I'll go to my local little league games.

Just following your train of thought, you only watch games ASU plays? Also there's better actual talent in the NFL. Seems like that would make watching college football useless.
I don't watch llws because I don't wanna have to sit thru kids crying after strikeouts
Personally I think the problems with high school sports are bigger than E$PN televising games.

This is my train of thought. I listed two reasons. EITHER I went to college there AND/OR there is actual talent. I watch ASU football because I go to school here and have an actual interest in the games. I watch other college football games and the NFL because there is talent there.
For high school football games the majority of America has no stake in the game and if they are watching, they are watching teams with few talented players. So, to me, what's the point. People will just watch what ESPN throws out there.

Seriously, if you're going to scream over watching little league baseball, maybe it's best that you don't go to an actual little league game.

Yes, that is correct, going to a LL game would make me scream. I don't have the patience for it and it's sad that it is broadcasted on national television. The only reason I watched some of it the other day is because it was running long so I turned to the channel thinking something else was on...

[89Hen]

3 p.m. -- Good Counsel (Olney, Md.) vs. St. Xavier (Cincinnati, Ohio), ESPN

Road trip.

OLOGC defense took it to St. X. St. X outplayed the Falcons, but turnovers really changed the game. Two INT's returned for TD's in the fourth quarter.

[andy7171]

Road trip.

OLOGC defense took it to St. X. St. X outplayed the Falcons, but turnovers really changed the game. Two INT's returned for TD's in the fourth quarter.

You didn't really GO to this one did you? I remember years ago St.X flat out pummeled DeMatha.

...are they really pushing the OLO addition to GC these days?

[89Hen]

OLOGC defense took it to St. X. St. X outplayed the Falcons, but turnovers really changed the game. Two INT's returned for TD's in the fourth quarter.

You didn't really GO to this one did you? I remember years ago St.X flat out pummeled DeMatha.

...are they really pushing the OLO addition to GC these days?

No, the "road trip" was the team having to travel, not me. I did watch most of the game on TV though. Mrs89 knows OLOGC's head coach and two of my daughters classmates are going there this year.

Sometimes they use the OLO.