Williamstown State Champs

[westbrook18]

I honestly don't think Williamstown could hang with Athens. If I'm not mistaking Athens played a close game with Gallia, and Gallia would stomp Williamstown. I think it'd be a good thing for Marietta to play Williamstown because of the wins Williamstown accumulates, but it'd certainly be unfair. The only thing Williamstown would get out of it is playing much tougher competition.

boogerred, you use the fact that Athens left the SEOAL because they couldn't compete. Williamstown wouldn't last a year in the SEOAL.

Williamstown might play good football against their weak competition, which is good for them, but it shouldn't swell their heads enough to think they can compete with Marietta or for that matter most Ohio teams.

[boogerred]

Williamstown would be a D- VI in Ohio, so I doubt they could compete against the SEOAL! What is Athens' excuse?

I think Athens and Williamstown would be a close game, but i would take Williamstown

[schenk11]

As a graduate of Marietta High School....MHS has NO business scheduling a game with a Single A WV team, no matter how good the program is. Should never have played St Mary's years ago either.

I used to think the same thing. I have recently changed my view point though. Times have changed, financially mostly. Travel is getting more and more expensive, the league we are in has enough travel in it that we can not control. Our league is very competitive and challenging. I am having a hard time coming up with words to explain. Let me use the 2004 and 2006 seasons to show my point.

2004
Morgan (6-4) [3:11] W 42-12
Cambridge (8-2) [3:11] L 7-31
GlenOak (8-4) [1:2] L 0-22
Parkersburg South (WV) (9-2) [1:0] L 0-45
Dublin Jerome (2-8) [3:10] L 0-12
Warren (2-8) [3:11] W 35-14
Logan (5-5) [1:3] L 21-37
Jackson (9-3) [2:8] W 52-51 2 ot
Athens (1-9) [3:11] W 14-6
Gallia Academy (6-4) [3:11] L 22-44

Looking at the non-league schedule, we went 1-4. 3 of the 4 loses were to playoff football teams. Then we went 3-2 in the league. Overall we finished 14th in the region at 4-6. If we played more winable games in the non-league schedule, say a Williamstown, who is no doubt a good football school, but Marietta should beat year in and year out based on size. Let's say we went 3-2 or 4-1 in the non-league games. That would put us at 6-4 or 7-3 and more than likely we would have been in the playoffs at 7-3 and possibly at 6-4. Williamstown is going to bring in a lot of second level points every year.

It was neat playing Dublin, and GlenOak, nice facilities, nice bands, hardly any Marietta fans traveled to those sites. If you play teams closer to home, you have the local "rivalry", big games week in and week out, get the opportunity to play in front of 8,000-11,000 people as opposed to 2,000.

2006 was very similar

Parkersburg South (WV) (3-6) [1:0] L 13-28
Cambridge (11-1) [3:11] L 12-26
New Philadelphia (8-2) [2:7] L 10-17
Warren (3-7) [3:12] W 21-0
Athens (1-9) [3:12] W 35-8
Ironton (6-5) [4:15] L 20-28 ot
Logan (8-3) [1:3] L 0-41
Zanesville (4-6) [2:7] W 28-21
Chillicothe (7-4) [2:7] W 31-24
Jackson (6-5) [3:12] L 17-31

Again 4-3 in the league and 0-3 in the non-league schedule against 2 playoff caliber football teams. We finished 18th in the region. Look at Dublin Scioto, 4-6 and finished 12th with a huge number of 2nd level points. If we had a more winable non-league schedule, say 2-1 or even 3-0, that would have put us at 6-4 or 7-3 again and on the brink of the post season.

Similar scenario this past season as well.

Having been on the staff in 2002 when we made the playoffs and lost to East Liverpool in week 11, I can honestly say I would lose in week 11 than in 20 be able to say we played at Fawcett Stadium and lost, or we played good competition.

Gallia, Jackson, and Logan had the equation right. Play schools you should beat, win those games, make the playoffs, gain interest in the program, community support, then begin to strengthen the schedule once the program is ready for that level of competition.

[boogerred]

I don't thinkk you can say you would beat them year in and year out based on size alone.

[Cap'n Scoop]

Marietta should NOT play Williamstown, Fort Frye, Waterford, Frontier, St Mary's or Belpre in football. EVER! I don't care about the travel...do fund raisers. It's like Marietta College playing Ohio U...should never happen!!! If making the playoffs is all you are worried about you have problems. If you can't get there playing the competition you should play then you don't deserve to go.
For what it's worth, Warren should not play any of those schools either, except for Belpre because of the long standing rivalry.

Just my opinion.

[hardhitter ll]

Williamstown would beat Marietta most years. Just a better program over there.

[westbrook18]

^^haha

[westbrook18]

Marietta should NOT play Williamstown, Fort Frye, Waterford, Frontier, St Mary's or Belpre in football. EVER! I don't care about the travel...do fund raisers. It's like Marietta College playing Ohio U...should never happen!!! If making the playoffs is all you are worried about you have problems. If you can't get there playing the competition you should play then you don't deserve to go.
For what it's worth, Warren should not play any of those schools either, except for Belpre because of the long standing rivalry.

Just my opinion.

Warren should play Belpre because they seem to be equally talented.

[schenk11]

I don't care about the travel...do fund raisers. If making the playoffs is all you are worried about you have problems.

You may not, but the principal, AD, and superintendent do care about travel. I'm saying if we are being told to play local teams to cut down on travel expenses, Williamstown is a good choice. I too think we should play schools our own size, but because of administrative push, I have changed the outlook to make the best of the situation. Not many options locally, we already have PHS and South on the schedule.

If making the playoffs was all that I cared about, I would not have stayed on staff at one level or another for 14 years. Talk to anyone I have coached and making the playoffs is nowhere close to goal one.

Donations accepted (help us out with that travel):
Marietta Head Football Coach
Andy Schob
208 Davis Ave
Marietta, OH 45750

[hardhitter ll]

Play Williamstown!

[schenk11]

As I have said, we are working on it.

[Cap'n Scoop]

Shenk, even though I totally disagree with it, I understand your position.

[C4PITTS]

Play Parkersburg High !!!! At one time I believe that was one of the longest rivalry games in high school football.

[schenk11]

Play Parkersburg High !!!! At one time I believe that was one of the longest rivalry games in high school football.

They are back on the schedule.

[mister b]

Glad to hear that Marietta and Parkersburg are playing again on the gridiron!

[grizzlynatural]

HAHAHAHAHA Someone from Athens acting like they can talk smack on a football thread. Now THATS funny!!

[schenk11]

HAHAHAHAHA Someone from Athens acting like they can talk smack on a football thread. Now THATS funny!!

HAHAHAHAHA What is even more funny is someone from Marietta doing the same.

And you can back the Athens is better than Mairetta attitude up with all the success Athens had against Marietta over the history of the series (Marietta lead 36-9-2, 1 win for the bulldogs out of the last 9 meetings, with an average score of MHS 19.7 and AHS 8.9, I am missing a few years tough).

Here is the all-time series:
1908 22 Marietta 0
1910 16 Marietta 12
1911 5 Athens 6
1911 6 Marietta 0
1912 6 Tie 6
1912 17 Marietta 0
1913 72 Marietta 0
1917 19 Marietta 6
1919 45 Marietta 0
1924 7 Marietta 6
1925 13 Marietta 7
1928 6 Marietta 0
1929 35 Marietta 0
1930 0 Marietta 0
1933 13 Marietta 0
1934 53 Marietta 0
1967 13 Athens 28
1968 21 Marietta 12
1969 12 Marietta 0
1970 6 Athens 8
1971 25 Athens 28
1972 27 Marietta 13
1973 6 Marietta 0
1974 14 Marietta 0
1975 0 Athens 13
1976 20 Marietta 6
1977 41 Marietta 6
1978 38 Marietta 14
1983 13 Marietta 9
1984 21 Marietta 13
1987 7 Athens 20
1989 13 Athens 25
1991 41 Marietta 14
1992 26 Marietta 7
1993 3 Marietta 0
1994 34 Marietta 17
1995 16 Athens 20
1996 21 Marietta 7
1997 Missing
1998 Missing
1999 No Score Marietta
2000 No Score Marietta
2001 No Score Marietta
2002 35 Marietta 32
2003 19 Athens 48
2004 14 Marietta 6
2005 31 Marietta 14
2006 35 Marietta 8
2007 41 Marietta 11

[MttaFan]

It's more than even bus expense and time. When a Columbus school, or even one of the distant SEOAL schools, visit Marietta they may bring a couple hundred fans. When Parkersburg South, Parkersburg, and I'm guessing Williamstown visit, they bring thousands. That difference in gate revenue is huge in these tough financial times when sports programs need every dollar to keep the programs going.

[schenk11]

They contacted us.

MttaFan sees the advantage.

[schenk11]

The difference is, Athens plays a smaller school out of need for a game.

Need for a game under the criterion that the Administrations has asked the programs at MHS to follow.