New alignment gives folks a new way of viewing things

Neither Butch Schaffer, the head coach of Glenelg’s football team, or Greg Milhalko, the head coach of South Carroll’s football team, feel that the Class shift will affect their seasons.

‘‘Our move to 1A has no effect on us since we play the same Howard County league as we did when we were 2A,” Schaffer said.

When focusing on the 10 games that are on the schedule, Glenelg could indeed be playing in 2005 or 2006. Even with the boom of new schools cropping up across Howard County, there’s really no reason for shake-ups to the schedule.

However, there is a danger of letting the numbers get into the players’ heads, reminding them that they’re the smaller school playing at some form of a handicap.

‘‘We don’t care who it is, if it’s the Chicago Bears or the Sykesville Raiders or the Winfield Cavaliers,” Milhalko said. ‘‘Whatever size the school, once the whistle blows on Friday night, it’s still two football teams. It doesn’t say 1A on our uniforms or on the results on the scoreboard.”

But while most of the other team sports feature an automatic bid into the playoffs, football has the distinction of qualifying by mathematics, with only four teams per region qualifying. The equation has built-in bonuses for beating teams of higher classifications, which will be an advantage to the newly minted 1As.

For others, the changes have been harsh. Frederick was at 1,055 students when the census was taken, and 1,050 was chosen as the cut-off for 3A schools. After two years of middling success at 2A, it’s not a move the Cadets wanted to make.

Their salvation is in the redesign of the Monocacy Valley Athletic League. The evolution of the MVAL has become a strange fascination to me.

Frederick, staying into the Piedmont Conference, gets to take on the role of oversized bully to the 2As of Frederick and Washington Counties. The brand-new Blue Ridge Conference provides a home for the smaller Carroll County teams, and the Antietam is finally free of the oversized Hagerstown schools. If North Hagerstown and South Hagerstown divided their combined population into three schools, all three would still be bigger than Brunswick.

The most exciting changes for me are in the loaded Chesapeake Conference. No longer do they have a sacrificial Class 2A lamb. Instead, it’s all 3As and 4As. And with North Carroll and Linganore, I really do mean a plural 4As.

A couple years ago TJ and Westminster were the only 4As for miles. That same mathematical voodoo that will boost 1As into the playoffs was tearing up the playoff chances of the Patriots. Lose three games, and it’s no postseason.

Now, just playing their MVAL Chesapeake schedule, TJ gets a plate of three other 4A teams – Linganore, North Carroll, and Westminster—helping at least one of those four teams lock down a playoff berth.It’s something that’s freeing up Thomas Johnson to take scheduling risks, like traditional Baltimore private school powerhouse Mount St. Joseph in week 2.With all the changes, mostly positive, I’m forced to make one more David Bowie reference and ask, where’s your shame?

I’m talking about rivalry week getting a shift. A classic rivalry of South Carroll and Liberty has come to an end. With week 10 being the popular close to the season and battle of long-time rivals, Century has supplanted the Cavaliers as Liberty’s Week 10 opponent. It’s a case of geography beating history.

Instead, South Carroll faces inter-county foe Tuscarora. It will make for a curious situation when the next batch of changes hits, and Frederick County adds a school. Until then, I recommend that the Cavaliers try to start up a Class 1A South rivalry with Glenelg.