By Sheldon Shealer

Wednesday proved to be a busy day for Maryland high school football as the Crab Bowl head coaches were introduced to the media in Baltimore and Nick Lynch Classic field was confirmed in Prince George's County.

Legendary coach Al Thomas, who recently retired as Sherwood's coach, is the head coach of the Washington, and Linganore's Rick Conner is the Baltimore head coach for the Crab Bowl.

Tony Kennedy, organizer of the Nick Lynch Classic, confirmed the pairings Wednesday. The Sept 5 all-day affair at North Point High School features Theodore Roosevelt (D.C.) vs. Anacostia (D.C.) at 11:30 a.m., Riverdale Baptist vs. DeMatha at 2 p.m., Suitland vs. Wise at 4:30 p.m. and North Point vs. Northern Calvert at 7 p.m.

"It;s 90 percent done, we signed the contracts Wednesday," Kennedy said. "We're real excited about pulling this off. It was a lot of work, a lot of changes, but the meat of it stayed the same." 

By Sheldon Shealer

Now hear this - West Virginia's largest school is no longer among the
state's Top 10 in enrollment.

This fall, Washington (W.Va.) High School opens in Jefferson County, taking
nearly half of Jefferson High School's once more than 2,000 students. Until
this year, Jefferson was the largest school based on enrollment in West
Virginia.

Why would we care in Maryland?

Simple. Jefferson appears on the football schedules of several Maryland
schools every year, including Urbana and Fort Hill this fall. Although we
are in the second of a two-year enrollment cycle, the MPSSAA has a
stipulation that any school that undergoes an enrollment change of at least
25 percent can be reclassified. This pertains to out-of-state schools, as
well, for football point system purposes.

MDVarsity.com confirmed the new enrollment for both Jefferson and Washington
high schools today, and Jefferson is now considered a 2A opponent, and
Washington will be 1A for playoff point purposes. Until this year, Jefferson
was a 4A school without question.

The bottom line, if Urbana and/or Fort Hill defeat Jefferson this fall, the
schools will receive two fewer win points. Two points could be important,
especially in Urbana's case with a perennially strong Class 3A West region.
Last year, Urbana and Frederick tied for the final playoff spot in the
region with Urbana winning the tiebreaker. Those two points, had it occurred
last year, would have kept Urbana at home.

ON HOLD: Riverdale Baptist traveled to Cardinal Gibbons for the schools'
planned openers last week, only to play about 15 minutes of football.
Gibbons led 9-0 when a rain storm brought an early end to the contest, three
minutes into the second quarter. The plan is to resume the contest on Nov.
14, if Gibbons is not in the MIAA B Conference final. By moving the game to
after the final MPSSAA play-date, Gibbons now is considered as having a
nine-game schedule for playoff points purposes. If Catonsville beats Gibbons
this week, Catonsville will accrue 1.1 points for every Gibbons win, instead
of 1.0 points had Gibbons played a 10-game schedule.