Distict 12 Kickoff Weekend

Well sports fans, it’s the beginning of the 2009 football season. And, once again, we will be providing commentary on the District 12 teams. In addition to our weekly rankings, we’ll also pick the games to watch each week, and a little commentary on the happenings around the league.

We’re not going to start the rankings until next week. Afterall, this is high school football, and not the NCAA or NFL, where you pretty much know who is coming back year after year. Unfortunately, in high school football these days, there are so many young men who decide to transfer or drop out altogether. That, on top of the normal graduations, and it makes it difficult to gauge a team until they actually play a game or two. But, we’ll have the weekly rankings starting after week 1.

Week 1 - Games to Watch.

Parkland at Washington (At Northeast HS) – District 11 perennial power, Parkland, heads down the turnpike to play defending District 12 champ, George Washington in a week 1 match up that could be a preview of a state playoff game. This game should be a good barometer of how good either of these teams are coming into the 2009 season.

Prediction: Although Washington is the defending District 12 AAAA champ, Parkland may be a little more than the Eagles can handle this early in the season.

Our Pick: Parkland 27 – Washington 7

West Catholic at Roman Catholic (At Wildwood, NJ) – Over the past several years, this game has become quite the rivalry. Although, it has no bearing on playoffs or position, this non-league game pits the best of District 12’s AA teams (West) against one of the better AAAA teams (Roman). Don’t let the “A’s” confuse you, as West can play with just about any team out there, and this game should be quite the show.

Prediction: This one is tough to pick, as it is every year, but the consensus among our staff is that West has just reloaded and, as usual, looks to this game to give them some respect in the city. The “X-Factor” in this game is whether or not the young guys that Roman has been grooming are ready for a big early season game like this.

Our Pick: West Catholic 27 – Roman 19

St Joseph Prep at McKeesport (at Wheeling, WV) – Talk about a head on collision in Week 1. You have to give both of these teams props for scheduling an extremely tough game in the first week of the year. McKeesport is a western PA power and Prep has been one of the top schools in the eastern part of the state for about a decade now. When these two teams meet this weekend, it should be a game for the ages. We just wish it was closer to SE Pennsylvania.

Prediction: Prep doesn’t always play well in the big-hype opening weekend games, and they certainly haven’t been the overly dominate team that they once were. McKeesport is, in a lot of people’s opinion, one of the top teams in PA this year. We just see McKeesport as a little too much for the Prep to handle this week.

Our Pick: McKeesport 22 – Prep 14

Hatboro-Horsham at Frankford – We added this game mainly because of the fact that the H-H coach is a Frankford grad. Frankford beat the Hatters last season in a close pre-season game. Frankford is usually one of the top Philly Pub teams and Hatboro-Horsham is still looking for respect in the SOL. This is a good week 1 game for both teams, as they are fairly evenly matched.

Prediction: Even though Frankford won this matchup last year, and H-H coach, Dave Sanderson is very difficult to beat twice, especially a team that matches up well, it’ll be tough for the Hatters to come to Frankford stadium and beat the Pioneers.

Our Pick: Frankford 20 – Hatboro Horsham 14

Well, there you have it.....our Week 1 picks. Each week, I'll poll the staff here and we'll pick 4 or 5 games as the "Games to Watch" and we'll give a little insight into each game and make a prediction regarding the outcome. After a couple of weeks, we'll either look like we know what we're doing or we'll look like complete nitwits.