A mix of clouds and sun early, then becoming cloudy later in the day. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High around 90F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph..
A mix of clouds and sun early, then becoming cloudy later in the day. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High around 90F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph..
Ryan Fischer/The Herald-Dispatch The Cabell Midland High School Knights football team conducts the first day of practice on Monday, August 5, 2019, in Ona.
Ryan Fischer/The Herald-Dispatch The Cabell Midland High School Knights football team conducts the first day of practice on Monday, August 5, 2019, in Ona.
HUNTINGTON òòò½ÊÓƵ” In football, numbers matter.
Green High School in Franklin Furnace, Ohio, has 20 players who figure to see regular game action this season. Cabell Midland High School in Ona has "25 or 30" who will play considerably, according to Knights coach Luke Salmons. The difference is, 20 players make up Green's entire roster. The 25 or 30 players to whom Salmons referred are just on Cabell Midland's defense.
Big and small, schools are preparing for football season, which kicks off this weekend in Kentucky and the weekend of Aug. 30 in Ohio and West Virginia. Wheelersburg fields a roster of 110 players. Ironton features 69.
"If not for some freak injuries and other things, we might have 60 kids out here," said Fairland coach Melvin Cunningham, who leads a 42-player squad.
Tiny Green, with about 140 students, and massive Cabell Midland, with about 1,800, both made the playoffs last year. The Bobcats went 8-3 and lost in the first round of the Ohio Division VII playoffs. The Knights went 6-5 and fell in the opening round of the West Virginia Class AAA postseason.
Salmons smiled when he was asked about what he would think of coaching at a school as small as Green.
"I admire them," Salmons said of coaches at much smaller schools.
Salmons knows a bit about that, as he was an all-state offensive lineman at Ravenswood High before starring at Marshall Unviersity. He also coached at Lawrence County High, a school of about 650 students, in Louisa, Kentucky.
Cunningham is beloved by his players, but doesn't keep kids just to boost roster numbers. He has jettisoned talented players who didn;t follow rules.
"I tell guys like that I only need 11," Cunningham said with a laugh.
