First of all, I am amazed I remembered my password. Been a long time since posts. Glad HS football is back.
Have to comment on Catholic. They have 8 more players on the roster than North Cross including a reclass offensive lineman from North Cross, a reclass junior running back from Franklin County, a couple of transfers from Northside, and are defending state champs, but they still will not schedule crosstown rival. Not sure how different they are from North Cross. One could argue that they are the program out of control, beating teams by 63 and clearly recruiting. Wonder how much financial aid they are giving out? Sound familiar to Caholic's beef with North Cross.
Big bad North Cross added a 14 year old freshman offensive lineman and a reclass junior from Patrick Henry to their roster from last year. Any other new players are kids they talked into playing.
Maybe now that three schools probably won't schedule Catholic next year, Rappahanock, Brunswick, and MMA, they will have to schedule North Cross. Opening weekend should be open for both teams.
First, it's kinda crummy to see someone gleeful (or chuckling) regarding any team forfeiting a game less than 24hrs before kick off. It's just not right - it wasn't right when it happened to NC a few years ago on senior day, and it's not right when it happens to RC or any other team.
Regarding RCs "out of control progam"...not sure how they could have prevented the lopsided scores in their first two games. They were playing 9th and 10th graders (and one 8th grader), and they also played a kid at tailback who only has one arm - in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarters of those games. Do you tell those kids not to try hard? Is that what should have happened? I don't think Coach A would have told his younger kids to go out there and lay down...
As for all of these transfers to RC this year...I'm not sure who you would be talking about. As a follower of RC football, to my knowledge, they have received two transfers from Northside - two brothers - but they made the switch 2 years ago. And they weren't even football players at Northside... They went to RC for other reasons. RC did get a transfer this year from Franklin County - a tailback - and he's very good. He did reclass but it was due to improving his grades to my knowledge. But you can't call him a recruited athlete for RC, because, here's the kicker: the kid went to NC first and apparently North Cross turned him away because they don't accept kids from public schools that have poor grades. So, the kid went to RC next, having never spoken with anyone at RC before that. So, recruiting? NOPE. Plus, it's strange that North Cross would turn away an otherwise good kid simply because he struggled in the classroom. The mission at RC is very different, in which they feel they will certainly take a kid with poor grades and teach the child how to become a better student, for now, and for their future. If this means they need to repeat a year, then they do so. But RC does not repeat students simply for athletic reasons - like D Call at NC. He simply repeated a grade so he could get bigger, faster, and stronger for football. Not saying there is anything necessarily wrong with that, but it's a different philosophy over at RC. That kind of athletic reclass does not occur at RC.
Finally, not sure what kind of reclass lineman you are talking about from NC to RC. If its the kid I'm thinking of, NORTH CROSS was the one who reclassed him...not RC. He did go to RC, but, again, AFTER NC reclassed him. Plus, he hasn't been at RC this year - kid moved on.
I hope all of that clears up your "recruiting and reclassing" questions...
As for finding three games for RC to fill their schedule for next year - that won't be a problem. There are plenty of 1A public school teams and several private school teams (VES/HMA/etc) that would happily fill the holes. RC doesn't have to play NC. And RC doesn't fill a weak schedule overall - last year their regular season schedule included 5 opponents who made the playoffs in VISAA or VHSL. Out of the total 12 games RC played last year, 7 of those teams were playoff teams. Their schedule for this year is shaping up in a similar fashion...