Riverheads Football Schedule

[longtimerhsfan]

This topic came up for discussion recently and just yesterday at the baseball game, I saw a glimpse of the schedule on someone's phone. It might already be out there for review someplace as well.

Anyway it is what it is and our buddy X Cross was not happy the other week to find out that we have to travel to play all three of our county rivals. So I studied the schedule with that in mind to see what the total picture is like.

I don't have the schedule committed to memory in terms of which game is which week, but here are the basics........we will have four road games that will not even involve leaving the county, as we will go to Stuarts Draft, Wilson, Buffalo Gap, and RE Lee. With Lee now joining us in the Shenandoah, all four of those will be district games. The fifth non-district game will be the only longer road trip as we will visit Central Woodstock.

That will leave home games with Bath County (non district team we have played often over the years), and East Rockingham, Page County, Luray, and Stonewall Jackson, which are all district games. So to counter-balance X Cross' concern about having to go to the same place two years in a row, notice that we will also host East Rock for the second year in a row, and I think Luray came to us last year as well.

To put this into its total perspective, remember that these things are set up in two-year cycles, which will mean that we will host all those nearby rivals the next year, whereas that season (fall of 2018) Gladiator fans will definitely do their part to support the gasoline economy, with all five road games involving fairly significant travel time. Bottom line, every field is the same size and the ball is going to bounce where it is going to bounce on any given night.

 

[TimWakefield]

Seems like what would likely be handled as a yearly budget for football will join in to the two year cycle as the gate money will not be great in 2017.
With all the home games being from teams coming further away, those are often the less attended games particularly by visitors. At the same time the home bleachers may not be as packed as those home games won't feature common rivals. I know the county schools love the cross county gate money as most of the Augusta Schools will pack other Agusta visiting bleachers. So for 2017, it is easy to predict a low $ on the gate/concessions. A saving grace could be RHS coming of the State Championship, which usually draws increased interest from the random potential fan in the year following. That said, the random potential fan is likely used to the idea of RHS being a good football team considering the last 18 years.
Obviously 2018 the gate money could be incredible. With all of those cross county packed houses. Plus, considering the majority of the strength of the Shenandoah has come from Augusta in recent years, those games are likely to be some of the better games for the entire district season.
So, over two years, sure, it should even out, but next spring the department could be looking at a red number where they are used to black. I would have to agree it would just be better if it were more balanced. Have half those cross counties in one year and half in the other. Impact on (player travel/comfort) and off ($$$) the field because of this. I wonder why it had to change so drastically.

 

[Keith_Stone33]

This topic came up for discussion recently and just yesterday at the baseball game, I saw a glimpse of the schedule on someone's phone. It might already be out there for review someplace as well.

Anyway it is what it is and our buddy X Cross was not happy the other week to find out that we have to travel to play all three of our county rivals. So I studied the schedule with that in mind to see what the total picture is like.

I don't have the schedule committed to memory in terms of which game is which week, but here are the basics........we will have four road games that will not even involve leaving the county, as we will go to Stuarts Draft, Wilson, Buffalo Gap, and RE Lee. With Lee now joining us in the Shenandoah, all four of those will be district games. The fifth non-district game will be the only longer road trip as we will visit Central Woodstock.

That will leave home games with Bath County (non district team we have played often over the years), and East Rockingham, Page County, Luray, and Stonewall Jackson, which are all district games. So to counter-balance X Cross' concern about having to go to the same place two years in a row, notice that we will also host East Rock for the second year in a row, and I think Luray came to us last year as well.

To put this into its total perspective, remember that these things are set up in two-year cycles, which will mean that we will host all those nearby rivals the next year, whereas that season (fall of 2018) Gladiator fans will definitely do their part to support the gasoline economy, with all five road games involving fairly significant travel time. Bottom line, every field is the same size and the ball is going to bounce where it is going to bounce on any given night.

I love the Bath Co community and years ago they played some REALLY good football, but I cannot figure out why they would want to put Riverheads on the schedule for the next 2 years as they have been really struggling recently with very little coming up... Not trying to be rude but I'm not sure why RHS would want them on the schedule either as a 50+ point blowout doesn't do either team any good. Just look at the scores between their common opponents last year.....

RHS over Gap 49-7, Gap over Bath 50-6, and RHS over Covington 41-26, Covington over Bath 62-6

 

[longtimerhsfan]

Maybe they were inspired by beating us in both boys and girls basketball in the last year or two, and just yesterday their baseball team fought us to a 1-0 Riverheads win. So who knows? You are indeed correct that they were something else when the Phillips boys played, assuming that is the time period you referenced.