Ready for some football? Area teams kick off high school football season
Observer-Reporter
A standing-room-only crowd watched last year’s Week Zero game between Beth-Center and California. The teams will meet again tonight.
Observer-Reporter
Marshall Whipkey
For the Observer-Reporter
Jaeden Zuzak is one of multiple returning players for California, which opens its season with a Week Zero game tonight at Beth-Center.
Joe Rossi has always been a proponent of Week Zero.
The name might stink, as many teams will enter Week 1 with a record of either 1-0 or 0-1, but the premise of having options outside of a scrimmage to open the season has continued to gain popularity.
As Rossi, who begins his 13th season as the South Fayette High School football coach, and his players walked off Heinz Field with the WPIAL Class 4A championship trophy in hand last season, it might have been the only time a team talked about Week Zero after winning a title.
The 14-point halftime deficit the Lions faced in last year’s Week Zero opener against Upper St. Clair was close to the uphill climb the Lions faced when trailing powerhouse Thomas Jefferson by 11 in the WPIAL title game.
“I didn’t see any doubt in our locker room at halftime,” former South Fayette quarterback Jamie Diven said that night. “There was no stress.”
A Week Zero game might never come as full circle as it did for South Fayette in 2018, which had its 57-game regular-season winning streak snapped after a second-half comeback fell short on a failed two-point conversion attempt in the waning minutes of a 34-33 loss at Upper St. Clair.
The two neighbors will meet again tonight at 7 p.m.
Hope springs eternal for all high school football teams again this fall, whether they begin with meaningful games this week or next.
More local teams have chosen to bypass a second scrimmage and instead play a Week Zero game. Of the 22 area teams, 17 are playing games that will count in the standings instead of a controlled scrimmage. A big reason for the decision to play tonight for many of these teams is their conference schedules start before the calendar flips to September.
“You get the kinks out,” Rossi said. “When you are going into the first week and make a couple of mistakes it can really hurt you. We made a lot of mistakes last year. We learned from them. The loss didn’t affect us at all. It’s about making adjustments because you can’t mess up next week.”
After hosting Upper St. Clair, South Fayette turns its attention to Northwest Eight Conference opponent Beaver next week.
That’s similar to Canon-McMillan, which decided to turn its scrimmage last year against Thomas Jefferson into a Week Zero game tonight. That’s because Quad County Conference foe Mt. Lebanon looms for the Big Macs Aug. 30.
“I don’t like Week Zero,” said Big Macs coach Mike Evans. “The reason I changed it this year is because I know our Week 1 opponent is playing Gateway (in Week Zero). Most coaches will tell you that the largest improvement you will make are between games 1 and 2. Well, game 2 is a conference game, a very important one. We wouldn’t benefit by sitting our starters after a couple of series (like in a scrimmage).”
For Waynesburg, a chance to play a nonconference game before facing the gauntlet of teams in the Class 3A Tri-County West Conference, including a Week 1 contest at Aliquippa, is vital.
The Raiders will play Jefferson-Morgan in a game that was moved up to 4 p.m. after a problem with the lights at Parker Field.
“That’s a longtime rivalry that has gotten rekindled because of Week Zero,” said Waynesburg coach Chad Coss. “With the new schedules you start out right away with a conference game. It’s very important for us to gain confidence, especially with the conference we play in.”
The chance to find a quality opponent inside the WPIAL since Week Zero was created before the 2016 season has also grown. In 2017, approximately 65 percent of teams within the WPIAL played in Week Zero. This year, that number has increased to more than 80 percent.
“It’s exciting for teams to schedule who they want, whether it’s teams out of state or from a different classification,” Rossi said. “It’s probably going to be the largest crowd of the year for us. When the band is playing and the cheerleaders are cheering you know it’s Friday Night football.”
Week Zero will extend to Monday when West Greene will host Cameron (W.Va.) at Kennedy Field. It will be one of two games the Pioneers will play next week. They open Tri-County South Conference play Aug. 30 at home against Bentworth.