RD2: Buckeye Trail (2-3) @ Africentric (3-1)

[EasternDspy]

Power vs Speed

[Coach G]

Trail with a running clock

[MrFirstTake]

I like coach kerns and the warriors in this one

[FANOSPORTS]

Africentric, technically a public school just gets the "lottery" kids they allow in for basketball. The football kids in the area go to Eastmoor or Walnut Ridge which are close by. If Trail keeps their cool and plays fundamental football, they win this one by 28.

[EasternDspy]

Africentric has a good FB and speedster in Troy Judge Jr. I just don’t think they are strong enough.

[LICKING COUNTY FAN]

I watched Africentric beat Briggs this year. I.M.O.
Trail can win this with ball control and staying very discilpine on defense and on kickoff and punt return.

[formerfcfan]

Africentric, technically a public school just gets the "lottery" kids they allow in for basketball. The football kids in the area go to Eastmoor or Walnut Ridge which are close by. If Trail keeps their cool and plays fundamental football, they win this one by 28.

Columbus City Schools has failed Africentric football kids ever since the program started. Putting aside our opinions why many kids attend the school (I’m aware of the lottery), there are arguably many kids going there for education-first reasons and those that want to play football have never been afforded a fair shake at playing similar competition (size and program caliber) because the district was so insistent they play Marion-Franklin, Eastmoor, Independence and Walnut Ridge every year “for the good of the City League” as opposed to programs like Berne Union, Fisher, and whatnot.

Them beating Mifflin and Briggs doesn’t suggest to me the program has begun to level up, but instead it’s an indictment of how bad City League football programs have gotten in Columbus’s most-beleaguered neighborhoods on so many corners. [And I don’t say this to talk down on coaches I don’t know. It takes a strong-willed, determined person to lead the programs at these schools, but as we see it’s as much an issue with the lack of district support to keep the programs strong as it is a product of the economic and social conditions in large parts of the city.] I suppose an argument could be made that the east side of Columbus isn’t exactly Clintonville either (true), but one thing everyone can say about WR, Eastmoor, MF and Independence is those programs haven’t fallen off and the adults in those programs are doing what they can to maintain young men’s lives (at a greater quantity) in the process.

[FANOSPORTS]

Africentric, technically a public school just gets the "lottery" kids they allow in for basketball. The football kids in the area go to Eastmoor or Walnut Ridge which are close by. If Trail keeps their cool and plays fundamental football, they win this one by 28.

Columbus City Schools has failed Africentric football kids ever since the program started. Putting aside our opinions why many kids attend the school (I’m aware of the lottery), there are arguably many kids going there for education-first reasons and those that want to play football have never been afforded a fair shake at playing similar competition (size and program caliber) because the district was so insistent they play Marion-Franklin, Eastmoor, Independence and Walnut Ridge every year “for the good of the City League” as opposed to programs like Berne Union, Fisher, and whatnot.

Them beating Mifflin and Briggs doesn’t suggest to me the program has begun to level up, but instead it’s an indictment of how bad City League football programs have gotten in Columbus’s most-beleaguered neighborhoods on so many corners. [And I don’t say this to talk down on coaches I don’t know. It takes a strong-willed, determined person to lead the programs at these schools, but as we see it’s as much an issue with the lack of district support to keep the programs strong as it is a product of the economic and social conditions in large parts of the city.] I suppose an argument could be made that the east side of Columbus isn’t exactly Clintonville either (true), but one thing everyone can say about WR, Eastmoor, MF and Independence is those programs haven’t fallen off and the adults in those programs are doing what they can to maintain young men’s lives (at a greater quantity) in the process.

I agree. It's been going that way in football for the city league overall since they started bussing in the late 70's to try and even up school populations and it got even worse when businesses in the downtown area and Northland, Westland and now Eastland Malls slowly disappeared. Old blue collar mfg. businesses like Lennox industries, Buckeye Steel, Columbus Coated Fabrics, Owens-Illinois and Timken Roller Bearing that employed thousands all together closed up shop and left the inner city. The suburbs all around the belt of 270 had populations triple and quadruple in that time period to today and the Olentangy's, Pickerington's, Hilliard's, Grove City and Dublin's grew to multiple schools with 500 year old corn, soybean and pasture field's turned into housing units for a lot of people fleeing the city. As far as football for city schools looking forward it's not pretty. The district closed down Brookhaven a few years ago due to a "declining" student population and a failed citywide levy and around the same time cracked down on athletic transfers (which Brookhaven had regularly) throughout the district . The South & East side with MF, WR, IND and Eastmoor is still pretty stable for a city league area for families, community and economics whereas "inner city" areas near downtown like Linden, Mifflin, Briggs, East, West and South have many more trials & tribulations to jump thru on a day to day basis. In the North you also have Northland, Whetstone, Beechcroft and Centennial which were all built around sub-divisions in the 60's and 70's when C-bus was still growing internally, Malls were sprouting and all was good. Not so much today. It's the biggest population center in Ohio today but the growing pains passed by many of these school district areas many, many years ago and they've been left behind forever. I guess a good thing out of all this is the availabiility of "vouchers" for school choice nowadays where some of these kids can go to DeSales, Watterson, Ready, Hartley on the diocese side or a parochial or private like Worthington Christian, Harvest Prep or Academy if you meet their requirements and are accepted.