The NHIAA should step up and do SOMETHING about the West football program before somebody gets hurt.

How far has West football fallen? One person applied for the vacant head coaching position. That's right, one, and he is all of 22 years old. A city of over 100,000 people and only one person threw his hat into the ring. That is so sad on so many levels. I know that the nhiaa runs it's football schedules on 2 year cycles, and that we are in the second year of that 2 year cycle, but sometimes exceptions have to be made for the player's safety.
I have no problem giving the job to the young man if he is qualified, however let's give him a fighting chance. To put it simply West has a bad football team, I have been saying for a couple of years that they should be in division 3 ,or even 4. Would it be so horrible if Trinity and West switched divisions and schedules for this season. Trinity could probably finish in the top half of division 2, and it would give West a much needed chance to regroup.
I realize this isn't going to happen, but it should before somebody gets hurt. The NHIAA will never allow it to happen because their rules are set in stone. These 3 words one will never see when dealing with the NHIAA. SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

I knew Subject to Change would be an 8 cylinder term.

I hear you on West. When Cote was hired as the BG coach I kinda joked, "who the heck would want to apply for the West job now?" It is a harsh reality only person has applied for the job. This is a situation where the NHIAA has to be proactive rather than waiting for a black hole to develop. West does have some good athletes on that team, with Aaron Martin being the leader, but it is depth that is a problem. Their starting teams are smaller than most and when you get into the 3rd to 5th game of the season the Blue Knights are bringing backup players on the field that really can't compete at the D2 level against the BGs and Exeters.

Congrats GNG. I believe this thread title has the most words in Forum history. I nearly drank a cup of coffee reading it.

The NHIAA is not in the business of redistricting the City of Manchester's school system. I agree that West is going to suffer this year in D2, but put that aside as football is but just one problem. T&F probably can spin a similar tale with the basketball program - especially on the girls side. How long as Bedford been "out" of West? When will the Manchester School District get off the crapper, man-up, and redistribute the students in Manchester so that each school has an equal number of students. Do away "petitioning" to go to another school. If your schools have the same curriculum then history, legacy, and location aside - why not start some new traditions. Either that or shutter the building up and divvy the West kids between Memorial and Central.

JAF, No one is suggesting that the NHIAA redistrict Manchester.

The suggestion seems to be that given the student make up at West and the lack of numbers for sports that maybe the NHIAA be a little flexible as to what division West plays in. Last year West had the numbers to be in D1 (1383 students per NHIAA), but their student population doesn't provide the number of atheletes needed to be competitive, poverty and immigrant students significantly lower the number of athletes that academically qualify to play sports.

If too many years go by with teams that are unable to compete then they may end up discontinuing certain teams. Certain schools have the numbers to compete, but do not due to bad coaching, a school like West is now struggling to get the number of atheletes to compete at D1 or even D2 in certain sports.

The suggestion seems to be that the NHIAA not only look at school size, but also the ability of the school to have enough atheletes to compete in a sport. As a contrast, maybe the NHIAA should have kept Goffstown in D1 or moved Bedford to D1. The D1 cutoff is 1251 students. NHIAA listed Goffstown at 1235 and Bedford at 1223 last year. Both of these schools can probaly draw more atheletes for any sport than West can due to a more affluent population.

I understood the intent of the original poster; however, my contention is the Manchester School District needs to do something in this case, not the NHIAA (I love to bash the NHIAA, but I think their hands are tied).

If the NHIAA moves West based on not being able to get athletes, then how many other schools are going to petition trying to move down divisions in order to be "more competitive". It'll become a bi-annual exercise for the NHIAA to review applications to move based on what AD's perceive as their athletic strength for the next scheduling cycle. How many schools will petition just to have a better chance to win because they believe they have a strong group... There are schools in "larger" divisions that have had and probably will never have a chance to win, but based solely on their size they are stuck where they are. It's an imperfect system, but the alternative is a possibility of ever changing divisions.

Good points JAF, however I truly believe West has circumstances out of their control that has put them on this downward spiral. Bedford opening a few years ago has gutted this school of it's athletes like a fish.Throw in the kids that go to BG or Trinity from that section of the city, and what you have left is what you see on the field. A team that needs a major facelift. The few kids that are going out for the team deserve a chance to compete. What lessons are learned getting beat 58-0 every week, watching your teamates being hauled off in ambulances because they got hit so hard they are seeing stars.
This should have been done 2 years ago at the athletic directors meeting. Shame on them for letting them get to this point. You can't even find TWO people to apply for the job. That shows you how toxic the situation is. How many West kids got hurt in the BG game last year? Quite a few, one of them left in an ambulance who looked like he was going to have a very serious problem{luckily he was ok}.
There is a reason Plymouth State doesn't play Ohio State. They don't belong on the same field. That is West playing in division 2. They don't belong on the same field.

Good response JAF.

The city does need to do something.

The West baseball team suffers due to coaching, they have some good players, but the coach is not helping the team. Memorial football has plenty of players to draw from but suffers from coaching too. Not sure what happened with the Memorial baseball team this year, they had too much talent to be a sub .500 team. Got to put some of the blame on the coaching there too. They were not a great team but there is no way they should have lost more than they won.

The city needs to be sure they are getting good coaches. West lost a good baseball coach 2 years ago. He applied for the Memorial job (was a Memorial grad) when he did not get the Memorial job they would not let him go back to West. I don't think you should fault a coach for wanting to go back to his school. The parents and players would have been happy to have him back coaching baseball at West.

Imagine what Keene and BG will score against them. Next year Souhegan should move up to d2, and West should petition down to d3.

BG will be playing d1 next year.

Not surprising. Souhegan is an offensive powerhouse. West is a struggling D2 team just trying to field a team. You're right on the petitioning...

Gary Fitz has a good article on realigning for next year. The nhiaa won't do it, but they should.

Football divisions

Will New Hampshire continue to have six football divisions and six champions after the biennial re-structuring is over this fall?

Let’s hope not. With just 57 football-playing schools, there should be no more than three title holders.

As stated before, it would be an easy fix without interrupting many regional rivalries. The top two divisions are easily divided into East and West conferences, coming together at the end with three rounds of playoff games. To make room for the extra playoff weekend, one of the two non-counting, out-of-conference games would be eliminated.

Division III and Division IV would stay intact, but become North and South conferences of the new Division II.

The same type of North/South or East/West conference alignment would bring the final two divisions together.

One state champ

Now that it’s possible to petition up in individual sports, six time Division II soccer champion Hanover is expected to move up next year, let’s make a new rule.

From now on, the only true state champion is the Division I champion. Tournaments will continue in all the other divisions, but the only true “state champion’’ is in Div. I.

Maybe it will encourage some of the top programs from lower divisions – with Bishop Guertin football and Portsmouth baseball come immediately to mind – to take a crack at winning at what should be the highest level.

There would be the potential for some great “Hoosiers’’ type stories – for instance, if Milford boys basketball had played in and won Division I basketball last winter.

Tiny Derryfield School, which had dominated the lowest divisions in tennis for many years, actually moved up to Div. I last year and more than held its own.

Moving up is a two-year commitment. You can always go back down to where the enrollment numbers dictate your belong. There would still be divisional champions, but only one state champion.

Gary Fitz can be reached at 594-6469 or gfitz@nashuatelegraph.com.