Tomorrow we celebrate what I consider to be the second most important holiday we have as Americans. An intrepid group of dreamers fled a tyranical king and religious persecution to be obedient to God's calling and embark on a dangerous journey to start a new life in a strange new land. The hardships they endured before, during, and after that trip are something we don't encounter in the modern world, but their spirit and faith carried them through.
At some point in time they decided to be obedient to God's commandment to honor the Sabbath and keep it holy. They decided to have a feast and give thanks To Him for His grace and mercy. Tomorrow, let's not forget to thank God for this giant rock called The United States of America. We are immeasurably fortunate to call it home. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Squirmydog wrote: GCC has peaked late..... This is the quickest team NSP will face this year and also the best conditioned.

Conditioning is the key here. I've read about all the hard work NSP put in this winter and this summer before 2 a Days. I know GCC did the exact same cirriculim with just about 100% participation as I've researched NSP did.

Because of that extra conditioning, I'm betting NSP followers have noticed like we have all year that oppents get on there knees/hands on hip every 2nd and 4th quarter this year. Both teams outlast their opponents.. this is the equalizer that peeps that don't know the condition of GCC players (and you can't know that unless you've been there picking kids up in Feb after school and weigh lifting... driving to conditioning everyday all summer) can't be faulted for not recognising that equalizer.

I watched the Malvern/Bridgeport game on tv. Malvern scored most of their points late in the second and fourth quarters when Bridgeport had their hands on their hips. They did not have that luxury with GCC. These guys have a high motor. NSP will have to be successful early and often and not let GCC get any kind of momentum. Man for man, GCC has an answer for each one of NSP's players.

Sonofanump wrote:

ridgerunner88 wrote: .As far as credibility, I posted all my picks before the playoffs, where's yours?

On another site...

I had DSJ over Ada in R24
MSML in R22
NSP over BW in R21
who cares in R23

You better care about 23.. it'll will be close.

Is there going to be a web broadcast of this game.

Dave33 wrote:

Sonofanump wrote:

ridgerunner88 wrote: .As far as credibility, I posted all my picks before the playoffs, where's yours?

On another site...

I had DSJ over Ada in R24
MSML in R22
NSP over BW in R21
who cares in R23

Thanks for the BBM.

You better care about 23.. it'll will be close.

xnds1fan wrote: Is there going to be a web broadcast of this game.

It looks like OHSAA has granted exclusive web rights to the state semi finals for all divisions to OhioHSsports.com. The only games that they will be putting on the web (audio of video) on Saturday will be the Division 1 games. Unless you can pick the game up from a local radio station over the airwaves, you are out of luck. I seems that those of us who live out of state will not be able to hear the game this week.

Too all the Fine people who have posted on this site , I wish them a fine and fruitful Thanksgiving Holiday!

Squirmydog wrote: I watched the Malvern/Bridgeport game on tv. Malvern scored most of their points late in the second and fourth quarters when Bridgeport had their hands on their hips. They did not have that luxury with GCC. These guys have a high motor. NSP will have to be successful early and often and not let GCC get any kind of momentum. Man for man, GCC has an answer for each one of NSP's players.

Call me cocky, call me argogant.....I could give a crap.
But I have to completely dissagree with you on the man for man comment. The flyers have 4 guys with 4.4 speed on the field, doubt that can be matched!?!?

And please name the QB/S of GCC's that you would be comparing to the 2008 Div 6 state player of the year?? Please, ALL mark it down right now, #8 will be the player GCC has absolutely zero answer for. Flyers will cruise in this one.

I will not profess to be as eloquent as Mr. Squirmy, I will simply say Happy Thanksgiving to all & lets not forget the true meaning of this holiday which I believe involves blowing up colored eggs with fireworks while dressed up as pirates drinking too much eggnog & throwing up on lighted plastic shrubberies.

Wesflyer, I believe you're thinking of Chrisma-hauna-quanzika....

Mess...I can't wait to hear Adam Sandler's tune about that one today! (& when I can spare 18 1/2 minutes I'll definitely be firing up some Arlo Guthrie)

Happy Thanksgiving to all of freehuddle.com nation.

Since this is an opinion board. Everyone is entilted to speak as they choose. When I look at the stats, it still tells me NSP by alot. Regardless of all the speed that Eagle posters say they have, Regardless of all the determination that our oppents (lol) play with.

I've felt all along like the 5 best teams in the state were DSJ, Ada, ML, NSP and Wynford. I still feel that way after watching the highlights of GCC. Will I feel that way on Saturday night. Who Knows, maybe I'll be back on here apologizing for my ignorrance and saying that GCC is alot better than I gave them credit for. They are to me obviously, hands down, the best team to come out of region 23. They also played one of the easiest regular season schedule and easiest Regional schedules in the state (No fault of their own - that's the region their in). So when I see they only gave up this many points, I remind myself that it was against inferior competition.

The game is played on the field though and not on a message board.


Again, HappY Thankgiving to All and to All a Good Night. Wait, that is a different holiday.

wesflyer87 wrote: I will not profess to be as eloquent as Mr. Squirmy, I will simply say Happy Thanksgiving to all & lets not forget the true meaning of this holiday which I believe involves blowing up colored eggs with fireworks while dressed up as pirates drinking too much eggnog & throwing up on lighted plastic shrubberies.

Don't forget about splitting your pants. Go Eagles!

94hoops wrote: Happy Thanksgiving to all of freehuddle.com nation.

Since this is an opinion board. Everyone is entilted to speak as they choose. When I look at the stats, it still tells me NSP by alot. Regardless of all the speed that Eagle posters say they have, Regardless of all the determination that our oppents (lol) play with.

I've felt all along like the 5 best teams in the state were DSJ, Ada, ML, NSP and Wynford. I still feel that way after watching the highlights of GCC. Will I feel that way on Saturday night. Who Knows, maybe I'll be back on here apologizing for my ignorrance and saying that GCC is alot better than I gave them credit for. They are to me obviously, hands down, the best team to come out of region 23. They also played one of the easiest regular season schedule and easiest Regional schedules in the state (No fault of their own - that's the region their in). So when I see they only gave up this many points, I remind myself that it was against inferior competition.

The game is played on the field though and not on a message board.


Again, HappY Thankgiving to All and to All a Good Night. Wait, that is a different holiday.

No apologly will be necessary Part of the fun is trying to figure this all out logically on paper. Logic does not apply to teenage boys.

jlghoops wrote: What happened to GCC player that was taken away in ambulance? From our side of stands, we couldn't even see him on ground with those big lineman guarding him, but they sure were careful getting him out of there. Best wishes to the young man

I am not sure if this has been answered yet, so forgive if it has. Kevin suffered his second concussion Saturday and was taken off as a precaution. He should be ok.

nice article on one of our senior captains
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/sports/stories/2009/11/26/hsfb_lucas_11-26.ART_ART_11-26-09_C1_7NFQ9OQ.html

Squirmydog wrote: nice article on one of our senior captains
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/sports/stories/2009/11/26/hsfb_lucas_11-26.ART_ART_11-26-09_C1_7NFQ9OQ.html

That makes it real easy to cheer for them when you hear stories like this, thanks for the link.

I just had a nice chat with him yesterday. He mentioned nothing about this. He is very humble young man. He is one of the kids who took their whoopins when they were freshmen and sophomores and still came back. They are building a winning tradition. Its fun to be a part of.

GCC is alot better than I gave them credit for. They are to me obviously, hands down, the best team to come out of region 23. They also played one of the easiest regular season schedule...

A lot is made of the GCC easy schedule (which it was). GCC played 8 teams with losing records. However NSP played 5 teams with losing records. So 80 percent of GCCs schedule was easy and 50% of NSPs was. GCC had the #692 toughest overall schedule and NSP had the #502 toughest schedule.

Let's analyse the results of beating those losing teams on both schedules.

NSP
beat #627 st. mary cent cath (1-9) 47-0
beat #699 Mapleton (1-9) 63-0
beat #646 S. Central (3-7) 55-0
beat #662 New London (2-8) 56-0
beat #715 Plymouth (0-10) 63-0

The avg state ranking of the 5 losing teams NSP beat was 669.8 and they averaged 56.8 Points For.

GCC
beat #718 Marion Catholic (1-9) 55-12
beat #562 Danville (2-8) 24-14
beat #716 green (2-8) 34-0
beat #692 miller (2-8) 69-7
beat #654 Troy Christian (4-6) 37-0
beat #719 Cinci Christian (3-7) 62-16
beat #680 Pymatuning (2-8) 61-14
beat 721 Fairfield Christian (2-8) 56-0

The avg state ranking of the 8 losing teams GCC beat was 682.75 and they averaged 49.75 Points For.

That is a Points Scored dif of 7.05 and a state ranking of opponent dif of 12.95.

So when it comes to beating losing teams on their schedule both teams are about even in the numbers.

I posted this on the other site. Come help us after the game and give a gift of Thanksgiving to Ashland HS for hosting us. I wish this idea would have presented itself when we played 4 games at Zanesville. Oh well, maybe someone will be inspired to perform a service project there too......
A little background on this email.....
GCC has a mentorship program that takes the little kids and matches them up with high school football mentors. My son is part of the program and it is Godsend for him. The coordinator has come up with an idea for these kids and their parents to do a Thanksgiving project on Saturday. If anyone would like to help, pm me. This will be a great opportunity to provide ecumenical witness to how He works through all His people. There is also a nice compliment about Mr Griffin....

I was reading this article sent to me by my little eagle's father about St. Paul, Norwalk team and I was so impressed, that I was more interested in their school and who they were. To me winning is great, but being of good character is better. Do you believe that?

I saw a comment made by Flyers Brian Griffin that impressed me. I am really proud of his attitude. It was here http://www.ohioprepzone.com/results.asp?ID=1571

“You never give up,” Griffin said. “No matter if they score and it’s a big play, you know they gotta come back and kick it. I got a piece of it and I knew it was a big play, you gotta give 100 percent on every down.”

to me it spoke volumes, you give your best whether you win or lose. The final outcome is not more important than the attitude and character I hear in him.

We at Grove City Christian, home of the eagles are proud to even have an opportunity to play state play offs with such a dynamic and winning team. I am always on the search to see what kind of character all these young men really have at any football game I attend.

As the founder of the lil eagles club, the mentoring program here at Grove City, We match our lil students in the school with our Varsity players. They have fun playing plays, but more important is a relationship that encourages them to do what's right.

I mention this because I want to challenge both the flyers and the eagles to soar this Saturday at semi state finals and at the same time play a game with good sportsmanship.

After the game the little eagles and families and I will be picking up our trash and leaving Ashland High School with a clean team attitude, thanking them for our opportunity to play football. This is thanksgiving week, Can we all leave on a note of thankfulness and have Asland High School notice GCCS, one of the 4 top Division VI schools to have the character that makes them true champs?

I hope that we can see we are all Champs, because Christ never "gave up,” like Griffin said. "you gotta give 100 percent on every down.” and 100% on every down means in our lives as well.

So, we will persevere and I support this attitude across the board, let's let Ohio know how to play football with honor and respect and say to themselves when we leave that is one clean team.

Thank you for the opportunity to enjoy a good game with you and Congratulations on the support I have seen with the lil eagle families. Lets keep our character shining in our champion title! And lets keep our UNITY at GCCS!

Dave33 wrote: Let's analyse the results of beating those losing teams on both schedules.

Why?
Not sure what the scores against schools that the starters did not play in the second half matters.
More important to look at the stats versus Huron, Malvern, Calvert, Rosecrans, Moggy, Wynford, Western Reserve, Crestview...

Squirm,

Great article on Cody Lucas. He seems like a great role model for the younger generation at Grove City Christian and I'm betting that hwe touches alot of other people outside of your little community.

Dave33,

The highest rated team you played prior to the playoffs was Bishop Rosecrans rated #466 and you lost the regualr season matchup to them. We played 4 teams tougher than ZBR and defeated them by a combined score of 155-38. Three of those regular season games were against opponents rated 248, 325, and 274. We beat those teams by a combined score of 106-24 with the state's best offensive player from last season in street clothes (Eric Schweiterman 2008 D6 Co-Offensive POY).

I wouldn't use the quality of wins against losing teams as a comparison because for the most part, the backups are playing the entire second half. One team we played, I remember looking at the clock and with 8:25 to go in the 1st quarter it was 28-0. It was 42-0 at the end of the first quarter. We scored the first four offensive plays of the game and we scored on 2 of their first three defensive plays. So don't look at the losing teams as a comparison for analysis. Use the winning teams.

St. Pauls Opponents in the top 500
Tiffin Calvert-248, Huron-325, Crestview-274, Collins Western Reserve-468, Monroeville-377, Berlin Center Western Reserve-345 (45-0 at half), Mogadore-138 (42-0 at half) and Bucyrus Wynford-98.

GCC's opponets in top 500
Zane Bishop Rosecrans-466 (twice), Shadyside-399 and Malvern #234.

Common sense says why this game should be a NSP comfortable win. Will it, stay tuned and find out in less than 46 hours.

94hoops wrote:Dave33,

The highest rated team you played prior to the playoffs was Bishop Rosecrans rated #466 and you lost the regualr season matchup to them. We played 4 teams tougher than ZBR and defeated them by a combined score of 155-38. Three of those regular season games were against opponents rated 248, 325, and 274.

I wouldn't use the quality of wins against losing teams as a comparison..

Granted but we didn't play anyone GOOD basically during the reg season but shady and malv are rated right up with the good teams NSP beat.

Again.. all we are saying is that this will be a CLOSE game.. that's it.. that's all we are saying. We're not boasting of a huge win like everyone else is including the statistical math models folks like calpreps/drew pasteur, etc.. they've blown it 2 weeks in a row.

Good Luck GCC