With the top-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes playing in front of a national-television audience on Saturday night at Iowa, SS. John and Paul and Pymatuning Valley officials are talking.
The administrations are considering changing the kickoff for Saturday non-conference football game at Lakeside Stadium from a 7 p.m. kickoff to an afternoon kickoff.
Those who make such decisions are wary that the Buckeyes' game (8 p.m. kickoff, ABC, WFXJ) might take away from the crowd that would normally show up to watch coach Jason Root's Lakers tangle with coach Jim Timonere's Heralds.
"Nothing's true yet," SJP athletic director Dave Rozzo said on Tuesday night. "We are talking with Pymatuning Valley, but nothing has been done, to this point."
As far as this corner is concerned, we certainly favor night-time football - and really despise afternoon games - but a tip of our cap to the administrations from both schools for demonstrating proactive thinking to at least consider the change.
If and when a change is made, we'll pass it on to you, Loyal Readers.
Tacky, tacky!
Extra police officers were on hand at Friday night's varsity high school football game in Utah between Layton and Davis high schools to prevent any possible retaliation for an incident involving the junior varsity teams the night before.
A 15-year-old sophomore who played on the Layton junior varsity squad was arrested as part of an investigation of a juvenile class B misdemeanor charge of assault.
Police say the teenager put thumbtacks in one of his gloves and pricked players from the other team as he shook hands with them after the game.
Layton police said they knew of at least three Davis players who were pricked.
The Layton player said he was upset with the Davis team for allegedly putting some sort of chemical on Layton High School's football field, Layton Police Sgt. James Petrie said.
Detectives, however, could not find any damage to the field, he said.
There were no incidents during the junior varsity football game. After the game, as the Layton player shook hands with the other team, the opposing players got what was described as pinhole wounds in their hands, Petrie said.
The Davis players took note of the jersey number of the 15-year-old and told their coach. The coaches from the two teams then talked and, apparently, thought they had taken care of the
problem internally, Petrie said.
One of the fathers of a Davis player, however, called police. Detectives later interviewed the Layton player.
"He took full responsibility for it," Petrie said. "He said it was his responsibility."
In addition to the criminal charge, the sophomore was kicked off the football team, an assistant principal at Layton High School said.
As for any other disciplinary action, the school would only say it was "proportional to what happened," without going into detail about his punishment.
T
he Associated Press contributed to this report. McCormack is the sports editor of the Star Beacon. He can be reached via email at donmac@suite224.net.
