DON McCORMACK
Paying another visit to the variety store...
Not bad
The seven active Ashtabula County football programs had its best week in a month during Week 9.
Conneaut, Edgewood, Geneva, Grand Valley, Jefferson, Lakeside and Pymatuning Valley went a collective 4-3 last week.
That mark makes the combined record for those seven programs through nine weeks to 29-34 (.460) for the season.
No, it’s not spectacular, by any means, but when you look at recent history, it represents a major step forward.
This group of seven programs came to fruition in the fall of 2001 when Ashtabula and Harbor were consolidated to form Lakeside. SS. John and Paul is not fielding a varsity football team this fall because of a lack of players.
Here’s a look at the collective record for the current active programs through Week 9 of each season since Lakeside opened its doors in 2001:
n 2001 — 25-36 (.426).
n 2002 — 26-37 (.413).
n 2003 — 24-39 (.381).
n 2004 — 27-36 (.429).
n 2005 — 26-37 (.413).
n 2006 — 20-43 (.318).
n 2007 — 19-44 (.302).
n 2008 — 23-40 (.365).
n 2009 — 29-34 (.460).
As a reminder, lest anyone believe those 29 wins this season have come against fellow county squads, think again — county teams have squared off against each other only 11 times this season.
Meaning county teams are 18-23 (.439) against teams from outside of the county this fall.
Big search!
Yours truly has taken way too much flak for the feature and column I did a couple of years ago about my believing in Bigfoot, the night I spent hunting for the Steve “Skipper” Urchek lookalike and the ongoing worldwide search.
Well, check this out:
A team of Bigfoot enthusiasts is hoping to find the legendary creature in the bogs and barrens of a West Virginia wilderness area.
Members of Sasquatch Watch of Virginia went camping in the rugged Allegheny Mountain highlands of the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area with GPS navigators, cameras, voice recorders and plaster of Paris to make casts of huge footprints.
Billy Willard, founder of the group, says they’re looking in places where people have reported sightings. He says he has never seen Bigfoot himself.
Bruce Harrington, the group’s self-described skeptical member, says he has yet to see convincing proof that the creature exists.
The group took plaster casts of suspicious prints but didn’t spot the creature during the expedition last weekend.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. McCormack is the sports editor of the Star Beacon. Reach him at donmac@suite224.net.
