Often the opening weekend of the high school football season features heat, humidity and a threat of thunderstorms. Obviously that will not be the case tonight when the 2009 season kicks off….a bigger question might be just who will play as a dismal forecast threatens the 19 games that are scheduled to open the season. As a sports purist I’ve always said football was made to be played in all kinds of conditions and the game should go on as long as safety is not a question. However I’ve started to look at the other side as a high school football game is often an event that includes other facets of the school community. Opening night is supposed to be somewhat special and for all the time and effort that goes into it to play one of your 4-5 home games in dreary conditions with only a few hundred fans seems a shame.
If things do go off as scheduled than tonight features some very interesting openers with many eyes focused on Keller Memorial Field at Brick Township High School. That’s where for the first time since the school opened in 1958 someone other than Warren Wolf will roam the sidelines as the head coach of the Green Dragons. The man following the legend is Patrick Dowling, who was not a popular choice among many of the faithful as the replacement for New Jersey’s all-time winningest coach. But that is now history and Dowling is excited about running onto the field tonight as Brick entertains Colts Neck, a team with its own new coach in Greg LaCava.
Week one also features a host of games matching Shore Conference teams against those from the Greater Middlesex Conference…a one-year experiment that will hopefully benefit both and avoid one-sided games. However I’m not so sure fans will really care about games against teams they are not familiar with. Brick Memorial hosts Sayreville in what is a rematch of last December’s Central Jersey Group 4 championship won by the Mustangs. Other openers of special interest tonight include the annual meeting between Toms River North and Toms River South at the home of the Indians and Lacey traveling to Middletown South in a matchup of perennial shore powers.
The Colts Neck-Brick game will be broadcast on the Shore Sports Network via 105.7 The Hawk and Fox Sports 1310. 1160 WOBM AM is scheduled to carry the Lakewood BlueClaws home playoff game against Kannapolis
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