From the Bench: Tribe Finalizes '23 Football Schedule with Two Foes it has Not Played in Program History
By Jeff Toquinto on February 05, 2023 from Sports Blog
For those who follow Bridgeport High School football, here is a little bit of news you might be interested in. The 2023 football schedule has been released – and there are some changes.
Recent Class AAA foes Princeton and Musselman are gone. Bridgeport had the Applemen on the schedule for three years with 2020 being canceled due to COVID and 2021 and 2022 seeing BHS wins.
The Tribe had a two-year deal with Princeton. Bridgeport beat the Tigers on the road in 2021, but lost to PHS this year at Wayne Jamison Field.
Ideally, Bridgeport Athletic Director and Assistant Principal Mark Jones would have kept the schedule the same. However, that was unable to happen.
“Musselman had dates that were required within their conference (Eastern Panhandle Athletic Conference) to play conference teams changed around and it created a conflicts. The date we would have played them was on one of the new dates for a conference date,” said Jones. “We could not find a date corresponded with both teams being open.”
Princeton, said Jones, was a little bit different.
“We reached out to them for another two-year deal,” said Jones. “They are going through a coaching change and were not able to quickly sign a deal and also wanted an opponent closer to home. It’s a three-hour trip for the visiting team.”
That, of course, leads to the big question. Who is new on the schedule?
The Indians will be playing two opponents for the first time. One has a storied Class AAA football history, and the other is one of the top football programs in the state, but will not compete in the postseason.
I will explain both.
First, the Indians will visit Brooke at Paul “Bud” Billiard Field. The field is named after the legendary coach who took the Bruins to a number of state championships and earned a trio of championships in 1985, 1987, and 1990 in Class AAA.
“That is about a one hour and 50-minute trip,” said Jones, who Googled the distance. “It’s closer than Princeton so not traveling three hours is nice, but one of the good things in scheduling a team like Brooke is that they’re in our region in multiple sports.”
The other program is the Linsly School. The boarding and day school is located in Wheeling and plays many of West Virginia’s top programs, as well as those in surrounding states. Last year, the team played Fairmont Senior (loss), Morgantown (win), and John Marshall (win). Along with out-of-state foes such as Steubenville (win) and St. Clairsville (win).
The team went 9-1. The only setback was a 27-24 decision to Fairmont Senior. They will serve as a Class AA opponent in the WVSSAC postseason formula for playoff points and, typically, based on the number of wins a victory against them could result in plenty of bonus points.
“They play a lot of out-of-state powerhouses. They don’t exactly have a soft schedule,” said Jones. “Over the last several years they have seen a paramount of success with their program … This is a pretty solid opponent coming to Bridgeport and gives us a fifth home game for our student-athletes.”
Jones said there could have been more changes to the schedule, but had plenty of help from foes that are already lined up.
“We’re fortunate to build positive relationships within and outside the (Big 10) Conference that were willing to do a little shifting to get a sixth AAA team and make us eligible for the playoffs,” said Jones. “There were a lot of moving parts, and thanks to some good folks, we were able to secure the schedule.”
Once again, putting together the schedule that requires six ‘AAA’ foes to be eligible for the playoffs was not easy. In fact, it has been a process every year since the Indians have moved back to the big school classification.
“The whole scheduling process had us sitting down and reaching out to numerous ‘AAA’ schools in the state that matched up with our openings, but we didn’t have a lot of success,” said Jones. “We reached out to schools in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, and a couple of Kentucky teams as well.”
As for the entire schedule, it is as follows:
- August 25 vs. Buckhannon-Upshur at Red Crites Field
- Sept. 1 vs. Morgantown at Wayne Jamison Field
- Sept. 8 vs. John Marshall at Monarch Stadium
- Sept 15 vs. Fairmont Senior at Wayne Jamison Field
- Sept. 22 vs. Robert C. Byrd at Byrd Stadium
- Sept. 29 vs. Brooke at Bud Billiard Stadium
- Oct. 6 vs. Parkersburg South at Wayne Jamison Field
- Oct. 13 vs. Preston at Wayne Jamison Field
- Oct. 20 – Idle
- Oct. 27 vs. Linsly at Wayne Jamison Field
- Nov. 3 vs. Lincoln and Joe Stydahar Field
Editor's Note: Top photo shows returning Class AAA all-state first team selection Zach Rohrig, while the next two photos feature returing standouts Aidan Sparks and Wes Brown, respectively. Coach Tyler Phares is in the fourth photo and Athletic Director and Assistant Principal Mark Jones is shown at the bottom. Photos, with the exception of Jones, by Joe LaRocca.
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