Marion County high school football schedules released for first season with four classifications

On line at each of the three Marion County high school football Web sites, fans of the event can also preview the 2024 season.

Fairmont Senior and North Marion’s are posted in the WVSSAC posted in its website, whereas the East Fairmont is posted in East Fairmont’s Athletic page.

Fairmont Senior the team that has never won a championship playing in AAA will face Lewis County on the 30th of August, University on the 27th of September, Wheeling Parker on the 11th of October Bridgeport starting the 1st of November and ending the season by facing East Fairmont 8. Our home games are against South Charleston Sept. 27, Point Pleasant Nov. 1, and George Washington Nov. 15th.
For away games, we have a match with Robert C Byrd Sept 6, Preston Sept 13, North Marion Sept 20, Buckhurban Upshur Oct 4 and Elkins Oct18. This bye week is scheduled on the 25th of October.

Other than the Wheeling Park game, the rest of all games that has been highlighted are all games against teams that fall within the North Central West Virginia Area says Fairmont Senior Head Coach Nick Bartic.

That’s true according to Bartic, with such a busy calendar, the team has been able to ’’localize’’ the case. “Morgantown shifted his or her timetable, and then we figured out, we need to take Wheeling Park as well; otherwise, all teams are in North Central West Virginia; it will be helpful with traveling.

I paired North Marion against its home games, where they have six home and four away games this year. It has Fairmont Senior on Sept. 20th, Lincoln on Sept. 27th, Elkins on Oct 11th, Robert C. Byrd on Oct 25th, Roane County on Nov 1st, Liberty Harrison on Nov 8th. The away games are against East Fairmont on 29August, Preston on 06September, Philip Barbour on 13September, and against Lewis County on 18October. Bye week is Oct. 4. N createElement(“p”);

This is because six of the home games were as a result of Philip Barbour not moving to AAA as it has been stipulated by North Marion Head Coach Daran Hays. She asked the official named Hays whether they had thought through that Herbert Hoover could join North Marion and take the vacant position. That, in turn, has more benefits associated with it given that the team would be having more home games in the schedule.

“We always say it is good to play at home the players also feel comfortable playing at home,” Hays said. “It will be good for us financially wise. We only stray that it is the first three positions and being on the road. It is better gate wise if the first positions are at home and this is because of the weather conditions”.

The season started on Sep. 13 and Oct. 4 and Oct. 25 became East Fairmont’s bye weeks. They are with North Marion on the 29 of August, Braxton County on the seventh of September, Liberty Harrison on the 18 of October and with Lewis County on the first November at the Duvall-Rosier field, Fairmont State. The away games are scheduled at Grafton sept6, Bridgeport Sept 13, Preston sept 26 Weir Oct 11 and finally Fairmont Senior Nov 8.

As Eak FAIR noted, the two bye weeks include Elkins game with East Fairmont because Elkins lost that game, as stated by East Fairmont Head Shane Eakle. As of now, no in-state opponent, or any new opponent for that matter, has been located, but Eakle is hopeful for the best and believes it may benefit the team to heal from injuries in the end.

“It is evidently encouraging, so if there are any of our guys that are injured and needed towards the later part of the season, it will be helpful for us,” Eakle said. “You are always into playing games but it occurs sometimes. We always aim at playing 10 but some circumstances are usually beyond our control. So we will play with whatever is remaining”

Two other such peculiarities exist to the Fairmont East schedule. First, the game scheduled for September, the 26th at Preston High School says a 4 p. m. start instead of the normal 7 p. m. kickoff: That is what Eakle said, but it is due to the Buck Wheat Festival. COAL GROVE The other quirky game is the Nov. 1 Lewis County game to be played at Duvall-Rosier Field on the campus of Fairmont State University.

For instance, Eakle noted that they had to shift that particular game because the soccer teams obtained the regional bid and added that it was Fairmont Senior’s turn to perform on Thursday. “They had to go through the scheduling process and instead of simply switching Fairmont Senior to a more open slot in the schedule, they displaced us from Friday and relocated Fairmont Senior’s Thursday game to our Friday night match. ”

Ealke said only soccer regionals had authority to switch football games and much to our surprise Fairmont State was kind enough to allow East Fairont to host Lewis County at Duvall-Rosier Field.

The given schedules are notable for that they were prepared one year prior to the change stated Hays and yet the changes were made as recently as in March.

“What people do not know is that a football schedule is not developed in that year or that the spring season,” Hays stated. “This time our football schedule through to 2025 is virtually complete and I still have only one game for which I have to look for. Necessary in football you’re always planning one or two years ahead.

In order to form a schedule all three teams had to think about the Big X Conference by laws for football and the rise in classification to AAAA. With all the three schools in Marion County having shifted into the AAA classification while all the schools in the Big X do not all take the same classification there are some inconveniences.

For instance, North Marion did not include Philip Barbour in its list of games since Philip Barbour is from AA. It was also interfered with North Marion’s contract with the Roane County because Roane County is also still AA. Hays said that he and Roane County’s coach decided that the two of them cease their rivalry if they both had a different opponent for the week of their match up but currently this will not be the case and they will be playing against each other.

New classifications and the changed point distribution for wins are perceived as the positive change by both Bartic and Hays nonetheless. Bartic further opined that it gives more meaning to playing other teams of the same classification in the playoffs.

On self-scheduling, Bartic had this to say: “Teams are more likely to schedule teams in their class. ” “It does have pro’s and con’s and with the other factors it is easier to arrange games but overall I do not believe ‘the more classifications’ factor has affected it. ”

It added a new strength of schedule component; where teams received one additional point for each of the wins and there are more points offered in the case of a win with a school of a different classification. Scoring for the teams is pegged at 15 points for the teams that defeat other schools in the AAAA category, 12 for those in the AAA category, 9 for those in the A Acategory, and 6 for the Acategory.

The schedule to the championship game in Charleston and start with North Marion at and East Fairmont on on Thursday Aug 29. The regular season ends, as is tradition, by featuring the East Fairmont and the Fairmont Senior in the East West Game on Friday November 8.