City, Eastern officials stand by football cancellation
City coach George Petrides (left) and Eastern Tech's Marc Mesaros agreed to cancel their football game last Friday because so much practice time was wiped out by the weather.
The message boards lit up all weekend with opinions about whether officials at City and Eastern Tech were right to cancel Friday night's season-opening football game scheduled for CCBC-Essex, but both athletic directors stand by the decision to forgo the non-league contest for safety reasons.
Having only two days to prepare after four days without any practice at all just wasn’t enough time to get the players sufficiently ready for a football game, the coaches – City’s George Petrides and Eastern Tech’s Marc Mesaros – believed, so they opted to call off the game rather than risk injury.
“It was mutually agreed upon,” Petrides, also the Knights' athletic director, said. “The bottom line is we did what we thought was best for the kids. It was a situation where a lot of pulled muscles could occur and kids could be out for two or three weeks. Do you want that in a non-league game?”
Mesaros referred inquiries to athletic director Dave Scrivener, who said he agreed with the decision.
“It looks bad now, because everyone else did play,” Scrivener said, “but we were concerned with the health of our kids, not just how it could affect them for one game, but the ways that it could affect them for the rest of the year. Neither coach felt the necessity to play the game. Both felt, physically, their kids could be in jeopardy and no one wanted to get anyone hurt.”
Because the season had not started, the game could be canceled with no penalty to either team. Their playoff points will be determined by a nine-game schedule now instead of a 10-game schedule. Petrides said it won’t hurt either one's playoff chances.
The teams met in the Class 2A North regional final last season, with the Mavericks winning 7-6. The two could meet again in this fall's regional playoffs.
“It just bothers me that people say we were trying to avoid a loss,” Petrides said. “We scheduled each other, so weren’t trying to avoid a loss. I called them when I found out they had an opening and they accepted. It’s a two-year deal. We’re coming up there next year.”
Scrivener said the coaches first agreed to move the game to Saturday, which several other Baltimore County teams did. But Eastern Tech’s home field at CCBC-Essex was booked all day with rec games.
After the previous weekend’s washout from the remnants of Hurricane Irene, there wasn’t a free field to be found, Scrivener said. Petrides said lining up officials, security and parents to work the game were also issues because other games were already scheduled and families had Labor Day weekend plans.
Both teams scrimmaged on Friday, Aug. 26, but practices were canceled in Baltimore City and Baltimore County on Aug. 27 because of the rain from Irene. Monday and Tuesday practices were wiped out when schools were closed because of power outages. Public school teams cannot practice on Sundays.
That left only Wednesday and Thursday to prepare for Friday’s game.
“Usually, the day before a game is a walk through, so we’re talking one day of really getting in there and mixing it up after four days with no practice," said Petrides, who's in his 35th season as the Knights' coach. "It’s the first time we’ve ever been faced with that situation … where we were out of school at the beginning [of the season] like that. I didn’t feel we had enough practice and I think that was a good choice."
Both teams are in action this Friday. Eastern Tech visits Franklin at 7 p.m., and City hosts Douglass at 3:45 p.m.
