Between A Rock & A Hard Spot
By Dave Belcher
Moapa Valley Progress
When Thursday night’s football game was finished, a parent from Cheyenne came over and began to voice their displeasure to a couple of Moapa’s assistant coaches. The parent was upset at the score and why we (Moapa) would schedule a J.V. team to play.
The MVHS coaches explained to the parent that we didn’t schedule the game and were, rather, forced to play it. Not satisfied the parent went to a member of the chain crew to express his displeasure.
The September 16 home game against Cheyenne’s JV team ended with the score of 59-6.
Prior to the game the Pirates and the rest of the Southern 3A were placed between a rock and concrete. The game was scheduled by the district scheduler in Vegas.
Most of the 4A feels that the 3A league is beneath them and, thus, should not be playing 4A schools. That is why the 4A didn’t agree to compete with us in regular season games. They didn’t want to drop down a league. Moapa was assigned Cheyenne’s J.V., Green Valley’s Varsity, Clark’s Varsity and Silverado’s Varsity.
Now here’s the pressure as I see it. If the Moapa vs. Cheyenne J.V. game had been even close, or if Cheyenne had won, it would have justified a 3A-4A J.V. schedule for the future. At that point, the 4A Varsity teams could say, ‘Hey look! The 3A struggled against our J.V. teams therefore we should not have to play the 3A’.
So only the solution was, Moapa needed to be merciless and score as much as possible to prove that they should not be playing the J.V. teams. They should be playing the Varsity in the 4A.
The 4A considers 3A competition a lose-lose situation. They are generally considered to be better than the 3A. So if the 4A win that’s how it’s suppose to be, nothing spectacular. But if they lose it’s devastating. Just ask Foothill High School or Rancho High School!
Personally I was hoping Moapa would score 80 or so points to help prove the point. But Coach Brent Lewis played the backups.
Even some J.V. kids saw action which is really how it should have been. Lets hope Virgin Valley and Boulder City will do the same against their J.V. opponents.
