Geibel should give up football
It’s time, if not well past time, for Geibel Catholic to give up the ghost.
Drop your football program.
Do it now before any other schools get dragged into the mess created by a too-lenient roster minimum.
Do it for the other eight teams in the Tri-County South Conference.
Do it for conference champion Beth-Center, who couldn’t play a home game early in the season because you forfeited too late for the Bulldogs to schedule another opponent.
Do it for West Greene, who saw a chance to win a game slip away. The Pioneers (on Homecoming, no less) were able to get another game, but lost to a pretty good North Star team.
Do it for Jefferson-Morgan, whose seniors have already played their last high school game even though the regular season doesn’t end until this Friday.
The Rockets had their choice of two or three opponents for this weekend, but couldn’t get any of them to wait until Geibel Catholic could determine whether or not it would play its last game.
Do it now for the memories of Sully Gambone, who built the program into a consistent winner, and Angelo Dippolito, who kept it alive for the handful of players he had at his disposal.
Just do it.
Fielding a football team that is small in numbers was a noble undertaking. All you were doing was following the letter of the PIAA law that says a team needs only 13 healthy players to play a football game.
That law, much like your program, has outlived its usefulness. The number should be much higher, perhaps 20 or 25. How safe is it to field 13 players when most of them will be playing every snap, offensively and defensively, as well as special teams?
The Geibel Catholic football players deserve a lot of credit for wearing the school colors and trying their best. It is a true tribute to the spirit of volunteerism and amateur athletics.
But it must end.
MOVING ON
Uniontown will not appeal a WPIAL ruling that placed its boys soccer program on a one-year probation and censured coach Eric Dolfi.
The punishment stems from an Oct. 8 game, when Dolfi took his team from the field with about five minutes remaining in an 11-1 loss at Waynesburg Central. Dolfi accused Waynesburg of excessively hard play that resulted in a few injuries to his player.
The WPIAL ruled in Waynesburg’s favor. Along with his censure, Dolfi must attend a sportsmanship program.
Waynesburg was ordered to submit a game-management plan to address effective supervision of spectators, and administrators from both schools must attend home and away soccer games involving the schools through 2015.