Welcome back to The Deep Post, a weekly column-notebook reviewing the week past and ahead.
This week’s offering dives into the Class AAA race and the statements made by the top dogs.
Class AAA Power StruggleÂ
Bridgeport, Spring Valley, Princeton and Fairmont Senior came into Week 1 as the consensus top contenders in Class AAA, arguably the most competitive class. Fairmont and Bridgeport established separate dynasties over the last 10 years, accounting for eight of the last 11 Class AA championships.
Bridgeport bumped up to Class AAA in 2020, remaining successful with a 6-3 playoff record, including a pair of semifinal appearances.
Fairmont Senior has played in all but two Class AA title games since 2016 with championship victories in 2018, ’20, ’21 and ’23.
Spring Valley, which hasn’t missed the Class AAA playoffs since 2007, appeared in the 2016-18 title games.
Princeton, riding a four-year playoff streak, returned most of its core from last year’s Class AAA state runner-up squad.
Picking a clear favorite isn’t easy and Week 2 muddied that picture with all four making statements in one way or another. Bridgeport ran over Class AAAA Morgantown in a 49-0 thrashing on the road. Princeton hammered Bluefield 63-7, setting a record for most points ever scored against the 11-time state champion Beavers by an in-state team. Fairmont went on the road and obliterated a Robert C. Byrd team that should be a playoff team in Class AAA as well.
Spring Valley was the lone loser of the bunch in Week 2, dropping a 63-48 decision at Hurricane after leading 35-28 at halftime.
I’m not sure how aware those teams were of the matchups the others faced but they all seemingly used their Week 2 contests to send a message statewide. I explicitly asked Princeton head coach Keith Taylor if he saw the slate and used the contest against Bluefield to stake his team’s claim.
“Our kids are hungry, man,” Taylor said. “You know our kids, in the day of social media kids see stuff online. They do not like seeing us, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh in the rankings. We think that we have a team that could compete in quad-A, triple-A, double-A. Doesn’t matter. So we’re gonna go out there and rankings don’t matter. That’s the cool thing about rankings. But what it does for our guys is it motivates them, right? We had the biggest motivator of last year, getting whipped in the state championship game.”
Even in defeat I didn’t get the impression Spring Valley lost ground. Hurricane’s a dynamic team that has the talent to make a run to the Class AAAA title game and Spring Valley went blow for blow with the Redskins.
Early-season rankings and polls have reflected those four are the favorites in some order with all vying for the top spot. Locally Princeton’s players have expressed irritation for being ranked no higher than No. 3 despite last season’s success in the state’s largest classification. The truth is neither are likely to distance themselves until November arrives.
Spring Valley will likely be the first to fall behind the pack mostly because its schedule features Huntington, Cabell Midland and George Washington. Bridgeport’s schedule features matchups with Parkersburg South and Linsly – usually competitive programs – but the highlight of the slate comes on Nov. 1 when it travels to Fairmont for matchup with the Polar Bears just two weeks before the playoffs begin.
Princeton’s slate is highlighted by matchups at Winfield, Independence and a pair of home games against Beckley and Parkersburg South.
Herbert Hoover is in the conversation early as dark horse, but trails the top four for now.
Seeing the teams compete for playoff positioning throughout the next nine weeks will be one off the state’s central storylines. Class AAA, which features most of the remnants from the old Class AA, should provide the the state’s most competitive field overall. There’s a ceiling unlike in Class AAAA which should be called the Martinsburg Invitational considering the Bulldogs have accounted for 10 of the last 14 titles in the state’s largest classification. The new Class AAA picks up the parity of the old Class AA which last saw a No. 1 seed win in 2018 and has seen a No. 1 vs. No. 2 seed matchup just three times in the last 10 years.
And while seeding isn’t a perfect art with schedules featuring varying degrees of difficulty, the Class AA title has featured a No. 6, 16, 4, 9 and 5 seed on various occasions over the last decade. Only twice since 2010 (2014 and ’23) has the old Class AAA title game featured a team seeded lower than fourth. Furthering the disparity is the fact the biggest classification hasn’t had a title game decided by less than three scores (18 points) since 2015. That’s what makes the new Class AAA race intriguing and worth following each week until December.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
