Strike at Ottawa High could cost Redskins a game
Don't look now ... but if you are a Morris Redskins football fan, you had better cross your fingers.
And hope diplomacy works.
If not, the Redskins will likely not have a football game next Friday.
Due to the teachers strike currently underway 25 miles west in Ottawa.
Ottawa Township High School, to be specific.
Where 1,600 students have had a couple days of unexpected weekday freedom after the teachers went on strike on Wednesday.
The Pirates were scheduled to travel west along Interstate 80 Friday night to do battle at Howard Fellows Stadium in Peru with the La Salle-Peru Cavaliers in a crucial NCIC Reagan Division contest for Ottawa.
The Pirates are currently 3-2 on the season, including a 1-1 ledger in the conference. If Friday night's game results in a forfeit, Ottawa will drop to 1-2 in the NCIC and 3-3 overall. The Pirates will round out their conference campaign by hosting Morris next week before traveling to Geneseo in Week 8 and hosting Streator the final week.
Since Ottawa will pick up very few playoff points from its non-conference foes.
Ottawa lost 38-12 to DeKalb in the opening week for the only win of the season by the Barbs. The Pirates then beat Chicago Steinmetz 27-7 and East Moline 32-12. The Chicago school is also 1-4 after five weeks while East Moline Panthers of the Western Big Six are winless after five games.
The OHS teachers and School Board was scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. Thursday. The strike has to be over and students back in school on Friday for the Pirates and Cavaliers to tangle on the gridiron for the 110th time.
And while George Dergo and the Redskins have a lot more on their minds than the issues concerning money and insurance involving the Ottawa High teachers, Dergo and Morris fans need to be aware.
All the energy of Dergo and the Redskins revolve around a trip to Sterling Friday night in a critical NCIC Reagan game. Morris is currently the only undefeated team left in that division of the conference. But La Salle, Geneseo, Sterling and Ottawa have just one loss each. The Redskins have already beaten L-P 32-25 and Geneseo 14-7, so would own any tie-breaker for playoff consideration.
But unless Ottawa gets back in the classroom soon, next week's scheduled game with the Pirates at Morris may be put in jeopardy. Ottawa needs to have the differences resolved and the students back in school by Tuesday at the latest or next Friday's game will not happen.
That's because the Pirates will have to have at least three practices before being able to play in its next game if the football players miss more than three consecutive days of practice once the season starts. If the strike continues through the end of the week, Ottawa must have practices on at least Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday next week before taking on the Redskins.
Morris cannot lose if the game against the Pirates is not staged.
Unless you count the fact that the Redskins have just five home games scheduled for football in 2009. And one of those, St. Rita, came about as a replacement game after Addison Driscoll closed its doors in May, meaning the traditional state power [and champion] would not fulfill its second season of a two-year contract that involved Morris heading up to Addison in the fall of 2008.
I know Dergo and the Morris football players ... and fans ... would rather attend next week's game on the local turf ... certainly, with a lot more enthusiasm that just being awarded a forfeit victory.
The win would be nice.
But you want the outcome to be decided on the turf ... not in some negotiating session.
