George Guido: Plenty of milestones to watch for this football season

By: George Guido
Tuesday, August 20, 2019 | 6:06 PM

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The stage is set for the 121st high school football season in the Alle-Kiski Valley, and it appears several teams are poised for success in 2019.

After all, last year was the first time since 1909 that no local team finished over .500.

To be fair, Freeport was 5-4 in the regular season, but a 40-17 setback against eventual state champ Aliquippa put the Yellowjackets at 5-5.

But rather than split hairs, let’s look forward to a season that starts Friday with 11 of the 13 area teams playing Week Zero games.

Every season is unique, so here are some examples to watch for:

• Springdale will play its 900th game Friday against Deer Lakes, the first meeting between the two schools since 1993.

• Kiski Area needs three victories to hit the 300 mark. It took the school just 29 years to earn 200 wins and 29 to get the next 100.

• Coming up is the 100th anniversary of the start of the Leechburg football program and the 50th for Deer Lakes and Apollo-Ridge.

• Apollo-Ridge will have a couple of milestones. September 27 will mark the 100th anniversary of Owens Field, where the original Apollo High School defeated first-year Leechburg, 47-0.

The school will play its 500th game against Freedom on Oct. 18.

• Knoch comes into the season with an all-time record of 297-298-13. Will the Knights reach 300 wins or 300 losses first?

• Outside of our area, Washington needs three wins to become the fourth WPIAL school to accumulate 700 victories. If the Prexies win their first two games, No. 700 could come Sept. 7 at nearby Summit Academy.

• This is also the 50th anniversary of Pine-Richland’s first WPIAL title. Pine-Richland defeated New Brighton in 1969 when it was known as Richland High School of the Babcock School District. Pine-Richland is the only WPIAL school to win titles in four different classifications: 2A, 3A, 4A and 6A.

On the air

If you can’t make it out to a game, don’t forget you still can follow high school football broadcasts online, on radio and on cable TV.

Log on to tribhssn.triblive.com for a selection of at least 35 games on a given Friday night.

After live games, there will be a scoreboard show that is also simulcast on 15 radio stations if you’re on your way home from a game.

One of those is WISR Radio 680 AM, where Scott Briggs and Dave Bacon once will again carry all Knoch games.

Mike Choma and Mike Pavlik will be back for their 19th season of Highlands football starting with Friday’s Week Zero game at home against Plum. All the games can be seen on Comcast Cable Channel 190 at 8 p.m. every Tuesday.

Fans also can go to their YouTube channel at Highlands High Sports for next-day replays that are archived.