By Mark Carpenter-
Nov. 2, 1979. In the mud and muck and playing for the Adams County gridiron championship, North Adams defeated West Union 6-0 to claim the crown. That was 40 years ago and the last high school football game played in Seaman- until this Friday night when history will be made and the football rivalry renewed. After years of hard work and determination, the organizers and supporters of North Adams football will be showing off their newest crown jewel- a spanking new football field ironically built on the site of the old high school on Broadway Street in Seaman.
Since the Green Devils began to rebuild their football program in 2012, all eyes have been focused on what will take place on Friday night- a home game for the Green Devils. The opponent will be the West Union Dragons, a team that the Devils have never defeated at the varsity level, in a game that has been dubbed “The Battle for the Bell.”
“It is going to be awesome,” said Justin Schmitz, the man whose dream to bring football back to North Adams has been fulfilled, along with his dream of the Devils having their own home field. “When we set out to do this, I didn’t have any kids in football and I just happened to find Scott McFarland’s phone number and I sat in my truck having a two-hour conversation with Scott about how the county needed this and the kids needed this.”
“I heard a message this past Sunday at church about compassion, and the preacher said there was a difference in having compassion for people and caring for those people. His illustration was that someone walked past a huge hole and fell into it and someone who cares would walk by and say they would be right back with help. Someone with compassion for the person in the hole would do whatever it took, jump right in and get them out at all costs. In 2012, we started to climb in that hole to get some of these kids out. The gravity of the situation in Adams County is not lost on us with the power plants closing and all, so the county could use something good to happen and we feel like this is something that can be really beneficial to everybody.”
It has been quite an undertaking for Schmitz and his crew to put together their own football field, a lot of manpower and hours spent working towards that goal. With things falling into place, Schmitz reached out to other schools for help, specifically Glen Este and Amelia High Schools, who recently merged to become West Clermont High School.
“I reached out to those schools when I heard they were going to combine,” said Schmitz. “They were originally sympathetic to our situation but the timing wasn’t just right and it seemed like we were spinning our wheels, but things just literally fell into place when we got a phone call and were at Glen Este the next day pulling fence and grabbing as much as we could from that field. We have had volunteers from February up until today trying to build our field. We just formed a real Booster organization and they have really stepped up for us.”
For West Union’s McFarland, he and his team are looking forward to making the trip back to Seaman, 40 years after the last group of Dragons dropped that 6-0 decision in the mud.
“I’m really happy for North Adams, I know they’ve worked really hard to get the field ready and it will be really exciting for them to have their own field in their hometown,” said the West Union head coach. “”It’s such a great location right in the center of town and the old high school location on top of that, so I think it’s going to be a very positive step in the right direction for their program and community. I think people will come out and see what Friday night high school football is all about.”
“We’ll bring big crowd on Friday night and I know they will have a big crowd and it’s going to be a really exciting environment for the kids.”
The Dragons come into Friday night’s game with a big and physical squad that boasts 14 seniors, facing a North Adams team that only has two seniors but will no doubt have the adrenaline in high gear as they battle in front of their fans on their own home field.
Kickoff on Broadway is at 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 23. Don’t miss out on this piece of Adams County gridiron history.
