Strong HS athletic programs in small towns (farm, city, areas)

[quietmum]

does anyone know of any small town/rural areas were the public schools have strong athletic programs (primarily football, then baseball)? I am interested in areas that are not big city suburbs and preferably not located in the deep south/texas/florida? thanks

[pcity]

Berwick, PA comes to mind. It's a small town in Northeastern PA, maybe 25-30 miles from Wilkes-Barre.

They're 6 time state champions in football and they won the state in baseball last year too.

Berwick, Pennsylvania - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[sgresident]

a specific state/location would be helpful.

[McGowdog]

You need to check out the Akron Rams in Akron Colorado. These dudes have been right there for the last 5+ years and when 2A teams come down in class to play them in 1A 11-man football, they just beat them by 4+ touchdowns. The Limon Badgers are/were right there too.

Any football along that northeastern section in the state of Colorado is really tough. The Akron Rams are sort of the newcomers of the elite as they've kind of displaced the Limon Badgers, but the Limon Badgers are sort of the Boston Celtics/UCLA Bruins/Pittsburgh Steelers*(without the astrisk, of course) of Colorado Football.

What's so impressive about the Rams is that the town is so small and these kids are just about average size... not a bunch of 6'4" 270 lbs+ farm boys... but they play those big teams and just cut them down to size from the first play and until the final play 60 minutes later.

I think the Akron Rams would have beat the Denver Broncos this last season, but I know that's not saying much.

Look at the National Rankings for HS Football via Max Preps and see for yourself. It looks like they're ranked 212 in the Country, 6th in the state of Colorado, and the school has a population of 125 kids in a town of about 1700 people... So if all the elgible boys went out for varsity, that's about 65 kids to chose from. Good coaching? Must be. Good training, how could there not be?

One thing I noticed about this Akron team is just their focus, poise, and tempo. For 60 minutes, this team is like a group of Marines on a mission. They are surgical the way they perform their duties out there on that football field.

So Akron is ranked #3 in the Western States from the first link above and those schools in Wyoming and Montana are 247 students and 253 students respectively and Akron is half that size. Pound for pound, there's nothing like the Akron Rams.

[marmac]

check out the schools in Dekalb County Alabama (NE Alabama)

Great football played in all the high schools in that county ranging all different sizes.

Fort Payne has the largest high school in the county and a few years back had 2 of its players on one team recruited by both Auburn and Alabama.

I just read in the paper that Fort Payne has a great baseball tem also.
The paper said they had a game and had a packed stadium with scouts from ---12--major league teams checking out their star pitcher.