DeMatha-Gilman Likely Off

Barring some unforeseen circumstances, it appears the much-anticipated football game between No. 1 DeMatha and Gilman of Baltimore won’t be played this season, according to Gilman Athletic Director Tim Holley.

The game was scheduled to be played Friday night at Cardinal Gibbons, but was postponed until 1 p.m. Saturday at Gilman because of Friday’s heavy rain. Cardinal Gibbons officials did not want their stadium field taking a beating from a game between two other schools.

However, Holley on Friday night said that Gilman’s field currently is unplayable. With rain still falling in Baltimore, that seems unlikely to change before a final decision is made on Saturday morning whether to play the game.

“I’ll be in at about 6 a.m. because we have a water polo tournament that starts at 7,” Holley said. “As soon as I can walk the field around 7 or 8, I’ll send out an email what it looks like we’ll do. I can’t imagine we’ll do it. I walked the field this morning and again this afternoon and it’s under water. My grounds guy tells me that if we play on the field, it’s going to be ruined for the entire year.”

Not necessarily what you want on the second Saturday of September, with varsity, JV, freshman and middle school teams using one game field.

This is where things get interesting.

Most people would think the schools would search for an alternate venue, perhaps with artificial turf, where the weather would not be a factor and the game could be played.

But Holley said that DeMatha Coach Bill McGregor and Gilman Coach Biff Poggi were against moving the game to another site on Saturday afternoon or Saturday evening.

“Once Friday night got knocked out, both of them had concerns about playing the game on Saturday, given the quality of both teams and what was lying ahead for both teams. There is no doubt in my mind we’re going to get criticized for this.

“If Coach Poggi or Coach McGregor would have been insistent [on playing], we would have taken another path. I’m not going to overrule them. They’re the experts in their fields.”

(Gilman, ranked No. 2 in Baltimore by The Sun, plays at No. 2 Good Counsel on Thursday; DeMatha plays No. 19 Friendship Collegiate on Friday.)

However, McGregor said that as of his last contact with anyone from Gilman – when he spoke with Poggi around 3 p.m. Friday – he believed Poggi was searching for a viable field.

“I said go for it,” McGregor said. “I don’t know if he can get it.”

This was news to Poggi.

“As far as finding other fields, I’m not involved in that,” Poggi said. “I have not called anybody about a turf field by our school.”