It most certainly wasn't the way Red Lion wanted to improve to 3-0 on the young season, but the Lions' coaching staff made sure to make the most of it.
Friday morning, the Chambersburg Area School District received threats, believed to be mostly social media driven and with racial overtones. Because of it, the district did not believe it could guarantee the safety of those attending that night's football game against the Lions.
What an impossible situation.
Because there wasn't adequate time to prepare Horn Field and find the resources needed, the Trojans were forced to forfeit the contest, leaving coach Jesse Shay and staff to have to console the Lions players
"As far we can tell this is the first forfeit in 84 years of Red Lion football," Shay said. "As a coaching staff we just talked to the kids and let them vent their frustration.
Football players work very hard Monday to Thursday and the payoff is Friday. These kids, especially the seniors, just had a game taken away from them. They were upset, yet they understood the situation.
Shay and the coaches encouraged their players to take a rare Friday night off, but try to do something together as a team - which most of them did.
The situation also provided an unfortunate opportunity to discuss social media and the negative aspects of it.
"We talked about the power of that device they had in their pockets and how traumatically you can effect things, not just for yourself or others," said Shay.
But now, at 3-0 it's full speed ahead for the Lions, who open YAIAA Division I play on Friday, hosting a vastly improved William Penn team.
"It’’s a normal Monday," Shay said. "The only thing that effects the kids is we had to scramble to find a second JV game and we did, (York Suburban)."
"We don’t have as much film to watch to correct mistakes. We are going to talk about teams can come out of bye weeks and look rusty. I am a big believer in routine and our job is to prepare for a normal week to prepare for Friday, which is against a very good opponent."
