Evening Sun Sports Reporter (Hanover, Pa.)

A few times in the past few years, I've gotten up on Friday morning and gone for a drive down to Littlestown -- just to drive around the football "stadium." To me, that is the epitome of high school football -- a unique little stadium with the field situated diagonally across. And I've seen some pretty good football battles on that field over the years.

Delone Catholic's boys' basketball coach, Jim Dooley, is one of the finest men I've ever known in my life. It would be a privilege to cover his team.

Hanover, it seems to me, is an interesting situation with its "three" high schools. South Western, the big suburban high school, and Delone Catholic seem to be "squeezing" in-town Hanover High School down to nothing a little bit at a time. Hanover, once a AAA school, is now Class A, and not big Class A at that.

 

Shot, I'm pretty sure Hanover School District only includes the borough, which is tiny at that.

The area around Hanover, especially on the York County side, is growing as it becomes more and more of a Baltimore/D.C. outer beltway bedroom community.

And Littlestown is a neat place to watch a game, especially because the PA announcer/goofy wrestling coach announces the reporters' names and they get a cheer.

 

Yeah, I think you're right. What's happening, then, is there's been a lot of suburban flight in the last two decades, because that school is shrinking by the year.

 

Yeah, it's amazing how small a school Hanover High has become. When I was in town, they had a decent football team one season, reaching the district playoffs, but still were nowhere near the same class as either Delone or South Western. They were also decent in baseball, softball and wrestling, but no good in anything else, especially basketball.

I always found it interesting how the school that was kind of out in the sticks (South Western) could be so big while the one downtown could be so small. I guess not living in the borough has its advantages.

 

The big reason for that is Hanover is smack in the middle between Delone and South Western. The kids who want to head to a Catholic school - and whose parents can afford it - head right down the road to Delone, the only Catholic school nearby. (York Catholic is a little far for Hanovarians). And the kids who live, well, on the south western edge of town, head to South Western. Both schools are really bleeding Hanover High dry, which is why the only sport they really continue to excel in is wrestling. Softball is pretty good and football goes in spurts. But wrestling - much to the credit of crusty ol' coach Terry Conover - always sends a handful of guys to Hershey and the team always has a solid record in dual meets.