BIG CHANGES AHEAD FOR CHS FOOTBALL - Coach Hupp Resigns, Arch Rival Roane Dropped From Schedule

(01/10/2011)
By Gaylen Duskey
realfang@citlink.net

Two mainstays of Calhoun High School football won't be around for the 2011 season.

Red Devils head football coach Doyle Hupp announced his resignation at the last meeting of the Calhoun County Board of Education ending an almost two decade association with the program.

Perhaps the bigger and more shocking loss will be arch rival Roane County. Calhoun will not play the Raiders in 2011.

Instead the Red Devils will play Buffalo on the road. The rest of the teams from the 2010 schedule remain the same.

Calhoun will open the season August 26 at home against Gilmer County.

The Red Devils will also play home against Ritchie, Parkersburg Catholic, St. Marys and Wirt and on the road at Doddridge, Williamstown, South Harrison, Buffalo and Braxton.

Calhoun's arch rival over the school's history has either been Roane County or its predecessor Spencer. Spencer and Walton consolidated to form Roane County back in the early 1990s.

The rivalry was not as intense as the Calhoun-Spencer rivalry, still the two remained each other's biggest rival for many years.

Calhoun was 1-9 in 2010 and suffered a 54-6 drubbing at the hands of Roane County.

Ending the series between Calhoun and Roane had been discussed for a while, especially since the Raiders have more than twice as many students as the Red Devils with the numbers growing.

The West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission will re-classify its member schools in the not-too-distant future and those figures will probably show Calhoun with a shrinking enrollment and Roane with an expanding enrollment.

Currently Roane is near the top of the Class AA classification with 580 students while Calhoun is a middle-of-the-pack sized Class A school with 258.

The Red Devils will continue to play two Class AA schools, Braxton (552 students) and Ritchie (375 students).

Hupp, meanwhile, said it was time to give up the coaching position, adding he really was unable to take the time to put into the job that it needed.

He said he enjoyed his years with the school.

Mike Stump, Assistant Varsity Football Coach, has also submitted his resignation.

The resignations are listed for Monday's school board meeting.

Calhoun is one of three Little Kanawha Conference schools looking for football coaches.

Ritchie and Parkersburg Catholic are both in the process of hiring a new head football coach.