The Blairsville-Saltsburg board president spoke to the need for a public meeting regarding the fate of Saltsburg’s football program, and the football field at Blairsville’s stadium has been renamed to commemorate a past coach.
According to board president Rick Harper, representatives for the Heritage Conference are unhappy about the Saltsburg team’s forfeiture to Ligonier Valley on September 14th. Harper said the reason for the forfeiture was concern for the safety of its players, which is most important.
The board plans to seek public input on how to proceed. Harper said options include staying in the conference but agreeing to play all games, joining a different conference, going independent, or merging with Blairsville’s team:
“We need to find out what the community wants to do. Is player safety paramount, or is having our Friday night games more important? We’ll discuss it with the community and see what they want to do.”
A date for the meeting has not been set, but it will be held early next month so that a decision can be made at the voting meeting on October 23rd. Once a date for the public meeting is decided, it will be advertised on the district’s website.
In other news, the football field at Blairsville Memorial Stadium has been renamed “Ernie Widmar Field” to honor the coach who retired in 1986. Harper spoke to the impact Widmar had on the program:
“Ernie Widmar I compare to the Chuck Noll of Blairsville. We had a very poor program, a non-winning program. He came on board and he really made a difference in a lot of young men’s lives. Not everybody went on to play college football, professional football, but they learned many valuable lessons from him that people like myself didn’t learn in a book. And I think it’s high time we recognize what he’s done for our community.”
