‘Dot your I’s and cross your T’s’ is a well-known metaphor for anyone working on a project before completion. It’s only good common sense to double-check things before a finished product is put forth for public consumption.

If things went as anticipated last week, there will be a great deal of attention paid to what takes place Friday Night in Montoursville when the nightmare from Columbia County, aka the Southern Columbia High School football team, arrives in the borough to take on the home-standing Warriors. On paper, it is the game of the season for our area — both teams undefeated entering the regular season’s next-to-last game.

Oh, those i’s & t’s. The assumption is being made that both teams emerged unscathed in road games at Wyoming Area and Mifflinburg, respectively. If that be the case, then a game between two 8-0 teams, each favored to emerge as eventual District Four champions, provides a great storyline.

To make this game a reality, a little bit of re-scheduling had to take place. When the 2019 football schedule was released, Montoursville was to host Towanda, and Southern Columbia was to play at Hughesville on October 18. Both games figured to be little more than late-season scrimmages, so some i’s & t’s were quickly addressed. With the agreement of all four teams, the schedule was changed as the schools switched opponents, allowing Southern to play at Montoursville and Towanda visiting Hughesville this week.

In addition to being an absolute gridiron powerhouse this season, Southern Columbia, which had outscored its opponents 414-20 going into last week’s game with Wyoming Area, has also emerged as a championship schedule-flipper, which, by the way, came without decent by Bloomsburg, Hughesville, and Shikellamy, all of whom avoided getting trampled by the rampaging Tigers who were on the prowl for larger carcasses.

To open its season, Southern jumped at the chance to travel to South Carolina for a televised game against a four-time state champion and easily defeated Hammond, S.C. 36-0. Bloomsburg readily vacated their game with the Tigers and picked up Neumann-Goretti to fill the void on their schedule. The Panthers lost 22-7 but were spared the inevitable pounding by their Columbia County neighbors.

Then, as was reported in this column two weeks ago, another Southern Columbia induced schedule switch took place with the Tigers, Wyoming Area, Shikellamy, and Holy Redeemer agreeing to switch opponents to create more competitive games. At the time, Holy Redeemer and Shikellamy were winless (the Braves have since defeated Central Mountain) while Southern and Wyoming Area remained undefeated going into week eight.

In creating these schedule changes, officials of District 2, District 4, and the PIAA gave their approval. The game was scheduled for Wyoming Area and instantly piqued the interest of the football public. More than 2,500 tickets were quickly sold, and it was expected between 5,000 and 7,000 fans would be in attendance.

But as the anticipation for the game mounted it was suddenly scoffed September 30 after questions were raised by a Pennsylvania Heartland Athletic Conference (PHAC) member (reportedly Lewisburg) noting that while Southern Columbia had received approval from the three aforementioned entities it had not requested the needed approval from the PHAC.

In denying approval for the switches, the PHAC cited violation of a bylaw stating that all conference games must be played as scheduled. With the noted understanding of the PHAC bylaws, it remains unstated what procedures may have occurred that permitted the changes in Southern Columbia’s game switches involving Bloomsburg and Hughesville to take place.

After a week of uncertainty, PHAC officials met at Lewisburg High School on October 7 to review a formal request made by Shikellamy Superintendent Jason Bendle asking the conference to approve the schedule changes.

“We had a full league meeting, and there was a lot of discussion. They voted to allow us to make the change,” reported Southern Columbia football coach and athletic director Jim Roth.
Heading into last Friday’s games, Holy Redeemer had lost 17 consecutive games, while Shikellamy was 1-6 on the season and had lost 16 of its last 18 games. Southern Columbia and Wyoming Area entered the game both 7-0. Southern is a nine-time state champion and is the top-ranked team in Class 2A. Wyoming Area is the fourth-ranked team in Class 3A.

“Everybody in the area is excited for this game,” said Wyoming Area athletic director Joe Pizano. “I wouldn’t say that we are looking at it as the best game in that state. We’re looking at it as the next game, but at the same time, it’s a great challenge for us to play one of the top small-school high schools in the country.”

More understated Shikellamy head coach Todd Tilford simply said, “For all four teams involved, this is a smart choice.”

Indeed football teams need to know their Xs and Os, but has been proven, it is even more important to dots those i’s and cross the t’s.