Queen City Quad Saturday at Greenway

Aug 18, 2011
by Todd Helmick

The third Queen City Quad Preseason Football Classic, to benefit The League for Crippled Children, will kick off Saturday, 3 p.m., at Greenway Avenue Stadium.

Four high school varsity teams will square off with Dunbar of Baltimore and host Fort Hill taking the field first. The Poets and the Sentinels have met five times since 1994 with four of those meetings being in the Maryland state championship game. This, however, will mark the Poets’ first visit to Cumberland in any sport.

But there is much more to take in at Greenway Avenue Stadium on Saturday outside of these two rivals. Also participating in the Queen City Quad will be Red Lion Christian Academy from Bear, Del., and T.C. Williams of Alexandria, Va. What makes this preseason scrimmage important to all the coaches involved is the ability for their players to compete against different personnel and strategies. Each school will get to perform against the other three while using first down chains and referees in a true game setting.

A common assumption would be that both Fort Hill and Dunbar are among the favorites to play in yet another Class 1A state championship game at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium come December. Dunbar head coach Lawrence Smith says this may be his best Dunbar team of all time, which, if true, would be a monumental statement. Led by 6-2, 215-pound receiver Deontay McManus, who has already given a verbal commitment to play for West Virginia next season, the Poets are primed to play for their eighth state title, including four over the last five years.

While much of the local buzz may revolve around the Fort Hill-Dunbar saga, Red Lion Christian Academy could be the best team at this event, as the Allegany Campers discovered last fall in their regular-season match-up. The host Sentinels will meet up with Red Lion in Saturday’s second round.

Red Lion is a private school in Delaware that has essentially been building towards being recognized as a national power much like DeMatha, Calvert Hall and Good Counsel are in this state, with the latter two being on the Red Lion schedule. They now play games from Ohio to Florida but have most recently become noted as the school that boasts a quarterback who has already verbally committed to play for the Southern California Trojans, and David Sills will only be a high school freshman in 2011.

Red Lion is loaded with young Division I college prospects, and the best of this year’s class might be 6-3, 255-pound defensive end Eli Ankou who has already accepted a scholarship to play at UCLA.

T.C. Williams will be the only repeat visitors from last year's Quad. Most people, of course, will recognize the name of the school from the Hollywood movie “Remember The Titans,” which was based on a true story in which Denzel Washington plays the lead role of football coach Herman Boone. These current-day Titans will by far be the largest school represented at the Quad with 3,161 students filling the Northern Virginia high school.

For the X’s and O’s people, the Titans are a wide open spread offense shotgun team, and every play usually equals a pass. As previously mentioned, this is a great opportunity to see many different schemes and personnel.

As the founder of the Queen City Quad, I am thankful to the people of Cumberland and all the sponsors for helping this event continue to grow. This will be by far the best competition, top to bottom, that the Quad has ever hosted. The importance of bringing these schools and their fans to this part of the world, in what many consider a jewel of high school football, is simply to share and put on display one of this community’s best traditions. More so, what could be greater than using this stage to help some children who really need it?

Admission is free but donations will be accepted at the gate with all proceeds benefitting The League for Crippled Children. For more information, go to FortHillFootball.net.

Todd Helmick is a former Fort Hill High School and Florida State University football player. He is the owner of the college football website NationalChamps.net and his weekly radio show can be heard on Baltimore FOX Sports 1370.