Upsets are an integral part of the professional and amateur sports scene.
If it weren’t for upsets, favorites would be more about defining meals and actors and not the team that’s expected to win. The better team would never lose.
Fortunately, that’s not the case, especially when dealing with high school athletes. Upsets in the West Virginia state high school football playoffs are more magnified. Especially since each of the playoff fields – Class AAA, AA and A – were expanded to 16 teams in 1991.
The playoffs are determined by a ratings system, where teams receive points for a victory, plus bonus points for victories by teams they’ve beaten. Points received are also determined by the class of the opponent.
In the first round, the No. 1-seeded team plays the No. 16-seeded team in the first round, No. 2 plays No. 15 and so on with the higher-seeded team playing at home (or if the team’s home is not suitable, a location chosen by the home team and approved by the state’s high school athletic governing board, the Secondary School Activities Commission).
To put it in perspective, since the first year (1991), there were a combined 48 teams earning playoff trips, 456 first-round games and only 102 upsets (22.4 percent). The SSAC’s rating has been overwhelmingly accurate, with the majority of the upsets coming from the No. 9 team and the least amount being No. 16 versus No. 1 (four total and none since 1997). In fact, 27 of the 102 upsets (26.5 percent) have been No. 9 versus No. 8.
Although rampant transfers in the more-populated areas of the state have unbalanced the playing field to an extent, the fact remains that support from the community, stability and development of programs have proved to be mitigating factors.
Which brings us to University High School in Morgantown.
The No. 13 Hawks traveled more than 200 miles to face Spring Valley (near Huntington) and came away with a 23-0 victory last Friday night.
"It’s a good feeling, but I wouldn’t say it was an upset," University running back Micah Wilson told the Morgantown Dominion-Post.
No truer words may have ever been spoken when it comes to the Hawks and road playoff success. University has been universally successful on the road and at home in first-round games – the Hawks won as the favorite in 2008 and 2007.
Also, the later rounds have been kind to coach John Kelley and University. The Hawks, who visit No. 3 Bridgeport in the quarterfinals on Friday night, have earned four upsets (2008, 2007, 2005, 2000) as the quarterfinal underdog in seven tries since 2000.
The Indians are 1-3 in quarterfinal games since they moved to Class AAA in 2004, but only once have they been favored during that time. In a nutshell, the higher-rated team might be the favorite, but history means more than year-to-year success. Bluefield High School, for example, has a state-best all-time playoff percentage of .759 (41-12).
Their upsets have been considerable, with a total of five postseason road victories in the playoffs since 2000. Making that statistic even more impressive is that in three of those years the Beavers were rated No. 1 and didn’t go on the road.
As the top seed in 2007, Bluefield won the state title, outscoring opponents 154-56 in four games. In 2005, the Beavers were rated No. 11 and upset their way to the state title game. That year they outscored opponents 83-62 – and were defeated in the title game 40-0. There have been consolidations which have affected the playoff results over the past 19 seasons, but the fact remains – the traditional powers are successful no matter where the game is played.
Here is a rundown of the schools with the most first-round victories as underdogs since West Virginia moved to a 16-team playoff field in 1991:
4 – Wheeling Central, Matewan.
3 – University, Bluefield, Huntington, Ravenswood.
2 – Man, St. Marys, Pendleton County, Cabell Midland, Hurricane, Parkersburg, Magnolia, Bridgeport, Parkersburg Catholic, Mount View, Tucker County, Herbert Hoover, Wahama, Mount Hope, Musselman, Midland Trail.
1 – Martinsburg, James Monroe, Nitro, Chapmanville, Moorefield, Buffalo, St. Albans, South Charleston, Notre Dame, Grafton, Riverside, Jefferson, Parkersburg, Wayne, Meadow Bridge, South Harrison, Clay County, Princeton, Iaeger, Winfield, Tyler Consolidated, Burch, Doddridge County, Capital, Buckhannon-Upshur, Ripley, Keyser, Guyan Valley, Greenbrier East, Tucker County, Wheeling Park, Hedgesville, Greenbrier West, Duval, Tolsia, Weir, East Hardy, Bishop Donahue, Oak Glen, Van, Gilbert, Brooke, North Marion, Poca, Pocahontas County, Peterstown, Valley-Wetzel.
Rich Stevens, a sportswriter for the Charleston Daily Mail, covers West Virginia
for MaxPreps.
