Historical soccer follow up

Thanks to those who viewed, shared, or contacted me about the previous post on pre-1950 south-central PA soccer. I have a couple local leads and will soon branch out beyond newspaper-based research. I also had an interesting twitter exchange with Ted Westervelt (@soccerreform). He's an activist and strong believer in soccer's American roots. Among other things, he talked about western PA as an "overlooked cradle of American soccer." From what I know, I completely agree with him. However, I am not sure I effectively communicated to him how different the demographics of south-central Adams County are from the Pittsburgh area, which is four hours away on today's roads. My view, which is upheld by my research so far, is that soccer did not begin the early 20th century with passionate roots in south-central PA. Unlike western PA with its recent working-class European immigrants, Adams county was largely a farming community with ancestors who  arrived in the 1700s, long before the game as we know it was developed. Instead I think the county's smaller schools, with their limited funds and tiny student bodies, embraced the game as their way into the "golden age of sport." We will see if what I find continues to bear my view out. Immigrants with a passion for soccer have in fact had an enormous effect on our local game, but that is a different story, one which won't unfold for another 50 years or so after the one I am hoping to tell.

Now how, if at all, did local players of the 20s and 30s participate in the wider world of soccer? Were they completely isolated, playing some clumsy farmhand version of the sport? I don't think so at all; but that answer will need to wait.

Timeline of Adams County soccer since 1922

Based on contemporary newspaper reports.
Here's a direct link to a full-sized version for a closer look.

Beneath the history of the current high school soccer programs in Adams County, PA, there's an older story. I have been researching this history lately with plans of writing a short piece. It's a surprise to some that the sport was even played before recent decades. Adams County is a rural area, little influenced by early 20th century immigration of soccer-playing Europeans. Nonetheless, soccer was for some years the fall sport of choice for all the smaller schools in the county. As I research and write, I thought I would put this working timeline out there in hopes of sparking interest and perhaps leading me to to new information that will correct or refine the information above. Please share and tweet or comment with any ideas or leads. Thanks!

For anyone not familiar with the area, the Arendtsville Vocational school is no more. After 1947, its students went to (relatively) larger Biglerville high. East Berlin and York Springs are now Bermudian Springs. Fairfield also closed after 1947, though it reopened in a few years. It was the closure of Arendtsville and Fairfield and the dropping of soccer in favor of football at Littlestown that brought an end to the brief post-WWII revival of the Adams County Soccer League.

I made a timeline for 1950-present as well, just for perspective. I left league championships off of this one, as this is not the era I'm writing about and they are easy enough to look up. For the record, I believe Gettysburg, Biglerville, and Fairfield all have league titles and that Biglerville has a couple of district titles as well.

Finally a warm-ish day

Cabin Fever

More snow, more cold here in the mid Atlantic.  I like to think of it as healthy stream levels for the coming year. I've spent a lot of time tying, mostly my basic ties for small stream fishing, which is what I like the best and do the most of. I'm expanding my soft hackle arsenal this year. Last year, my main soft hackle representative was a bead head peacock and partridge. It's a nymph, it's an emerger, it might even be a streamer. I'll be tying plenty more of those, but I also got myself some of the classic stuff: Pearsall's silk thread. (Here's a partridge and yellow.)

I tied a batch of Syl's Midge and Starling and Herls too. Of course there are plenty of feathers on a Hungarian Partridge too big for many tradition ties. But I remember catching fat brookies on a north central PA camping trip in 2012 with herl-bodied, partridge-collared wooly bugger. So I made a few and used up some of those oversized feathers. I've never used these flies on anything but eager wild brook trout. I hope I can put them to the test on more fish in a few weeks.

Herl body, partridge collar  wooly bugger, #12

Chenile body, grouse collar, #12