[16thregioner]

They didn’t have to recruit when I was in school. They had some really good teams. I believe one year Raceland was AP number 1 and Fairview came to Raceland and won.

Before Armco/AK Steel and CSX/Raceland Rail Yards moved out of town, it was conceivable that both Fairview and Raceland could field competitive teams without “transfers” or “recruits”, whatever you choose to call them.  However, since there are no jobs in these areas now, players from other schools are the lifeblood of these 1A programs.  Fairview went too far too fast a decade ago and the whole thing crashed, leaving them with a team with zero football transfers now.  To your credit, Raceland has done a better job than Fairview over the years of making their school and football program attractive to potential new players so they won the war between the two schools.  It will be a long time before that ever gets turned around for the Eagles.  That would require more parent and community interest, better and newer facilities, better coaching, better youth programs, and more administrative commitment.  It’s not going to happen, so we’re left with this debacle of a game for the foreseeable future.