George Guido: Apollo-Ridge School District celebrates 50 years in existence

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, September 11, 2018 | 8:54 PM

Happy 50th birthday goes out to the Apollo-Ridge School District.

On Sept. 12, 1968, the Armstrong County School District gave the OK for six community school systems and two high schools to merge into one.

Apollo, North Apollo and Kiski Township from the original Apollo Area High united with Jacksonville, West Lebanon and Young Township, whose students generally went to Elders Ridge.

The high school didn’t officially get off the ground until July 1, 1969.

Apollo-Ridge, however, is a far cry from the original plan to divide Armstrong County into two school districts with two high schools.

Here’s one of the original plans:

* North Armstrong would have consisted of Kittanning, Ford City, Worthington, East Brady, Elderton, Shannock Valley and Dayton high schools.

* South Armstrong would have consisted of Freeport, Leechburg, Parks Township, Apollo and Elders Ridge.

But Freeport fought the plan in court because it wanted to stay with Buffalo Township and it would not be contiguous geographically with the Leechburg Area school system.

Freeport won the case.

One could only imagine the great sports teams that would have come out of those two high schools had they been created.

But back to the original plan.

Freeport and Leechburg together wasn’t as far-fetched as it sounds now.

That’s because a bridge was planned to cross the Allegheny River, connecting upper Freeport with the Schenley area of Gilpin Township. The late state Sen. Albert Pechan, R-Ford City, sponsored a bill to build the bridge.

However, there was no funding attached, and the bridge idea died. Instead, the aging Garvers Ferry Bridge connecting Freeport and Allegheny Township was replaced by the current, high-level Donald Lobaugh Bridge.

The South Armstrong idea then collapsed after the court case and the Lobaugh bridge construction.

Plus, Parks Township of Armstrong County had already committed to the Kiski Area School District, so South Armstrong never came about.

Getting to know you

The song “Getting to Know You” is from the Broadway musical “The King and I.”

But it could also be the theme of the current high school football season.

It seems as though every week consists of games where the competing schools have never met.

Just this week alone, Valley is at Imani Christian, Burrell hosts Uniontown, Deer Lakes welcomes Yough and Freeport is at home against Elizabeth Forward.

The move to six classifications, as predicted, has caused long-standing rivalries to evaporate.

It’s also caused problems at the gate. Attendance has been down for some time at many schools.

For instance, Uniontown is 0-3 and giving up an average of 51 points per game. Burrell is also 0-3. How many Uniontown fans will make the 58-mile trip to Buccaneer Stadium?

Thankfully, there are still some rivalries that show up on the schedule like Highlands at Knoch, two schools that have met 32 times in the past. The Knights lead the series, 17-15.

Valley will be playing Imani, ranked No. 2 in Class A by Trib Total Media, at Woodland Hills’ Wolvarena. The game was supposed to be played at Wilkinsburg’s Graham Field, the Saints’ home field now that Wilkinsburg High School has closed.

It was to be Valley’s first visit to Graham Field since Oct. 4, 1981 when the Vikings edged the Tigers, 7-6. But this week’s weather made Graham Field unplayable.

It also will be the first time Apollo-Ridge and East Allegheny have played since 1998, when the Wildcats won a Week 10 game.

East Allegheny also won two other encounters with the Vikings in 1986 and ’87.

George Guido is a Valley News Dispatch scholastic sports correspondent. His column appears Wednesdays.

Tags: Apollo-Ridge, Burrell, Deer Lakes, Freeport, Valley