The one complaint I have about the high school football season is that it is too short. It seems like every year, just as I am getting into the excitement of the league race, the season is over and Sheridan walks away with another MVL title. Well, to alleviate some of this frustration, and to simply amuse myself, I have decided to start the Race of the Decade. Unfortunately, no additional games will be played, but rather I will track the progress of MVL teams in MVL play over the entire 2000-2009 decade; updating standings as the years go by. The current Race of The Decade standings are as follows:

MVL Race of the 2000s
Team	W	L	T	PF/G	PA/G	DIF	PCT	Titles	Playoffs
Sheridan	37	6	0	35.2	7.8	27.5	0.860	2	4
New Lexington	32	11	0	26.7	15.2	11.6	0.744	2	2
John Glenn	30	13	0	26.9	13.6	13.3	0.698	0	2
Crooksville	23	20	0	19.4	19.1	0.3	0.535	0	2
West Muskingum	21	22	0	17.6	18.3	-0.8	0.488	0	1
Morgan	20	23	0	19.0	26.1	-7.1	0.465	1	1
Maysville	13	30	0	12.9	26.6	-13.7	0.302	0	0
Tri-Valley	11	32	0	15.3	27.3	-12.0	0.256	0	0
Philo	10	33	0	11.0	25.7	-14.7	0.233	0	0

Looks like Sheridan has a commanding lead, but New Lex could stay in the hunt if they make a title run in 2005, and Sheridan drops a game or two. Philo, Maysville & Tri-Valley are not mathematically eliminated, but for them to stand a chance come 2009, Sheridan and New Lex would have to go under .500 in league play for each of the next five season. Sheridan hasn't done worse than .500 since 1989, and New Lex has only had one season under the .500 mark since Bill Nutt took the reigns.

The following graph shows the progress through the rankings for each team over the past 5 years. Who do you think will end up in the top spot after the 2009 season?

RNK	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
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4
5
6
7
8
9
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Note: River View will be graphed based on their record through 2002

For my part, I think New Lex has a good chance of closing the gap. Though it seems that Culver's teams are unstoppable in MVL play, 2005 could be a bit of a challenge for Sheridan with the loss of several key players to graduation. Culver has a reputation for rebuilding teams in the course of an off-season, but perhaps New Lex can capitalize on an early season match-up next year and pull one out. I expect to see big things from Travis Cook over the next two seasons, he should be a big contributor to the Panthers bid for Team of the Decade.

Look for Crooksville to be a bit of a spoiler. Despite the loss of Seniors Gorby and Patton, Crooksville remains strong with Van Meter, Corp and Danison all returning. The confidence gained last season might well carry the Ceramics to a strong title bid in 2005.

Don't look to see a repeat of 2004 from John Glenn. The Little Muskies are fielding a gargantuan (by MVL standard) Senior class in 2005, most of whom are well experienced; and under the consistent leadership of John Kelley, look for John Glenn to have a strong outing in 2005.

As for the rest of the field, I look to see West stay toward the middle of the pack for the next few seasons. Pending the coaching situation, look for Morgan to fall away a bit. I know many in the Philo community are holding out great hope for Carter Paul. As he will be only a sophomore in 2005, he could well be what the Electrics faithful have been looking for to lead them back to the prominence of the early 1980s. Only time will tell.

For anyone wondering what the final tally would have looked like for a race of the 1990s, 1980s & 1970s, here they are:

MVL Race of the 1990s
Team	W	L	T	PF/G	PA/G	DIF	PCT	Titles	Playoffs
Sheridan	80	10	0	31.2	10.6	20.7	0.889	7	6
Crooksville	63	27	0	23.9	11.4	12.5	0.700	3	4
John Glenn	49	41	0	19.0	17.4	1.6	0.544	0	0
Morgan	45	45	0	19.1	20.3	-1.2	0.500	2	1
Philo	45	45	0	17.9	18.8	-0.9	0.500	2	1
River View	43	47	0	15.8	19.7	-3.9	0.478	0	0
Tri-Valley	40	50	0	17.1	19.5	-2.4	0.444	0	0
Maysville	37	53	0	17.0	20.0	-2.9	0.411	0	0
New Lexington	33	57	0	16.7	21.3	-4.6	0.367	1	0
West Muskingum	15	75	0	11.2	30.0	-18.9	0.167	0	0

MVL Race of the 1980s
Team	W	L	T	PF/G	PA/G	DIF	PCT	Titles	Playoffs
Philo	59	30	1	17.7	10.8	6.8	0.656	4	3
Crooksville	50	38	2	15.2	13.3	1.9	0.556	0	5
Tri-Valley	50	40	0	17.3	16.7	0.6	0.556	1	0
Sheridan	49	40	1	17.9	13.8	4.1	0.544	3	3
John Glenn	46	43	1	16.9	14.1	2.7	0.511	1	1
Morgan	45	45	0	15.8	17.2	-1.4	0.500	1	1
Maysville	45	44	1	14.5	14.6	0.0	0.500	0	0
River View	36	53	1	15.3	20.7	-5.4	0.400	0	0
West Muskingum	34	55	1	12.4	16.8	-4.3	0.378	1	1
New Lexington	32	58	0	13.8	18.7	-5.0	0.356	0	0

MVL Race of the 1970s
Team	W	L	T	PF/G	PA/G	DIF	PCT	Titles	Playoffs
New Lexington	68	15	2	27.5	8.9	18.7	0.800	7	1
John Glenn	47	35	4	16.3	11.3	5.0	0.547	2	1
Crooksville	44	40	2	14.8	12.5	2.3	0.512	2	2
Sheridan	43	39	4	12.2	13.3	-1.1	0.500	1	0
Morgan	42	42	2	13.5	15.4	-1.9	0.488	2	0
Maysville	40	43	2	13.4	14.8	-1.4	0.471	1	0
West Muskingum	38	41	5	15.2	14.6	0.6	0.452	0	0
Philo	30	55	1	12.5	20.7	-8.2	0.349	1	0
River View	18	34	2	10.5	21.2	-10.7	0.333	0	0
Tri-Valley	27	53	6	9.3	16.3	-7.0	0.314	0	0