Northeastern last York/Adams public school to field football team
Northeastern Football Association president Joe Griffith is a prime reason why Northeastern Senior High School will field a football team this fall. ‘We were the largest school in the commonwealth not to have a football program. That’s not a title to be proud of,’ he said. To view a four-day series on how Northeastern football came to be, see York Daily Record/Sunday News reporter Sean McLernon’s Finally in the game. Background posts: Big Conewago separates Northeastern School District into two, Wolf Man, Wolfchester. No the village of Mount Wolf and New Weekly Records tell about community life.
Northeastern Senior High School will become the 22nd York Area Interscholatic Athletic Association team when the football is teed up on Friday, Aug. 29.
York Daily Record/Sunday News coverage of the addition of this costly sport in tight budgetary also showed that the YAIAA has more than doubled from its nine original teams in 1960.
The following YAIAA chronology, certain to be of interest, was part of that coverage:
YAIAA FOOTBALL HISTORY AT A GLANCE
1960: The York County Interscholastic Athletic Association is founded with nine football teams: Central York, Dallastown, Kennard-Dale, Littlestown, South Western, Spring Grove, Susquehannock, West York and York Suburban.
1964: Red Lion and Hanover join the league, bringing the total to 11 teams.
1966: Kennard-Dale and Littlestown leave the league.
1970: Vo-Tech (now York County Tech) increases the league’s total to 10 teams.
1974: Dover makes the YCIAA an 11-team league again by coming on board, and the league is split into two divisions.
1976: Kennard-Dale comes back to the league and Eastern York and York Catholic become the 13th and 14th teams to join the league.
1981: William Penn joins its neighbors in the YCIAA, coming from the Central Penn League.
1992: Delone Catholic, Littlestown and New Oxford all come to the league, now known as the York Area Interscholastic Athletic Association, from the Blue Mountain League.
2004: Bermudian Spring and Biglerville leave the Mid-Penn Conference to join the league now known as the York-Adams Interscholastic Athletic Association. Fairfield, another Adams County school, also comes on board after completing its first varsity season as an independent.
2008: Northeastern becomes the 22nd varsity football program in the YAIAA. It is the last public school in York or Adams counties to launch a football program.
