Dreadnaughts to Set Sail for West Virginia
They will play one of the top teams from Pennsylvania on Labor Day.
By Roy Fuoco - The Ledger - Published: Friday, March 7, 2008

For the second time in three years, the Lakeland High football team will travel out of state to play a nationally ranked power from another state. This time, the Dreadnaughts are headed to West Virginia. Lakeland will play Pennsylvania powerhouse Pittsburgh Central Catholic on Sept. 1, Labor Day, one of three games scheduled for the Friends of Coal Classic.

The games will be played at Wheeling Island Stadium in Wheeling, W.Va., which seats 12,220 and is the site of the West Virginia state championships.

"The opportunity and the prestige it is to play in an event like this is huge for our program," Lakeland coach Bill Castle said.

Castle said the team had a great experience in 2006, traveling to Cincinnati to play St. Xavier at the University of Cincinnati.

The planning began last summer. There were details that had to be worked out.

The games originally were to be played on Aug. 30, a Friday and the date of the Kickoff Classics. But the state would not allow Lakeland to travel out of state to play in a Classic, and the earliest a regular season football game could be played was Sept. 1.

The result is Lakeland drops two home games from its schedule: the Classic against Hillsborough, and the opening game against Okeechobee.

"The Classic is a practice game," Castle said. "We'll lose that. It's not really that important."

Because the Florida High School Athletic Association gets 25 percent of gate receipts from Kickoff Classics, Castle said Lakeland won't lose much money. The West Virginia event is paying all of Lakeland's expenses to travel. Lakeland, which had eight home games last year, will have five home games this year.

"Our schedule was already hard, this makes it really hard," Castle said. "I have no problem playing a team of that caliber."

This wasn't the only out-of-state game that Lakeland had the opportunity to play. The Dreadnaughts also had the chance to play at South Panola (Miss.) but could only play one out-of-state game. Castle felt the game in West Virginia was a better opportunity.

"We're probably jumping in over our heads," Castle said. "We're going to be younger than last year."

Pittsburgh Central Catholic finished 16-0 last year, won Pennsylvania's Class 4A state title and finished ranked No. 11 by USA Today.