Evening star., 1918-12-05
Central. ELEVEN
had MANY PLAYS
Blue and White Used More
Than College Teams, Ac-
cording to Its Coach.

Coach c. y. Metzler o. Central High
probably used more plays during the
last two seasons CT 4ct ball than
any collegiate gridiron instructor IN
;he south, according to q statement
made by him Il day or SO ago. In
1917 3IctZier's Championship scholas-
! tic aggregation learned eighty plays
and drring the abbreviated schedule
recently finished with the contest with
Western High the Blue and White
had forty plays in its repertoire.
| In view OF tie fact that the average
| college foot ball team has not more than
Il dozen plays, it is truly remarkable
that Metzlcr was able to teach his
! youngsters anything like the num-
Der he claims they learned. Expert
enced collegiate squads usually have
considerable difficulty mastering the
intricacies of ten plays, and that Il
high school organization was able to
get even the rudiments of SO many
times more speaks mighty well for the
coach.
Arrangements of big track meets in
the north plan to get together and
Z V
Swedish runners, to America this win
ter 10 take part in the indoor COM
petitions. The Meadow brook and
Mlirose clubs are back of the move
| ments, hoping to make their annual
/, meets even more attractive than
usual.
Even. star end at the Navy last fall.
has been elected TO the captaincy or
the foot ball team for 1919. Navy
!
/ done brilliant work in its backheid
during the past three seasonS-ln-
gram, Roberts and Whelchel.
The New York Sun makes the follow
ing comment on foot ball and attempts
a general ranking OF the teams. by piac-
/ ing Pittsburgh, first; Navy, second'
F. Syracuse, third. and Rutgers, fourth: =.
while the intercollegiate loot pan
season, which closed last Saturday, le1t
Il lot 10 be desired, it exceeded IN hahs
ways expectations made measer py our
presence in the world war anu tie lu,a tha
, niGable menace right in our n1ldst, the
influenza. In spite of serious hanalcaps'
the month of November developed a Sc
iies OF foot ball competitions wen worthy
of the highest traditions Oh tne Saiie-
contests which would have held their
major place even in a season marked ey
Harvard Yale-Princeton meetings. But
Wjthal it was a wartime season, With
wartime obstacles which beset many
colleges more than they did others: ANY
talk of awarding a championship In the
east or any other section of the country.
let alone deciding the national title, Is
prattle
! 'Undaunted by the formidab1ilty OF
task that was beyond the eHorts
of even the most enthusiastic critics
in peace times some experts nave
gone so far as give Pittsburgh the
national intercollegiate championship.
1t may very well be that there is no
other varsity eleven that could WIN
from Pittsburgh, but awarding, tl'ie
is unfair to colleges which were not
in position to send as many veter-
ans into the game as Pitt was able
to muster. Let this not be construed
as slap at Pitt or an attempt to
minimize the prowess and accom-
Dlishments of the Panthers. But it
must be appreciated that while Pitt
was able to send a truly representa-
tive eleven onto the field West Vir-
ginia, for instance, could not even
get time for practice.
However. while we are not dis
posed toward handing out any cham
'psonships no matter how sstrong the
claims be. we. .cannot ignore the fact