Poly-City Tilt No Longer A Thanksgiving Treat BALTIMORE, MD (wypr) - For Poly football coach Roger Wrenn, each season begins with his players articulating their goals for the coming year.

The first, Wrenn says, is to beat their arch-rival City. The second is to win the city championship and to make the state playoffs.

And the third

"The last goal is beat City."

Until the city's school system joined the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Administration 16 years ago, that goal had to be accomplished in early November.

The first 104 of those games were played on Thanksgiving, and the change, made to accommodate state rules that require the regular season end in the middle of November so that the playoffs can begin, still rankles some.

Among them is City coach George Petrides, who recalls with fondness the annual Turkey Day doubleheader, pitting Poly and City against each other in one match and private schools, Loyola and Calvert Hall, in the other.

"It's even hard for me. I did like the game being on Thanksgiving. I still go to the Loyola-Calvert Hall every year. I just can't get it out of my system, football on Thanksgiving."

Petrides, who has coached at City since 1975, is not alone.

Walter Amprey, the former city school superintendent, lettered at Edmondson in the early 1960's, but recalls how special Thanksgivings were when City and Poly locked horns.

"It didn't matter whether you attended City or Poly. It was a city attraction. It was a part of the fabric of Baltimore, just like the old Baltimore Colts."

It was Amprey who signed off on bringing the city schools into the state system. And Amprey has found that, just like the Colts' departure in 1984, the move of the City-Poly game still roils, particularly among the older alums of the two schools.

"It's still a bit of an open wound. It's healing some, but it's still a bit of an open wound, just like the Colts leaving Baltimore as well."

Ned Sparks, the executive director of the state association, has fielded a number of complaint calls from City and Poly graduates about the situation over the years.

His choice to them is stark, but consistent: Opt out of the state tournament and play on Thanksgiving, or play on the second Saturday and have a chance to win a state title.

"That's the answer. They can do it if they choose to do it, but they have chosen not to and probably for good reason."

Wrenn, who has coached at Poly for three years after 32 years at Patterson, sees the desire among some to return to Thanksgiving as slightly outdated.

"I look at that as sort of going the same way as the people who used to deliver coal and ice and put together an evening newspaper. They were wonderful things when they happened, but they've kind of outlived their purpose a little bit."

Admittedly, Petrides has more of a connection to the game and to City than most. He played center for the Knights in the mid 1960's, snapping the ball to quarterback Kurt Schmoke, who later became mayor of Baltimore.

However, it's in his role as the school's athletic director and as the girls' basketball coach that he sees the bigger picture.

Had there not been a merger, Petrides said the city's girls athletic programs might have continued to languish, as they did under the old Maryland Scholastic Association.

And City would not have won the girls state 2A basketball title this year, the first in the 170-year history of the school, a feat shared by the boys team.

Petrides is certainly aware of the symbolism.

"It was a great feeling. It brought tears to many of our alumnus, male alumnus, that were waiting for this for a long time. And so, obviously, it meant a lot to all of us."

This proves, perhaps, that school spirit isn't just for Thanksgiving any more.

I'm Milton Kent, reporting in Baltimore, for 88.1 WYPR.
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