Colerain's 2009 Schedule Finalized!

Al Gabriel
WeAreColerain.com

Athletic Director Dan Bolden has confirmed that the Colerain Cardinals will open the 2009 season with a familiar foe and a long time playoff nemesis. Colerain will square off with St. Xavier in the Skyline Event for the third time in five years. The game time and day has not been finalized but it is believed the game will be played at UC’s Nippert Stadium on Friday August 28, @ 8:30 PM.

The rumors that have grabbed the most attention this off season have been about Colerain’s first ever trip to Elder to play in the famous ‘Pit’. While WeAreColerain.com confirmed the game in March, no official word had come from either Colerain AD Dan Bolden or Elder AD Dave Dabbelt until today. “We have a game 2” said Bolden this morning after the Northwest Local School Board approved the contract. How the game came about was a cause of internet debate and speculation. Bolden set the record straight regarding those rumors. “Once we decided not to return to the Herbstriet event it was a natural fit because Moeller and St. Xavier had already dropped the event months earlier and had already lined up opponents for week 2.” Elder will return the game to Colerain in 2010 when the Panthers make their first regular season trek to The Cage. (Elder played at Colerain in Week 1 of the 2004 playoffs)

There have also been rumors about the game being played on ESPN but Bolden couldn’t comment much about that right now other than to say “there is a very good reason we are playing on a Sunday at noon.”

Bolden said the main reason for the delay in the announcement of this game was “the contract for this event is different than regularly established games in part because a third party is involved.”

Colerain will play Harrison and Moeller in preseason scrimmages this season. Head Coach Tom Bolden said it would be unlikely that Colerain would add a third scrimmage per the new OHSAA rule allowing such a game. “there just isn’t enough time and with us playing Moeller, X and Elder out of the gate its probably for the best (that we don’t add another game)”

WeAreColerain.com will be updating this story and adding comments and reaction from players and head coach Tom Bolden through out the week. Please check back.

-Chris Himonidis contributed to this story.



Go Cards…WE ARE COLERAIN!