High school coaches begin to warily accept Friday night ACC football

Sean Crocker, a former North Carolina safety and current head coach of Panther Creek High School, has seen college football begin to encroach on high school football’s hallowed ground – Friday night lights – for few years.

Wake Forest and East Carolina have each played multiple Friday games. This Friday, N.C. State visits Virginia Tech.

“I think it’s safe to say it’s just beginning,” Crocker said. “I’m like a lot of people; I don’t particularly like it. Friday night, I think, should be for the high school game. … I don’t think a lot of good comes for high school football by having college football on Friday night.”

When the ACC first began to explore playing games on Friday night, N.C. high school football coaches were vocally opposed. It was a hot-button issue.

Now, perhaps due to steady coaching turnover in the high school ranks – since 2010, more than half of the state’s high schools have new coaches – the opposition is no longer as unified or as strong.

Meanwhile, the ACC has upped its Friday night games steadily – one in 2012, three last year, five this year.

Coaches are resigned to the new reality but hope it’s limited.

And to its credit, N.C. State has said it has requested to not host any home Friday games, which will keep those season-ticket holders from having to make a tough decision.

“The bigger conflict to me would be if the game was here in town,” Broughton coach Billy Lane said. “I would think that a family would be much less likely to skip the high school game if they were just going to sit at home and watch Duke or State or UNC. I think the more likely chance for the conflict would be if they were at home and had a chance to be in the stadium, under the lights at an ESPN game.”

How we got here is no mystery.

By agreeing to play some games on Friday, the ACC’s TV deal with ESPN generates more money and the contract becomes more lucrative. The network has a hole in its Friday night lineup, and college football can bring in great ratings.

In that light, Friday ACC games make sense (except that the host school can’t host many recruits, who are playing that night).

“If I wasn’t coaching, but I was an avid college fan, I would enjoy watching a college football game Friday and then being able to watch them again Saturday,” said Wake Forest High coach Reggie Lucas. “Unfortunately, if you are an N.C. State fan and a high school fan, you do have to make a choice as far as coming out to support the high school or staying home and watching,”

Athletic directors around the state are hoping folks will choose the former. The advent of the DVR will surely help some choose “both.”

But everything at the high school level has a price to pay.

Does your school need new volleyball uniforms? What about refinishing the gym floor? New bleachers?

Football gate money helps buy that.

Conference championship trophies are bought by conference basketball tournament money.

There are bake sales, silent auctions and car washes going on every month around the state just so a high school can get a few more bucks to help get something practical for its athletics programs.

Some coaches question how much of an overlap there is between fans who would rather stay home to watch their favorite college team and those who would want to come out for a Friday night game.

“I don’t think it would make that big of a difference on the gate,” Fuquay-Varina coach Jeb Hall said. “You’re going to have a few, but it’s not going to be a majority.”

“I don’t know how much that really affects us, especially here in Wake Forest,” Lucas said. “If you’re a fan of the Cougars, you’re going to come out and support us Friday night regardless if there’s a big game on TV or if there’s a local game.”

I hope they’re right.

This story was originally published October 8, 2015 at 12:29 PM with the headline "High school coaches begin to warily accept Friday night ACC football."