The Camden and Woodrow Wilson High School football teams will hold their annual Thanksgiving Day football game on Thursday even though Camden will play at Cedar Creek in the NJSIAA/Rothman Orthopaedics Group 2 final on Saturday.
Camden coach Dwayne Savage confirmed there will be a game but he will hold out his starters.
“We’re going with guys that are never going to play a lot and develop some film,” said Savage. “With a couple days in between we could have let the starters play the first quarter, but with one day it just wouldn’t be the smart thing to do. They need rest and recovery.”
NJSIAA assistant director Jack Dubois said the organization recommends a team play no more than two games in a nine-day period and teams can not play twice within a 24-hour period, so Camden is free to utilize its roster how it wants on Thursday and Saturday.
The back log of games came about when Camden’s South Jersey Group 2 semifinal at Pleasantville was interrupted by gunfire in the stands on Nov. 15.
The remainder of the game was postponed five days and resumed last Wednesday at Lincoln Financial Field where the Panthers finished off a 22-0 victory and advanced to the final, which was scheduled for Saturday.
If Camden wins Saturday it will advance to the Group 2 regional championship game next Sunday at 1 p.m. at Rutgers against Hillside.
But there was still the matter of the Thanksgiving Day game and few options to fit it in with Dec. 8 already being the last day on the 2019 football calendar.
The game is always a big deal because it matches up the two Camden schools, which have met every year but one since 1933.
“A lot of people come back for this game,” acknowledged Savage.
Savage said after the win over Pleasantville he took a couple days to look at Woodrow Wilson but starting Monday everything was geared towards Cedar Creek.
Except of course the game in the middle of the week.
Woodrow Wilson won its second straight sectional title with a 54-30 win over Somerville last Saturday and will play on Nov. 8 at 10 a.m. against Wall in the Group 3 regional championship game.
Woodrow Wilson coach Preston Brown said on Saturday after winning the championship game he wanted the chance to play on Thanksgiving and honor the seniors in their last home game unless the school district decided otherwise. But he hadn’t thought too far ahead to how the game would play out.
“It’s Senior Day for us so we’re going to play,” said Woodrow Wilson coach Preston Brown after Saturday’s game. “We’ll cross that bridge (of who plays) when it comes.”
Brown was on Savage’s staff at Camden before becoming the Woodrow Wilson coach five years ago, but Savage said he wouldn’t talk to his friend and former assistant about how the teams should approach the contest.
“He can play it however he wants to play it,” said Savage. “I just have to do what’s best for my guys.”
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