MIKE BURKE
Allegany Communications Sports
Ran into the Frankfort Falcons line last Thursday night.
No, seriously. We dine at the same restaurant and they were having a group dinner and I stopped by their table to wish them well, briefly interrupting their business meeting,
Very gracious and poised young men, these guys were polite and well-spoken and we had a friendly conversation; and as I walked away from their table I had no doubt they would win the state championship the following night in Charleston.
Actually, the moment they walked into the place there was no doubt they were going to beat Roane County for the West Virginia Class AA state championship. Averaging 6-foot-3, 305 pounds, they make quite an entrance, looking every bit the part of an NCAA FBS team. I mean, their backs are where sunsets go to die, so you don’t want to be facing them if you’re afraid of the dark.
Well, it didn’t take long for Roane County to see the dark, as the Falcons not only beat the Raiders, they manhandled the Raiders by a not-that-close score of 49-14. And when I say manhandle I mean it in the truest sense of the definition, which is “handle (someone) roughly by dragging or pushing.”
Or, my favorite: “move (a heavy object) by hand with great effort – ‘seven guys had to manhandle the piano down the stairs’”, which is funny, because when they came into the restaurant I asked them if they were there for the piano movers convention.
The Falcons would make quite an entrance on Friday night, as well, as Roane County pulled some tricks out of the bag to put together a nice possession to start the game. Having moved the ball to the Frankort 15, Roane sent a screen pass to Shay Harper.on 4th and 4, and not only did it initially appear that Harper would get the first down, it appeared he would get much more because the left sideline looked open all the way to the end zone.
That changed in the wink of a young girl’s eye, as Harper seemed to be running in sand and Frankfort’s pursuit quickly closed, keeping the Raiders running back short of the first down; and for all intents and purposes, the game had been decided even before the Falcons touched the ball.
Yet when they did touch the ball on the next play, along the very same sideline, except going the other way, to the surprise of no one, running back Carder Shanholtz burst through the December night and took it 89 yards for the first Frankfort touchdown. On the second play the Falcons touched the ball it was Jullian Pattison going 41 yards for the second Frankfort touchdown, and behind the offensive line of Daniel Marley, Bryer Michaels, Caden Whitacre, Lane Lease and Brayden Shipway, the Falcons would need just 18 plays to score four more touchdowns to make it 42-0.
If this game had been a fight, it wouldn’t have been sanctioned. Oh, wait. We already covered that …
Anyway, the Falcons closed their season in a befitting manner to which they played it, dominating a previously undefeated team in the state championship game to finish a season in which they outscored their opponents by an average of 45-7, with that beautiful 14-0 forever attached to their name and to their legacy.
Hard as it is to believe, this is the first football state championship in Frankfort’s rich 49-year history. There have been many great and worthy teams that have come before this team, and as every school in the country finds out the hard way, circumstance sometimes gets in the way of the best-laid plans and the most well-stocked teams for a state championship.
But this Frankfort team left no doubt, from beginning to end.
Just as clear, there have been many great football coaches in Frankfort history, beginning with the great Jim Fazzaolore, who started and built the Frankfort program. He was followed by more head coaches who fortified the Fazzalore foundation and took this program to such great heights.
Still, Kevin Whiteman is the perfect head coach to have taken Frankfort High School football to the promised land. It just means that much to him, and that is something he wears on his chest as a badge of honor. And love.
From the day it was clinched, the state championship of the 1975 Ridgeley Blackhawks, the greatest of Ridgeley teams, also coached by Faz, has been held in the highest regard. And, particularly for those of us who saw that team and knew that team, it always will be.
But now Frankfort has a team that will be talked about and remembered, and held in that same elite regard. Beginning last Friday evening, it is the 2024 Frankfort team that became the team that all future Frankfort teams will be measured by – at least until the next football state championship at Frankfort.
Yet make no mistake, even when that does happen, it will be this team that will still be held as the standard. That’s just the way it works, and that’s just how good this team has been.
Made perfect by the rousing welcome home from the community, it was the perfect ending to the perfect story.
If it were a Hollywood script, not one Frankfort alum or fan who would change a word of it.
Mike Burke writes about sports and other stuff for Allegany Communications. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in 1984, serving as sports editor for over 30 years. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X @MikeBurkeMDT