Planning Underway for Huntington 100

There’s a new head coach in town and he thinks that Huntington 100 is going to be exciting for fans to watch and a lot of fun for everyone. One month into the Ron Wilson era, planning for the 100th season of the Huntington High School football team is well underway.

Most of those plans are still under wraps, but here’s a few hints: Prepare to hit the links on June 12 for a round of golf with proceeds to benefit Huntington 100; Get set for the first week of practice to be held many miles from Blue Devil Stadium at an upstate camp; Visualize Big Blue taking the field for a home night game on a Friday evening in September.

Only the ninth head coach in Huntington football history, Wilson and his named assistants have already held several intramural sessions that have drawn dozens of players. He organized a 7 a.m. meeting that nearly 50 potential players attended in the School Heritage Museum. He’s been holding intramural training sessions that have drawn dozens of players He’s planning a flag football camp this summer for elementary and middle school students. He’s been working the phones and making the rounds visiting alumni who he hopes will support Huntington 100.

Wilson is all about bringing people together; developing young people to take pride in hard work and in helping each other succeed. His ideas concerning Huntington 100 go beyond building up the team.

After several previous attempts to launch a football program were frustrated by world war, the expected coach leaving the employ of the school district and other issues, Huntington High School finally fielded its first team in the fall of 1924. Alton R. Stevens was installed as the first coach.

Stevens lasted only one year and compiled a record of 0-4-1, but 99 years later the Blue Devil football program is still taking the field. The program has played to an all-time record of 434-325-30 for a .569 winning percentage. The team’s most successful decade was the 1940s when Huntington won 76 percent of its games.

Huntington won the Rutgers Trophy in 1948, 1949 and 1952. The Blue Devils haven’t gone undefeated in 75 years. The 1948 team went 8-0.