Proposal on the table for Section 4 vs. Section 3 all-star football game
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Plans are in the works for an intersectional all-star football game that would supplant the longstanding Ernie Davis Exceptional Senior Classic.
A proposal calls for Liverpool High School to host the Big 44 Ernie Davis/Floyd Little All-Star Classic at noon Sunday, Nov. 20. The contest would pit seniors from Section 4 against their Section 3 counterparts, 44 players per side.
The idea was initiated by Section 3 officials and originally called for the inaugural to be played in the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse, said Jeff Paske, Section 4 football committee chair. The dome intentions subsequently fell through, he said, so the sides agreed to pursue the opportunity at Liverpool.
Plans call for the intended series to alternate between Section 3 and Section 4 venues, though potential dome availability would supersede that blueprint.
Appointed to serve as head coaches for the inaugural are Steve Virkler (Owego) and Kevin Deparde (retired, East Syracuse-Minoa). They are to head squads sporting replicas of jerseys worn by Davis and Little in their Syracuse University days.
Details of the Section 4 vs. Section 3 contest came in a release from the Central New York Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame Inc.
Should the Big 44 Ernie Davis/Floyd Little All-Star Classic come to fruition, it would mark the end of the Ernie Davis Exceptional Senior Classic, in which Section 4 seniors opposed one another. An autumn ago, Team West scored a 41-7 win against Team East — the first West victory since 2009.
That was the 31st edition of a series in which the East won 23 and lost eight.
That almost-annual game was named in honor of the late Ernie Davis, once an all-star running back at Elmira Free Academy who proceeded to Syracuse University — leading the Orangemen to the 1959 national championship — and in 1961 became the first African-American athlete to win the Heisman Trophy.
This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: HS football proposal: Section 4 vs. Section 3 all-star game
