Allen, Dieruff ready for a fresh start in new league

http://www.mcall.com/sports/varsity/mc-cover-story-football-preview-20120825,0,4840574.story FROM THE MORNING CALL Something had to be done. That's the conclusion that was made as the lopsided losses mounted for the Allen and Dieruff football programs in the Lehigh Valley Conference in recent years. As hard as it was to acknowledge that their kids couldn't compete against the other large schools in their own backyard, the Allentown School District felt they needed a major change. They sought an exit from the Lehigh Valley Conference in football and said hello to what appears to be a more level playing field in the Mountain Valley Conference. » YOUR TEAM. YOUR GEAR. YOUR WAY. Click here, for the latest High School and College gear! Whether the Canaries and Huskies can actually experience some success in the MVC is one of the more intriguing questions entering this 2012 high school football season. Why leave the LVC where everybody is within a half-hour's drive of everybody else? The numbers tell the story and perhaps last Sept. 16 said it best — Freedom 76, Allen 0, in one stadium, Whitehall 73, Dieruff 0, in another. Neither team won a league game over someone other than themselves since 2005, and as the lopsided scores rolled in every Friday night even the staunch "never give up" traditionalists began to wonder "what's the point?" So, it's on to a fresh start in a new league, against schools Allentown kids have barely even heard about, much less visited. The hope is that the games will be more competitive and more people will become interested in the team and in the community. "It's nice that I won't have to tell the kids that this team mercy-ruled us by that score last year or tell them what they did to us two years ago," first-year Allen coach George Clay said. "It's a fresh start, a clean slate. The kids can just go and play and not worry about what's happened in the past."