By Richard Kellam

“Well, I was born in a small town,” starts the 1985 hit single “Small Town” by John Mellencamp. Those of us who did indeed grow up in a small town understand the joys of living in a small tightly knit community and of course you attended a small school.

I attended a small high school while growing up in the 1950s and ’60s in Crisfield where virtually all secondary school with the exception of Wi-Hi, Cambridge and Easton had enrollments under 300. All across the country it was common procedure to establish a high school in each town or village with a fairly sizable population.

Small communities like Marion, Pittsville, Vienna, Preston, Sudlersville to name a few all had their own high schools. Crisfield High School athletics in those days played teams from Delaware and Virginia — all of them have now been closed and consolidated — the lone exception being Delmar. There was no Bayside Conference until 1972.

Varsity teams at Wicomico High School, the Shore’s lone Class A school, were forced to leave the area to find competition at their level. Maryland divided schools into three classes, A, B and C from 1950 to 1960 the present four class format was instituted in 1961.

Crisfield High made seven consecutive trips to the State Basketball Tournament from 1956 to 1962 each time they played an opponent of similar enrollment. The Crabbers squared off against Manchester and Centreville in 1956, Frederick Sasscer and Hancock in 1957. Over the years six of the schools CHS played during this span have been closed, five have jumped to a higher class.

Mount Hebron, which the Crabbers defeated in 1980, is now 3A, College Park opponents Walkersville, Middletown and Poolesville are all rated 2A.

Baltimore City was admitted into the Maryland Public Schools Secondary Athletic Association (MPSSAA) in 1993 adding 19 new member institutions, seven including Edmondson and Lake Clifton which are currently 1A. The State has created 11 specialty schools over the past 15 years such as International School at Largo, College Park Academy and the Seed School and statewide a total of 75 new secondary schools have been established adding to the MPSSAA membership total.

Montgomery County built 10 new schools, Howard nine, Southern Maryland seven, Western Maryland 11, but only six new high schools on the Eastern Shore. How does that affect Crisfield High? The majority of these new schools are 4A or 3A. It’s had a definite impact on the classification system. These larger schools have pushed many of the prior 3A and 2A institutions to lower rankings.

Crisfield High in 2021-22 has an enrollment of 254 and the Crabbers are eighth from the bottom of Class 1A. The count rises significantly as you move up the list. Boonsboro with 673 tops the 1A, the next 24 have at least 500. CHS has fallen way behind in the numbers game.

“It’s not like it used to be when I was in school. The bigger schools only had a couple hundred more than we did it wasn’t that big a difference,” said Crisfield’s Athletic Director Greg Bozman. CHS, Pocomoke, Snow Hill and St. Michaels are all in the bottom 10 of 1A, Hancock which the Crabbers played at Cole Field House in 1961 and 1964 has only 103 students.

Case in point, look at Baltimore City teams Lake Clifton and Edmondson both were 4A at one time before the City began downsizing and both have won State titles at higher levels. Lake Clifton has won a State crown in all four classes, the only school in the history of the MPSSAA to do so. They both are 1A now, their size is down but not the talent level, they can still play with the big schools.

“I think we need a revision of classification,” said CHS soccer Coach Harold Frock. The Crabbers fare well against 1A rivals but struggle with the bigger schools in soccer and field hockey, likewise in the other sports at CHS.

Maryland has expanded the football playoffs to six classes this year following the example of many other states. Virginia has six classes for all sports the smallest group 1A is 474 students or less, 23 of Maryland’s 1A schools would fit in their 2A which goes up to 735 and so on. Virginia has 623 member schools compared to Maryland’s 200.

Reclassification for smaller institutions would be difficult, there’s not enough small schools left.

“I didn’t see any difference, the bigger the school the harder we played,” said former Crabbers star Andy Collins who played from 1994 to 1997. The Crabbers could more than hold their own against the Bayside’s 3A and 2A schools in basketball but Dunbar, Lake Clifton and Edmondson were not in the mix. The playing field is different now, it makes little difference if an Edmondson is 4A or 1A, the talent is still present.

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