RIHS Football Poll – Preseason

The start of another high school football season brings the start of another tradition – The Rhode Island High School Football Media Poll.

Johnston's varsity squad begins the season ranked 12th in the state. The Panthers recently won back-to-back shutouts against North Providence on Aug. 31 [27-0] and Ponaganset on Sept. 8 [40-0]. 

The poll is compiled thanks to the hard work of Eric Rueb, a sports editor with Southern Rhode Island Newspapers. Patch’s ballot is cast by , the local editor of the South Kingstown and Narragansett site.

Without further ado, here is the preseason media ballot, followed by the Patch ballot.

MEDIA BALLOT

Rank Team Points Last Year Patch # 1 La Salle (6) 196 2 2 2 Hendricken (3) 187 1 1 3 Portsmouth 180 7 3 4 Barrington 163 12 5 5 Cranston East 139 20 6 6 Tolman 122 14 4 7 East Providence 116 5 10 8 St. Ray's 112 15 8 9 South Kingstown 109 4 7 10 Westerly 99 9 11 11 Cranston West 89 10 9 12 Johnston 88 NR 13 13 Cumberland 64 11 NR 14 Rogers 55 8 15 15 Central 54 6 12 t-16 Woonsocket 44 NR 17 t-16 Middletown 44 16 NR 18 Chariho 39 3 14 19 West Warwick 37 13 16 20 Toll Gate 29 NR NR

Also receiving votes: Mount Hope (27), Shea (20), Moses Brown (20), Classical (10), Exeter-West Greenwich (10), Narragansett (7), North Smithfield (7), East Greenwich (5), Lincoln (4), Mount Pleasant (3), Ponaganset (2), Warwick Veterans (1), Smithfield (1).

The Rhode Island Sports Media football poll is voted on by nine local media members who regularly cover Rhode Island high school football. The poll is administrated and compiled by Eric Rueb of Southern Rhode Island Newspapers.

PATCH BALLOT

At this time of year, it’s really hard to make determinations about most of these teams, especially since I’ve only seen six of them play. I was doing PA announcing for the Chariho High School Injury Fund last week, so I saw Chariho, South Kingstown, North Kingstown, Narragansett, East Greenwich and Westerly play.

Of those six teams, only Westerly looked better than I thought they would, but they were also playing against Division III Narragansett. East Greenwich beat North Kingstown – The Skippers are a division up on the Avengers, but the North Kingstown program has been down for a while, so I don’t know how impressive that win is.

I was generally instep with the media poll, although I didn’t have Cumberland, Middletown or Toll Gate on my ballot. However, like I said, this is the preseason poll with just Injury Fund games to go on, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the composition of my ballot is completely different next week.

Rank Team Media Last Week 1 Hendricken 2 N/A 2 La Salle 1 N/A 3 Portsmouth 3 N/A 4 Tolman 6 N/A 5 Barrington 4 N/A 6 Cranston East 5 N/A 7 South Kingstown 9 N/A 8 St. Ray's 8 N/A 9 Cranston West 11 N/A 10 East Providence 7 N/A 11 Westerly 19 N/A 12 Central 15 N/A 13 Johnston 12 N/A 14 Chariho 18 N/A 15 Rogers 14 N/A 16 West Warwick 19 N/A 17 Woonsocket t-16 N/A 18 Burrillville NR N/A 19 Classical NR N/A 20 Exeter-West Greenwich NR N/A

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