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There's something special about the start of the high school football season, be it the fall chill in the air, the beginning of another academic year or the fact that everybody's undefeated.
It's all especially magnified in a small town, where Friday nights become a stadium gathering of anticipation, spirit and a place to celebrate community.
Sadly in Williamsburg, after 95 years of football, that's no longer.
The Blue Pirates learned last week that their program would be merging with neighboring Juniata Valley.
Board president and community leader Barry England became emotional and had to gather himself in relaying the news.
Fellow longtime Williamsburg fixtures felt the same void.
"It was eventually going to happen," Dave Baker, who coached the Pirates for 31 seasons (1970-2001) and is now the head coach at Central, said. "But it's still sad and disappointing to see."
"I always thought to compete well in the ICC (Inter-County Conference), you needed 17 guys who could play because you're going to have injuries. They were down to 17, even with ninth graders."
More than any other sport, because of attrition through injuries, football needs critical mass, and the size of Williamsburg's graduating classes, often hovering under 40 -- boys and girls total -- can't guarantee that.
Truly, it hasn't been able to guarantee that for several years.
The fact is Baker and the coaches after him -- Glenn Kagarise, Dick Baronner, Bob Hearn and Ryan Hileman -- did all they could to sustain the program.
"I give credit to the coaches, the kids, the school board, the school (administration) -- all those people," Rich Tate, who worked the press box as the clock operator for 10-plus years along with announcer Brady Appleman, said. "I think people have tried hard to keep things going here."
"A lot of people could see it coming," said Williamsburg historian and former basketball coach Don Appleman, who played football for the Pirates (along with his father, brother and son). "We have 19 or 20 kids on the roster, but there may have only been 14 that we could put in a varsity game."
In the interest of safety, the district did the right thing.
It was never a question of inadequate coaches. Baker has certainly proven that at Central, where he's 81-37 through 10 seasons.
Nor was there an issue with the players not caring or playing hard. There just weren't enough of them.
"The kids were tough enough," Baker said. "They played as hard as they could. They could be proud of their performance."
Baker went 126-170-11 at Williamsburg, one of the state's smallest schools. Vince Lombardi couldn't have done much better.
Baker's best single-season records were 10-0-1 with a tie against Chestnut Ridge for the Mid-Penn Conference title in 1984 and 12-1 with a loss to Laurel Valley in the 1989 District 6 Class 1A final.
His teams also went 6-3, 7-3 and 8-2 during a stretch in the mid-1970s. The only problem was Bellwood-Antis, Southern Huntingdon, Juniata Valley and Northern Bedford were peaking at the same time.
To Baker, it was simple: "When there were enough good players, you had a good team."
And yet, the numbers made success hard to sustain.
"It had grated on my mental and physical state," Baker said of his decision to step down in 2001, after which he was an assistant at Ridge before becoming head coach at Central, his alma mater.
Offseason programs gave way to other sports. Coaches needed to be accepting, rather than iron-fisted. In-season practice was compromised. There were varsity classes that weren't part of a win, and occasions when Baker balked at taking the team to a mismatch on the road.
"There were a couple times we went to (ICC) meetings and said 'we're not playing all these teams,'" he said. "We didn't say we wouldn't play (rival) Bellwood, but there were people far away geographically that we liked and respected and admired who we didn't think it was fair for us to play."
So now the page will turn and Williamsburg's players will integrate with Juniata Valley, a challenge but an opportunity for all.
"We have all the confidence our administration is doing what's best for the kids, and the kids that want to play football will have that opportunity," Appleman said.
And yet, he and the Williamsburg community will miss the scene, the homecoming, the connection to the past.
"It would have been 100 years in 2026," Appleman said.
"It was something to do every Friday night in the fall and not just for me but for a lot of adults and the kids in the band and the cheerleaders -- and Williamsburg fans were always loyal to the kids," Tate said. "We're going to miss it. A lot of people are going to miss it."
This is unfortunately the Blue Pirates' greatest gridiron loss, but in the grand scheme of life, Williamsburg -- its players, coaches and community -- deserves a W for fielding a team as long as it did.
Rudel can be reached at 814-946-7527 or nrudel@altoonamirror.com.