Lot of thoughts
1. There is no such thing as a “down year” for SJP, at least there isn’t in the traditional sense. They are down this year compared to their own standard of “one of the best five teams in the last 40 years” like they’ve had on multiple occasions in this run (with last year probably being the best) but they’re not “down” in terms of any competitive sense of the word. The difference between SJP and some of the programs listed is range. A down year for SJP is they will have to win tough games to make the state final, and a good year is they will beat the entire field by 3+ touchdowns. For most other “power” schools, the up year is an SJP down year and the down year is they’re above .500 but not a credible threat to get to the state playoffs. That’s not a valued judgment or a statement that they’re doing something wrong, they’re just playing a different game. I said this on another thread, but I think this SJP team has more guys with FBS offers than all of District 11, and that is a “down” year.
I’m sure SJP people feel about this team the way I felt about the 2007 Easton wrestling team that made the the state finals. Incredibly tough, gritty bunch with a lot of kids who got so much better during the year and punched above their weight, won a dual they had no business winning to get a D11 team title, and it was a phenomenal accomplishment to extend the state finals streak to seven years in a “down” year. They also had two multi-time state champs, a 2x Division II NCAA champ, and an Olympian so calling that a “down” team is absolutely ridiculous even if they weren’t as good as the previous decade or so of teams.
2. SJP is exceptionally well coached. Taking elite players and getting the most out of them is a skill, but I think a totally different set of skills than taking whatever you have and getting the most out of kids who aren’t as talented. The priority for SJP and PCC is the former (and SJP does it MUCH better) while the priority is the latter for a lot of the schools they’re competing against. Not everybody can coach elite kids, Tim Rokfen and co. obviously can. I get why you’d send your kid there if he’s elite, and obviously tons of parents every year do too. They’re not going away for that reason.
3. Why doesn’t every school get SJP results because they have open boundaries? It comes down to want to. If a school like that wants to be good at football, they can. But that entails going and getting a coaching staff you think can do it, aggressively finding and courting kids, finding financial aid for them where necessary and making sure admissions is on board, committing to workout schedules and training opportunities, and having total alignment between the football staff and school administration. If you’re willing to do that, there’s no reason not to be awesome in whatever you choose to. Bethlehem Catholic hadn’t finished higher than 6th in the league in wrestling in 30 years, then within two years of a new administration was nationally ranked and haven’t finished lower than third in the state in over a decade. Scott Green went into his Wyoming Seminary interview and said “I can be Blair Academy if you let me” and went from having 6 kids on the team to top 2 in the country in five years. You have to want it, but if you do, only your ambitions stand in the way. Roman Catholic wants to be good at basketball, Kennedy Catholic wants to be good at basketball, Notre Dame wants to be good at wrestling. LaSalle wants to be good at swimming and lacrosse. SJP wants to be good at football, and outside of Imhotep, none of the other schools in their position want it as badly as they do.
4. Geography and culture have a lot to do with it too. Philadelphia is the biggest metro area in the state by a lot. The pool of potential students is so much bigger than ECP, Becahi/Central, PCC, whomever. Every kid can’t go there, but the metro are is 3x Pittsburgh, 6.5x the Lehigh Valley, and well more than that from everybody else. Not every kid can make it work at SJP, but the pool is gigantic.
5. You also have a huge Catholic school culture in the suburbs that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the state that creates competiton with other schools, but also makes it way more if a normal option to not go to your public school. This is the biggest difference between SJP and PCC, Catholic school is just not a normal thing in PIttsburgh suburbs
6. SJP benefits from the insane open enrollment high school process in Philly that has everybody looking for best individual options rather than be pipelined to a school - all of the neighborhood schools are schools of last resort that everybody is trying to apply out of anyway, whether that’s the magnet public’s, charters, or privates. Everybody in the city limits is already primed to look for options in a way that isn’t normalized anywhere else. Again, this isn’t a valued judgment, just reality on the ground.
7. Now getting to the self serving argument - I wish there was more variety in brackets. I’d love to see how D11’s best stack up with the best in D1, D3 and really anybody else but SJP. I think our statewide perception would be totally different if we didn’t have to play SJP in the first round every year. Hell, throw us in with the D group, we’d beat up State College every year if you let us rather than watch them walk to the final four all the time.
I’m sure I have more, but that’s what I think I can synthesize from this thread. Again, this isn’t meant to flame SJP, it’s an incredible program and as sick as I am of them winning all the time, I can’t help but respect that they’ve built.
