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District 11 Wrestling

Brackets are out!

#8 Parkland vs. #1 Bethlehem Catholic
#5 Northampton vs. #4 Notre Dame (GP)

#6 Emmaus vs. #3 Easton
#7 Whitehall vs. #2 Nazareth

So we'll (likely) get Easton-Nazareth II after all, hopefully without the controversy this time. Quarterfinals start at 11 AM, semifinals at 3 PM (where the state berths will be determined) and finals at 7 PM, all at Freedom High School in Bethlehem.

District 11 Wrestling

While we wait for brackets to come out, here are lineups for the weekend's contenders. State rankings noted by each team, state rankings, in season tournament places (BE = Beast of the East, IM - Ironman, ETR = Escape the Rock, TH = Top Hat, CVK = Cumberland Valley Kickoff Classic, BH = Bethlehem Hurricane Classic) , and last season's state finish with each wrestler.

#1 Bethlehem Catholic
Head Coach: Mike Cole (2nd season, PIAA Dual Champs 2024, PIAA Tournament Champs 2024)

107: #2 Nico Emili (Fr. 20-6): BE2, ETR6, PJW5
114: Louden Hower (So. 6-3)
121: #5 Reef Dillard (So. 19-7): ETR6, SQ
127: #1 Keanu Dillard (Jr. 16-2; Lehigh): IM2, BE2, 2x State Champ
133: #19 Ryder Campbell (Sr. 11-10): SQ
139: Jaden Santiago (Fr. 8-7)
145: #20 Mason Thomas (So. 12-8)
152: #5 Marco Frinzi (Sr. 18-6; Columbia): State 6th
160: #3 Charlie Scanlan (Sr. 19-8; Columbia): BE5, ETR6, SQ
172: #4 Shane McFillin (Sr. 26-8; Bucknell): IM6, BE6, ETR4, State 4th
189: #13 James DeLuise (Sr. 7-5; Bloomsburg); State 7th
215/285: Connor Gillahan (So. 16-7)
189: Justin Martinez (So. 6-9)
114: Andre Cerrato (Fr. 8-6)
One of the most decorated senior classes in District 11 history, Bethlehem Catholic's strength is the run from 152 through 189 (if DeLuise is healthy) as they have firepower that few teams can match. Then Emili and the Dillard brothers down low gives them three more hammers, and any team with seven possible state medalists and a couple finalists thrown in will be a really tough out. They don't have a heavyweight, so I'd expect some lineup movement, with Gillahan going up to heavy, DeLuise up to 215, and then it's dealers choice whether all their studs move up and throw in a middle weight somewhere, or if Justin Martinez goes in at 189 and it's a smaller bump. Not aware of any lineup drops here.

#5 Easton
Head Coach: Jody Karam (5th season, PIAA Dual Runner-Ups 2024)

107: Gavyn Mindler (Fr. 6-13)
114: Chris Molina (Jr. 1-11)
121: #4 Nick Salamone (Jr. 20-6): TH2, BE7, BH1, ETR4, State 8th
127: #9 Noah Fenner (So. 21-6): TH3, BH1
133: #18 Ethan Krazer (So. 21-9): TH3, BH4
139: #9 Chris Kelly (Sr. 17-8): TH3, BH5, SQ
145: Brendan Bowman (Sr. 13-14): TH7
139/152: Evan Carss (So. 9-4)
160: #17 Quentin Hammerstone (Sr. 18-10): TH5, BH7
172: #15 Justin Cosover (So. 17-9): TH2, BH5, SQ
189: #18 Shae Linegar (Sr. 21-8; Pace – lacrosse): TH2, BH3, SQ
215/285: #6 Kurtis Crossman (Jr. 24-5): TH3, BH1, SQ
215/285: Alonzo Parker (So. 18-10)
152: Wyatt Snyder (Fr. 3-6)
Easton, like Bethlehem Catholic, is a tough match up for teams in the upperweights, where they throw out a bunch of very solid wrestlers 160 through heavyweight. What they lack in that run is the "could make state finals studs" like Becahi has with McFillin, Scanlan, and Frinzi. Maybe Crossman is at that level at this point in the year, but that makes them a specifically bad match up with Bethlehem Catholic, and to a lesser extent Notre Dame (with Ramsey, Sumpolec, and Smalley). Easton also has a run from 121 through 139 with probably their two best wrestlers in Salamone and Fenner, Krazer has wildly improved, and Kelly, if healthy (massive if as he's got a torn ligament in his ankle) has already been a two-time state qualifier and is one of their steadiest wrestlers. I've said all year I thought they could benefit from dropping guys in their lineup to try and cover one of the holes down-low, it is historically wild that Easton is 8-35 on the year at the opening two weight classes, as they've been Lightweight High for the entirety of the program. Salamone (who also could just straight up win a state title at 114 with the field) down would cover one of those holes, plus it gets Carss to his more natural weight at 139. But I don't know if their guys are physically capable of getting down there and performing.

#4 Nazareth
Head Coach: Dave Crowell (21st season at Nazareth, 39th season overall (Easton, Wilson, Nazareth); PIAA Dual Champs 2001, 2002, (Wilson) 2007, 2017, 2020 (Nazareth); PIAA Tournament Champs 1981, 1983, (Easton) 1992, 2002, 2003, (Wilson) 2006, 2017, 2018, 2022 (Nazareth))

107: Derek Fulmer (Jr. 17-8): CVK5
114: Mikey Good (So. 15-9)
121: Daevon Jones (Jr. 3-7)
121/127: #10 Remy Trach (Jr. 22-8): BH3, SQ
133: Cooper Wenrich (So. 19-7)
139: #4 Jack Campbell (Jr. 22-5): CVK3, BH2, State 5th
145: #1 Tahir Parkins (Sr. 29-0; Rutgers): CVK1, BE1, BH1, State Champ
152: Dominick Tunison (Jr. 18-7): CVK3
160: #7 Cade Campbell (Jr. Jr. 23-4): CVK1, BH3, SQ
172: #25 Elijah Simak (Jr. Jr. 19-7)
189: #6 Brayden Zuercher (Jr. 20-2): CVK3, BH2, SQ
215: Vince Giacobbe (Sr. 12-13)
285: Jacob Cozze (Sr. 18-11): CVK5, BH8
152: Chase Brown (Fr. 2-6)
Nazareth has a lot of stars and a lot of question marks. Parkins is an automatic six against almost everybody. The Campbell twins and Zuercher are also hammers. Beyond that, it's a lot of young guys we haven't seen a ton of on the big stage. Wenrich hasn't really taken the step forward I anticipated, and Fulmer and Trach are solid, but bad match-ups await with teams in this field that are loaded at 107 and in the 121/127 window. Nazareth traditionally unveils weight class drops at this tournament (though Joe Provini was always the weight management guru, and he's the head coach at Northampton now) but I'm not sure Campbell will go down to 133, seeing that he wasn't that light as a freshman, so that would possibly be him and Parkins switching spots - maybe Cade Campbell and Simak go down, but I'm not sure any of that helps them in a dual. That said, it's a very solid lineup with four big bonus point spots.

#2 Notre Dame (GP)
Head Coach: Matt Veres (7th season; PIAA Dual Runners-Up 2022; PIAA Tournament Champs 2020, 2021, 2022)

107/114: #15 Cael Mueller (Fr. 17-8)
114: Aidan Vanicky (Fr. 8-3)
121: Jacob Volpe (So. 10-7)
127: #15 Cooper Feltmann (Sr. 15-9): SQ
133: #7 Tanner Berkenstock (Sr. 17-10): ETR8, SQ
139: #8 Gavyn Kelton (Jr. 18-10): SQ
145: #25 Jared Gonzalez (Jr. 12-11)
152: Stephen Bialek (Sr. 15-9)
160/172: #4 Keegan Ramsay (Sr. 20-8): IM7, State 3rd
172/189: #5 Dom Sumpolec (Jr. 26-8; George Mason): P5, ETR5, State 7th
189/215: #12 Connor Smalley (Jr. 24-9): SQ
215/285: Noah Knorp (So. 14-10)
160: Jakob Darois (Jr. 3-4)
107: Tanner Shear (Fr. 6-4)
How will they look in the 3A tournament? They've so dominated 2A for years, but that has mostly been a dual between them and Saucon Valley. They'd need to win three straight huge duals to win this tournament, and we've seen them at State Duals not quite string a ton of duals together (it's the only tournament Matt Veres hasn't won at ND). Like Bethlehem Catholic, they've got a great run in their upper weights with Ramsay, Sumpolec, and Smalley all state medal contenders and Ramsay and Sumpolec are finalist-level good. The lightweights Feltmann, Berkenstock, and Kelton are what I'm most interested in, as they're all 2A state qualifiers, but have not light the schedule on fire this year for ND. If those three can roll in an Easton or Nazareth match-up, Notre Dame can really make some noise. Mueller is the other kid to watch - he's not quite on the Wenrich/Emili level for Lehigh Valley freshmen at 107, but he's also not that far off, and this postseason could be his breakout. Notre Dame is going to have to play match ups, as they don't have a heavyweight and they've been running Mueller out at 114 in tougher duals with Shear going instead of Vanicky. That could be a health thing too. And they feel a little more competitive moving up the big three and getting Knorp to heavyweight rather than holding.

#6 Northampton
Head Coach: Joe Provini (2nd Season)

107: Cade Strauss (So. 3-6)
107/114: #1 Brayden Wenrich (Fr. 30-5): IM4, BH3
114/121: #16 Ryan Marano (Sr. 21-8): BH7
121/127: #24 Colin Marano (Sr. 18-7): BH4
127/133: #2 Gabe Ballard (So. 27-8): IM5, BE5, BH2, State 3rd
133/139: #2 Trey Wagner (Jr. 22-4; Navy): BH1, State Champ
139: Matthew Sommer (Jr. 4-4)
145: Carter Chlebove (Fr. 11-9)
152: #19 Chaes Grabfelder (Jr. 21-8): BH7
160: Parker Williams (Jr. 11-10)
172: Devlin Chevere (Sr. 5-5)
189: Colin Turner (Sr. 2-6)
215: Joell Small (So. 9-14)
285: #3 Gavin Grell (Sr. 19-4): BH1, SQ
Probably too many holes to win a dual tournament, particularly from 160-215 where a lot of the other teams in the field are really good. They've been bumping from 107 for most of the year, and it'll be interesting to see if Wenrich/Ballard/Wagner come back down for the postseason (Ballard in particular might have a better path at a state title at 133). But as you can see by the rankings, it's four absolute studs who should get bonus points against almost anybody in the state. Easton is a weird match up with this team, as they might be able to neutralize some combination Fenner/Krazer/Kelly, they have Grell looming at heavyweight, but have to avoid getting decimated between 160 and heavy.

My takeaway from 2024 PIAA state championships

No offense for McKeesport on this day
Cecil Howard the quarterback was the Post Gazette player of the year that season as a junor

he was ranked the number 1 running quarterback in the nation, but didn't come close to living up to that hype

went to Syracuse and didn'tplay, transferred to Northeastern and didn't play, then transferred to Cal U of Pa and played tight end but quit before the season was over

District 11 Wrestling

So basically, you don't want to be the #4 and have to face #1 in the semis? 2 and 3 at least can wrestle their way into the state tournament. (Obviously 4 can also by beating the #1 but that's a much bigger stretch.) As you've noted before, a lot of the numbers as to who makes it to states are skewed by larger districts (D1) being over-represented in certain sports, while a smaller district that dominates (D11 in wrestling) gets shorted. Sometimes it works out (D1 in baseball and lacrosse) and other times it doesn't. You can make an argument to adjust the district qualifiers like they do at the international level, where a country gets more spots in world championships / Olympics based on prior performance.
Yeah, if you’re the four seed, you have to upset Becahi in semis to make it to the state tournament (which would keep Becahi home next weekend). The 2 vs 3 winner (assuming seeds hold in the first round) will get the other state berth without having to wrestle Becahi, then the D11 championship will be for who advances straight to Hershey and who has to wrestle in the “play in” rounds starting Tuesday.

If thr best teams were advancing to states, D11 would get five teams to Hershey with Beca, Nazareth, Easton, ND, and Northampton, and Emmaus would be knocking on the door of giving them 6. Obviously not how it actually works. Though if I’m not mistaken, the state kind of fudges the formula to make sure D11 gets two.

I actually miss the days where it was just one team, winner take all going. It made District Duals the best high school sporting event of the year. But that hasn’t been the case in 20 years, so I should probably get over it!
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District 11 Wrestling

So basically, you don't want to be the #4 and have to face #1 in the semis? 2 and 3 at least can wrestle their way into the state tournament. (Obviously 4 can also by beating the #1 but that's a much bigger stretch.) As you've noted before, a lot of the numbers as to who makes it to states are skewed by larger districts (D1) being over-represented in certain sports, while a smaller district that dominates (D11 in wrestling) gets shorted. Sometimes it works out (D1 in baseball and lacrosse) and other times it doesn't. You can make an argument to adjust the district qualifiers like they do at the international level, where a country gets more spots in world championships / Olympics based on prior performance.

District 11 Wrestling

Thursday morning is the most exciting event of the District 11 wrestling season – the seeding meeting for the D11 Duals tournament.



District 11 was ahead of the curve, first holding a duals championship in 1990, nine years before the PIAA would follow suit and add a team tournament. District 11 duals have long been one of the marquee events on the local calendar, and have produced a plethora of instant-classic results, particularly in the pre-state duals and “one team advances” eras. The event has been dominated by the “Big Four” with Easton (13 titles, 8 runner-ups), Bethlehem Catholic (8 titles, 2 runner-ups), Nazareth (7 titles, 10 runner-ups), and Northampton (7 titles, six runner-ups) claiming every title in the history of the event. Parkland (5), Liberty (1), and Blue Mountain (1) are the other schools to make finals. The longest streak of D11 dual championships is five, done by Easton twice, from 2001-2005 and again from 2010-2014, which Bethlehem Catholic has an opportunity to tie with a win on Saturday, though that is a little misleading as they were the only team to enter the tournament in 2021 (COVID). Becahi did win six in a row from 2011-2016, but the first four came in 2A, then they won back-to-back 3A titles after they moved up.



At the state level, District 11 has dominated state duals, winning 3A championships in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, and 2024 and runner-up in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023, and 2024. Since District 11 was granted two state qualifiers starting in 2005, there has been an all D11 final in 3A in 2007, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023, and 2024. It has not just been one team dominating, as Bethlehem Catholic, Easton, Nazareth, and Northampton have all won state titles, while Parkland has also made a run to the finals. Wilson, Northern Lehigh, Bethlehem Catholic, and Saucon Valley have all won 2A titles while Northwestern Lehigh and Notre Dame have also made runs to finals in the smaller school division.



Bethlehem Catholic is the clear favorite coming into the weekend. Where things get interesting are the bracket mechanics of the tournament. They no longer wrestle a “true second” match, where the finals loser has to wrestle the team that lost to the champion in semifinals (Liberty in 2019 lost in the D11 final, then lost the “true second” match to eventual state runner-up Northampton). In a year with a solid favorite, getting on the opposite side of the bracket is imperative to advance to the state tournament without a huge upset. Last season, Easton was the major beneficiary of their regular season wins over Becahi and Nazareth, because those two had to lock horns in semifinals with a state berth on the line while Easton had a relatively easy path to the final and the other spot in the state tournament.



The other wrinkle is Notre Dame getting forced up to 3A due to the transfer rules. The Crusaders are an excellent team and have been a dominant force in 2A for years. Adding them into the mix gives District 11 four of the top five teams in the state rankings, with #1 Becahi, #3 Notre Dame, #4 Nazareth, and #5 Easton (with #8 Northampton also in there for good measure). The decision around the 2/3/4 seeds has massive implications for the team state tournament.



District 11 uses power points for qualification, but a committee to seed the tournament (they wrestled true 2nd when the power points also placed you in the bracket, which was dumb because of the wildly different schedules D11 schools wrestle – with the elite teams having lots of out-of-state national events). So once the eight team field is set after the final duals Wednesday, the committee will meet Thursday morning to place the eight qualifying teams in the bracket. This will be one of the most controversial meetings they ever have.



Becahi will get the one seed. The Hawks have wins over Easton, Notre Dame, and Northampton, they outplaced Notre Dame and Northampton at Ironman, Nazareth and Notre Dame at Beast of the east, and outplaced Easton and Notre Dame at Escape the Rock. They are undefeated and an easy top seed. Interestingly, they are #2 in power points right now, but that can thankfully be ignored by the committee in an effort to get it right.



Where things get weird is 2-4. Notre Dame has only met Bethlehem Catholic in a dual, losing 34-24. They have destroyed the rest of their dual schedule, but 71-0 wins over Salisbury don’t move the needle. The only other common scheduling they have are some big national tournaments, where they finished behind Becahi and Northampton at Ironman, ahead of Northampton but behind Bethlehem Catholic, Easton, and Nazareth at Beast of the East, and behind Easton and Bethlehem Catholic at Escape the Rock. Duals are different than tournaments, so I do not know how the seeding committee will weigh these results, but those are the only events they’ve been at with some of the other 3A schools present. They could very easily be seeded ahead of Easton as being more competitive with Becahi and only having one loss opposed to the Rovers two, or they could be behind Easton because they’ve finished behind them at both events they were both entered in, and they could be behind Nazareth at the Blue Eagles are “undefeated” in duals compared to Notre Dame’s one loss, but Nazareth didn’t wrestle Becahi. But Nazareth also finished ahead of Notre Dame in their common tournament.



Easton is in the weirdest spot. They lost to Bethlehem Catholic 38-20, so slightly worse than Notre Dame. They also “lost” to Nazareth 27-27 on criteria, but that was the match that went viral across the wrestling country after Easton won the match 28-27, but had a team point deducted when Kurtis Crossman took his headgear off and tossed it to the bench after the decisive final match. I do not know how the seeding committee is going to interpret that result, which is a loss on paper, but wasn’t exactly a loss on the mat – and one of the things pointed out at the time would be the possibility of a “jury nullification” by the seeding committee on that result. Easton finished ahead of Nazareth at Beast of the East and the Hurricane Classic, and finished ahead of Notre Dame at Beast of the East and Escape the Rock. They were runner-up at Top Hat to out-of-district Connellsville (state #2). There is an argument for Easton to be the #2 – they’ve finished ahead of Nazareth twice in tournaments and have the softest loss to them possible in a dual, and they’ve finished ahead of Notre Dame in both events they’ve entered. There’s also an argument for Easton to be the #4, as they have a head-to-head loss to Nazareth, and two losses to Notre Dame’s one in duals, and they have a common opponent in Becahi who Notre Dame wrestled slightly closer. I have no idea which way that is going to go.



Nazareth has the dual “win” over Easton, they also beat Northampton in a wild dual where they were facing certain defeat, and Cooper Wenrich headlocked and pinned Gabe Ballard while trailing 13-0 in the final match. Nazareth finished ahead of Northampton and Notre Dame, but behind Easton at Beast of the East, and behind Easton and Northampton at the Hurricane Classic. They won Virginia Duals, against all out of state competition, and were runners-up at Cumberland Valley’s season opening tournament to an out-of-district foe (Bishop McDevitt). Had Northampton hung on in that dual, I think Nazareth’s seeding would be easier. But like Easton, there are logical arguments for Nazareth at 2 (undefeated with a head-to-head over Easton), 3 (Easton has beaten them in two tournaments and the loss in the dual is flimsy, but they’ve finished ahead of ND in a tourney and are undefeated), or 4 (Notre Dame goes ahead of Easton and Nazareth goes behind Easton) and I have no idea which one will hold.



Here's what I think will happen – I think the committee is going to punt the Easton/Nazareth dual question by making them the 2 and 3. They might even make Nazareth the 2 and Easton the 3 just to keep the “result” the same, and bump Notre Dame to the 4 so Easton isn’t penalized for the headgear toss, but they don’t have to directly compare all three schools. Then you have a field that looks like (I’m assuming on the final three, but I think this is how the power points will hold in terms of qualifiers, and Emmaus is clearly the #6, and Whitehall thumped Parkland head-to-head, and I don’t think Freedom can pass Parkland to qualify):
  1. Bethlehem Catholic
  2. Nazareth
  3. Easton
  4. Notre Dame
  5. Northampton
  6. Emmaus
  7. Whitehall
  8. Parkland
That’s probably the right outcome, and makes Easton-Nazareth II must see television on Saturday afternoon, plus gets a fun ND-Northampton dual first thing in the morning, with the winner seeing Bethlehem Catholic (who thumped Northampton, 42-20 but have kind of a tough match-up with ND) in the early afternoon session. Even Easton-Emmaus is a tasty opener, with Emmaus having some really good individuals that will get good bouts with Easton (Caciolo-Salamone, or Albanese-Salamone/Caciolo-Fenner if they want to bump, Scott-Hammerstone, Sallit-Cosover). It’s a highlight event on the calendar, probably will advance out at least one state finalist, and will have the most intriguing bracket mechanics of any D11 dual I can remember. Buckle up.
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PA Guys Win the Weekend

Sure , that was the reason. They told mccord he would not play in the bowl game and sent him on his way. He was the goat.
i thought they told him he wasn't guaranteed to be the starter the next season so he left

we'll never know if they would've won in 2023, they didn't lose until they played michigan while this years team lost to a worse michigan team and to oregon, luckily for them the playoffs was expanded

District 11 Wrestling

Easton gets the Phillipsburg monkey off of their back, snapping a five match P’Burg winning streak with an emphatic 40-24 win in the 25th Street Gymnasium tonight.

Match of the night was 189, where P’Burg bumped Derek Stone up from 172 to wrestle Shae Linegar, who Stone beat last year 9-8 in the toss up that essentially won P’Burg the dual. Tonight, Linegar was leading 5-1 and countered a throw by Stone to put the Stateliner on his back and pin him in the second period. Easton also got a monster effort from Justin Cosover, who took nationally ranked and favorite to win a NJ state title Gavin Hawk to overtime in a match P’Burg was counting on big bonus points. Easton also got an OT win by Chris Kelly over Owen Garriques in a battle of state qualifiers.

But the story was bonus points. Up top Easton got a fall from Linegar, a major from Alonzo Parker, and Kurtis Crossman stalled the P’Burg heavyweight out of the match (5 technical violations is a disqualification, same points as a pin) as the P’Burg kid got hit with four stalls on bottom, then got hit for backing up with a minute left in the third period. After a par of Phillipsburg pins at 107 and 114 tied the match at 24, Easton finished the dual fall, tech, tech with Noah Fenner fittingly getting the tech fall to clinch the dual after he could only get a major in the last match last season to lose on criteria.

It’s Jody Karam’s first coaching win over P’Burg at Easton. He beat them as the head coach at Delaware Valley, and went 3-1 in his four years as an wrestler at Easton.

Box Score
139: #8 Chris Kelly (E) decision #16 Owen Garriques: 3-0 (OT)
145: #2 Luke Geleta (P) tech Brendan Bowman: 15-0, 3:53
152: #19 Gavin Geleta (P) major Evan Caras: 17-6
160: #16 Quentin Hammerstone (E) tech Ben Mendoza: 16-0, 2:40
172: #1 Gavin Hawk (P) decision #16 Justin Cosover: 4-1 (OT)
189: #16 Shae Linegar (E) fall #18 Derek Stone: 3:12
215: Alonzo Parker (E) major Jesus Alfaro: 12-0
285: #6 Kurtis Crossman (E) DQ Ben Ellis: stalling
107: #17 Zack Swingle (P) fall Gavyn Mindler: 1:45
114: Antony Pettinelli (P) fall Chris Molina: 1:34
121: #4 Nick Salamone (E) fall Matt Velez: 1:07
127: #12 Noah Fenner (E) tech Massimo Gonzalez: 17-2, 4:42
133: #17 Ethan Krazer (E) tech Mason Hawk: 20-5, 4:30

Coaching Changes

I am interested to see who takes over. There’s a lot of potential there in my opinion. Personally, I’d love to see someone like Rowan take that program over. I think he could have them at the top of the district consistently (not saying CBW isn’t there; I just think there is more to work with at Nesh). Just my opinion.
It's going to get tougher and tougher (imo) to get Rowan to move from West - he's got a teaching job in the school that a new school would need to match, he lives in town, his top assistant has a job at West, another top assistant has a son in the program... so it would be more challenging to re-assemble a staff. I think that Pennridge had the best shot at poaching him but obviously failed to put together a compelling offer.

On the plus side, Neshaminy is set to complete the makeover to the sports complex, and it's a fantastic facility. The high school is 75% larger than CB West and consistently has larger roster sizes. Currently the third largest school in District 1. It's definitely (at least from an outsider's perspective) a very attractive job. It'll be interesting to see if they really do a search or if they have a replacement ready to go who's on the staff, as has been rumored.
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Coaching Changes

The Archbishop Carroll football team has
found its man.

Carroll hired Stephen Honick ‘17 as the ninth head coach in school history and fourth since the firing of legendary head man Dan Bielli back in 2010.

Honick, statistically one of the best quarterbacks in Carroll history, played for the Patriots from 2013 to 2016. In that time, under coaches Joe Powel and Dan Connor, the team went an underwhelming 9-32 while Honick established himself as one of the best quarterbacks around by his senior season.

Honick, now four years removed from his time at West Chester University, where he served as a student assistant, will be one of the youngest head coaches in the area. The former Golden Ram also spent his first two years of college at Ursinus, where he played quarterback for the Bears.

Honick was eventually promoted to quarterbacks coach at West Chester while also spending time with Next Level Greats 7v7 as head coach and offensive coordinator for their 13u team. Honick’s last stop was as a graduate assistant at Division I Temple University, a position he assumed back in 2022.

He will now be tasked with turning around a Carroll program that hasn’t seen sustained success since the early 2000s under Bielli, who won three consecutive Philadelphia Catholic League titles in 2000, 2001, and 2002. The team is coming off of five consecutive losing seasons.

Honick inherits a team plagued by inconsistencies, on-field struggles, and mounting rumors of transfers. Some have already taken place. Star wideout Ty Ty Mattison, a sophomore, announced he’d be transferring to Northeast high school for the 2025 season.

With the news of Honick’s hiring now official, offseason workouts, which have trudged on in the absence of a head man, should resume as planned for the winter while Honick prepares his team for the 2025 campaign, which kicks off Aug. 22 at William Tennent High School in Warminster, Bucks County.
This is as big a challenge as Wood has.
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