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2024 6A State Title PCC vs SJP

Just an update… Gordon is going scorched earth in District 1 this off-season. He’s not just recruiting in the 8th graders, he’s actively going after kids already on public school rosters. Now we see if the D1 committee is as toothless as they’ve seemed over the years…
We have a family friend who is a teacher there and has been for decades, who told me this week that he has never seen so many kids already in high school making shadow day visits.

I also think Zykee Scott to LaSalle is a done deal. Add one of the better rising juniors in the state.

This kind of reminds me of when Rich Fatzinger left Parkland to coach at Allentown Central Catholic. Easton was good at the time, and coached by Jim Hutnik, who was also very successful at Becahi. Hut was so offended by Fatzinger reaching out to Zack Hankerson (Easton’s 1,000 point scorer) about transferring, not because he did it, but because he was so sloppy and obvious about it rather than work back channels like Hut did when he was at Becahi. Easton wrestling coach Steve Powell hanging all of the letters his junior high kids would bring in for him that they got from Becahi when that program was cranking up is another classic of the genre.
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2024 6A State Title PCC vs SJP

So you’re saying the 8th grader I work with who got sideline passes for LaSalle-SJP (regular season) as a guest of the coaching staff, had his school shadow visit day arranged by the head coach with full meetings with the head coach and his future position coach about their plan for him and how he fits into their defense and “how he goes D1” wouldn’t happen at PCC?

Because that’s how Brett Gordon is rolling now.
Just an update… Gordon is going scorched earth in District 1 this off-season. He’s not just recruiting in the 8th graders, he’s actively going after kids already on public school rosters. Now we see if the D1 committee is as toothless as they’ve seemed over the years…

District 11 Wrestling

Thanks Rover, great insight. I did see they are moving the times up on Sunday with the anticipated storm.

I read this on the D1 wrestling forum:

"An interesting registered wrestler at this year's tournament is Tania Fernandez of Archbishop Spalding at 133. She's a U17 World Champ that owns a folkstyle win over our 12 seed, Drew Roggie, at that weight (in 2023), although she is unseeded as she has a limited track record against the boys. Roggie is a 2x National Prep medalist and a Beast/ETR blood round guy, so she is legit. She is the best HS girl in the country."
I think she beat Easton’s Aubre Krazer earlier in the year, why is a multi time Fargo champ, Pan Am champ, and was undefeated in high school.

Former Easton wrestler Alex Krom, who was an All American at Maryland, has been an assistant at Spalding, so I’ve heard about this girl for years. Didn’t realize she was in the tourney. Roggie is a very legit win.

District 11 Wrestling

Monster Tournament this weekend.

Nationally Ranked Teams Attending
#1 Faith Christian Academy
#2 Lake highland Prep (FL)
#8 Malver Prep
#9 St. Joseph Regional (NJ)
#11 St. Edward (OH)
#24 Bethlehem Catholic
#28 St. Peter's Prep (NJ)
#32 Bishop McDevitt
#39 Ponganset (RI)
#40 Christian Brothers Academy (NJ)
#44 Staunton River (VA)
HM Southern Regional (NJ)
HM Notre Dame
HM Connellsville
HM Tampa Jesuit (FL)
HM Easton

State Ranked Teams Attending
3A: #1 Bethlehem Catholic; #2 Connellsville, #3 Notre Dame, #5 Easton, #11 Council Rock North; #13 Council Rock South: 2A: #1 Faith Christian Academy; #3 Bishop McDevitt

Some preliminary thoughts
106
Nationally ranked wrestlers: #13 (at 114)Killian Coluccio (Lacey Township; uncommitted), #3 Justin Farnsworth (Malvern Prep), #13 Nico Emili (Bethlehem Catholic), #8 Sean Kenney (CBA), #16 JoJo Burke (St. Joseph Regional).
#2 in the state Tommy Gretz (Connellsville) is the 12 seed in the tournament. Loaded weight class, it'll be interesting to see how Coluccio does down at 107 (109 with the allowance). Emili and Gretz are possible state finalists here in PA and this is their first direct head-to-head comparison.

114
Nationally ranked wrestlers: #1 Freddy Bachman (Faith Chrstian Academy; uncommitted)
Wide open after Bachman. Field also includes Kole Davidheiser (11 seed) who was a state medalist at Faith Christian who got recruited over and transferred to The Hill School. Max Tancini (Perk Valley) can make a statement, he's a possible PA finalist in 3A and the second seed here.

121
Nationally Ranked Wrestlers: #16 (at 127) Gauge Botero (Faith Christian Academy; Michigan), #7 Paul Kenney (CBA), #8 Ethan Timar (St. Edward; Virginia), #9 Luke Littleton (Malvern Prep; North Carolina), #17 John McGinty (St. Joseph Regiona; Oklahoma)
Monster weight class here. Very possible the OW comes out of this group. Behind Botero, Reef Dillard and Nick Salamone are the PA highlights, both are possible 3A finalists, and Salamone owns a win over McGinty at Beast of the East. Dillard throttled Salamone in their dual last week.

127
Nationally Ranked Wrestlers: #6 Keanu Dillard (Bethlehem Catholic; Lehigh), #2 (at 121) Joey Bachmann (Faith Cristian Academy), #13 Karson Brown (St. Edward; Pittsburgh), #14 Matty O'Neill (Malvern Prep; uncommitted)
Bachmann going up to challenge Dillard (who has an OT win over Botero at Ironman) is one of the highlights of the tournament. Both are Cadet World medalists this past summer, with Bachmann taking gold and Dillard taking bronze.

133
Nationally Ranked Wrestlers: #9 Tyler DeKraker (Chantilly VA; Ohio State), #17 Anthony Mutarelli (Council Rock South; Oregon State), #24 Bobby Duffy (CBA; uncommitted)
Mutarelli's first competition down at 133 this year and he looks like he's on a collison course with Ohio State commit Tyler DeKraker (formerly of Blair, formerly of Faith Christian, now back at his hometown school in Virginia).

139
#4 Caeden Ricciardi (St. Peters Prep; Navy), #5 Jayce Paridon (Lake Highland Prep; Virginia)
Huge national match as the probable final with your top two seeds. A chance for Caden Baum and Kai Vielma, two very good PA kids, to make a statement against some national kids. Chris Kelly from my alma mater a fun 10 seed.

145
#7 Eren Sement (Council Rock North; Michigan), #15 Joey Joyce (Pongansett; Brown), #19 Tyler Traves (Mountain View VA; Cornell), #24 Charlie DeSenna (Lake Highland Prep; uncommitted)
Sement is the top seed and can put together some nice national wins in his run, with Joyce as teh 5 seed and a semifinal opponent and DeSena or Traves in the finals. Mason Wagner (CBA) and Pat Kelly (CB West) are solid PA kids who will be tough outs.

152
#6 (at 157) Chase Van Hoven (Brooke Pointe VA; Lehigh) #7 Zeno Moore (Lake Highland Prep; uncommitted), #14 Max Stein (Faith Christian; Penn), #15 Evan Petrovich (Connellsville; Pittsburgh), #21 Ryan Lawler (Bishop McDevitt; Bucknell)
Another loaded weight, PEtrovich is a kid I've always liked who has a chance to climb, though Van Hoven and Moore is a heavily favored final.

160
#3 Collin Gaj (Quakertown; Virginia Tech), #10 Lucas Boe (Lake Highland Prep; uncommitted), #9 Ben Weader (Chantilly VA; Virginia Tech), #16 Chase Hontz (Faith Christian; Hofstra), #17 Charlie Scanlan (Bethlehem Catholic; Columbia)
Just rolling off deep weight classes. Gaj is going to win, because he's a mosnter, but he'll bolster his resume doing so. Gaj and Scanlan could be a state final. Chris Dennis (CB West) and Lonzy Vielma (Connellsville) are also really solid PA kids who can raise their stock.

172
#3 Ryan Burton (St. Joseph Regional; Virginia Tech), #5 Asher Cunningham (State College; Penn State), #20 Nick Singer (Faith Christian; uncommitted)
Burton and Cunningham is as high level a match up as you get. Virginia Tech vs. Penn State, NJ state champ vs. PA State champ, both really athletic, fun wrestlers. Singer and Ohio state champ Ty Miller (St. Edward) is the next tier who would be finalist in pretty much every other tourney in the country. Dom Sumpolec (Notre Dame), Shane McFillin (Bethlehem Catholic), and Gavin Cole (Council Rock South) is a nice preview of who could be opposite Cunningham in the 3A state finals.

189
#2 Adam Waters (Faith Christian; uncommitted), #6 JR Miller (St. Edward; Iowa), #7 Robet Kucharczk (Lake Highland Prep; Haravrd), #8 Vincenzo Lavelle (Hanover Park; Princeton), #21 Alex Reyes (Holmdel; uncommitted), #25 Kaleb Jackson (St. Joseph Regional; uncommitted)
Incredible weight class. Waters is a clear favorite, but could be any number of kids he's meeting in finals, though Miller is probably the most talented kid. There will be huge names who may not end up on the medal stand.

215
#19 Lucas Lawlar (Bishop McDevitt; Bucknell), #20 Landon Jobber-Spence (Staunton River; Arkansas-Little Rock), #21 Dylan Greenstein (Northfield Mount Hermon MA; Harvard), #25 Jason Singer (Faith Christian; Lehigh)
Guys are "only" ranked in the 20s here, so a relative breather. But a good test for Singer and Stosh Zalota (Malvern Prep) who are two breakout upper weights on their national schedules.

285
#7 Jacob Levy (Lake Highland Prep; North Carolina), #8 Mark Effendian (Faith Christian; Princeton), #14 Christian Alvarez (St. Joseph Regional; uncommitted), #15 James Bechter (Northfield Mount Herman; Stanford), #19 Luke Zalota (Malvern Prep; uncommitted)
Levy and Effendian is the expected feature bout, but again, a good set of big guys to close the tournament.
Thanks Rover, great insight. I did see they are moving the times up on Sunday with the anticipated storm.

I read this on the D1 wrestling forum:

"An interesting registered wrestler at this year's tournament is Tania Fernandez of Archbishop Spalding at 133. She's a U17 World Champ that owns a folkstyle win over our 12 seed, Drew Roggie, at that weight (in 2023), although she is unseeded as she has a limited track record against the boys. Roggie is a 2x National Prep medalist and a Beast/ETR blood round guy, so she is legit. She is the best HS girl in the country."

District 11 Wrestling

Here are the seeds for Escape The Rock this weekend.

Monster Tournament this weekend.

Nationally Ranked Teams Attending
#1 Faith Christian Academy
#2 Lake highland Prep (FL)
#8 Malver Prep
#9 St. Joseph Regional (NJ)
#11 St. Edward (OH)
#24 Bethlehem Catholic
#28 St. Peter's Prep (NJ)
#32 Bishop McDevitt
#39 Ponganset (RI)
#40 Christian Brothers Academy (NJ)
#44 Staunton River (VA)
HM Southern Regional (NJ)
HM Notre Dame
HM Connellsville
HM Tampa Jesuit (FL)
HM Easton

State Ranked Teams Attending
3A: #1 Bethlehem Catholic; #2 Connellsville, #3 Notre Dame, #5 Easton, #11 Council Rock North; #13 Council Rock South: 2A: #1 Faith Christian Academy; #3 Bishop McDevitt

Some preliminary thoughts
106
Nationally ranked wrestlers: #13 (at 114)Killian Coluccio (Lacey Township; uncommitted), #3 Justin Farnsworth (Malvern Prep), #13 Nico Emili (Bethlehem Catholic), #8 Sean Kenney (CBA), #16 JoJo Burke (St. Joseph Regional).
#2 in the state Tommy Gretz (Connellsville) is the 12 seed in the tournament. Loaded weight class, it'll be interesting to see how Coluccio does down at 107 (109 with the allowance). Emili and Gretz are possible state finalists here in PA and this is their first direct head-to-head comparison.

114
Nationally ranked wrestlers: #1 Freddy Bachman (Faith Chrstian Academy; uncommitted)
Wide open after Bachman. Field also includes Kole Davidheiser (11 seed) who was a state medalist at Faith Christian who got recruited over and transferred to The Hill School. Max Tancini (Perk Valley) can make a statement, he's a possible PA finalist in 3A and the second seed here.

121
Nationally Ranked Wrestlers: #16 (at 127) Gauge Botero (Faith Christian Academy; Michigan), #7 Paul Kenney (CBA), #8 Ethan Timar (St. Edward; Virginia), #9 Luke Littleton (Malvern Prep; North Carolina), #17 John McGinty (St. Joseph Regiona; Oklahoma)
Monster weight class here. Very possible the OW comes out of this group. Behind Botero, Reef Dillard and Nick Salamone are the PA highlights, both are possible 3A finalists, and Salamone owns a win over McGinty at Beast of the East. Dillard throttled Salamone in their dual last week.

127
Nationally Ranked Wrestlers: #6 Keanu Dillard (Bethlehem Catholic; Lehigh), #2 (at 121) Joey Bachmann (Faith Cristian Academy), #13 Karson Brown (St. Edward; Pittsburgh), #14 Matty O'Neill (Malvern Prep; uncommitted)
Bachmann going up to challenge Dillard (who has an OT win over Botero at Ironman) is one of the highlights of the tournament. Both are Cadet World medalists this past summer, with Bachmann taking gold and Dillard taking bronze.

133
Nationally Ranked Wrestlers: #9 Tyler DeKraker (Chantilly VA; Ohio State), #17 Anthony Mutarelli (Council Rock South; Oregon State), #24 Bobby Duffy (CBA; uncommitted)
Mutarelli's first competition down at 133 this year and he looks like he's on a collison course with Ohio State commit Tyler DeKraker (formerly of Blair, formerly of Faith Christian, now back at his hometown school in Virginia).

139
#4 Caeden Ricciardi (St. Peters Prep; Navy), #5 Jayce Paridon (Lake Highland Prep; Virginia)
Huge national match as the probable final with your top two seeds. A chance for Caden Baum and Kai Vielma, two very good PA kids, to make a statement against some national kids. Chris Kelly from my alma mater a fun 10 seed.

145
#7 Eren Sement (Council Rock North; Michigan), #15 Joey Joyce (Pongansett; Brown), #19 Tyler Traves (Mountain View VA; Cornell), #24 Charlie DeSenna (Lake Highland Prep; uncommitted)
Sement is the top seed and can put together some nice national wins in his run, with Joyce as teh 5 seed and a semifinal opponent and DeSena or Traves in the finals. Mason Wagner (CBA) and Pat Kelly (CB West) are solid PA kids who will be tough outs.

152
#6 (at 157) Chase Van Hoven (Brooke Pointe VA; Lehigh) #7 Zeno Moore (Lake Highland Prep; uncommitted), #14 Max Stein (Faith Christian; Penn), #15 Evan Petrovich (Connellsville; Pittsburgh), #21 Ryan Lawler (Bishop McDevitt; Bucknell)
Another loaded weight, PEtrovich is a kid I've always liked who has a chance to climb, though Van Hoven and Moore is a heavily favored final.

160
#3 Collin Gaj (Quakertown; Virginia Tech), #10 Lucas Boe (Lake Highland Prep; uncommitted), #9 Ben Weader (Chantilly VA; Virginia Tech), #16 Chase Hontz (Faith Christian; Hofstra), #17 Charlie Scanlan (Bethlehem Catholic; Columbia)
Just rolling off deep weight classes. Gaj is going to win, because he's a mosnter, but he'll bolster his resume doing so. Gaj and Scanlan could be a state final. Chris Dennis (CB West) and Lonzy Vielma (Connellsville) are also really solid PA kids who can raise their stock.

172
#3 Ryan Burton (St. Joseph Regional; Virginia Tech), #5 Asher Cunningham (State College; Penn State), #20 Nick Singer (Faith Christian; uncommitted)
Burton and Cunningham is as high level a match up as you get. Virginia Tech vs. Penn State, NJ state champ vs. PA State champ, both really athletic, fun wrestlers. Singer and Ohio state champ Ty Miller (St. Edward) is the next tier who would be finalist in pretty much every other tourney in the country. Dom Sumpolec (Notre Dame), Shane McFillin (Bethlehem Catholic), and Gavin Cole (Council Rock South) is a nice preview of who could be opposite Cunningham in the 3A state finals.

189
#2 Adam Waters (Faith Christian; uncommitted), #6 JR Miller (St. Edward; Iowa), #7 Robet Kucharczk (Lake Highland Prep; Haravrd), #8 Vincenzo Lavelle (Hanover Park; Princeton), #21 Alex Reyes (Holmdel; uncommitted), #25 Kaleb Jackson (St. Joseph Regional; uncommitted)
Incredible weight class. Waters is a clear favorite, but could be any number of kids he's meeting in finals, though Miller is probably the most talented kid. There will be huge names who may not end up on the medal stand.

215
#19 Lucas Lawlar (Bishop McDevitt; Bucknell), #20 Landon Jobber-Spence (Staunton River; Arkansas-Little Rock), #21 Dylan Greenstein (Northfield Mount Hermon MA; Harvard), #25 Jason Singer (Faith Christian; Lehigh)
Guys are "only" ranked in the 20s here, so a relative breather. But a good test for Singer and Stosh Zalota (Malvern Prep) who are two breakout upper weights on their national schedules.

285
#7 Jacob Levy (Lake Highland Prep; North Carolina), #8 Mark Effendian (Faith Christian; Princeton), #14 Christian Alvarez (St. Joseph Regional; uncommitted), #15 James Bechter (Northfield Mount Herman; Stanford), #19 Luke Zalota (Malvern Prep; uncommitted)
Levy and Effendian is the expected feature bout, but again, a good set of big guys to close the tournament.
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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.

My takeaway from 2024 PIAA state championships


How does this happen?
wow thats crazy- so kid was like 28, making 6 figure salary- and kinda eff-d up his life.

basically making decision w his groin not his brain!! Probably too busy to meet girls normally, wanted to quickly find-em online- leading to an "under-age date" wow

private vs public schools

I guess my comment stemmed from watching kids like Hampson, Willard, Good, Kohley, Kristofic, Katic, Dorundo, Jackson, Hayes, etc play.

Even second tier kids like Pickles, Weideman, Lemirande, Boyd, Kerns, Swisher, etc weren’t dumpy.
lol yea those kids were mostly all studs- there have beenkids starting the last 3 years that might not have been 2nd string 5 years ago. The PR program is good not great now- and the development of kids is one of the drop-offs- the old staff was awesome w that. But i gotta say- the line this year was stronger than last year. Even against McDevit- we might have an edge on line- but we got "outskilled"
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D1-A Playoff Semifinals

PSU can never get a quarterback. QB. has slow feet and any pass over 15 yards has to much air under it. No completions to wide receivers. Good teams play the run and beg PSU to pass. Coaches fault is recruiting. Time to hit the portal.
those receivers were ranked pretty high coming out of high school

Fleming was from the portal, he was a 5 star prospect

D1-A Playoff Semifinals

Just back from a trip to Gettysburg but could not agree more. In the case of PSU, just consider the source! Abysmal coaching as usual from Franklin in games against quality (+.500) on the road. Typical!
PSU can never get a quarterback. QB. has slow feet and any pass over 15 yards has to much air under it. No completions to wide receivers. Good teams play the run and beg PSU to pass. Coaches fault is recruiting. Time to hit the portal.

D1-A Playoff Semifinals

Two great semifinal games that basically came down to one possession games. Texas play caller might have consulted with PSU play caller to determine worst way to give a game away.
Just back from a trip to Gettysburg but could not agree more. In the case of PSU, just consider the source! Abysmal coaching as usual from Franklin in games against quality (+.500) on the road. Typical!
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FCS Final tonight

Again, we're seeing kind of a renaissance in D3 Football in PA. Suquehanna, Grove City, W&J, Carnegie Mellon, Del Valley, etc have all been top 25 programs in the last few years and this is with having a large D2 conference in state.
Large D2 conference, yes, but none are fully funded. Dollars are hard to come by in the PSAC. Nice seeing a resurgence of D3 prominence in PA (Muhlenberg has also been good for a few years). Need Widener to invest in football again.

The main reason that the Dakotas are dominating D1-AA is there are no solid D1-A programs locally.
Ferris is dominating D2 for the same reason - no solid D1-AA programs locally.
Mount Union is losing it's stranglehold on D3 now that Ohio has some solid D2 programs.

That being said, the administration and coaching staffs at those particular schools are doing their part to make it happen.

FCS Final tonight

With regards to the geography hypothesis, the only place I think this truly holds some water is in Ohio. For the longest time, Ohio only had NCAA sponsored D1, D1AA, and D3 football. The current D2 schools like Findlay, Walsh, Ohio Dominican, etc were all NAIA schools. If a kid was choosing between an Ohio D3 school and one of those D3 schools they often chose the D3 schools because the football and education was superior. Ohio not having D2 saw them create a very good version of D3 football.

Most of the states that don't have D2 or have limited D2 schools often have better instate $$$ packages then those kids leaving for nearby states for out-of-state scholarships.

Nowadays, that doesn't always hold weight though. Case in point, there was a time and place where you rarely saw PSAC schools with more then a handful of out of state kids due to the out of state tuition costs. Secondly, PA HS football had better #'s and they didn't need to venture out of state for kids. Today, we see PSAC schools hammering Maryland. The trend is to find kids that qualify for a Pell Grant and then offer them a 1/2 ride for football. Those kids rarely pay a dime for their education. Maryland never has but 1 D1 school in Bowie State (HBCU) until Frostburg jumped up.

Again, we're seeing kind of a renaissance in D3 Football in PA. Suquehanna, Grove City, W&J, Carnegie Mellon, Del Valley, etc have all been top 25 programs in the last few years and this is with having a large D2 conference in state.
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