Food for thought

[roxychknpoxy]

For those willing to engage in a reasonable discussion, some thoughts to ponder.

If you watched the game, you may have heard Bob Lombardi mention that the PIAA will be reviewing some items/issues that have been brought up throughout the state to see if they could " do it better".

Central Valley was a competitive team. Interesting because it is a combination of two former districts.
1) What if districts were combined ? Gov Rendell suggested something similar in the past where one administration would over see three districts in an effort to save money.
2) What if districts could choose to cluster like CYO teams do ? And choose what level to play based on amount of schools in the cluster ?
3) What if you could choose to send your child to wherever you wanted including private and parochial and for the period your child(ren) is in school, your tax dollars follow your child? In most of Montgomery County, there are 4 to 5 public schools within 30 minute ride of each other not to mention the charters, parochs and privates.

Lastly, the PIAA approached the PCL in order to assemble all the leagues/ talent in the state. They have obviously done that and the results have proven themselves. Time will tell. Congrats to Wood, but the talent level will balance out there and I'm not sure they get back to the game next year. Is is bad that a team mad a run over a time period? We speak of CBW with reverence. What's the difference. It's still early in this process.

 

[njfan47]

Great points, roxy. It would also be interesting to find out what happened to the many posters who said that the PCL would not win championships in the PIAA.

And why do so many posters overlook the role of the coaching staff? It makes a huge difference. I guess it's just easy to blame it all on recruiting.

 

[kitwor]

All points are very well taken. Coaching makes a huge difference, true, but when having to coach up "great talent" the job does get easier. One classic line I heard on the sideline last night was a college coaching staff inquiring about a couple of the Wood OLine guys. One guy remarked that " if I were you I would first look into hiring the guy that coaches the line" Carey no doubt is a master of coaching a zone block scheme, maybe better than anyone ever in this state. He does it year in and out.

Obviously. combining districts would pump more money into the school system and help them athletically, but what about the school districts that were forced to divide (Central Bucks, Council Rock, Downingtown). They were immediately put in a disadvantage.

 

[roxychknpoxy]

NJ -

Hope you're well ... I agree on the coaching. How many times have you heard 'got all the talent in the world but ...' SJP has been fortunate to have great coaching staffs over the years and I emphasize staffs. Also, you are familiar with the program. It builds players and character. My son only played one year before attending SJP. He knew many other kids at other schools and he often said "if they could have gone to the Prep, they would be a better player". He even said " if I went anywhere else, I'd be half the player". The expectations and commitment are equally high and that is the biggest difference. How many programs are doing off season conditioning at 5am so the kids can then go to their jobs?

 

[SPEED&JUMP DR.]

There was some talk back in the pre- PCL days of combining districts at the AAAA level due to the huge disparity in enrollment. The bottom enrollment teams at the AAAA level have half or sometimes 2/3 less kids then those at the top enrollment schools. You could combine Ridley Interboro and Strath Haven and stil fall short of Npenn or Pennsbury like numbers. Of course that movement never really got too far and im not sure a team from those three schools would still have enough talent to compete with the PCL

 

[roxychknpoxy]

Kit -

No doubt it's short commentary by me for a long debate but I wanted to throw some thoughts out there as I listened to CVs coach refer to Wood as "the bully on the block" and thought well, what could be alternatives. As far as the CBs ... Maybe they could, should cluster for football? I liked Rendells idea of one set of admin for 3 or 4 districts to save money and maybe that could be the case for football. However ... In exchange, I would,like to see a family be able to choose any school, public, parochial or private and have their tax dollars 'flow' with that child(ren). It would create an 'open market' if you will and I believe everyone would benefit. Just one man's opinion. Other states have similar open enrollment and you simply are responsible for transportation.

 

[00shoe]

Rendells idea was because of differance in $ spent by school districts for education. He wanted to put haves & have nots together so haves could pay to improve have nots education. Would have a state made up of management like the phia. public schools. No way either political party was buying it. Had nothing to do with sports

 

[roxychknpoxy]

Speed -

i wasn't aware of that. But, I do believe there is a fair argument that numbers create balanced opportunity. North Penn is the obvious choice, not to mention what you suggested and others. Here is where i see the difference and it is not a slight. PCL can demand more of a commitment and when you commit to send a child there, boy or girl, you know that those expectations are there on a number of levels. For the record, I had a child at SJP and a child at Public. The public school is considered one of the best in the state and the scores prove it. But, the parents have a large say as a public and expectations are different and therefore commitment is different. Just one man's opinion.

 

[roxychknpoxy]

Shoe -

Read the context of my comment, never said it had to do with sports and frankly, had little to do with haves and have nots. It was about ideas for saving money on the run away educational freight train. Phila is the epidomy of that and is an unsustainable model. Can't wait to see where Wolfie will get the $ for them. Rendell used the federal stimulus $ to subsidize it and even said so. Corbett put more $ into education than any other Giv and yes, I looked it up. Now, I didn't want to turn this into political thread or I'd be on the other board. I simply threw out some ideas to offset the onslaught of recruiting etc.

 

[00shoe]

No, It was all about the state not wanting to pay and wanting to get the haves to pay. Your right about Rendell & Corbett putting money into education, bbut not in the haves schools, they can pay for themselves.

 

[Saul14]

Wood doesn't run a zone blocking scheme...