HS: I would not call it a huge spike. For years it was the fastest growing area in Delco. But recently its kind of leveled out. When they were a 3A school, they were a big 3 A school and not for from 4A status.
Now they are in 6A , but one one the smallest schools in 6a They are only about 40 boys over being a 5A squad. So we are not looking at a huge enrollment school here.
What they have always had is large team numbers, often over 100 strong, and this does NOT include a 9th grade team. Which means they often have %15-%20 of boys in the school playing football, which is a remarkable number. They are able to do this by pretty much guaranteeing kids playing time-which is rare at the high school level. They used to run a strict 2 platoon system where no one played both ways , including for the most part special teams as well. 11 guys on offense, 11 on defense, 11 on kick return, 11 on kick offs, and then some situational subbing and your were getting 50-60 kids in every game. Factor in a decent amount of mercy rules or blowouts and you could see 80 kids play in a game. Im not sure how strict they are with that now, but i think for the most part they still abide by this system. I am not a big fan of it since they tend to put the better guys/athletes on offense, and the D tends to suffer, especially in the playoffs. But they probably lose LESS kids from 9th grade on because they all get into the game, the the big number rosters just keep regenerating.