Haters are going to Hate. That was a great team I saw ,and some great performances.
North Allegheny VS Saint Joseph’s Preparatory School (STATE CHAMPIONSHIP)
- Thread starter northalleghenytiger
- Start date
SJP’s five best recruits are all juniors who haven’t committed yet, so the announcers did not refer to them as D1 commits. Two linebackers (Anthony Sacca and Cameron Smith) and a defensive tackle (Max Roy) are all top 200 players nationally in their class. Khalil Stewart is an offensive tackle with power five offers, and sophomore defensive end Alex Haskell is already 6’4 240 as a 10th grader and has Power 5 offers. Safe to assume all five play high D1 football, barring injury.
Bedsides Stewart, SJP had a lineman committed to Merrimack, which is FCS (old I-AA) - Division I but you might mean only FCS schools? Similarly, their other tackle hasn’t committed but has most of the Patriot League and some CAA schools after him. Their junior guard has a bunch of listed “interest” on his 247 page from FBS schools, which to me means he’s probably an FCS player, with the big guys poking around to see if he hits a new level of development. But not lacking for talent.
Steelton-Highspire had the twins both going D1 - Navy and Ohio
Belle Vernon has five star running back Quinton Martin going to Penn State. From the other side of the 4A game, NWL junior Bryer Reichard will be a power five kid, and their two sophomores and freshman (Shane Leh, Mason Bolinger, and Eli Zimmerman) all are on that trajectory, particularly Bolinger.
Peters Township’s quarterback is a 6’3 sophomore who will ne all state and drove that offense, I’m assuming he’s a D1 kid. They have a junior linebacker with offers from BC and Syracuse, a sophomore linebacker with FCS offers, and Darius McMillon is a D1 wrestler, who may get football attention if he wasn’t so good on the mat.
Dallas in 4A didn’t have any FBS kids, but beat a Bishop McDevitt team that had at least four, including two going to the SEC (Alabama and Kentucky). Aliquippa has one Pitt and one Penn State.
As I’m looking this up, I’m noticing a lot of teams that were in Hershey were underclassmen driven in terms of their best college talents.
Also, looking back 20 years, that class in PA had 8 four stars. This year has one five star and 12 four stars, so the state actually has more top end kids. They’re just nowhere near as geographically spread out as they were 20 years ago.
Belle Vernon has five star running back Quinton Martin going to Penn State. From the other side of the 4A game, NWL junior Bryer Reichard will be a power five kid, and their two sophomores and freshman (Shane Leh, Mason Bolinger, and Eli Zimmerman) all are on that trajectory, particularly Bolinger.
Peters Township’s quarterback is a 6’3 sophomore who will ne all state and drove that offense, I’m assuming he’s a D1 kid. They have a junior linebacker with offers from BC and Syracuse, a sophomore linebacker with FCS offers, and Darius McMillon is a D1 wrestler, who may get football attention if he wasn’t so good on the mat.
Dallas in 4A didn’t have any FBS kids, but beat a Bishop McDevitt team that had at least four, including two going to the SEC (Alabama and Kentucky). Aliquippa has one Pitt and one Penn State.
As I’m looking this up, I’m noticing a lot of teams that were in Hershey were underclassmen driven in terms of their best college talents.
Also, looking back 20 years, that class in PA had 8 four stars. This year has one five star and 12 four stars, so the state actually has more top end kids. They’re just nowhere near as geographically spread out as they were 20 years ago.
Prep’s center is signed in to play fcs. I believe both tackles hold offers from fcs and one from Temple. That’s according to wsjp during cbs broadcast. Next years class have the best of their linemen on both sides led by Stewart and Roy leading the way. Both will play high fbs ball.
gtfoh...
Let's go to a drag race. You bring your stock honda civic and I'll bring my Hellcat..
yes
and #51 would start somewhere on SJP's OL. He's playing every snap both ways at NA. Let him play one side of the ball. He's a better run blocker then at least 2 of the SJP guys.
Don't know of anyone who's said Prep players work harder than everyone else or their coaches are the second coming of Lombardi. We do say they work very hard and the coaches are very good and very dedicated. Is it unfair or inappropriate to mention the extraordinary effort of a guy like Samaj Jones? You don't develop those skills without lots of practice.
#32 sjp was the best back in the game. I would have to see healthy 8 to judge.
uh, sorry, after watching NA closely over the last two years, and after watching SJP, and reading more about their roster? no imo, ZERO kids from NA would beat out any kids to "start" on this current SJP team
I think it was a response on "How to close the gap" in the past threads. its been on this page a lot in the past. People often say "work harder" "coach harder" . Pretty clear SJP does these things with superior roster and its extremely hard for others close the gap. All within the rules and I support PA having 1 true champ. I think PA should be proud of having a team like SJP and in the rare instance somebody beats them, its a great feat.
#47 NA jumped off the screen initially but coaching stabilized him. I think he could be a good player for sjp.
Here is how you close the gap on St Joes Prep. Get transfers to come to your school. The PIAA needs to take the gloves off and let kids transfer. Art Walker JR is a very good coach I am sure his staff is very competent. But give him 3-5 transfers to come in then what. Gap not so big
To be honest. The best way is for the PCL league as a whole to ramp up and socialize the talent across the league even a little bit would help. We all know the struggles of the PCL since open enrollment and schools closing, but best way is for other PCL to be good which would possibly lower the standard of SJP. Cardinal O'Hara is a mystery how far they have dropped in size and football importance.
47 is a stud, im just not sure he would walk in and "start" at sjp- 51 is too slow and small to beat kids out at sjp
This is just not correct information. This comment just continues to downplay how good SJP really is. You could double the amount of d1 players you claimed they have and there’d still be more on the hawks. They’d murder those late 90s early 2000z teams. I know people are naturally nostalgic but get real
sammy- serious question- you've talked about "open-transfer." what does that mean?
I dont think it would ever happen- but how would it work? Are you saying kids could "go to any school they want" or are you saying when kids actually "move" their eligibility would NOT be questioned? I just see maybe the problem w private schools getting worse- but maybe i just dont really understand?
Here is how it is in several places In North Carolina. Every February there is a transfer period about 2 weeks where kids can transfer to another school in that county. Then after that there is a magnet school transfer period which is about 1 week. Yes kids can go anywhere in the district. So a kid from Northeast could go to Abraham Lincoln This allows kids and parents a “choice”. This cuts down on private and charter schools in those districts. So when the transfer is approved and they always are that June kids can start working out with that school and team. In other districts there are ways to get kids into district we can talk about that later. Here in North Carolina look at Hoggard East Forsyth Mt Tabor Grimsley everyone in Charlotte does it. We got talent coming to Rolesville when I was there . Look at the talent those schools have.
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back in 2004 I was on this site talking about getting a school and recruiting Philly kids to go there. Some of you old timers might remember this. Then poof Imhotep came onto the scene. Telling you this is how you do it. What you need is a school willing to take the heat to build a team like this. Philly should have 3 or 4 Imhoteps. Allegheny county PA should have 5-6 schools who get the talent
I think they Alualu kid could. #8 I think. Hurt his ankle. On D as a LB. That's it though.
Art should be quiet. He's whining.
i agree 8 is really good, flashes of "great" but imo not big enough, for playing MLB and FB-ish- he's been hurt many times this year
ok gotcha thx- kinda sounds similar to NCAA transfer "portal windows." My concern- is still- unlikely to happen- the "sacred cow" for schools in PA is "funding" and property tax- which makes schools very unlikely to allow for "easier transfers" even tho it might be good for kids. And, sadly, many school boards have lowered their priorities for HS football in PA. Just weird- it seems like maybe PIAA should decrease the transfer rules- but recently they did the opposite
But I think this could happen in say Bucks county or Philadelphia county. Pittsburgh city schools ect
Dr Lombardi needs to resign from the head of the PIAA and maybe give the position to me
This already exists in Philadelphia. The entire city is open enrollment. As long as you live anywhere in the city limits and get in, you can go to any public school in the city. So kids from Abraham Lincoln can already go to Northeast and vice versa.
The big difference between Pennsylvania and North Carolina (and a lot of southern states) is that in NC school districts exist by county, where in Pennsylvania it’s by municipality. So like, what you’re describing exists in some school districts (Lower Merion and Harriton High Schools being choice schools within the same district for example) but not other multi-high school distinct (Freedom and Liberty in Bethlehem) but transferring within counties but separate school districts (Nazareth to Easton or North Penn to Neshaminy, for example) would need a complete overhaul of how revenue is raised and distributed statewide.
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Erie prep had a little more then 5 but west was full of D2 kids and had some monster lines. The 98 team their entire line was division 1. I agree that football isn't what it use to be in Pa but we get some nice public school teams on the western part of the state but we don't have a sjp or Imhotep over here. We had 17 pine Richland, 21 mt lebo, aliquippa, Belle Vernon, clariton, central valley, and Thomas Jefferson. The public schools out east are non existent. I'm wandering how much it has to do with schools like archbishop wood, sjp, and Imhotep. I mean wood has a few down years and the bucks county schools are good again. I've always said if you want a sjp school here on the western part of the state put a private school in beaver county and let them be independent and create their own schedule. Can you imagine pulling the best kids from Alliquppa, beaver falls, central valley, and anyone else who would attend there to play football. You would have another sjp in the state.
I don't think #8 is a pure RB. He's a very good HS RB for sure, but he would make SJP's starting 11 on defense.
#51 is 6'3 290 and is an FCS guy at OG or C.
TBH - I wasn't THAT impressed with SJP's OL. They're really big but I didn't see a lot of guys who can bend and play behind their pads. They're effective but I thought the OL that Swift had was better.
I don't understand your point
so because not every team today has multiple D1 kids means that PA football stinks today compared to 20+ years ago? and that somehow means SJP doesn't have unfair advantages?
I would love to come back to the keystone state. And my time in the coast guard in Philly was a blast
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Sammyk A lot of this board is sjp guys and pcl guys. You bring up recruiting and they get salty about it and don't want to hear it. Other then the salty ones I like your post and input.
