Unequal footing: Prep’s unique dominance festers dissent about PIAA football format | Commentary
Does the PIAA have the desire (or ability) to separate public schools from national powerhouses?
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Sjp article and controversy
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When the PIAA tweeted (it was still called Twitter then) the result of last year’s Class 6A football final, the organization didn’t open the post to replies.
No, the announcement of St. Joseph’s Prep’s seventh state championship in 10 seasons wasn’t available for commentary.
The same couldn’t be said of posts about Pine-Richland’s 5A triumph over Imhotep Charter, Belle Vernon’s 3A win against Neumann Goretti, or even Bishop McDevitt’s 4A rout of Aliquippa.
So, why the antisocial media around the Hawks?
We’re not interning for the PIAA, but the answer seems apparent. The association eliminated at least one avenue of negative feedback.
And that’s because public school fans are fed up.
The power of Prep
St. Joseph’s Prep dismantled Harrisburg 42-7 for the state title in 2022. It’s appeared in nine of the last 10 PIAA big-school finals. Only Pine-Richland (2017) and Mount Lebanon (2021) forced the Hawks to settle for silver. Pine-Richland featured a pair of Notre Dame recruits during its championship campaign; Mount Lebanon rode Navy-bound Alex Tecza past a youngish St. Joseph’s Prep squad.
Many of those Hawks were all grown up and pummeling Nazareth during a 59-21 PIAA quarterfinal victory on Saturday afternoon.
The victory over the Blue Eagles improved St. Joseph’s Prep’s record to 9-0 against District 11 opponents in the state bracket. Only two of those victories came in one-score contests (Freedom, 2021; Parkland, 2014). Nazareth head coach Tom Falzone, whose program was also ousted by the Hawks in 2019, stated the obvious after the weekend’s mercy-rule setback.
“It’s hard when you’re not on the same playing field and it’s not the same law,” he said. “I would love to be able to recruit this offseason and bring people in, and maybe reach across the border a little bit and find people from other places. But, I don’t get that luxury. I coach kids that live in Nazareth … That’s the reality of it all.”
St. Joe’s has won its seven PIAA championships by a combined margin of 305-121 or 26.3 points per game. The Hawks have collected the second-most titles in PIAA history and all have come in the past decade. (Southern Columbia ranks first with 13.)
That unrivaled success has kept the machine rolling. The St. Joe’s roster lists 85 kids, and the scholarship offer sheets of those athletes is even more impressive. The Hawks’ senior class has players headed to Kentucky, Cincinnati, Wisconsin and West Virginia. The group of juniors is even deeper with kids boasting offers from Penn State, Maryland, Pittsburgh, Michigan State, Florida State, Illinois, Duke and Georgia.
“It’s tough. We’ve got like [1,500] kids at our school, and we’re all from the same town,” said Nazareth senior Mason Kuehner, who registered 107 receiving yards and a TD on Saturday. “These kids, I’m sure there probably aren’t many kids that all live in the same area. They came from all over the place. It’s a tough situation. At the end of the day, the 6A state champion should be the best team in the state, so it is what it is.”
A different ballgame
Let’s be clear: St. Joe’s can operate its program however it sees fit. The Hawks have tremendous players, and it’s a privilege to see the likes of D’Andre Swift (Philadelphia Eagles) and Marvin Harrison Jr. (Ohio State) play in person before they vault into super stardom.
Well, a privilege for those holding notepads or laptops. Onlookers sporting the colors of their favorite District 11 public school might disagree.
Some of those fans bemoan the inclusion of the Philadelphia Catholic League in the state tournament.
Outside of St. Joe’s, however, the Catholic League has only captured one other PIAA championship over the last five years (Archbishop Wood, 2019). The Prep is operating on a different level than its league mates, and the Hawks’ schedule reveals as much.
SJP opened its 2023 schedule with a 17-14 setback to IMG Academy, an athletics-centered boarding school in Bradenton, Florida, that is owned by a Hong Kong private equity firm. (Nazareth played East Stroudsburg South in Week 1 – in case you were wondering.)
The Hawks mauled New Jersey’s St. Peter’s Prep, smacked Lakeland (Florida) and handled Archbishop Spalding (Maryland). Six of the Prep’s 11 opponents entering the weekend were from Pennsylvania, including two routs of La Salle College High School and a 61-0 destruction of Archbishop Wood.
If St. Joe’s was in New Jersey, it wouldn’t have satisfied the NJSIAA’s rule that requires programs to play 70% of their schedule in-state to qualify for the state playoffs.
Who cares about New Jersey?
The Garden State seems an appropriate point of reference considering about 30% of the SJP roster comes from east of the Delaware River.
Structural issues
Phillipsburg will never have to worry about a once-in-a-generation team being denied a state championship by, say, Don Bosco Prep (which lost to St. Joe’s, 28-7, by the way).
That experience is saved for squads like the 2021 Garnet Valley team that was 14-0 before being blasted by SJP in the final game of longtime coach Mike Ricci’s tenure.
By contrast, the NJSIAA puts private schools in separate brackets. Bergen Catholic meets Delbarton and Red Bank Catholic faces DePaul Catholic for the Group A and B titles, respectively, on Tuesday at MetLife Stadium.
N.J.’s format is often trumpeted by fans and coaches who want to see a level playing field for public schools. That includes Falzone, who noted the PIAA’s move from four to six size classifications was unnecessary and didn’t address the real issue.
“If you have six, use them – go with big non-boundary and small non-boundary. Let them play it out. You’re not taking away from them a chance to compete. They’re just competing with people who do it the same way,” Falzone said. “Then, go with the public schools in the other four [classifications]. Let them battle it out.”
The combination of “private” schools and “non-boundary” institutions is important in this discussion because supporters of traditional public schools won’t be satisfied until charter schools are placed in a different tournament. PIAA executive director Robert Lombardi has quibbled with those labels.
“That definition of boundary and non-boundary is flawed because many (public) schools take tuition kids or teachers bring their children in (from another school district). As soon as you do that, they become non-boundary,” Lombardi told Pittsburgh’s TribLIVE.
Those semantic arguments seem unnecessary if a format is created where private and charter schools – two unambiguous things – are classified together. All of that, however, is secondary to the major sticking point, according to the PIAA.
The association has steadfastly contended that separation of the state tournaments would run contrary to Pennsylvania’s Act 219 of 1972, a piece of legislation that authorized private schools (specifically those in the Pennsylvania Catholic Interscholastic Athletic Association) to participate with public schools in postseason events.
“Separating them back to what they had before 1972 is against the legislative intent of the bill,” Lombardi previously told the York Dispatch.
That interpretation, either by the PIAA’s administrators or its legal counsel, leaves the association toothless to pursue the changes wanted by public school backers.
“It is what it is”
The Georgia High School Association recently voted to create separate playoffs for public and private schools in the state’s lowest three classifications.
Earlier this year, Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Conklin (D-Centre) introduced legislation that would untether the PIAA to the 1972 act that has caused this impasse.
“If they determine the current system is still fairest, still the best, more power to them,” Tor Michaels, Conklin’s chief of staff, told TribLIVE in February.
We’re not naive enough to suggest successful public programs have a spotless record regarding recruitment, overt or otherwise. Talented athletes can suddenly appear in school districts after parents do what’s necessary to procure the address needed.
The PIAA hasn’t been static regarding transfer issues in recent seasons. A newer rule says that athletes who change schools as a sophomore, junior or senior will be ineligible for postseason play for one year in all sports they’d competed in prior to the transfer.
That regulation was enforced again Saturday – against Nazareth. Standout wideout/defensive back Caleb Newsome, who went from Nazareth to the Peddie School back to Nazareth (à la Jahan Dotson) was sidelined as the Blue Eagles were bombarded by St. Joseph’s Prep.
In the words of Mason Kuehner:
It is what it is.
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Kyle Craig may be reached at kcraig@lehighvalleylive.com.
More Lehigh Valley football
College football roundup: Easton’s Shupp helps Delaware shock Lafayette in playoff comeback
Unequal footing: Prep’s unique dominance festers dissent about PIAA football format | Commentary
Nazareth football becomes another District 11 sacrifice to St. Joseph’s Prep buzzsaw
Northwestern football finishes strong, moves into state semifinals for 1st time in 21 years
Easton-Phillipsburg Football Hall of Fame honors 2023 class (PHOTOS)
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No, the announcement of St. Joseph’s Prep’s seventh state championship in 10 seasons wasn’t available for commentary.
The same couldn’t be said of posts about Pine-Richland’s 5A triumph over Imhotep Charter, Belle Vernon’s 3A win against Neumann Goretti, or even Bishop McDevitt’s 4A rout of Aliquippa.
So, why the antisocial media around the Hawks?
We’re not interning for the PIAA, but the answer seems apparent. The association eliminated at least one avenue of negative feedback.
And that’s because public school fans are fed up.
The power of Prep
St. Joseph’s Prep dismantled Harrisburg 42-7 for the state title in 2022. It’s appeared in nine of the last 10 PIAA big-school finals. Only Pine-Richland (2017) and Mount Lebanon (2021) forced the Hawks to settle for silver. Pine-Richland featured a pair of Notre Dame recruits during its championship campaign; Mount Lebanon rode Navy-bound Alex Tecza past a youngish St. Joseph’s Prep squad.
Many of those Hawks were all grown up and pummeling Nazareth during a 59-21 PIAA quarterfinal victory on Saturday afternoon.
The victory over the Blue Eagles improved St. Joseph’s Prep’s record to 9-0 against District 11 opponents in the state bracket. Only two of those victories came in one-score contests (Freedom, 2021; Parkland, 2014). Nazareth head coach Tom Falzone, whose program was also ousted by the Hawks in 2019, stated the obvious after the weekend’s mercy-rule setback.
“It’s hard when you’re not on the same playing field and it’s not the same law,” he said. “I would love to be able to recruit this offseason and bring people in, and maybe reach across the border a little bit and find people from other places. But, I don’t get that luxury. I coach kids that live in Nazareth … That’s the reality of it all.”
St. Joe’s has won its seven PIAA championships by a combined margin of 305-121 or 26.3 points per game. The Hawks have collected the second-most titles in PIAA history and all have come in the past decade. (Southern Columbia ranks first with 13.)
That unrivaled success has kept the machine rolling. The St. Joe’s roster lists 85 kids, and the scholarship offer sheets of those athletes is even more impressive. The Hawks’ senior class has players headed to Kentucky, Cincinnati, Wisconsin and West Virginia. The group of juniors is even deeper with kids boasting offers from Penn State, Maryland, Pittsburgh, Michigan State, Florida State, Illinois, Duke and Georgia.
“It’s tough. We’ve got like [1,500] kids at our school, and we’re all from the same town,” said Nazareth senior Mason Kuehner, who registered 107 receiving yards and a TD on Saturday. “These kids, I’m sure there probably aren’t many kids that all live in the same area. They came from all over the place. It’s a tough situation. At the end of the day, the 6A state champion should be the best team in the state, so it is what it is.”
A different ballgame
Let’s be clear: St. Joe’s can operate its program however it sees fit. The Hawks have tremendous players, and it’s a privilege to see the likes of D’Andre Swift (Philadelphia Eagles) and Marvin Harrison Jr. (Ohio State) play in person before they vault into super stardom.
Well, a privilege for those holding notepads or laptops. Onlookers sporting the colors of their favorite District 11 public school might disagree.
Some of those fans bemoan the inclusion of the Philadelphia Catholic League in the state tournament.
Outside of St. Joe’s, however, the Catholic League has only captured one other PIAA championship over the last five years (Archbishop Wood, 2019). The Prep is operating on a different level than its league mates, and the Hawks’ schedule reveals as much.
SJP opened its 2023 schedule with a 17-14 setback to IMG Academy, an athletics-centered boarding school in Bradenton, Florida, that is owned by a Hong Kong private equity firm. (Nazareth played East Stroudsburg South in Week 1 – in case you were wondering.)
The Hawks mauled New Jersey’s St. Peter’s Prep, smacked Lakeland (Florida) and handled Archbishop Spalding (Maryland). Six of the Prep’s 11 opponents entering the weekend were from Pennsylvania, including two routs of La Salle College High School and a 61-0 destruction of Archbishop Wood.
If St. Joe’s was in New Jersey, it wouldn’t have satisfied the NJSIAA’s rule that requires programs to play 70% of their schedule in-state to qualify for the state playoffs.
Who cares about New Jersey?
The Garden State seems an appropriate point of reference considering about 30% of the SJP roster comes from east of the Delaware River.
Structural issues
Phillipsburg will never have to worry about a once-in-a-generation team being denied a state championship by, say, Don Bosco Prep (which lost to St. Joe’s, 28-7, by the way).
That experience is saved for squads like the 2021 Garnet Valley team that was 14-0 before being blasted by SJP in the final game of longtime coach Mike Ricci’s tenure.
By contrast, the NJSIAA puts private schools in separate brackets. Bergen Catholic meets Delbarton and Red Bank Catholic faces DePaul Catholic for the Group A and B titles, respectively, on Tuesday at MetLife Stadium.
N.J.’s format is often trumpeted by fans and coaches who want to see a level playing field for public schools. That includes Falzone, who noted the PIAA’s move from four to six size classifications was unnecessary and didn’t address the real issue.
“If you have six, use them – go with big non-boundary and small non-boundary. Let them play it out. You’re not taking away from them a chance to compete. They’re just competing with people who do it the same way,” Falzone said. “Then, go with the public schools in the other four [classifications]. Let them battle it out.”
The combination of “private” schools and “non-boundary” institutions is important in this discussion because supporters of traditional public schools won’t be satisfied until charter schools are placed in a different tournament. PIAA executive director Robert Lombardi has quibbled with those labels.
“That definition of boundary and non-boundary is flawed because many (public) schools take tuition kids or teachers bring their children in (from another school district). As soon as you do that, they become non-boundary,” Lombardi told Pittsburgh’s TribLIVE.
Those semantic arguments seem unnecessary if a format is created where private and charter schools – two unambiguous things – are classified together. All of that, however, is secondary to the major sticking point, according to the PIAA.
The association has steadfastly contended that separation of the state tournaments would run contrary to Pennsylvania’s Act 219 of 1972, a piece of legislation that authorized private schools (specifically those in the Pennsylvania Catholic Interscholastic Athletic Association) to participate with public schools in postseason events.
“Separating them back to what they had before 1972 is against the legislative intent of the bill,” Lombardi previously told the York Dispatch.
That interpretation, either by the PIAA’s administrators or its legal counsel, leaves the association toothless to pursue the changes wanted by public school backers.
“It is what it is”
The Georgia High School Association recently voted to create separate playoffs for public and private schools in the state’s lowest three classifications.
Earlier this year, Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Conklin (D-Centre) introduced legislation that would untether the PIAA to the 1972 act that has caused this impasse.
“If they determine the current system is still fairest, still the best, more power to them,” Tor Michaels, Conklin’s chief of staff, told TribLIVE in February.
We’re not naive enough to suggest successful public programs have a spotless record regarding recruitment, overt or otherwise. Talented athletes can suddenly appear in school districts after parents do what’s necessary to procure the address needed.
The PIAA hasn’t been static regarding transfer issues in recent seasons. A newer rule says that athletes who change schools as a sophomore, junior or senior will be ineligible for postseason play for one year in all sports they’d competed in prior to the transfer.
That regulation was enforced again Saturday – against Nazareth. Standout wideout/defensive back Caleb Newsome, who went from Nazareth to the Peddie School back to Nazareth (à la Jahan Dotson) was sidelined as the Blue Eagles were bombarded by St. Joseph’s Prep.
In the words of Mason Kuehner:
It is what it is.
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com.
Kyle Craig may be reached at kcraig@lehighvalleylive.com.
More Lehigh Valley football
College football roundup: Easton’s Shupp helps Delaware shock Lafayette in playoff comeback
Unequal footing: Prep’s unique dominance festers dissent about PIAA football format | Commentary
Nazareth football becomes another District 11 sacrifice to St. Joseph’s Prep buzzsaw
Northwestern football finishes strong, moves into state semifinals for 1st time in 21 years
Easton-Phillipsburg Football Hall of Fame honors 2023 class (PHOTOS)
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The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local.
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At the start ,St Joe was just another PCL team. They changed coaches ,became a much better program without changing what they have done in the past became a highly successful program and since they have achieved success at a high level are now being targeted for elimination. Just goes to show you that being great isnt a place to be ala New England Patriots and Southern Columbia which by the way has all So Columbia kids like Nazareth does.
A few questions:
1. If, as the article suggests, the problem is not non-boundary schools but SJP, why change the whole system for six classifications because one team has been dominating one classification?
2. Is there a way of making, say, two classifications of non-boundary schools work in practical terms, i.e. not creating a whole bunch of huge mismatches and forcing teams to travel 100-400 miles for all playoff games, etc.?
3. Is the Jersey model doable and desirable for PA? (What's been the actual result in Jersey? From my understanding, the system has widened the gap, real and/or perceived, between the quality of football played by public schools and the quality of football played by Catholic schools, or at least many of them.)
4. The article was clearly written from a D11 perspective. It's a district from which SJP has not, except maybe in a couple of rate instances, drawn players. Is it the case that the quality of football played in D11, especially by the bigger schools, increased, decreased, or stayed about the same in the last decade or so or since the very early years of this century? (I could ask the same about D1. If there were a CBW of the 90s or a NP of several years earlier this century, would there be as strong a desire for SJP not to be in the PIAA?)
The difference is the New England Patriots has the same advantages as the rest of the NFL.
Don't be distracted with all of the various misdirection topics out there; avoid the multi-state topic as it's a non-starter. Just assume Philly is centrally located in the state like Atlanta in GA. It's quite simple:
Population density is nullified by number of male students in 9-11 for boundary schools.
Population density increases the pool for number of male students in 9-11 for non-boundary schools.
Just don’t understand what SJP gets out of beating up boundary schools in the PIAA playoffs. Picking kids from a 45 mile radius in one of the largest cities in the country is just a bit of an advantage.
Population density is nullified by number of male students in 9-11 for boundary schools.
Population density increases the pool for number of male students in 9-11 for non-boundary schools.
Just don’t understand what SJP gets out of beating up boundary schools in the PIAA playoffs. Picking kids from a 45 mile radius in one of the largest cities in the country is just a bit of an advantage.
Remember that there are many other non-boundary schools in the Philly area, whereas in Pittsburgh, for instance, there are far fewer and few if any with strong football programs. In Harrisburg, BM is pretty much the only non-boundary school, no?
when will people stop talking about that GV team, or any D1 team for that matter. that prep team almost lost to freedom and then got beat up by lebo. GV stunk
GV dominated district 1. The real question is what is wrong with district 1 as a whole?
Everyone was ok with these advantages for years and BTW all non boundary programs have the same rules that are accepted by the PIAA and for the teams associated within it EXCEPT prep. I would assume that if they begin losing all will be fine again. Districts 3 and 7 seem ok with playing against good competition as Prep provides. Not so much District 1 and 11.
I would think that when CB West ,Pine Richland ,Ridley in their heyday and other very successful schools with great coaching and winning didnt lose very many talented players to the St Joes ,ect. unless their religion swayed them. Players want to play for winners.
District 1 is a huge problem that I think no one wants to address. They’re playing football for a unique set of fans and not particularly the state playoffs. Eliminate sjp from the equation and district 1 might have seen Hershey 1 year tops and I’m being generous. How many state champions still run the wing T? How many teams in district one still run a variation of the wing t? In a state semi you plan to run the ball down the throats of sjp for the entire game? Now I have no issue with the wing t and believe there’s room for it, but does anyone believes that’s a smart strategy? Take out sjp and parkland, Nazareth, and lasalle would most likely mercy rule the last 3 district 1 champs.
Sjp is willing to put the money into their program and play a national schedule where other schools aren't. Thier football team has traveled in the off season as well. With much of their team being NJ kids they should join the NJ Catholic league.
The only off-season SJP travel has been on service trips. None of the comparable NJ teams is within 60 miles of Philly. It would also require SJP to leave the PCL, which it's been part of for 100+ years. Plus, NJ would never let a school from another state--not the same as schools that have students/players from out of state (which Bergen Catholic and Bosco, and maybe others, have)--play in their playoffs.
G-Val isn't just straight Wing anymore.
2021-1933 pass yds
2022-1397 pass yds
2023-1259 pass yds
**** It's hard arguing success beating Coatesville 54-14 in 2021 (lost to SJP 49-13), DtEast and CB West in 2022 (lost to SJP 48-7) before losing to CB West in 2023 by a point in overtime. Evidently SJP is just too high a mountain unless the staff at G-Val is considered antiquated.
But, back home, everyone flings it and have been flinging it for years. Wilson, Township, Central York, York High, Central Dauphin (still prefer to pound but can pass), McDevitt, Cedar Cliff, State, even Cumberland Valley. Thank goodness for Coach Oswalt coming over from Central York four years ago scraping the Wing-T going to the Spread.
You used to hear it was close to being a necessity at small schools trying to match up having to go with the Wing-T. Tell that to tiny Steel High and their profound passing attack setting state records and winning 4 gold medals since 2007 and going for a 5th. Rollers!
RHC, there is no incentive for District One to change their model. Winning football games aren't important to school boards and school administrations. They've been pretty irrelevant in football for 20 years, and are clearly the weakest district between 3, 7 and 11. This isn't changing any time soon. We may never see a District One team win a football state title again.
Tulla,
Those private schools in N Jersey are a shell of what they were 5 to 6 years ago. Toal left Bosco, and they never recovered. The private's up there are still better than most public's, but the private's up there cannibalized each other so much that the model kind of imploded.
Those private schools in N Jersey are a shell of what they were 5 to 6 years ago. Toal left Bosco, and they never recovered. The private's up there are still better than most public's, but the private's up there cannibalized each other so much that the model kind of imploded.
GV is NOT a wing-t team, they are a split-back veer team. (See De La Salle, CA) Obviously the most successful team in the state championship era IS wing-t. (Southern Columbia) In District 1, Strath Haven, Hatboro Horsham and to some extent CB West still is but moved away from it a bit this year. I'm sure there are others. Every year there are teams that flirt with it or change over to it for a few years. or run a shotgun variation of its blocking schemes like CB West.
If you look at teams that use a system like Veer or Wing-T, they are usually using it as an equalizer, a way to beat more talented teams by taking them out of their defensive comfort zone. Does it come up short in the end against teams like St Joe's? Yes, because the talent differential is so large. If GV for example, with their talent level, was a typical spread team, they wouldn't have played SJP, ever. They wouldn't win a D1 title. They win because of their system, not in spite of it.
District 1 is in a unique situation geographically, with more private schools in one area competing for talent than anywhere else in the state. With the number of football players dropping (for multiple reasons), and recruiting at an all-time high (enabled by the birth of social media), many D1 teams have seen a drop off in what is left to build a team. Many schools still have great support for football, certainly the CB schools do, GV does, Coatesville, Downingtowns, etc.. but speaking for the CBs, don't have enough talent left to then lose 5-10 top players and still compete at the state level. So, you try to win your conference, make a run at Districts, and then take your lumps in the semis. You celebrate what you did win.
agree with most of your comments. With Wood imploding the Central Bucks schools have and will continue to draw talent away from Wood. Again, players want to play for winners .
Trinity is an up and coming private on the West Shore in Camp Hill but doubt they're drawing anyone from McD, yet. New coach Jordan Hill is a Steelton guy which means a lot there, won a state title at Steel High as a player, All Big-10 at PSU and a standout on Seattle's super bowl team. Building an impressive staff with recent hire of Michael Mauti, PSU All-Am, NFL.
McDevitt's world is about to change BIG time next season with re-alignment of the Mid-Penn to four divisions from five. That puts them (forced to 5A per success) with the 6As in the Mid Penn-Commonwealth Division with Harrisburg, State College, Central Dauphin, Cumberland Valley, Cedar Cliff, CD East, Carlisle, Chambersburg, Altoona. One hell of a group.
In the ten years between 1991 and 2000 CBW won four state championships out of their six appearances in the final--not quite apples and oranges if you're comparing them to the last ten years with SJP--more like golden delicious and red delicious or, if you insist, golden delicious and honeycrisp.
After next year it will be 9 out of 12 with 11 finals appearances. Like I said, apples to oranges.
i'm surprised you think otherwise
who do you predict will beat them? I was thinking next year could be a possibility they lose since the team that lost to Mt. Lebanon is now seniors, but reading a post above it looks like the junior class is loaded with talent most schools haven't had in their entire history
Next year they will start a QB--not sure who it will be--with no or very little varsity experience, will have two of six starting offensive linemen returning, will be replacing all three starting receivers, and will have one defensive lineman, two linebackers, and one (or no) returning defensive back returning. They also lose their placekicker. The starters who are returning all all very good and some of the guys (e.g. some of the receivers like Hardy and Turner) who are returning would certainly be starters on almost any other team this year, so I'm not saying the cupboard is near empty.
And of course there are unknowns. Before the 2022 season they lost two starters on defense to transfer--including probably their second best player (James Heard). That the Prep loses players to transfer is something rarely noted on here. Does anyone know if all the coaches are returning? Of course we have no idea about injuries.
Moreover, every team has internal dynamics that are hard to predict. (I would not have expected after the state championship season of 2014 that the next year the Prep would lose big to Bosco, lose to Malvern, and lose to LaSalle in the league championship--and thus not make it even to the city championship. And that team had Swift and several other very good players--but no experienced QB. And the whole rarely seemed more than the sum of the parts all year.) How will the team come out of their pre-league schedule next year? I haven't a clue, but I guess others just assume they'll be flying.
Who can beat them next year. For much of this year we heard some, not you, say PCC might be at least able to keep it close. I haven't heard that Tiger has conceded this year. I have no idea about D7 next year, though I read on here it's supposed to be a down year. (If so, it's not SJP's fault, really.) Last year Harrisburg was said to have several very promising freshmen and sophomores. Shouldn't they be back next year? If the Central Bucks teams are profiting from the weakening of Wood, maybe they--at least CBW and CBS--be that much better than they are this year. If none of these teams is capable of challenging an almost certainly weaker SJP next year, then I'd ask why in the entire state there is no large school close to where ML and Freedom were in 2021, Coatesville and P-R were in 2017, North Penn was in 2016, etc.
they'll be fine, by "fine" i mean at worst they will lose in the state final which would be the best year ever at most schools
they had injuries in 2019 and still won the state, their backups would start just about anywhere else
That's right, golden delicious or honey crisp. Coming from apple country in Adams County, the word is only horses would eat a red delicious!
Cb west never had a team full of d1 one both sides of the ball. Their kids played both ways. West was a public school that didn't have the luxury of getting NJ kids or pulling athletes from a wide radius of a giant city. Plus cb west played in competitive games. Agreed apples and oranges. Comparing sjp to a public school is comical. Sjp prep is taking FULL advantages of thier advantages. A better comparison would be mater dei, St Thomas Aquinas, or even bishop Gorman.
Some facts. This year SJP played a "boundary" public school: Lakeland. The final score (45-24) may indicate it wasn't close, but Lakeland was leading in the middle of the third quarter. Last year the Prep played a public school from NY (Erasmus) and beat them 14-7 in Philly. The game was as close as the score indicates. In 2021 the Prep lost not only to Mount Lebanon but to a public school from Georgia (Milton) in Philly. Milton was not a state champion in their class in GA. In 2020 SJP were supposed to play a public school in Texas but the game got cancelled because of Covid. From what I recall, it was expected to be a very close game, In 2019 (the year they barely beat PCC when McCord and Trotter were injured) they (with McCord and Trotter in good health) lost to a public school (Marietta) in Georgia.
What's the point? In recent years when so many have been saying public (boundary) schools in PA have no chance of beating SJP and really no chance of keeping the game close, SJP has been in very close games with public schools from other states, sometimes losing to them. Maybe this all says something about the quality of hs football in PA (at least in the largest classification) and / or maybe it says something about the attitude of some of the coaches and some people in the media who are likely leaving the players on the public schools SJP plays in the playoffs expecting to be blown out.
(Just saw that Massillon Washington beat Archbishop Hoban in Ohio tonight.)
SJP had all those advantages when they played very close games against Frankford and Neshaminy in 2013, when they almost lost to Parkland and P-R in 2014, when they lost to LaSalle in 2015, when they almost lost to North Penn in 2016, when they almost lost to Coatesville and did lose to P-R in 2017, when they lost to Marietta and almost lost to PCC in 2019, when they lost to Milton and to ML in 2021, and when they narrowly beat Erasmus in 2022.
Let’s not forget about the transfer portal 😂😂 transfers show up on their door step each year and with a large class leaving I don’t see any different this off season. When you play that early season schedule, espn games, and the number of guys they’ve put out over the years you get not only the guys who aspire to play at the next level but the good guys at that. How could you blame them?
Last offseason brought in 2 power 5 players. One on each side of the ball.
According to max prep they return 6 players on defense 4 of which are p5 guys. Offense returns 3 players, 2 of which are p5 guys. Like someone mentioned earlier their back ups aren’t normal. They have a freshmen qb with offers from p5 schools who never took a varsity snap. They’ve been in several lopsided wins where their back ups played most of the game. Again, I think next year will be a down year for them but PA may not feel the difference.
Last offseason brought in 2 power 5 players. One on each side of the ball.
According to max prep they return 6 players on defense 4 of which are p5 guys. Offense returns 3 players, 2 of which are p5 guys. Like someone mentioned earlier their back ups aren’t normal. They have a freshmen qb with offers from p5 schools who never took a varsity snap. They’ve been in several lopsided wins where their back ups played most of the game. Again, I think next year will be a down year for them but PA may not feel the difference.
They also had 2 four star juniors transfer in this year. One from Roman another from NJ. I get they are your alumni but you really can't see this as fair or an even playing field.
Is this some type of sick joke? A freshman with offers? It looks like SJP has gold wrapped up until atleast 2027