SJP Schedule?

[tulla]

Just wondering who, if anyone, SJP will be playing Labor Day weekend. I know there was talk they would be going to Maryland to play St.Frances Academy, but the school website for SFA has them playing a Virginia team that weekend. (It also indicates there's been a lot of controversy about their football program.)

I assume they're still playing St. Peter's Prep and Good Counsel the following two weeks.

 

[6-2 Stack Monster]

Just wondering who, if anyone, SJP will be playing Labor Day weekend. I know there was talk they would be going to Maryland to play St.Frances Academy, but the school website for SFA has them playing a Virginia team that weekend. (It also indicates there's been a lot of controversy about their football program.)

I assume they're still playing St. Peter's Prep and Good Counsel the following two weeks.

Tulla,

8/31 SJP vs SFA at UM Byrd Stadium 7:00pm. Time/venue just recently confirmed.
9/8 SJP vs SPP at Rutgers as part of the multi-game Big North/PCL tilt. Time TBA - rumor is it may be televised on ESPN, but there are other games that weekend also worthy of a national audience, Wood vs Bergen being the first that comes to mind.
9/14 home (Widener) to host Good Counsel.
Then a bye week before LaSalle on 9/28.

 

[tulla]

Tulla,

8/31 SJP vs SFA at UM Byrd Stadium 7:00pm. Time/venue just recently confirmed.
9/8 SJP vs SPP at Rutgers as part of the multi-game Big North/PCL tilt. Time TBA - rumor is it may be televised on ESPN, but there are other games that weekend also worthy of a national audience, Wood vs Bergen being the first that comes to mind.
9/14 home (Widener) to host Good Counsel.
Then a bye week before LaSalle on 9/28.

Thanks. There's a strange long statement from the AD on the SFA site, essentially defending their football program and taking issue with two named Catholic high schools in Baltimore.

 

[tulla]

Thanks. There's a strange long statement from the AD on the SFA site, essentially defending their football program and taking issue with two named Catholic high schools in Baltimore.

Interesting--and disturbing--piece about SFA, the Prep's first opponent: http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/high-school/bs-va-sp-miaa-football-update-0806-story.html

 

[Relayer]

I posted this article in the other SJP thread. When a coach is willing to pay the tuition out of his own pocket for the best 45 players he can find, that is total lunacy.

https://deadspin.com/ugly-schoolboy-football-feud-leaves-baltimore-powerhous-1826643671

 

[roxychknpoxy]

I thought I saw a brief clip of an ESPN 360 segment about SFA recently ... these kids looked like men and there were multiple pics of opponents being carried off the field. We shall see.

 

[Gang $$ Green]

I find this very disturbing and not for the reasons most do. Essentially Biff Poggi took the exact same model every tuition based school uses for ultra competitive sports, brought it out of the shadows, made it 100% percent transparent what he was doing and where the money was coming from and everyone has a conniption because he does it better and more over the top than anyone else.

It's the EXACT same thing every tuition based school does. Discount tuition to attract a multitude of talented athletes in a particular discipline to aggregate at one place to give that place the best opportunity to win games. Whether it be through shadow booster clubs, school financial aid, outside sponsored scholarships, unnamed benefactors, parent of another player etc etc.

Now when an ultra wealthy guys comes in lays bare how crazy it really can be and puts a 46 man roster on full scholarship with room and board like a D1 program that is deemed over the line. So 600,000 is too much to spend but 200,000 is fine. Absolute nonsense, total hypocrisy and shows how morally bankrupt some of these people are. It's fine for me to go buy 10 kids and beat the snot of the guy who can't afford any but when guy down the road outspends me to buy 40 this isn't fair.

This is the ultimate end game. The issue is it's high school sports and the repercussions of an arms race. When certain teams aggregate talent in pursuit of being state champ others who want to stay with them are forced to do the same and up the ante. It's why we see some of the insanity at certain unnamed public schools with kids showing up from all over, adults willing to whore themselves to take a transfer a week before a playoff game and play them, and a million other things that just 15 years ago would be considered so outrageous that other adults would call coaches and administrators on the carpet and say this is crazy. Stop.

Problem is when the teams at the top pursue the arms race they increasingly no longer resemble a high school team. So the median high school team is 100 points behind the super team. Plus regular high school kids who should be able to at least participate in a varsity sport are literally getting maimed by what amounts to an all star team. So it ultimately destroys those programs.

PCL great example. Prep, Wood and LaSalle at top, the AA and below competitive at the bottom and no mans land in between. Good programs in big trouble now and into the future. Even people like the Gordons leaving the sport because if you don't keep up with the financial commitment what is the end game in that league.

Youth sports out of control. I left the high school game years ago because I could see this coming in PCL. Left to do youth so just could concentrate on developing young men. Soon after that became as corrupt or more so than high school right down to 10 year old level so left that as well. The win at all costs, rules and morals be damned is the most disappointing and damning development in both hs and youth coaching. I learned a ton from coaches who occasionally made decisions that while it might have cost a team an outcome it was the correct thing to do for the team and the individual involved. Darn shame these kids don't have the same experience over fighting for an oversized Hershey Bar.

I give Gabe Infante credit for playing them. He at least practices what he preaches. Wants to be national. Goes and recruits the best he can find. Goes and plays the best he can find even if they outspend him for players. Basically says exactly what he is doing and doesn't sugar coat or apologize for fact he runs it like a college program. I disagree but he's not hiding or pretending it's something other than what it is.

 

[DCSOL]

GG


I was thinking the exact same thing about your example 10 is OK but 40 is over the top. Take that logic to D1 vs PCL here 1-2 is ok, but 10 is crazy and should have seperate playoffs. ALL of the successful D1 teams have accepted and played transfers.

Totally agree HS and youth sports totally out of control, but it all starts at the top NFL, NBA, MLB with the lottery amounts of money and free agency etc.. Forget about major college sports, they might be the worst offender of all things crazy, from endless cover ups, academic scandals, one and done lunacy, domestic violence issues, sexual abuse, lists goes on and on...

Lastly, I haven't exactly heard Gabe or any of the Jesuit Brothers come out and admit they have players move in and live with other players during the season or come clean on the amount of support from their boosters in the shadows, but I agree they have built a great program and like how they schedule.

Remember it all comes down to he who holds the gold, makes the rules....Especially in sports at all levels today.

 

[tulla]

GG


I was thinking the exact same thing about your example 10 is OK but 40 is over the top. Take that logic to D1 vs PCL here 1-2 is ok, but 10 is crazy and should have seperate playoffs. ALL of the successful D1 teams have accepted and played transfers.

Totally agree HS and youth sports totally out of control, but it all starts at the top NFL, NBA, MLB with the lottery amounts of money and free agency etc.. Forget about major college sports, they might be the worst offender of all things crazy, from endless cover ups, academic scandals, one and done lunacy, domestic violence issues, sexual abuse, lists goes on and on...

Lastly, I haven't exactly heard Gabe or any of the Jesuit Brothers come out and admit they have players move in and live with other players during the season or come clean on the amount of support from their boosters in the shadows, but I agree they have built a great program and like how they schedule.

Remember it all comes down to he who holds the gold, makes the rules....Especially in sports at all levels today.

There's a lot to what you and GG say, but you need to look at more than the impact of money at the professional and college level.

Look at what's changed in the environment the PCL inhabits. For decades the diocesan schools (including the high schools) were subsidized by donations made by large numbers of weekly mass goers. High schools had a very reliable number of feeder schools. Many Catholic families had 5+ children and most Catholic families pretty much automatically sent their children to 12 years of Catholic school. (My 30+ cousins, living in Philly, Bucks, Delaware, and Montgomery counties, all went to Catholic high schools Much of the high school and elementary school teaching staff was made up of nuns. priests, or brothers and were paid peanuts, while the lay teachers accepted just a bit more than peanuts because everyone knew they were expected to regard their work as a vocation and, besides, it was a pretty bare bones operation.

As we know, just about everything just described has changed utterly. Catholic schools have to recruit and, for various reasons, they recruit "non-Catholics"--some who are athletes but most who are not. Having high-profile athletic teams is in large part a marketing/recruiting strategy that many Catholic schools--not just SJP and LaSalle--have found to be successful--though the degree to which it's been successful varies a lot. Are there risks in the strategy? Absolutely, and I think just about every Catholic school--including SJP--has made mistakes and been burned. (I think the same applies to the Interac schools.)

I don't want to see SJP go down the same road as Bosco (North Jersey) went down some years ago. Infante seems to have his feet on the ground, and I hope he keeps them there.

 

[Franklinfield2]

There's a lot to what you and GG say, but you need to look at more than the impact of money at the professional and college level.

Look at what's changed in the environment the PCL inhabits. For decades the diocesan schools (including the high schools) were subsidized by donations made by large numbers of weekly mass goers. High schools had a very reliable number of feeder schools. Many Catholic families had 5+ children and most Catholic families pretty much automatically sent their children to 12 years of Catholic school. (My 30+ cousins, living in Philly, Bucks, Delaware, and Montgomery counties, all went to Catholic high schools Much of the high school and elementary school teaching staff was made up of nuns. priests, or brothers and were paid peanuts, while the lay teachers accepted just a bit more than peanuts because everyone knew they were expected to regard their work as a vocation and, besides, it was a pretty bare bones operation.

As we know, just about everything just described has changed utterly. Catholic schools have to recruit and, for various reasons, they recruit "non-Catholics"--some who are athletes but most who are not. Having high-profile athletic teams is in large part a marketing/recruiting strategy that many Catholic schools--not just SJP and LaSalle--have found to be successful--though the degree to which it's been successful varies a lot. Are there risks in the strategy? Absolutely, and I think just about every Catholic school--including SJP--has made mistakes and been burned. (I think the same applies to the Interac schools.)

I don't want to see SJP go down the same road as Bosco (North Jersey) went down some years ago. Infante seems to have his feet on the ground, and I hope he keeps them there.

With your reference to Catholic families having many children, it seems like you are inferring that the rhythm method the Catholic Church was preaching at the time was less than effective. I am living proof that it was not as good as advertised

 

[vucat1]

I find this very disturbing and not for the reasons most do. Essentially Biff Poggi took the exact same model every tuition based school uses for ultra competitive sports, brought it out of the shadows, made it 100% percent transparent what he was doing and where the money was coming from and everyone has a conniption because he does it better and more over the top than anyone else.

It's the EXACT same thing every tuition based school does. Discount tuition to attract a multitude of talented athletes in a particular discipline to aggregate at one place to give that place the best opportunity to win games. Whether it be through shadow booster clubs, school financial aid, outside sponsored scholarships, unnamed benefactors, parent of another player etc etc.

Now when an ultra wealthy guys comes in lays bare how crazy it really can be and puts a 46 man roster on full scholarship with room and board like a D1 program that is deemed over the line. So 600,000 is too much to spend but 200,000 is fine. Absolute nonsense, total hypocrisy and shows how morally bankrupt some of these people are. It's fine for me to go buy 10 kids and beat the snot of the guy who can't afford any but when guy down the road outspends me to buy 40 this isn't fair.

This is the ultimate end game. The issue is it's high school sports and the repercussions of an arms race. When certain teams aggregate talent in pursuit of being state champ others who want to stay with them are forced to do the same and up the ante. It's why we see some of the insanity at certain unnamed public schools with kids showing up from all over, adults willing to whore themselves to take a transfer a week before a playoff game and play them, and a million other things that just 15 years ago would be considered so outrageous that other adults would call coaches and administrators on the carpet and say this is crazy. Stop.

Problem is when the teams at the top pursue the arms race they increasingly no longer resemble a high school team. So the median high school team is 100 points behind the super team. Plus regular high school kids who should be able to at least participate in a varsity sport are literally getting maimed by what amounts to an all star team. So it ultimately destroys those programs.

PCL great example. Prep, Wood and LaSalle at top, the AA and below competitive at the bottom and no mans land in between. Good programs in big trouble now and into the future. Even people like the Gordons leaving the sport because if you don't keep up with the financial commitment what is the end game in that league.

Youth sports out of control. I left the high school game years ago because I could see this coming in PCL. Left to do youth so just could concentrate on developing young men. Soon after that became as corrupt or more so than high school right down to 10 year old level so left that as well. The win at all costs, rules and morals be damned is the most disappointing and damning development in both hs and youth coaching. I learned a ton from coaches who occasionally made decisions that while it might have cost a team an outcome it was the correct thing to do for the team and the individual involved. Darn shame these kids don't have the same experience over fighting for an oversized Hershey Bar.

I give Gabe Infante credit for playing them. He at least practices what he preaches. Wants to be national. Goes and recruits the best he can find. Goes and plays the best he can find even if they outspend him for players. Basically says exactly what he is doing and doesn't sugar coat or apologize for fact he runs it like a college program. I disagree but he's not hiding or pretending it's something other than what it is.

100% agree. Laughable that if we know the source of the funding and that funding comes from one person it is labeled "wrong" but somehow OK if it all comes from "various sources".

 

[FJ78]

I think there was an article that said most kids enter SFA at a sixth grade reading level, but they have a near 100% graduation rate, 95% college admission rate, and 83% college graduation rate for students at SFA. 75% of them are first time college student in their family. Half of the students are football players.