These type schools book a national schedule, are in high populated areas and go out and recruit these major talent. Now you are seeing the best talent from NJ and Pennsylvania transferring into schools like sjp. Public schools will have a generational team that comes around once in a decade only to get blown out by a team assembled. It's not just football either it's wrestling and basketball (Imhotep in Pa) as well. Is this just the direction highschool sports is heading. These kids will get recruited to these factors knowing they will have a better chance of getting a scholarship. Not all private schools are doing this either so I don't believe separating playoffs is the answer.
What's everyone's thought on these private school football factors like mater dei, St Thomas Aquinas, and here in PA SJP competing in the state plyoff
- Thread starter DripDrop
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This is literally 80% of the discussion on this board, whyd we do another thread of it?
This board has turned into Groundhog Day.
the PIAA clearly doesn't care, every time Lombardi is asked about it you can see how annoyed he is
they bring hardly any fans at all to the basketball finals, you would think he would at least be concerned about ticket sales
it's crazy to think how many state titles SJP has in football, and Neuman Goretti and Imhotep have in basketball in just the last 10 years, their worst season would be the best season for probably 90% of high schools
they bring hardly any fans at all to the basketball finals, you would think he would at least be concerned about ticket sales
it's crazy to think how many state titles SJP has in football, and Neuman Goretti and Imhotep have in basketball in just the last 10 years, their worst season would be the best season for probably 90% of high schools
I will never understand the basketball argument. Philadelphia having a multitude of basketball teams better than the rest of the state is the least suspicious thing ever. It would be more suspicious is some team out in the boondocks was winning consistently. Philadelphia is a basketball Mecca with 6 million people.
With some awesome teams out here in the burbs like Chester, Lower Merion and Plymouth Whitemarsh. Wow!
yeah and they all happen to be at the same handful of private and charter schools
what a coincidence...
chester and lower merion have been irrelevant over the past decade, and their success was spread out over decades, not close to 7 -8 titles within a decade
plymouth whitemarsh had what, one year at the top?
wow you guys sure do lie to yourselves a lot
in a city with 6 million people. State College has 40k. Nazareth has 6k. Just numbers man, hate to break it to you. If it wasn’t Neumann or Imhotep it would be some other team from Philly. If you removed the top 10 players from the city, a team from Philly would probably still win a lot
yeah Philly has always dominated the state championships, but it has been the Philly Catholic league and charter schools dominating for the last 15 years so what is your point?
Philly has the numbers in football too, yet the wpial has by far the most state titles in the PA
Imhotep is the sjp of basketball. They have kids transfer in and travel from far distances to play a national schedule in hopes of getting a major D1 scholarship or receive a scholarship. They are an all star team.
You know you don't have to click on a thread. No one is forcing you. Also no one is stopping you from starting your own. They are free.
First of all, why are you always in such a pissed off mood? You're allowed to make a statement without coming off like whining girl.
As usual BP you show your lack of knowledge especially depth of knowledge. Lower Merion has only won 7 PIAA titles, have one of the top coaches in the state and are 25-1 this year.
Plymouth Whitemarsh has been an off and on power for decades with 3 state titles while Chester has been one of the top programs for over 50 years and won 8 PIAA titles.
Wow, us guys sure do lie to ourselves a lot!
He’s pissed due to the current state of Ringgold football lolz
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The eastern side of the state does have the majority of private and charter schools. The public schools out east can not compete. The gap with sjp continues to grow and over the last few years theyve had a lot of 3 and 4 star recruits transfer in. I'm hoping it doesn't happen over on the western part of the state. Pine Richland, Belle Vernon, beaver falls, central valley, Farrell, Alliquppa, Tomas Jefferson, mount Lebanon, Penn Trafford, ect... Have all won titles in the last 10 years. Other then southern Columbia and steel high I can't think of a dominant public school on the eastern part of the state.
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Sjp have players that transfer in but not many and certainly the amount of other powers and schools of Pa. The only thing is the guys that do transfer in are usually really good. Last year they had 2 transfers. Which makes sense bc why would a kid transfer in if they wouldn’t play? I think others get kids no matter the caliber.
Until a few years ago, SJP had very few transfers in--maybe one a year on average and that was almost between freshman and sophomore year. Recently they've had two or three coming in before junior year. They've never taken a senior transfer. It is also the case that as many players transfer out as transfer in--maybe more. Most of those transferring out do so during or right after freshman year, but not always, e.g.,
Joseph who transferred to O'Hara last year and Winston Yates who returned to Jersey (Paul VI) for his senior year in 2022.
Joseph who transferred to O'Hara last year and Winston Yates who returned to Jersey (Paul VI) for his senior year in 2022.
Tulla these are sjp transfers from last year's team alone and some giant recruits. Mcglynn LB transfer 24
Cameron Smith LB transfer 25
Mcconnel LB transfer 25
That’s three from the same position.
Stewart OL transfer 25
Towns OL transfer 24
Sholder K transfer 24
Dyches RB transfer 24
Willie DB transfer 24
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you're the one that is pissed off and whiny when anybody calls out your precious Philly private schools
you proved me right, i said they won titles that were SPREAD OUT over decades so what is the problem?
we have the number 2 ranked cross country runner in the entire country, unfortunately the number 1 guy is a kid from Butler, but the Ringgold kid did beat his time at states and set the state championship record for fastest time ever
we also just had our first wpial champ wrestler in the 215 lb weight division, and guess what.. he beat an NA kid in the finals haha
yes things are looking up at Ringgold
Didn't know 'X' number of PIAA titles had to be won within a decade. How in the hell did I miss that over the years?
What you interpret as whining about Philly schools is responding to your incessant one-way griping about private schools that happen to be in Philly. What's your beef? They're playing within PIAA rules.
So anyway, why are you so angry most of the time?
* PS, I'm from Central PA.
Hopefully those other sporting victories rub off on football. Get that wrestler in pads
Do you have the list of transfer out ?
Here’s what I have but I’m sure there’s more. This is just ‘24
Possenti -(Temple)projected starter @ sjp
Wise - (Temple )
Powell- projected
James -( wvu )projected starter @ sjp
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You're putting together players who transferred in over the course of three years. Of those in your list only Smith and Stewart came last year. McGlynn transferred in after freshman year three years ago. I don't know when McConnell came; he wasn't a starter last year and I don't know if he'll be one next year. I think Dyches came as a sophomore. As a senior he played behind West, Phillips, and Sanchez. Interesting that he's not the only one who would rather be a non-starter at SJP than a starter and maybe a star elsewhere.
Again, the whole picture would include those who have transferred out of SJP.
Wrestler is a Cornell commit (a national power in that sport) and Fargo All American, don’t think he’s tacking on an extra sport at this point, future is pretty set.
It really doesn't matter when they transfer in. The fact is they are major transfers. There are some major college football recruits on that list. A couple 3 and 4 stars. I can't think of another team with that many high profile transfers. None of those players started out at sjp. They are taking full advantage of their advantages and they don't get effected by the success formula or transfers. North Alleghenys team every player was on that team as freshman. They are playing by the rules but the rules aren't fair and that's my argument. The piaa needs to step in or schools like sjp are just going to continue to widen the gap.
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You must be quite new to this board because this topic has been discussed over and over and over for several years. You could bore yourself to tears by reading over just what was written last autumn.
All I'll say at this point is that a great deal depends on perspective--and perspective is partly a matter of geography. People in and from the Philly area may not all have the same opinion on the topic--they don't!!!--but they know that SJP is very different from IMG, St. Frances (MD), Bishop Gorman, etc. They are more like St. Edward's (OH), Bergen Catholic, and perhaps--though I know less about them--some of the top CA schools.
From a distance it may seem it's very easy for SJP to play at the level they've played year after year. But it's a bit of a highwire act: lots of things could knock them off balance and cause a fall of some kind. Many schools that once were dominant for a good while are now, to different degrees, no longer dominant: Bosco in Jersey, St. Ignatius (OH), DeMatha (MD), De La Salle (CA), Xavier (OH), Chandler (AZ), Allen (TX), etc.
Many of those are public schools and I think the only one that can knock sjp down is themselves. If they decide not to emphasize football and fund a national schedule and bring in the talent then it'll end.
tulla, I agree, some of this stuff has been over-discussed over the last few years. however, some things did not exist 3 years ago- new college transfer rules, NIL in college, and NIL in HS. So, the "game" has changed, in the business of recruiting and "offers" has changed. And- the point of drip, and many others on this board, is SJP follows different rules, than 95% of the high schools in PA. Oh- and comparing them to IMG? Uh, yea, i agree they are not the same- but again, most people who question SJP are not comparing SJP to IMG- we are comparing SJP to PA schools.
I don't think IMHOTEP, LaSalle (especially with its new coach), or Roman thinks SJP can't be challenged next year and beyond. As for SJP's "national schedule," they've never played more than one game a year outside the NY-Philly-DC corridor. I realize they still travel more and further than most teams--last year they played without a home field--but they don't travel like IMG, St. Frances, St. John's, etc. do. And as for funding the program more generally, I doubt anyone on here actually knows what all the costs are and how they get paid. But the idea that the family of a football player at SJP pays less than that family would pay if their son went to any other school in the area seems very far-fetched.
Thier schedule is a giant reason they are getting the football recruits. You know how many college coaches are in the stands to see the sjp and img game. Kids will transfer there for that reason alone. You play a great game in that game alone and you can land a football scholarship. That's only one of many games like that on their schedule. Not to mention you have the opportunity to play on ESPN every year. The gap continues to keep getting bigger because sjp has advantages other schools don't. If the piaa doesn't make changes that gap will continue to grow. I'm willing to bet sjp losing Kyle mccord then samaj Jones they will find away to find another major top prospect to fill that spot. Other schools don't have that luxury. They have to develop what they have. There is no rebuilding or down years for sjp. The only difference I see from img and stp as far as talent is img pulls from a larger area but the fact that sjp has the talent to complete with them says something. I use to be ok with sjp competing in the piaa playoffs but now there's no way they should be competing. You have a team like NA who every kid was on their freshman team and from Wexford playing against an assembled all star team. Tulla do you think it's far that sjp plays in the piaa playoffs against parkland, north Allegheny, Harrisburg, ect... and they have different rules that give them a giant advantage over these public schools and they take full advantage of thier advantages?
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First, SJP does not get on ESPN "every year." There were at least 10 years of program-building under Gil Brooks before SJP was first on ESPN and there have been many years since that first appearance when they haven't been on. Getting on ESPN is much more of a result than a cause of having a strong program. It also comes with a risk. What if IMG had beaten SJP 31-0 rather than 17-10 last year? I have a pretty good idea of what would have happened.
About fairness. Of course there is quite a bit of unfairness in high school sports--and in lots of other areas of sports, including college football. Is it fair that since George Washington in 2008 no Philly public school other than IMHOTEP has won a PIAA playoff game in any classification? That's 15 years. I can think of whole districts in PA where no team from any class has made it to the state final in at least fifteen years and leagues where for many many years the same teams finish at or near the top and the same teams finish at or near the bottom. Are there not issues of fairness embedded in these realities?
No issues of fairness with Southern Columbia?
And what about PCC? Like SJP they can recruit from a large fairly densely populated area. No, not as populous as Philly but PCC doesn't have the equivalents of Roman, LaSalle, Wood (until very recent years), IMHOTEP, and the six Inter-AC schools--some of which have high-powered football programs--competing for many of the same students/players. Yet how many state championships has PCC won since 2004? How many title games have they played in? I haven't heard a single person on here say that PCC should not be permitted to play in the regular PIAA playoffs. Maybe if they had had better coaches, or if they had been better able to get the most of their talented players, or if they had been better able to get players from different places and different backgrounds to form a more cohesive team, or ... The first half of the year we heard a lot from people in western PA that PCC was a real threat to beat SJP. But I suppose what happened shows that simply having the advantages SJP and PCC have doesn't actually guarantee a spot in the state final. And maybe there's at least some advantage in having all your players living within walking distance of each other's homes.
Sjp has the talent to complete with img or any highschool. Look at the list of talent they receive. Southern Columbia is a public school and does it with the talent in their community that's why no complaint and are very beatable because it. They were defeated 3 times two years ago, once this year by instate completion and imo got out played in the state championship and barley one that. They play on the same playing field so you can't complain. If a successful program does it right on the same rules how can you say anything. Sjp gets player from 3 states and a very large area. These are the best players from those areas and are an assembled all star team. There have been advantages in high school football but not like we see here. PCC recruits from Pittsburgh. Not nearly the pull of new Jersey and Philedalphia and PCC is forced to schedule only wpial schools because if it they have rebuilding years and down years. Just like other private schools in pa. They have a tough time making out of the wpial and most years like this year can't win it. Preps advantages are like nothing I've seen before within the piaa. You can't really defend prep on competing in the piaa tournament. If the piaa allowed for the big 33 team to compete in the playoffs do you have no problem with that? Btw preps team has more talent then the big 33 team.
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lol thats a good one- SJP vs PA all-star team? PA Big33 v SJP? I'd say prep would have knocked the snot out of PA Big 33, each of all of the last 10 years!!!