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Welcome to the official blog on high school football for the 2013 season.
During the off-season let’s talk about players, recruiting news, teams and everything about high school football.
During the season each week let’s talk about match-ups and how teams did. Let us know what player(s) stood out each week.
2,248 Responses
@pubschool, since you point out that according to you others don’t know what they’re talking about, I’m sure you know the following:
4 of GVs 9 wins are against AAA programs; quite a number of AAAA squads play no AAA teams.
GVs power rating would place them 5th in PCL AAAA (5 team league)
GVs opponent win % is 13th in D1
GV may be undefeated but they are still unproven; here’s wishing them luck.
@tsaf
You asked,
“I don’t get it. I was looking at last years bracket and West Catholic beat Carrol for the PCL title. Then somehow they play Conwell-Egan in the sub-regional semi-final. How did CE earn that chance? IC played Prep Charter… the team that already lost to Del Val. Who did Prep Charter beat to get the honor of playing IC again for a shot to continue on to states? Germantown? A 3-6 team at that point?”
REMEMBER WHEN YOU POSTED THIS QUESTION? Well buddy, this is why I provided you the information concerning how Prep and CE were able to participate in the playoffs last year; due to Sandy..
FACT, Imhotep has a EIGHT regular season games (not SEVEN). Their week 4 bye was due to them being dropped by THREE teams and no other available team willing to play them.
You say the Pub and Cath league playoff and chip games don’t count? Tell that to all the teams playing this weekend.. With some, if they win they’re in; if they lose, they go home..
SpLAsH!!
@tsaf,
I completely understand what you are saying. Perhaps starting league games a week later would be an option. Problem with that is most other leagues start the same week as D12 leagues. Nobody to play cause they are now playing league games. On that note, I have no clue why there are any leagues in districts that use the point system. People can call them league games all they want, but the fact is that there is no difference between league and non-league games when it come to playoff berths. So really you don’t have a league, you have a bunch of teams that play each other every year. This point system is the stupidest thing I have ever seen. Hey, we went undefeated in our league, but didn’t make the playoffs cause we lost to two teams from Florida and a team from Texas. Stupid!
Anybody on here wear flip-flops? I think one person does. Somebody has been bashing a team for 2 years on here. That team is now tearing up their district and flip-flop is now claiming that team to be “his team”. I find that to be completely………..Awesome!!!! I’ll be laughing for days, every time I go back and read his comment.
@ Pub School
??? Don’t let my PCL knowledge skew those brain cell that are still functioning brother.
That was the entire point, being seeded 1-3 in D1 doesn’t guarantee a frolic to the State semi’s. I agree with you but with several solid teams in the lower bracket, one of those teams may emerge….as it has in recent years.
CRN, Abington, DT last year come to “memory” the last several years on tops seeds that went down early(1st round). Coatesville as an 11th seed last year, see the point?? I see it more about match-ups than ‘seeds’ when it comes to D1. IMHO..
However I will leave the anatomy of District 1 to you professors in the know, I yield.
Good luck to your rooting interest..
@buddy
All of Garnet Valley’s accomplishments over the past 8 years can be found at garnetvalleyfootball.com. GV plays in the central league and beat Pennridge and Pennsbury in 2008 D1 playoffs before losing to Neshaminy 21-14. Beat Ridley and Central Bucks South in 2011 D1 playoffs before losing to Council Rock South 38-24. Went to Hershey for AAA championship game in 2007. Teams beaten on the website.
@phillyboy and Steve-
You shouldn’t talk about stuff you know nothing about. Saw GV last year. They are legit. Wish them well this year. They have a serious program. However, in D1 there are 16 teams that can play. You may not agree, but it is the truth. It is why they play it out for 4 weeks. The best team always comes out on top in fthe end It is a grind. There are some very good teams. You may not agree. In the end, it doesn’t matter what u think. The games will be played. And they will be very good games with very good teams. Good luck next weekend!
With all the PCL talk…..a little update on:
AAA – District 2 Playoffs>>>>Good old Northeast Football Coal Region Style
Berwick and Scranton Prep undefeated with Abington Heights having one lost to Scranton Prep (21-13). These 3 teams are in with the last spot going to the winner of Saturday’s Coughlin – Crestwood game. Coughlin has 2 losses (Berwick 39-7 and Valley West 56-14). Crestwood’s only lost was to Berwick (41-7). Looks like Prep and Berwick will meet in the District 2 Final, probably at Berwick. The winner has a great probability of making the Eastern Final against Wood. With both teams undefeated it will be HEARTBREAK for the loser. This will truly be the Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat.
@ GV
Point taken. Unless you come out of the D1 playoffs and advance, suppose that achievement gets somewhat lost….just nature.
Wish your boys well….’as long as your interests don’t interfere with my interests’
@ gvfan
What did they do in the playoffs the past 6 years?
I’m not being sarcastic here, I don’t follow them that much & I’m genuinely curious.
Are they in the Delval league because I know they aren’t in the chesmont league.
They just might draw, in the first round, my team, which is North Penn. Never know.
@ Jive
I understand your alliance and as I said before am not trying to direct the flaws of the PIAA at just D12, they are one of the districts that benefits. I am not complaining that is the reason D12 wins the state championship. The teams are powerful as I stated before. It is a benefit though.
My question is of course, “Do you believe that a bye week in the state playoffs for any district is fair?”
The question about District 1 AAAA and District 7 AAAA is they are both equal. I will explain. District 7 starts state playoffs this week because they have a 9 game regular season. If they win the WPIAL, it will take 4 games. The 5th is the state quarterfinal with the 6th game being the Western final. The 7th game is the state championship for them. 9 reg. + 7 playoffs = 16.
District 1 plays a 10 game regular season and therefore starts a week later. 10 reg. + 6 playoffs = 16. It is fair.
You are 100% correct about District 10 and even other districts we failed to mention. I merely used D12 as an example. The PIAA needs to be reformatted or District 2,3,4,11 should all play 1 less playoff game.
@ The Philly Guy
No corrections necessary as your corrections are incorrect.
Class A for the District 1/12 begins next week with no bye week as there will be a game every week the winner moves on.
Secondly, IC did have a bye week during week 4. They did replace DV Charter with a great opponent. They are a good team (not taking that away keep in mind), just pointing out PIAA flaws.
They began playoffs last week, which means they had a 7 game regular season. They were 6-1, (7-1 if you count the forfeit) going into the 2nd game with Future. Look it up and don’t count the forfeit and the game vs Maryland as 2 separately played games. Count that as 1 because they only played 1. They do get credit for the forfeit as they should, but they did not “play” it. http://www.maxpreps.com/high-schools/imhotep-charter-panthers-%28philadelphia,pa%29/football/schedule.htm
I don’t disagree with you about Imhotep’s ability in winning the playoffs. My point is, the playoff’s need to be worked so everyone plays the equal amount of games.
@Facts
You are always trying to make the big “Gotcha” splash. Well, you didn’t get me. So please don’t respond, if you do, with how you “schooled me” with no facts. I am not trying to attack IC, just using them and D12 as an example of how the PIAA needs to equalize the playoffs.
I don’t know where you are going with last season and the Hurricane Sandy impacts. I am talking about this season.
Again, I mentioned Thanksgiving multiple times. Thanksgiving DOES NOT COUNT towards state playoffs. If you lose, you are not eliminated. It is a choice. There are teams that will be playing a playoff game Nov. 22/23rd, playing a T-Day game and another playoff game on Nov. 29/30th. So I don’t see why D12 needs a bye to play on T-Day when other districts don’t get a bye and still play 3 games within 8 days.
So, Without the inconsequential T-Day game, Imhotep will have actually played 13 games before the Final. Just saying.
Also, a bye is an advantage. A week to heal and not have the chance of being eliminated.
@phillyboy
I’m not making any predictions about how GV is going to do in the playoffs. I was just correcting @steve who made the comment that this was GV’s first time to the “big stage”. We’ll play the games and see how it goes.
@ Gvfan
Man, I hope you’re right. Is Garnet Valley for real or are they just ‘regular season champs’? They’re great at piling up Ws during the regular season but we’ll see what’s up in the playoffs.
Btw, hats off to the GV football web site; really cool how they live video stream all of their games. They got their act together.
@GVfan-
Great article this morning in the Philly Inquirer by OBrien on Garnet Valley. Good luck next week.
@tsaf
A couple of facts for you buddy. First of all, Prep Charter and CE was invited back into the 2012 PIAA tournament last year because they were next up on power points. District 1 was unable to field teams in the playoffs last year due to Hurricane Sandy closing their schools that whole week.
Another fact Buddy, Thanksgiving is a week late this year which gives you a perceptual ‘bye’ this year. This only happens 3 out of every 7 years whenever Nov 1st falls on a Thurs, Fri, or Sat. Due to this, some D12 teams may have bye on the weekend of the 22nd which is usually Thanksgiving week but as stated, these teams will play TWO games the following week if they make it to the sub-regionals. Imhotep did not have a bye last year but did have a bye this year due to two 2A schools closing last June. They were 14-1 last year (one week short of the state chip) and they will be 14-0 if they make it to the finals this year.
Also, the D12 playoff system started back on Labor Day weekend when the point system started. Every game counts, don’t think so; ask that powerhouse team called Ryan!! This point system puts D1 and D12 in a mini tournament.
RRMark
Catty and Imhotep will have the same adversaries but you sir, provided the IC Program tons of billboard smash-talk and insults… The Catty/IC game will be interesting if they ever met..
Once again, let the kids play… If you ever played the game you would know a bye doesn’t mean anything when you have two games to go afterwards to win the chip. But its a mute point, Imhotep doesn’t have a bye because they’re playing two games the week afterwards. I credit them for not taking byes and scheduling teams like Eastern Christian and Martin Luther King High to fill them.
@steve
How many teams have won 10 playoff games in the past 6 (not 7) years and reached the playoffs in all but one of those years? Feel free to respond as you see fit but I’m done.
No disrespect.
@tsaf77
Couple corrections for you. First D12 class A has the same arraignment for the playoffs as class AA. They play are supposed to play a sub-regional round too.
Second, Imhotep played 8 games not 7 as you said. They could have taken a bye when the league disqualified Del Val Charter and kept the forfeit win, but scheduled a tough Eastern Christian Academy team and suffered their only defeat of the season.
How much of a difference do you think that bye week meant when Pen Argyl lost to Imhotep last year 54-7? Do you think if Imhotep had played the week before they would have lost or that the game would have even been close? The better team, at the time the teams play will show up and win regardless of what happened the previous week.
Last thing on the AA playoff thing. If you don’t consider public playoff games PIAA playoff games, that’s fine. The PIAA puts them games on their brackets because the PIAA does consider them PIAA playoff games. I still don’t see how the 16 team thing would make it OK for D7 to do their own thing. D1 has 16 in the AAAA playoff and they are not afforded any different scheduling privileges.
I did make a mistake and count the forfeit for Imhotep, takes their total to 14 before a possible final. I am biased towards D12, however, the bye week thing has been going on for years as an excuse. How did the bye help LaSalle last year? It’s just old hat, time to find a new reason why D12 wins a game. I’m really not trying to be confrontational on this, but I gotta defend the home front. If you want to see a real issue on byes, check out D10. They have their PIAA bracket filled for 2 weeks from now, talk about time to get healthy.
@Jive
No sour grapes here, just pointing to fairness. I’ve made my points about PCL teams and now Imhotep. They are powerful teams and should do well in state playoffs. They do not need a week off, especially when they play and 8 or 9 game regular season. BTW Imhotep “played” 7 regular season games.
Do you believe that a bye week in the state playoffs for any district is fair?
I agree with you on the other Districts like 1. They are in a sub-regional with D12 in AA. However in class A they are aligned the same as everyone else with D1 and D12 together. So if they can align in class A, how come they can’t align in AA, AAA or AAAA?
I know the answer, and I know you do to. PCL and Public playoffs are taking priority over PIAA playoffs. That is fine, maybe that is why people had a problem with D12 entering state playoffs. Can’t have your cake and eat it too. Just saying.
The state needs to come together and tell the schools of PA that they are making a format that accounts for all leagues to be equally represented by the number of games played. But that takes time, work and making areas of the state angry they would have to adapt their league championships.
Stale…. but at least you didn’t bring up the R word…
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I know this bye week thing will be the #1 excuse as to why a team from D12 beat somebody’s alma-mater. At least wait until it happens before you start crushing the sour grapes.
@ GV
They played in the State Championship game 7 years ago, and what else??? Come on man!!!
No disrespect, hope they do well. Familiar with some of the Lax kids there, good kids.
Looks like Worley is out for coatesville. possible torn ACL. big blow to them. did it returning a punt.
Had to revisit this AA playoff issue, that tsaf brought up, cause something just didn’t seem right. How about this to blow your whole argument to smithereens. D12 public will play 6 games before the final. D12 Catholic will play 5 games before the final. D1? They will join the playoff after a few games and only play 4 games before the final. If a D1 team keeps advancing through to the final, guess who gets a bye Nov. 23rd? You guessed it, the D1 representative. Stop with the bye week mess! I know this bye week thing will be the #1 excuse as to why a team from D12 beat somebody’s alma-mater. At least wait until it happens before you start crushing the sour grapes.
@Jive
I knew you would have something to say about this matter however it is not an attack on District 12, it is more of an attack on the PIAA alignment.
You are usually very knowledgeable and practical concerning this subject however your bias obvious to District 12 shows many flaws you usually pick up on.
District 7 is a Juggernaut. However, District 7 has to have 16 teams make the playoffs because of the amount of teams in that district. It is the largest. Therefore they begin “District playoffs” a week early. If you notice, District 7 requires 6 PIAA playoff games to reach Hershey. The state title game is #7. Therefore District 7 follows the same route.
Not to harp on Imhotep, just an example, you state Imhotep will have played 6 playoff games? Where? If you are counting the 2nd game with Future and this weeks 2nd game with Prep Charter, they are not PIAA playoff games. That also means Imhotep only had a 7 game regular season.
See you are counting the forfeit against DV Charter which happened to be on the same date they played the team from Maryland. You can’t count a forfeit and replacement game on the same day as 2 separate games. It counts on the record bu not an actual played game. The forfeit would bring their regular season to 8 games.
Next point, Thanksgiving. We already have schools that play Thanksgiving Day games and a playoff game 2 days later (without a bye week) That is a moot point.
Every district follows the power points system to make the playoffs, not league records. Even District 7. Every team should have to play 5 PIAA playoff games to reach the final after November 1st. That is only fair.
I don’t get it. I was looking at last years bracket and West Catholic beat Carrol for the PCL title. Then somehow they play Conwell-Egan in the sub-regional semi-final. How did CE earn that chance? IC played Prep Charter… the team that already lost to Del Val. Who did Prep Charter beat to get the honor of playing IC again for a shot to continue on to states? Germantown? A 3-6 team at that point? I don’t get how that all works in pitting the best teams against each other to compete for a shot at states. I guess they just don’t have enough teams in D12…
@tsaf,
Regarding the AA final. In your first paragraph you say that it’s OK that D7 have a longer league playoff, because they allow 16 teams in the playoffs. Then paragraph #2 you say it’s not right that D12 has a longer playoff because of history and tradition. They should adhere to the same rules and regulations that all of the other districts adhere to. Except for D7, which it appears you are totally fine with. Maybe it’s just me, but how does that make sense? If your argument is for all to be in the same boat, then you can’t justify D7 going their own route.
Just to clear another statement up. Imhotep, if they reach the state final, will have played 15 games before the final. That is with the idle week 4, so it could have been 16, had they not been idle in week 4. To clarify another point about playoff games. Imhotep will play 6 playoff games, not 4 or 5. That’s not even looking at turkey day in the middle. You say the other teams play 5, with no turkey day? Why does Imhotep have to play 2 more games than all other teams? You’re right, PIAA needs to look into this. D12 seems to be getting the short end of the stick on this one.