Are you ready for some football?
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
Just so you know catty plays t his friday a and if the win they play on thanksgiving and again on saturday
I.believe private schools recrute they lose there share of seniors and still dont skip a beat
Who in here seen catasauqua play and whats your thoughts of how they look
Catasauqua by 3 touchdowns
It’s interesting to me, in reading these posts about the advantage the private schools have over the publics…the “R” word…recruiting is mentioned often but no one ever brings up the “S” word…scholarships!!…or is it considered one and the same?
Thoughts on Catasauqua vs. Lake-Lehman??
No problem Jive, I am VERY close friends with the Knucklehead guy who sat on both committees to start the Enon Football program and the Imhotep Football program. I don’t think to many people know that because he’s a humble guy.. That’s why these two programs sort of mirror each other and IC plays their JV games at Enon’s field.
All I am saying Jive is these kids don’t make the rules, the PIAA does. Does a so called bye help IC this week? Not when you add they have to play 2 games in 2 1/2 days (Thanksgiving morning and Saturday afternoon). I’m sure those kids want to keep the momentum up and play someone this week but don’t blame them, Thanksgiving games are a 100 year tradition in Philly and this is Thanksgiving week due to it being late this year. But 2 games against two BIG time teams (King is the 3A Public Champs with just 3 loses and Cata/Lake Lehman have 1 loss between them) in 3 days is a BIG FEAT..
I mean give this club some credit, they could have just sat on the DelVal forfeit and accepted their 2 point win but they cancelled that forfeit and played a national powerhouse in Eastern Christian. Does that sound like a club who is afraid of the 4A? They scrimmaged the two 4A teams who just played in the City 4A championship game (Prep & Frkfd).. Does that sound like a Club who is afraid of the 4A?
For real, what crazy out-of-their-minds coaching staff schedules St Joes, Frkfd, Cardinal Mooney, and LaSalle in their first 4 weeks after a hot grueling 3-a-day summer training camp? And what type of critic can turn around and say this was a lil league schedule? Give it a break RRMarks and if Cata makes it by Lake Lehman; let the best team win..
@Major Tom
The only “Vastly Inferior” team from District 11 to go up against Lasalle was Parkland. In fact the case could be made that Easton would have won in 2009 if it wasn’t for the snow.
Correction, Easton hasn’t won a state championship. My bad
You all prove my points for me. The fact someone called for me to be banned gives me pride. Truth hurts. Sure, every school goes through down periods. But Easton, Parkland, Liberty etc… have WON state championships with nearly 100% kids from the confines of their district. That is why they have up and down years. By and large, they don’t recruit . And to say they should is a lame excuse. As for the city. The argument isn’t about geographical distance. It is about population size. The more people you have in your immediate area, the larger the potential talent pool and the greater the number of larger and faster players. Hence, they have 8 YOUTH LEAGUES that you brag about. Other communities only have 1 youth program because the population dictates it. And that 1 youth program is where the vast majority of their players come from. In a normal school district, if a kid wants to go to a different school due to athletics, his entire family has to move into that district and most likely he will be forced to sit out a year as the Fleetwood kid did for Wyomissing. An exception would be a Catholic school where there is less of a geographical limit. Now let’s get into classification. It is nowhere close to fair that a Catholic, private or prep school gets to limit their enrollment for whatever class they want to be in. Community schools only move up or down if people naturally immigrate to or emmigrate from the confines of the district. They cannot say, oh, let’s limit the kids we let in now because we aren’t competing at AAA anymore so let’s transition to AA. Bethlehem Catholic has been in every class apart from A over the years and they really have NO competition for admissions within Bethlehem as far as Catholic or private schools, let alone charter. I think Catholic schools should be in another athletic association along with prep, private and charter schools. Then they can compete and recruit to their hearts content but a kid that wants to transfer to one of them understands that they will no longer have the chance to compete for a public PIAA state championship. I understand that there just aren’t enough of these non community schools. But one day soon, there will be many more private and charter schools all over the state which will force segregation.
Change is coming in the spirit of competition.
As for respect.. the kids deserve it. NOT the PIAA or district 12 or a school’s administration or coaching staff. They are adults who have a say in and make the decisions that the kids are forced to play under. And I just think many of their decisions are unethical and a threat to what high school football is meant to be.
Facts, why didn’t you say you were an Enon guy before? Very good organization, class acts across the board. I’m pretty sure they had 2 age groups in Baltimore this past weekend, the team in Syracuse was from up in the Northeast. I really gotta have a beverage at one of the state playoff games with you. Think we would get along pretty well.
Went to Easton vs ESS game and it was 31-0 with the star RB from ESS only gaining 26 yards and zero td’s after scoring 5 or 6 in his last game. Easton had all 3 phases clicking…Defense…Special teams and Offense. I asked my son when he knew they where going to win the game and he said 1st qtr second series on defense. When they hit the RB who is a small guy and he started wincing and taking long to get up they knew the game was over when he was getting hit hard in the 1st qtr and they had 3 qtrs left. I know that the MVC wanted respect but 2013 just wasn’t their year. Easton vs Parkland this Friday. We already beat Parkland earlier this season.
@RRMark,
how can IC be an All Star team when all their kids walk home from school? They’re neighborhood kids. I have been telling your cry baby whining piss pamper @#$ this for awhile now. Allow me to school you on two things.
ONE, the Philly School system has no mandatory neighborhood requirement that you must go to your neighborhood school. You just have to live in the boundary of Philadelphia to go to any ‘public’ or charter school. This is why those great Washington, Northeast and Frankford teams all had kids from all over the city when they won their city titles. But for the last 20 years, the best players for these teams came from the IC neighborhood, Uptown.
King High is three to four blocks up the street from IC and they are the 3A public champs with kids from this same Uptown neighborhood. Mastery Charter is 7 to 8 blocks away and they also made the chip game (played King) and they also are filled with kids from this Uptown neighborhood. Central is about 6 blocks south of IC and also has kids from Uptown. Its not a magic hucus-pucus formula.. Its the deep enriched little league powerhouses in Uptown that produces these kids. There are 8 power house lil league PAL programs in Uptown with teams still playing as far as Syracuse now to go to Fla.
Some of these programs are so large and so good that their ‘A’ teams had to play their ‘B’ teams in the playoffs.
Look at all the top teams in the state from Aliquippa to Allegheny to Coatesville to South fayette. They all have one thing in common, great lil league programs that develops quality football players. Uptown just has 8 in one section of Phila. I believe IC will be here for awhile so cry a river in your beer buddy and have two more on me.
One question, how can a team just say, I believe we will be good this year, let’s cancel our 2A schedule and have the PIAA re-juggle everyone’s schedule to give us a 4A schedule even though we have 2A enrollment numbers? Teams get to adjust their classification every two years, so when this team was a bunch of Sophomores two years ago and they were getting blown out in the states by Bok and Springfield Montco you didn’t say nothing. Now they are seniors so they should move up because they they are blowing teams out? You sound foolish.. Then if they play a 4A schedule with Edison, Southern, Furness etc (not calling those 4A teams are bad); you would be crying about that.. If IC had to play Wilson, Northern Lehigh or Palmerton (not saying those teams are bad); you would be saying that was unfair… Let the kids play… they’re not whinning and crying…
@fwgritty,
Imhotep football team has garnered a ton of respect from HS fans across the state. The major flaw is people like you, no offense. They are a very good team but for the chest thumpers, like yourself, that’s not enough. In one breath you say Wyomissing was a better team, then in the next breath you make an excuse about focus. Did Imhotep really beat a depleted LaSalle team with ease? We beat Bonner. Sure did, Bonner won 3 games this year. The more the chest thumpers exaggerate about this school, the more people are gonna root against them. Before they were good, were you even a fan? I’m guessing you supported the state champion basketball team. People know the difference between a solid program and the fly by nights. How many people come on here and thump their chests about Wood, SJP, Southern Columbia, North Penn, CB West, etc…? None! You know why? They have been there before and they’ll be there again. Can you say the same? Some people will hate on certain programs because their team just can’t compete with them, (see rrmarks comment)nothing you can do about that. When you make them silly exaggerated comments, you aren’t showing any respect. That type of thing fuels the hater fire. You want people to respect your team, but respect is not a one way street. They have a real nice group of kids over there, and they can play some darn good football. Why isn’t that enough for you?
I hate to say it but it looks like Pittsburgh Central Catholic is on a AAAA title quest. They’ve been quietly destroying everybody by like 49-0 or so. Was hoping previously unbeaten McKeesport and Upper St. Clair were going to take them out but they were both upset. Can Woodland Hills stop the PCC machine? Maybe, we’ll see.
@ RRMark
You talk about “all-star” teams; PCC is that. They’re the only big time private school in Pittsburgh. It would be like if there was St. Joe’s Prep with no LaSalle, Wood, WC, etc. That’s why I’m hoping one of these teams can knock the off. With Upper St. Clair out of the picture, I’m concerned.
The coaches in the lehigh valley conference feel that catty can compete in there division thats how good they are but nobody sees it but the coaches up here
@RRMARKS YOU ARE A BITTER AND SAD PIECE OF WORK, AND YOU MY FRIEND SHOULD BE BAND FROM HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL AND BLOGS..
@RR Mark
Having been to several of the playoff games in the past 5 years that featured the vastly inferior teams that you mention like Parkland and Easton against LaSalle, and other very weak District 11 teams that simply cannot compete once they step out of their pillow soft district…..I can guarantee you that nobody was chuckling or saying “silly PIAA”. In every instance the blogs were loaded with smack talk and the fans at the games were confident that they would win going away, only to be totally outclassed by far superior teams. The the teams that you mention like SJP, LaSalle, and Wood, etc. have the biggest disadvantage of all to overcome, and that is size. Easton, Parkland, North Penn, and the like are 2 -3 times the size of these schools test still cannot compete, it is a testament to the vastly superior coaching and much higher level of competition that they face each week before the playoffs begin. This is high school football in the 21st century and you can cry all you want but its not changing, the huge public schools need to use their massive competitive advantage better by hiring better coaches, use their superior depth to their advantage, and raise money privately to prove the facilitates and larger coaching staffs that the private schools enjoy. Get over it and adapt to it, crying like a five year old won’t get it done.
Eric…
Philly fans have an inferiority complex. They couldn’t win a state championship with a real public team like a Parkland, Easton, Wyomissing or Aliquippa. So they manufacture one with WC, LaSalle, St. Joe’s, Wood or IC. They think if… when… IC beats Catty or Lake Lehman, and probably goes on to win the state crown, that anyone outside of philly is going to put much value in the title. No, we just chuckle and think to ourselves… silly PIAA. So let them have their championship with an asterisk next to it.
Springfield Montco, solebury school for the gifted? Not scaring me. As for West Catholic… Take them out of philly and they wouldn’t be able to field the talent they normally do. But even Catholic schools have some restrictions talent wise. But whose putting down Imhotep’s football team? I’ve seen plenty of their games to know they are classy, upstanding, intelligent young men who could be role models for the rest of the public league. I never questioned that regardless of what you dream up. But we really can’t compare them to a real public high school team.
There is a reason IC’s talent is AAAA level. It is because they are a charter school picking and choosing top talent from a comparatively huge pool and then being allowed to choose their own classification as well. Hence, they keep male enrollment at 298 (one shy of AAA class). So, you wanna tell me that is just a coincidence? When their roster is twice as big as the majority of AA schools. That is what makes Wyomissing’s win last year so incredible. Vastly made up of kids within that small population pool. Yeah, they did pick up that Fleetwood QB in time for states. Wyomissing’s population? 10,500. Catty’s 6500. Pen Argyl 3500. Let’s look at some others.. Lewisburg, PA 5600. Wilson Borough? 7800. Aliquippa 9500. What is the population of the quaint town of Imhotep Charter, PA? Can anyone answer that? Most AA teams work with the small amount of talent they have available to them. They have little to no control from year to year as to talent or classification. Call me old fashioned but I say they build a team the way it’s meant to be. Unlike the Catholic, prep, private and charter schools. And it’s really a shame for those kids. To bad Albie couldn’t have chosen to build and coach a real public league team.
If catty played new hope solebury or springfield montco catty would have a mercy rule on either of them by halftime
I like the way catty destroys everybody that gets in there way and have one of the best quarterbacks and receivers in the state and still get no respect
@tsaf77 thanks
@RRmark wow Albie must’ve cut your kid from a team!
Yup, you got it right. Any championship IC wins should get an asterisk next to it. They hear it..