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
Great points Jim B and your right they tried a charter school in carbondale,it lasted 2 years.Unless the school could draw from the whole valley,i love to see a team with kids from Dunmore Valley view Lakeland and Abington Height. last year a Dunmore Scranton team would have been something.This is a PIAA issue as far as i know they are breaking no rules like you said deal with it.
Jim B.
Why are you hating on those poor inner city kids? They deserve some reparations after years of oppression and exclusion by the PIAA.
@ Jim B
You also forgot to mention taking public money and applying it to private/cultural characteristics which is clearly represented in the charters schools philosophies. I love how no one ever comments back about that Fact! We are secular when it comes to public education.
@Jim B,
Being from Philly, I don’t know if I could have said it any better. My opinion on charter schools is this. Charter schools are public schools. The school district of Philadelphia has been so poorly run, for so many years, that they are trying everything to not have the state take over the district. Hence charter schools. The district fills them with district students, pays the bills with public money, but has no accountability on student performance, because “were not in charge of them schools”. Charter schools have become a way for the district to wash their hands of low performing students and schools, and say, “not our fault”. The no child left behind act is being skirted by the district, and that is an absolute disgrace. Are all charters academically deficient? Of course not, but you can look up school performance, on the states web site, and see that most are way below average. Keep in mind, before charters, Washington was a football powerhouse in the city, Gratz was the basketball powerhouse, Olney was the school for wrestling, and so on. Kids, from all over the city, going to certain schools to play together has been a staple in Philly for decades. These kids going to Imhotep, is not a charter school issue. Had Crosby gone to King, King would be the team everybody complains about. These kids had their choice of any public school, they chose Imhotep. In Philly they have the right to choose, the kids chose to play together. Whether it be with their friends, a certain coach, or maybe they prefer Imhotep’s mission. Whatever the reason, it is what it is, they have the choice to go to any public school they want to.
@Jim B – Great post.
@JiveTurkey – I came to the conclusion earlier this week that people on this board are taking the Charter and non-public school debate to the level of pro-choice vs abortion, creationism vs evolution hysteria. People are either on one side of the other and most are so blinded that they couldn’t see obvious sarcasm when it smacked them in the face. I see now that it just isn’t worth trying to educate some people on this board because they have a deep held belief that blocks facts and logic from entering the conversation.
One more thing, I am NOT complaining. These are just my observations. There is no solution to this issue, and I think the rest of this state, outside of Philly, needs to accept the facts, and work harder to beat a team like Tep.
My take on “Charter schools”.
I do think Philly Charter high schools have an unfair advantage in sports, and here is why.
From what I understand, and this my be wrong info, but 80% of the charter schools in this state are located in Philly. That means a few things. First, because there are so many charters in Philly, the people in that area are much more familiar with the concept of a charter school. Charters are more accepted in the Philly area and most people there have a good understanding of the whole charter concept.
Conversely, because there are so few Charter schools outside Philly, people around the state don’t fully understand what a Charter school really is. I live in the Wilkes-Barre Area school district. We have one charter school in this district and it is only a grade school (K thru 8). To my knowledge, there are no Charter High Schools even remotely close to Wilkes Barre. I doubt there is even one Charter High school in all of D2. And there probably never will be. District size is the reason.
Most school districts in this state are “one district, one high school” districts. Much like Cattasaqua. There are a few districts, like WB Area, Allentown, Bethlehem, with multiple high schools in one district. But, for the most part, these districts with multiple high schools are in bigger, more populated urban areas. And those SD’s with multiple high schools, like Allentown, Bethlehem, WB, only have two or three high schools, not 25. Two or three high schoold is all the population will support.
What does this all mean? It means that 99% of the school districts in this state will never be able to establish a “charter high school” in their district. These districts are just too small. And even if a Charter high school did open in a place like Allentown, WB, or Bethlehem, there is just no way the charter school will pull enough male students from the two or three public high school to field a football team. The number aren’t there.
Take WB Area for example. We have three public high school, and school choice. Say a charter school were to open. What are the chances enough kids (football players) from Meyers, GAR and Coughlin (the 3 WB high schools) will make the switch and go to the charter school? If you take 10 to 15 kids from any one of those three team, they wouldn’t be able to field a football team.
Here is where Philly Charters get the advantage. The combination of school choice mixed with a huge district that contains 25 public high schools (and a hotbed of talent) to draw from, created the perfect storm we all know as IC.
It just can’t be argued; there is no other place, no other district, in this state that can assemble a team like a Philly public charter can.
We are at the finale of the East. Looking at the games this week, I think the OF – SH games appears to be the most competitive with each not having significant advantages over the other. OF is bigger up front however SH appears to be quicker. Should be a great game.
The other game that appears to be a close one is SJP and Nesh. This game will be a good one to see. Both teams are big up front with talented players, SJP has been on the winning side against District 1 however last season we saw a CV team take them down.
I think AW should take down Berwick on paper however you never know what can happen with Berwick.
IC is the favorite and should continue to destroy each team on their path to the AA title. Speed, size and pure talent. I am sure Berks has some fight however this is IC game to lose. As I have said before, IC can play with any team in this state and possibly beat them.
C’mon guys! You guys that are responding to this Allentown/Bethlehem comment follow this thread religiously. Did you not see the comment last week about how Imhotep can recruit from everywhere? When about 5 people replied with the boundaries and such, the response was something like “well all I know is everybody up here says so, so it must be true”. You all know I’m a bit of a wise a$$. I wasn’t trying to start a debate, just making a comment that sounded really absurd. I am a bit anal with looking up info and gathering facts about issues, before I comment on them. I guess I was just trying to point out that somebody else could do a tiny bit of research before he makes accusatory comments. Sorry, I was trying to be funny. I guess my shot missed the target.
@d3fan
McDevitt will have their hands full with Erie Prep. Erie Prep is just as loaded with D1 players. They are battle tested also they played 3 out of state catholic schools and won all 3 games by wide margins and shutting out a very good West Allegheny team last week was impressive. This game will be a classic and worth the price of admission and a must see if you live close enough to drive to Altoona. If anyone knows of a live feed please post.
@d3 and d6 thanks guys.Nobody has been able to run on Old Forge,but i dont think they seen a team with this type of speed.Steelton i dont think has seen a team this big and fast Old Forge is very disciplined and plays their keys well.The only thing i an sure of is buckle it up becuse OldForge is going to hit you for 48 min.
@ AJ & Jive:
AJ is right. I worked in the Allentown area ( Trexlertown), which is Parkland territory.
The kids that live in Allentown can’t go to Parkland. Of course, if you live in Allentown, you can go to ACC. If in Bethlehem, you can go to Bechai ( Catholic school). That’s about the extent of choice.
I think you guys are all missing the sarcasm of JIve’s posts lol
Who likes McDevitt over ECP? Mcdevitt is loaded on both sides of the ball. They handled some of the best AAAA programs in D3 including champ Lower Dauphin. It will take very strong opponent to beat McD. Offense is loaded with D1 talent and the defense is very difficult to get traction against.
@ mard d
Steel High is very fast likes to get on the edges on offense. Have a good running qb and productive rb. Their strength is their defense though very fast and physical. Not the most disciplined team but hard to beat in A with their athletic ability
@ JiveTurkey
You talked to someone who feed you extremely wrong info. Allentown kids go to either Allen or Dieruff depending where you live in the city or pay for Catholic school and go to Allentown Central Catholic. There is a small and very small portion of Deep west end of Allentown that is Parkland School District. The rest of Parkland is in the Suburbs in towns like Cetronia,Schnecksvile,Breinigsville,Orefield,Ironton and Laurys station. However, kids in the Suburbs can also go to Allentown Central Catholic.
Bethlehem kids go to either Liberty or Freedom depending on where you live in the city or pay for catholic school and go to Bethlehem Catholic.
@eric,
I don’t know if I can make an intelligent response to that. I guess 12/2/13, 1:11pm. Holy smokes, you are too funny!
@eric
All I see on this site that you say is “Imhotep has an unfair advantage”, “Philly charter schools have an unfair advantage”, etc. Why do you whine so much? As for me saying,”good game Catty and Imhotep”. Well the players played hard during the game and made it to that point, why not say that to them as a respectful thing. It’s about the kids that played the game. And as far as Imhotep being crowned state champs, the games still have to be played. Good luck to all the teams remaining inthe playoffs.
Parkland is actually south whitehall township
@ jive turkey thats wrong allen and dieruff play football in allentown and liberty and freedom are in bethlem
I was walking around the city the other day, and asked total strangers where kids played high school football in Bethlehem and Allentown. They told me that all of the kids that play football in Allentown go to Parkland. They told me that all of the kids that play football in Bethlehem go to Bethlehem Catholic. I asked, “are you sure”? They said, “yes, they used to go to Liberty but the all go to Bethlehem Catholic now”. That’s good enough for me. It must be true, because that’s what everybody down here is saying!
Lol, this site doesn’t allow open debate. yet certain posters get to insult others freely. I post with the same name and from the same computer because I stand by my comments and don’t need to hide. But I have proven who the real haters of the kids are.
@buddy. Buddy you are right, next year we will be all in the same league. I like the fact that it will make the sol national team better, since there will be a Much competitive league, the downside of it is, good team are going to nock each other out before playoffs. Let’s see how the skins fare against the prep, that qb from them is something else. Skins better have a great defensive game, specially the secondary line
According to the @BornPowerIndex, Central Catholic is projected to be 19.3 points stronger than Lower Dauphin
According to the @BornPowerIndex, Neshaminy is projected to be 4.59999999999999 points stronger than St. Josephs-Prep