Are you ready for some football?
Welcome to the official forum on high school football for the 2018 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.
881 Responses
Phillyboy, the recruiting free for all in Philadelphia started with the Del Val Charter Boys basketball team starring the Morris Twins. The Philly Public league boys basketball teams got their head handed to them in the PIAA playoffs their 1st year in..when it was an even playing field. Del Val lost due to the team having no guards. Presto, 3 guards get recruited to join Del Val and the Morris twins and District 12 and the PIAA looked the other way while Del Val wins Multiple State Championship. Other schools in Philly took notice and followed suit. NC and Dougherty closing helped the Charter and Pubs more than the Catholic schools, Judge should be a powerhouse sports school, NC and Dougherty athletes headed elsewhere due to recruiting.
Is there any words on who will new Coach will be at Archbishop Wood? Rumors?
I AGREE WITH SKINSFAN ABOUT NESHAMINY HS FOOTBALL..IT SHOULD BE BETTER THIS FALL THAN LAST YEAR BUT NOT YET GREAT BETTER WAIT AND SEE I AM GOING TO BE 61ST FOOTBALL DEAF FAN WOW THANK Y
Rumor around the D12 PCL, Freshman WR Marvin Harrison from La Salle transferring to Prep this summer? If that’s true how does PCL let this happen?
I really need to better proof read my post……..
My previous post should have read…….”would be ineligible to play in post season games”…….sorry.
Some more transfer stuff for you guys to chew on. A new proposal being floated is regarding a transfer at the end of their junior year would not be ineligible to play in post season games during their senior year. Interesting…….
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/high_school/piaa-transfer-rules-guidelines-resrictions-changes-football-basketball-20180414.html
@Zack Felter
After the news broke with the reclassification of teams and Shanahan going to 4A I had a brief discussion with Ches-Mont AD and he mentioned that they had discussions with the Del-Val League about a possible merger. Not sure how serious it got, but for football purposes it does no good as only Chester is 6A and the other member schools are either 4A or 5A.
As for Coatesville this year they should be explosive as ever of offense. They are returning their top 3 weapons in Ortega, Bryant and Aa Young. Young has recently picked up offers from Stanford, Vandy, Ole Miss, Arkansas as well as about 20+ others.
I haven’t heard much about what the freshman and JV teams looked like this past year, but I know a large chunk of them where probably on the Bert Bell unlimited team that won the championship a couple years ago, so the talent should be there.
@SkinsFan:
Thanks for the info. I did not believe it when I read it.
Phillyboy
That is a great post and very insightful. I agree with all you said. I will add that I think the public schools didn’t recognize quick enough the situation you described and did not adabt.
@Friday
Coach Schmidt will not be with North Penn this season as instead, he will be assisting at Imhotep.
The more I think about it, West Snyder and Middleburg merged in the late 1990’s. West Snyder was located in Beaver Springs,Snyder County. Neither school had a football team.
Midd-West High School formed when they combined West Snyder High School and Middleburg High School in Snyder County. I think they combined the two schools in the 1980’s.
@ Friday:
No I haven’t. That’s the old Neshaminy/Imhotep coach. I assume he’s a defensive guru. I certainly hope he is, we could use that.
Buddy,
I saw a post in another board that said Mark Schmidt is North Penn’s defensive coordinator now. Heard anything?
@PastorZack
“finding a plug in the middle of their D”
Well that gives me a bit of hope as a CV fan. Perhaps they can grind it out with the running game and keep it close.
@Kevin Coatesville has Middletown South High School out of NJ in Week 2 for a home game. They have had problems with other PA 6A teams to come play them at home.
I’m assuming the Harrisburg is a home/home with them coming to Coatesville next year. Gratz had been wanting to get out of our deal since they made it a couple of years ago.
@ D12FAN
When the PCL first joined the PIAA St. Joe’s Prep lost to North Penn twice in the regular season. In that first year LaSalle even lost to the Public League champ in the District 12 championship (I realize that was a bit of a fluke but still). And then Wood got destroyed by Thomas Jefferson in the state final. Imagine that. Why is that? In a few years things have changed drastically. TJ is pretty much the same solid program. I have a theory: generally speaking the top public programs back in the day would have had their way against the top privates. But membership in the PIAA has been a catalyst for PCL recruiting because of the excitement and glamour of being able to compete for state championships and crisscross the country playing big games. So the top PCL teams today are better than they used to be. Those first few years when the PCL struggled a bit, represented the time it took to benefit from the heightened recruiting.
Then sure, the elimination of North Catholic and Cardinal Dougherty among others tended to help consolidate talent at less schools. Lastly, you got school districts like Downingtown and Central Bucks who hurt themselves by adding extra teams. Anyway just some thoughts.
Looks like a good chunck of the 2018 schedules have been posted, sans D12. Any idea when they might make an appearance??
Are we done with “week 0?” D3 appears now to be starting the weekend before Labor Day weekend, joining the rest of (at least the east) in making that their first regualar season games.
For you C’Ville folk (Pastor Zack??) any idea if C’ville has a game scheduled (or will have) the second week, between H-Burg and CV?? I’ll continue beating the drum for them to hook up with Imhotep, or even Wood, in an early season non league battle. That tho would be quite an opening first 3 game stretch for the Red Raiders.
Speaking of ‘Tep and H-Burg, no home and home match-up this year?? No Berks Catholic/’Tep game this year that was rumored to take place when the game late last year never materialized??
@sausmann9
You paint everyone in philly and the pcl with the same brush but it’s not the case.take wood,sjp and lasalle out of the pcl and what teams left dominate? Most are made up of local kids.and other than imhotep what school is dominating the city? What you don’t think north penn or neshaminy recruits? Cb West Dominated For Years And Recruited Like crazy.
@PhillyBoy:
Could very well be the case with less pressure and expectations. You never know with high school kids. A lot of their success will be determined by how they can figure out the QB situation. Sounds like that opening game could be a pretty good battle.
Live4Fridays
Thank you for the additional information on Midd-West. You also gave us the deal with East Juniata and Juniata as well. We did not add another team as now EJ won’t play FB, its a wash. Thanks again.
Sausman
As a D12 fan I agree with you. But you forget it was the PIAA that came calling for the PCL in 2008. Before that every year we heard how the top public school would beat the top PCL teams. I guess that didn’t work out as planned. You also fail to point out 2 other fatctors with the public schools. 1. Is that most of the top successful public schools get transfers as well due to their success, like the successful private schooLs.. 2. Once the PCL is gone from the PIAA, guys like you will go back to complaining that norht penn and pennsbury have too many kids and will start asking for 10 classifications to make it more fair…
BTW plans are in place for the strong PCL schools to play national schedules and the state championship an after thought. With more archdiocesan consolidation that is coming the successful teams will just get stronger. We will see if they can pull it off..
@sausmann:
You will be stoned…………….but you’re essentially correct.
Yea, I know D12FAN………… nice work, carry on………
@PhillBoy:
North Penn will be competitive as always, and I agree that less prssure may help them. That said, I think Coatesville will be the team to beat in District 1. They return a boatload of talent, but I believe that Sanders graduates this year and is headed to Bucknell.
@ PCL whiners – NO I was not telling anyone from the beloved PCL to drop their beloved, recruited up football programs especially to all those that tossed the “ignorance” tag around as if you actually know what it means.
What I was recommending is that the PCL and Philly schools leave the PIAA for athletic reasons. They can keep their beloved programs and all the kids they bring in from ANY surrounding states, not just PA. If a STUDENT of any of those PCL or Philly schools wants to participate in PIAA sports such as football, they may join the public school district’s team they reside within and pay taxes to.
You all throw the idea around that my suggestion is the “wussification” of sports – actually you are 100% wrong and if anything its the EXACT OPPOSITE. By letting the PCL and Philly schools build and recruit a team together every year, they are not really competing but cheating their way through the season. Anytime any other school CANNOT do what the PCL and Philly schools can, that’s the unfair and dangerous advantage PCL and Philly teams have. Take Ihop for example – went out and got them a quarterback. SJP needs a few skill playyers and they got one already (public school transfer from NJ).
If anything the “wussification” of high school sports is brought on by schools like those in the PCL and city of Philly by only being able to compete by ASSEMBLING a team of already coached up and developed players. Teach them to battle through the tough season instead of teaching them to go out and get the running back and lineman and quarterbacks they need from other teams and then act as if it was a great accomplishment to actually beat the teams who you took best players from, lol.