PIAA Playoffs

[IUPNation]

It's that time of year where everyone complains about the private schools running roughshod over the publics.

We are at Semi Final Weekend in PA.

One game of note...because it's local to me...is Downingtown West taking on the St. Joe's Juggernauts in 6A.

This game has been hyped a lot locally on local Social Media pages for D-town West. Both teams came off relatively easy wins.

The game is being played at Coatesville High School...so basically it will be a home game for Downingtown West as it's only a 5-6 mile ride.

This may be the only shot to derail the St Joe's Express. 6A is looking pretty much like a St. Joe's-Yinzerburgh Central Catholic matchup. Yinzerburgh Central takes on Harrisburg High.

2A and 3A will be won by public schools. 1A has a shot as long as somebody can take out Bishop Guilfoyle.

4A only has Bonner-Prendergast of the Philadelphia Catholic League still going and it's in Upper Darby so it's not the good part of Delco...not really a rich kid school.

5A has Roman Catholic of the PCL in the playoffs. Roman has never been a big foosball school...it's a basketball power. It's located in Center City Philadelphia but they do have a lot of alumni who donate the coins. This schools was once up for closure years ago and it was the rich alumni who stepped up and saved it from the Archdiocese cutting board. It's just odd to see them doing well...but they take on West Chester Rustin at West Chester Henderson's field...so again a home game for the public school. Bishop McDevitt in Harrisburg is back at it as well...taking on the yinzers from Pine-RICHland.

So again...the Philadelphia Catholic League is reigning terror across 3 classifications. It always was the best high school sports league in Pennsylvania for decades...just for years none of you actually knew it.

I'm actually hoping the Whippets can whip it good against St. Joe's. If Downingtown had never split into two high schools ...they would be the Commonwealth's public school juggernaut. There are so many kids in this area...and both East and West always do well in most sports. The Same probably could be said for Central Bucks...but they split into three schools.

Noticably missing from this year's PIAA playoffs...Aliquippa. Will they get to move back down?

[Ship69]

Guilfoyle has long been a dirty word among the athletic directors of small public schools in that area. A lot of us did not the Philly Catholic league was very good. Thought the PIAA might rein them in a bit. Obviously, we were wrong.

If you want to imagine a high school football juggernaut, think if Harrisburg's talent weren't split between Harrisburg High and Bishop McDevitt.

[RocknTheSnackBar]

I never got the hate for the smaller Catholic schools. Guilfoyle has 92 kids. How much of a edge do they get?

[CHIP72]

Semi-OT comment - I'm not a fan of how the PIAA playoffs have basically eliminated many of the traditional Thanksgiving Day games or at a minimum forced many of the regular season ending rivalry games to (I guess) late October. (I no longer live in the Keystone State, but based on what I've seen I'm assuming the regular season is done by the end of October.) At least Easton and Phillipsburg still have their annual Thanksgiving Day game at Lafayette, even if the Red Rovers and/or Stateliners are still alive in their respective state playoffs. (I believe Phillipsburg is still playing in the New Jersey state playoffs.)

Incidentally, Easton knocked off Phillipsburg 17-14 in their Thanksgiving Day clash this year. Easton finished their season at 11-2, while Phillipsburg dropped to 11-2.

[EyeoftheHawk]

I never got the hate for the smaller Catholic schools. Guilfoyle has 92 kids. How much of an edge do they get?

Come on man, really? What school district do those kids live in? Where is Bishop Guilfoyle school district? It has nothing to do with the number when you can get the kids you want from whatever true school district is in the area. You can win a state title in football if you have 20 boys in the school and all of them are the best players from the dozen or so schools they would be going to. Saying all that and regardless of where the kids come from, I can’t imagine anyone beating Guilfoyle. They have stud athletes at every position group and they dismantled Westinghouse last week. I was surprised that they left Northern Cambria hanging around for a little while in the D6 championship.

Another public school (sort of) to watch is Clarion Central, which is a combination of Clarion, North Clarion, and Clarion-Limestone) schools. They combine to reach the 2A level and after seeing them blow the doors off Cambria Heights last weekend they look like some of the Southern Columbia teams we’ve seen at that level. Some people don’t think co-ops are fair, but at least those kids come from a school district with a boundary. While there are advantages, there are also plenty of disadvantages like getting kids together due to travel challenges, and all things related to that.

[ESU Warrior]

Come on man, really? What school district do those kids live in? Where is Bishop Guilfoyle school district? It has nothing to do with the number when you can get the kids you want from whatever true school district is in the area. You can win a state title in football if you have 20 boys in the school and all of them are the best players from the dozen or so schools they would be going to. Saying all that and regardless of where the kids come from, I can’t imagine anyone beating Guilfoyle. They have stud athletes at every position group and they dismantled Westinghouse last week. I was surprised that they left Northern Cambria hanging around for a little while in the D6 championship.

Another public school (sort of) to watch is Clarion Central, which is a combination of Clarion, North Clarion, and Clarion-Limestone) schools. They combine to reach the 2A level and after seeing them blow the doors off Cambria Heights last weekend they look like some of the Southern Columbia teams we’ve seen at that level. Some people don’t think co-ops are fair, but at least those kids come from a school district with a boundary. While there are advantages, there are also plenty of disadvantages like getting kids together due to travel challenges, and all things related to that.

Troy will
have something to say about them. Very curious to see how that one goes.

[IUPNation]

Come on man, really? What school district do those kids live in? Where is Bishop Guilfoyle school district? It has nothing to do with the number when you can get the kids you want from whatever true school district is in the area. You can win a state title in football if you have 20 boys in the school and all of them are the best players from the dozen or so schools they would be going to. Saying all that and regardless of where the kids come from, I can’t imagine anyone beating Guilfoyle. They have stud athletes at every position group and they dismantled Westinghouse last week. I was surprised that they left Northern Cambria hanging around for a little while in the D6 championship.

Another public school (sort of) to watch is Clarion Central, which is a combination of Clarion, North Clarion, and Clarion-Limestone) schools. They combine to reach the 2A level and after seeing them blow the doors off Cambria Heights last weekend they look like some of the Southern Columbia teams we’ve seen at that level. Some people don’t think co-ops are fair, but at least those kids come from a school district with a boundary. While there are advantages, there are also plenty of disadvantages like getting kids together due to travel challenges, and all things related to that.

Clarion Central is what needs to be done in many areas..consolidation is necessary.

Another interesting tidbit…Imothep Charter..moved up to 6A this year and got their doors blown off by St. Joes.

[Bart]

Some these arguments may go away with Trump pushing for school choice.

[Ship69]

I never got the hate for the smaller Catholic schools. Guilfoyle has 92 kids. How much of a edge do they get?

If you're recruiting top athletes from other small (and large) schools in the area, you can get a pretty big edge, and they have.

[Ship69]

Some these arguments may go away with Trump pushing for school choice.

The argument about how much public money goes into private schools is not going to go away for a long time.

[IUPNation]

Some these arguments may go away with Trump pushing for school choice.

He only likes the uneducated.

[IUPNation]

So ran down to the Wegmans which is almost in Downingtown and saw a number of people wearing D-town swag…people around here must be pumped. Just hope West can pull it off. Hopefully they can figure out how LaSalle was able to ding them once this year.

[EyeoftheHawk]

Clarion Central 55-0 over perennial AA power South Park. Bishop Guilfoyle 21-6 over Muncy. Both teams should be favored in the final. The Clarion Central QB, Jase Ferguson looks like a man playing football against kids. He’s probably a D2 QB, but possibly a D1 defensive back or TE. His recruitment will be interesting.

[Fightingscot82]

Clarion Central 55-0 over perennial AA power South Park. Bishop Guilfoyle 21-6 over Muncy. Both teams should be favored in the final. The Clarion Central QB, Jase Ferguson looks like a man playing football against kids. He’s probably a D2 QB, but possibly a D1 defensive back or TE. His recruitment will be interesting.

Port Allegany also blew out Fort Cherry 46-8. Little District 9 has never had a state champ and has two in the finals.

District 9 has two 3A schools and the rest are 1A and 2A. One of those 3A schools is because a 1A private and 2A public are sharing a team this year.

[CUlater]

Port Allegany also blew out Fort Cherry 46-8. Little District 9 has never had a state champ and has two in the finals.

District 9 has two 3A schools and the rest are 1A and 2A. One of those 3A schools is because a 1A private and 2A public are sharing a team this year.

Port A dominating FC was the biggest surprise in quite some time, I don't think anyone saw that coming. Clarion is absolute power house. Their QB is a stud but their offense line is the difference. One of the guys up front already holds 5-6 D1 offers and several others could end up playing at different ranks. That's a rare group for a team from that area. They made SP look like a middle school team playing in the PSAC. They could have put up 100 if they wanted to.