Guest Opinion, Football 2001
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    This was originally a Random Thoughts submission by Patrick Coyne, the son of Bonner coach Mike "Stump" Coyne. Because it deals with an issue that continues to be hot-button, I have decided to make it a Guest Opinion. Below, we will publish responses. Thanks, Ted.

    After following the pre-season in the Catholic League I had a random thought
or more likely a random rant I wanted to get off my chest.

    After attending the Bonner-Carroll game last Saturday night the absolute
ridiculousness of this Red- Blue Division set-up became apparant to me.

    That was a late November-type game played in the middle of September because
of the egos of some coaches/ athletic directors in the league.

    To review: The reason we are in this setup is because certain coaches and athletic
directors decided that the previous set-up wasn't fair to their programs any longer.
Most of those influential in the situation held both the athletic director and football
coach positions at their school. (I won't mention anyone by name but McDevitt,
Conwell-Egan, and Neumann were major players to those of you not in the know.)

    Even though most coaches objected due to travel, rigors of scheduling, etc., the
current set-up was adopted primarily because it was determined the smaller schools
could no longer compete with the bigger schools.

    Given the low numbers at some of the schools it seemed to be fair enough.
However, the smaller schools still wanted to be represented in the playoffs with a five
Red and three Blue setup. The same guys who were crying they couldn't compete
during the season still wanted to compete in the end. WHAT A JOKE!

    Now much to my outrage after reviewing the non-league schedules of the Blue
Division ("So called Non-Competitive") teams I find that of 21 games scheduled, nine
were played against teams from the Red Division. Additionally, Dougherty and Neumann
decideed to play Holy Cross, Willingboro, and St. Joe's (Hammonton).

    Let's cut through the baloney and come out and say what this is all about: Some
of these schools and coaches feeling good about themselves. If you can play Holy
Cross you certainly can play Prep or La Salle. Does anyone really want to see
O'Hara-Ryan instead of O'Hara-Carroll? How about Bonner-Judge instead of
Bonner-West? And I'm sure Dougherty-Neumann draws more interest than Dougherty-North.

    Until we change this thing we are stuck with the two champions. There is no way the
Red Division is ever going for any kind of playoff involving the Blue. NONE. A team like
Carroll last year could have competed with anyone but was denied the opportunity
because of this set-up.  Are the teams that were bad in the previous North-South arrangement
any better than they were?

    Finally to address the idea that it is not McDevitt and Carroll's fault that they are in this
predicament, that is only partially true. At last year's season-ending football meeting, the ideas
of going back to old North-South and the possibility of moving up were addressed.
Both Carroll's and McDevitt's administration ignored the idea. So to the players and families
of those teams, YOUR administration and coaches decided to stay put.

    So until someone sees the light on this system your are stuck with very good teams playing
for the Blue (Triple AAA) Championship. In this man's opinion that qualifies for ninth place
in the Catholic League.

    P.S. Just to set the record straight Carroll dropped Malvern on Thanksgiving to play Shanahan,
which is slated to play in the Southern Chester County League with toughies like Unionville etc.

    Sorry about the length but I had to let some steam out. Good Luck to all teams and God
Bless America.

RESPONSES . . .

Dear Ted,
   I agree with many of the points that were brought up, because I agree that this RED-BLUE set-up is ridiculous. But he seems to have no solutions....you can't go back to North South cause the same teams will bitch and complain and like always before the North will be stacked....and don't tell me they won't. From what the north south used to be (like from mid 90's until new division)....LaSalle, Judge, Ryan were the powerhouses in the north, and in the South, it was the Prep, Roman, and SOMETIMES not every year Bonner, Carroll, and O'hara. If I had to come up with something it would be this: LaSalle, Prep, Ryan, Bonner, Carroll, McDevitt, Roman, and O'Hara in one division and in the other: West, Neumann, KK, Egan, Dougherty, Wood, Judge and North in the other. I think this could be a little more competitive than before. So you give me a new set-up and maybe your problems will be able to be further commented on. Thanks alot.
---- Mark Gress
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Ted,
    Please CL Athletic Directors, Presidents, Principals and whoever else is in
position to change the structure of the Philadelphia Catholic League
Football Alignment.  Please go back to the Old North/South structure like
you have in EVERY OTHER sport that you sanction.  You all made a valiant
attempt to change something for the better and it DID NOT WORK and WILL NOT
WORK.  Do not be ashamed or consider it a failure, it was a great attempt to
bring some balance to a unbalanced situation.  The teams that did not fair
well in the last few years of the old structure, Egan, North, Neumann,
Dougherty, West and Kenrick, still are struggling and will continue to
struggle until the bias that is caused by $$$$ a.k.a. RECRUITING is either
structured or abolished. I do not understand how a bunch of tough kids from
Langhorne (Egan) , Kensington (North) etc.. are supposed to compete on a
regular basis against players that are HAND PICKED and Spoon Fed, ( being
picked up by an athletic department bus , 25 miles from the school) it is
NOT POSSIBLE.  The fact that the small schools continue to compete is a
credit to them!!!!!!
---- Anonymous
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Ted,
I love this topic.  The medium schools on the feeder ladder are whining and
complaining that the scales have been tipped against them. It's such a shame
that Bonner has to play schools the same size as them.   The only problem
with the current set-up is schools like Bonner, Ryan, Judge, and O'Hara are
ticked off that they don't have a couple of cupcakes/gauranteed wins on the
schedule every year.  If the shoe was reversed they would all love to switch
places with McDevitt Carroll and Neumann.
    I think the real topic hear is how do we control recruiting.  We all know
who is recruiting legally and who isn't.  Why would players leave
[their home area just to attend anoher neighborhood school]? The real culprit
here is the open enrollment policy.  Why not have open enrollment with stipulations.
Go back to the original boundries and if a student would like to go to another
school a % of there tuition would go to the existing schools development
fund.  Just a thought.
---- anonymous
   (Ted's note: Not sure it would work, but at least you're thinking. Meanwhile,
as rough as the new setup can be, especially physically, I'm not sure too many
schools in the Red would switch to the Blue.)
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       About the Red and Blue catholic league divisions, if small schools are
going to complainabout going back to the North and South because they would
be playing schools alot bigger than them I think they should keep the
divisions but have the 2 winners play each other for a real catholic league
champion. That way we wouldn't have people battling from both sides. Like
last year it would have been great if Carrol played Prep or if the 2
champions played each other Ohara and Carrol would have been just as good.
---- 6th grader
   (Ted's note: The Red schools don't want that. They beat each other up all
year. They don't the Blue champ to be able to swoop in at the last minute and
maybe steal the title.)
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This is in response to guest opinion #1,
   I think Patrick Coyne makes great points.  After all who wants to see kids from the same catholic league walking around in two different championship jackets.  Especially if they are going to argue who was the better team that year.  The Red division is obvious far superior and everyone knows they are the real catholic league champs, no matter how good the blue division team might have been, it's only fair because of the competition. It is all about the coaches and athletic directors, when it should be for the kids.  If the "Smaller" schools are really going to complain, why don't they do something about their team instead of whining.  They should reavaluate their coaching staff cause the kids in the smaller schools can compete with the bigger schools if they really want to.  After all, these kids eat and drink the same things as the kids in the red division. !  The point is these kids are all the same age, no one school has superhuman kids on their team. Plus even though a team might have available more kids, you still can only play 11 kids at a time, right?  They should get these kids to dedicate themselves year round like the teams in the red division and then they will compete with them.  They can lift the same exact weights the kids in the red division do, dedication is where the problem might be.  After all, the prep and lasalle obviously do a lot more recruiting then the other schools, but they don't sit back and whine, they work harder and get better and still are able to compete against hand picked teams.  It's the attitude of the coaches and athletic directors that are bringing the blue division schools down.  What are they really telling these kids and teaching them? That they are not good enough to play against kids from prep or ryan or judge or bonner?  What kind of values and lessons a! re these? Just give up, don't try. What the heck is that?  Every football player knows, when they get knocked down, not to just give up, but to get up and go back even harder and stronger the next time so you don't get knocked down. Right???  My final point lies in a famous sport saying, "It's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game."
---- Kyle Meakim, Bonner Grad
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