sausmann9

You know if there's one thing I appreciate the hell out of that many people don't take into consideration b/c they are caught up in D1 football is how good the Patriot League and Ivy League games could be. I love D1-AA football. I live 5 minute walk from Lehigh stadium. I have easy road trips to Princeton, Bucknell, Colgate, Cornell, Fordham, Lafayette, Georgetown, Hofstra, Yale, West Point, etc... One of the few I have never been able to attend, they told me my SAT scores won't even get me into their stadium; Harvard. I will host any of you coming to a Lehigh Mountain Hawks game to include your ticket, anytime!

After Prep at the 6A level you should see Pitt Central Catholic make some noise after being quiet for a few seasons. They have some SIZE on the line and at TE (the Allen brothers esp). Their running back is small but fast as hell and tough. Might only end up at D2 school due to size though. Their QB is a good one, small but tough/thick (kind of like a Tater Tot Martell type). They have a very good receiver that is only a soph and a few others I am sure. this might be their best team in a while. Transfer season just began in PA so we'll know more at the end of July, Penn Hills will be loaded again as well. they have some nice athletes coming back from a state title contender last season. Harrisburg always tough but just so undisciplined. Will make their noise but probably get beat by your more disciplined team later in the season. Last year they got lucky a few times but hey luck is part of it. I like their shot but again they need to hold it together. Coatesville will be another good one at the 6A level. Awesome quarterback and size on the line. Always have good athletes and its a big school so depth will be in their favor again. North Penn another 6A school to keep an eye on, they have some playmakers and their staff is always ready to go. This could be their year as well, well at least until they play Prep. At the lower classes; Erie Prep will recruit the hell out of NW PA and NE Ohio and Western part of up-state NY for their players so they'll be decent again. Ihop Charter has a ton of athletes again but lack of discipline, parole and probation violations. drug stings, and the likes will once again pick apart that team. They always look good early because they are loaded with athletes but usually run into trouble later in playoffs against your disciplined teams. Aliquippa and Southern Columbia will also probably each be 15-0 when they meet in Hershey again. Will be a good season within the state.

that's an old link.

Nice new diggs but those bleachers/stands look smaller than before, what's up with that???

CB West has been gobbled up by redistricting and another school opened in their district. You now have CB West, CB East, and CB South which is now the largest of the three CB schools. Berwick ran into some trouble a few years back two of the largest employers downsizing and closing up shop, and then their Coach passed away. Still somewhat of a force in playoffs in 4A but will never be a national power again.

Its funny you mention that specific stadium and district. They just merged three smaller schools and will be in a new stadium for the 2020 season. that old stadium was built back in the early 1900's and had something to do with GAR (Grand Army of Republic). We called it "concrete turf" up there. Berwick played many of their playoff games there in late November/early December, lol.

GA guys might know more but wasn't there a season when Stephenson (maybe mid 90's) and then Lowndes (maybe 03 or 04) had a "nationally ranked" 4x1 team in the backfield/split out???

Actually you don't give yourself enough credit BigDrop. If you were at the Valdosta v Clarke Central game in 84', 86' or 92', you know how one of the most storied football programs enters their field ready for battle. That "Tin Roof Tap" with their helmets back in the day was electrifying and something else to hear. Every school has different, and some very unique/cool traditions of entering a field, pregame rituals, coin toss traditions, National Anthem traditions, etc... You've seen high school bands from different states, some sucked but I bet you can name a few that kicked some ass. I loved me some halftime in Georgia!!! Some of those schools around Atlanta rocked that halftime show. I also love me some Bethlehem PA halftime shows with 8 bagpipes leading everyone else. Allen TX has a band with like the population of Baltimore which would be amazing to see but somewhere other than their stadium w/ the fault line; hell that would be cool to see as well. And with that said, you've been to a good amount of stadiums and seen more stadiums in more states than some people on here been involved in actual high school games. Some stadiums historical, some quaint, some HUGE. Some posters on here never seen a stadium outside their own state.

St Joes Prep out of Philly would have gone toe-to-toe with anyone in PA during the 80's or 90's and probably winning more often than not. Remember though SJP is an extremely popular school to attend in that area, pulls from a city of 5 million, and they get a good amount of players from NJ as well on any given year. I think in 2015, seven of their starters were NJ residents, that's not all that uncommon for Prep during any given season either. Heck even John Runyan's kid played for Prep and they lived in Jersey. Downingtown and CB West very legit back in the day with big numbers before their districts split into Dtown east and Dtown west, CB west, CB east, and CB south. Both school districts had some nice D1 studs back in those days with line depth/big numbers of kids. Pettine would rotate five guys in sometimes b/c he had the depth, not so much D1 but just depth.

surprised Pitt Central Catholic is not on PA's list. Malvern an odd addition.

not open enrollment, kids could go between CB West and East but not the entire county. Pettine just ran an absolute effective program and had a great staff. I'd say 98% of those kids were from that district. CB West fell off when Pettine retired but the district also split into three schools (CB West, East, South, with South being the biggest of all three). North Penn stepped up when that shit happened.

One of the very few!

Neither really - this is why TX and GA have the best public school ball around, they don't allow the Privates to grow out of control and rake the state of top talent into one isolated school. I'm not sure who the top private school in GA would even be but back in the day it was GAC and St Pius.

If the topic is solid, fundamentally sound, community engaged public school football with serious coaching, player commitment in regards to depth, resources/booster clubs, etc... it'd have to be Texas, Georgia, Ohio, then the rest. Private school ball can pop up anywhere and be put together by almost anyone w/ money so I don't include them in this category.

Don't sleep on SJP out of Philly - even tho they have a new HC he was w the program for nine or so seasons and loves him some offense. Ton of talent and transfer season is just about to start. Possibility that David Akers (former Philly kicker) son may also be heading that way from Tennessee. D1 kicker from they say.