Prep school team forfeits because other team is "too good"

You show up. Hope you get the opening kick and then have your line commit false start and delay of game penalties for infinity. Game never ends. That'll teach 'em for scheduling you.

;D

 

By the way, I'm getting a little sick of these "trophies for everyone, pussification of America, the terrorists have won" columns like the one that guy from Oklahoma wrote.
They're becoming a huge cliche. The person writing them almost always has no knowledge of the situation in question and all the factors involved in it.
It's easy to talk tough when you're not the one who has to get beaten up by a 350-pound Division I prospect.

 

I covered a game between private schools one night where one school forfeited midway through the game. A few of the team's players were injured, and they were forced to sub with seventh- and eighth-graders. Before the forfeit, the teams had a few physical confrontations, including one that ended with a few police officers dashing onto the field to keep things under control. The forfeiting coach said he didn't want to send the young guys out there under those conditions. I agreed with him.

 

Of course the St. George's AD/football coach could have pulled out of the game during the offseason. This Year 2 of a four-year rotating schedule in the ISL so there are two more years of this BS. Year 1 saw his team give up 48 in the first half.

Also, Lawrence Academy AD has told the coach to keep it around 35 pts. Don't want to be seen as running it up on anyone.

 

are these prep schools with 5th year kids? because it's hard to imagine any Mass team being that good. no offense to New Englanders but if any Mass team is that good they should schedule a few NJ and PA teams.

 

Nope, no postgrads in the ISL.

 

how good is Brockton this year? i know they used to be a powerhouse. they were supposed to play a NJ team this year, or at least that was the rumor.

 

Let's clear up a few misconceptions. I actually cover the team in question. Firstly, SG athletic director and football coach asked for a schedule change last November. Why it was never changed, I don't know.

Lawrence Academy does have a number of 19-year-old players on the team. According to the prep school bylaws, which the ISL obeys, no player can be 20 years of age by Sept. 1 of the current school year. St. George's starts a number of freshmen and sophomores.

By and large, the ISL is an evenly match leagued across the board. Lawrence Academy and a few hockey teams are head and shoulders above the rest. Therefore league shuffling, or "kicking somebody out" is out of the question. If anything, perhaps Lawrence should find another league, seeing as though St. George's was 2-0 heading into that game.

The columns and reader comments I've read about this story are pathetic. This guy from the Oklahoma who wrote this column is a clown. Why do I have a feeling that no player on that team will be living his parents' basement when he's 50? I'd bet he's signing your checks in about 10 years.

 

Typical Brockton year. But I'm not sure how good they were compared to how good they were in the 1990s, when they were just a monster.

 

While there are no postgrads, there are plenty of fifth-year seniors that have repeated a year in their transfer from MIAA schools to ISL school. Tony Knight was a junior when he got kicked out of Xaverian two years ago, now a senior at LA. He turned it into a scholarship at NC State.

Brockton isn't the same as Brockton of the 80's but still year in and year out one of the best around up here. I think it was St. Peter's Prep that they were close to signing a contract with, forget what it was that caused the deal to fall apart.

Out-of-state football games, absolute waste of funds during a time when athletic budgets are getting slashed left and right and user fees are going up and up.

 

20 by Sept. 1? that's a f'n joke. pretty sure in NJ it's always been you can't turn 19 before the school year starts. a 20-year-old playing against 17-year-old seniors and 16-year-old juniors is a joke. was there a Kennedy kid who was turning 20 his senior year? no one i played football or baseball with in hs with was 18 before nov. of senior year.

think it was St. Peter's. it is a waste of funds, but almost all the private schools, and many publics, have booster clubs that raise money for the trips.

 

This was from our story:

The 16-team ISL allows no post-graduates to compete. “The only rule we have is the same as in the New England Prep School Athletic Council, that you can’t turn 20 before Sept. 1,” said Mackay, the council’s District 3 president. “You can be a 19-year-old, which is kind of old to be a senior.”