Montini-SF. 44-0 Montini FINAL.
- Thread starter Simon "GHOST' Riley
- Start date
44-0 Final! I thought St. Francis would have put up a better game. Going on 4 down in your own territory early in the game w/Montini up by 7 and not making it was a dagger to St. Francis. Walker looked very good in the 1st half and with Montini leading by 24 it was time to sit him. A lot of kids got to play in this game and played well. Going forward, Montini with Walker back is going to be a headache for whoever they face in the playoffs.
Gene K,
This call is one of many than totally blew me away yesterday. It also is an example of some big problems in the program.
TeeOH,
SF changed offense completely in the middle of the season along with a ton of other changes.
There are some HUGE problems in the program......when the entire varsity staff from last year is either fired or quit and kids don't come out due to the new head coach you know you have problems
BigGroff,
I don't know how much you know, but it is a total mess and I'm hearing a ton of kids on the freshman team will not come out next year.
One problem I do know of and have had a really tough time figuring out is the head coach cancelled the JV schedule.
You guys make it sound like it's time to just shut down the program at St. Francis. Is it really that bad?
jwarigaku,
No one said anything about shutting it down. I won't say anything here besides what I wrote above, but when coaches are fired or leave and kids are running away from the program it says there is a very big problem.
None of this happened when Purnell or Fitzgerald was here. It all started after the the new head coach came this summer.
I would argue that it all started when the old coach left.
Cancelling the JV schedule was because lack of bodies. I'm not sure they would have had enough bodies to field a team. But I agree.....building a program isn't easily done by cancelling a season for a team.
Cancelling the JV schedule was because lack of bodies. I'm not sure they would have had enough bodies to field a team. But I agree.....building a program isn't easily done by cancelling a season for a team.
When you don't have the numbers I personally think it is a good idea to cancel JV OR just forget the sophomore thing and only have: Varsity, JV, Frosh A, Frosh B (if enough)
When you don't have the numbers you get people hurt on JV and it affects Varsity and Soph teams.
When you don't have the numbers you get people hurt on JV and it affects Varsity and Soph teams.
Those kind of problems start above a head coach level. At least that's what I'm hearing. And that will make it very difficult to right itself.
NapervilleBuck,
Freshman numbers were good this year. I think there are 36 kids. The sophmores have around 30. The problem is the junior class in that they only had 7 kids come out. This year's seniors had maybe 20 kids.
Getting rid of F/S football was due to such low numbers last year and they decided to stick with a program with a freshman team, a JV team and varsity.
My question is why did the football coach cancel the JV schedule of a handful of games when the school decided to stick with a JV team? Doing this really hurt kids who don't see the field and were prevented from a F/S team.
It wasn't a matter of numbers that led to getting rid of the JV schedule. The low numbers was the reason for a JV team and schedule.
The administration has an eye on the situation as well.
I guess they could have fielded a JV team with the SOPHs and JRs but that would have been a thin roster and probably would have caused some to play both JV and varsity.....or elevate some FR to JV. Tough situation.
The Freshman team did fairly well and were more than competitive. So the future in a year or two isn't completely lost.
It will be interesting to see what happens with the football program. The freshman class was brought in by Fitzgerald and his old staff. A number of kids really wanted to play for them. There should have been 40+ freshman on the team but 6 or 7 left due to the coaching change (many to Naperville North!) Fitzgerald really established a good rapport with Naperville kids and the youth programs there....that pipeline will now dry up with him at Napeville North.
There are only some 19 or 20 sophomores still on the roster. Rumor has it some may not come out next year.
The new head coach will be under a lot of pressure to bring in a good freshman class next year. He is an ex-recruiter form college so he can get that done. That being said the huge changes to the staff (getting rid of many solid, very experienced varsity coaches who have been part of the program since Purnell days) for much weaker assistant coaches and making huge changes to the offense and defense with such a short time span has not helped. Add to that a totally different style of coaching vastly different to the style Fitzgerald had and there are many in the community scratching their heads.
Like I said.....the new coach is an ex-college recruiter so I think the program can bounce back....it will take a long time. Plus the new coach will have some time to establish his own personality and culture. It is hard to make so many changes in such a short amount of time. Especially when the community is used to such a high level of coaching in the past.
There are only some 19 or 20 sophomores still on the roster. Rumor has it some may not come out next year.
The new head coach will be under a lot of pressure to bring in a good freshman class next year. He is an ex-recruiter form college so he can get that done. That being said the huge changes to the staff (getting rid of many solid, very experienced varsity coaches who have been part of the program since Purnell days) for much weaker assistant coaches and making huge changes to the offense and defense with such a short time span has not helped. Add to that a totally different style of coaching vastly different to the style Fitzgerald had and there are many in the community scratching their heads.
Like I said.....the new coach is an ex-college recruiter so I think the program can bounce back....it will take a long time. Plus the new coach will have some time to establish his own personality and culture. It is hard to make so many changes in such a short amount of time. Especially when the community is used to such a high level of coaching in the past.
Wow that does not bode well with only a handful of Juniors this year looks like they will have to bring up the entire Soph class again. I think that really hurts in the long run chasing some kids out of the program forcing others to play above their level. As I said before it is a lot of fun when St Francis is a strong program looks like we may be a couple years away still.
You need to be careful about saying that the new coach has chased kid out of the program. I have not heard that. That speaks badly of the coach on a personal level and I do not think that is true. I don't think you ment anything bad by you comment but some could interpret it that way. From what I know the kids that chose not to play was because of Fitz leaving. That is not the new coaches fault. That will happen when you change coaches.
The new coach will have to get his own kids in the program. Then the program can turn around. Unfortunately a lot of circumstances have come together to make this situation bad....some are the new coaches fault and some are not. This junior class was weak with Fitzgerald there. Loosing kids has made that worse. A lot of those losses are not the new coaches fault.
I have been around the old SCC for many. many years. It is a lot more fun when St Francis is good. It annoys Montini (in a good way) because St Francis plays Montini well when St Francis is strong and makes the Marmion rivalry a lot of fun. Hopefully St Francis can get back there. The conference could use it
I'm hearing not a lot of love lost for this new coach by the Seniors on this years team. Look for more transfers out in Frosh and Soph classes. Life will go on but this guy has a big hill to climb to get SF back to where they were.
That is the challenge and the most important thing he needs to do. To keep the Sophs that got varsity experience and the FR numbers. If he can figure a way to do that the ship can be righted rather quickly 2 years. If not, you are looking at 4 years IF he could turn it around.
Topiary,
Agree.
There have been some really difficult situations this year and there are some that think it is only the fault of the coach.
From my view as a graduate of SF, I think Fitzgerald left because he saw a chance to make better money for him and his family and because a spot at a nearby public school opened that had a good football tradition. Can't knock the guy for bolting. I get the impression Fitzgerald was only criticized because he left so late in the year.
The varsity was 1-8 and were really never competitive in any game. Had Fitzgerald stuck around it is really possible he would have gone 3-6.
I won't get into specifics, but a lot of parents are not real happy with whats going on and they are not talking about the team's record.
I wasn't saying he chased kids out that's what I inferred from your comment of only 19-20 kids left on the rooster I believed they started with 25+