That 03 year I dont think Ive ever invested more "heartwise" than I did that year into a high school football team, even though the chances of us beating Caramel that year were slim, watching Wade was very fun.
But my point is even if the area has scared some parents away, I still think that Rita gets more than enough recruits and they should have more to show for it than what they have had in the last 10-12 years.
The neighborhood should not be an issue. Maybe if the school was co-ed as parents might be slightly more apprehensive about sending girls there. But the current Rita campus is secluded and secure. I was the second graduating class to spend all 4 years at the Quigley Campus. We were routinely teased by the upperclassmen for being soft and not experiencing the charm of the 63rd Street campus. 63rd and Claremont was a very rough neighborhood by the time SR moved, and unlike quigley, the 63rd street campus was in the middle of a neighborhood and surrounded by housing and the gangs. It was very much like MC in the 60s and 70s, and you had to be a tough kid to go there by the mid to late 80s. Lets face it. It was a different era in the 80s. Not sure it was better, but boys were tougher and fist fights were much more common. I think they took it as a "badge of courage" to go to school at old St. Rita. Again, today's era is probably better and less testosterone-filled machismo, but no way today's kids would ever go to 63rd and claremont. I think the current Rita campus and MC are both pretty isolated from the surrounding neighborhoods and very safe/secure campuses.
Plus, SR offers school busing that wasn't available when I went there. We all had to take the Western Avenue or 79th Street bus. Now, SR picks up most of their kids so any potential problems at bus stations is averted. SR's biggest problem is that all their historic feeder grammar schools are gone, as are most of them around 79th street, such as St. Thomas Moore and St. Denis. Beverley is historically a MC neighborhood, and Mt. Greenwood is historically BR. Garfield Ridge is historically St. Laurence. MC has the most loyal alumni base, and their athletics are as good as ever, but I think they have some of the same concerns as SR. Though they are actually in a better logistical location (off Lake Shore Drive) to attract kids from the northside of the city and from Indiana.
As for the other point, I agree about Rita's coaching. I am a huge Kuska fan, and think he is a wonderful role model for the young men, and I like his toughness. But they definitely should have won at least one more title with all the talent he had. The one year (I think it was 04) where he lost twice to MC with Weyer was inexcusable. I was also a big Wernet fan personally. But his coaching cost SR at least one state title. MC simply outplayed SR in 88, but it was inexcusable for SR not to win the 6A title in 89 as MC was in 5A that year, and that Rita team was loaded and tough as nails. They probably should have won it in 94 as well after beating MC in the playoffs for the first and only time I believe.
