Parents and alumni at Monsignor Bonner & Archbishop Prendergast and Cardinal O’Hara High Schools are furious about a football division change that moves the schools’ football teams into a division that pits them with some of the best high school athletes around that are twice their size.
The Philadelphia Catholic League made the decision in early November with little discussion, writes Tom Gardiner and Joe Holden for CBS News Philadelphia.
Dave Connolly of Havertown is worried that players like his son, a linebacker for the O’Hara Lions, will now be outmatched in unfair and unsafe games.
“They want to move us up to teams double the size of us. It doesn’t make any sense,” Connolly said.
The schools will now be pitted against wealthier and more populous schools like St. Joseph’s Prep and La Salle College High School that can attract more athletes, giving them a bigger pool and a higher rate of talent and size.
St. Joe’s Prep is recognized as a national football powerhouse and back-to-back state champions.
Former O’Hara coach Bob McGowan said it’s not fair that O’Hara’s 4A program will now be going up against a 6A program “that demolished every team in the PIAA playoffs this year.”
Find out more about why the football division change was made at Newsbreak.
