2023 St. Ignatius Football

eaglesfan216 said:
I am shocked that there were no seniors from the west-side Cleveland Catholic grade schools. By the eye test, football participation is way down in the neighborhood as other sports (rugby, soccer) continue to grow, but seeing zero is actually pretty incredible.
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My shock is specifically no OLA kids, if the report is accurate. In the 1973 season--albeit fifty years ago--OLA's Class of '70 produced captains at Eds (Mike Monter), Ignatius (Roger Andrachik), and Latin (John Finucan). Monter got injured, but Andrachik was 1st team All-Ohio and went on to Yale, then BW. Finucan was Street & Smith All-American and played at Purdue. A whole bunch of OLA kids were significant at especially Eds and Iggy, say '72-'75. And it seems to me other eras still had some OLA kids of impact. Wasn't Jaeckin off the '89 Iggy state title team an OLA kid, for example? Perhaps it is merely the normal upward mobility migration to the suburbs as others have mentioned. And perhaps I'm just getting too old to make relevant observations. But I'm sure the OLA generation I grew up with would be similarly surprised to learn this, as we were spoiled with a measure of athletic success that I think we assumed was some kind of birthright that would continue for generations. Clearly, the parochial feeder systems and universe have changed.
 
What's interesting about OLA is that the neighborhood around the school has gotten better over the last 15 years. OLA is no longer the Irish-Catholic, blue collar grade school it was for a long time. A lot of the yuppie crowd from Ohio City and Tremont move in when they start a family. My thought has always been they're still in the city, but now have an actual backyard, can park the new minivan in the garage, and are generally less worried about petty crimes. So the demographics have changed a bit, it's no longer a blue collar type of area, it's a lot of young professionals and families, and weirdly enough a lot of people from outside of the area (I know one that moved their family from California, cost of living was a no brainer). But, they aren't Catholic and they are baffled by the obsession with football in Cleveland and Ohio.

So ironically it's actually the upward mobility of the neighborhood itself. In my experiences, youth football is losing fervor with highly-educated parents who don't want their kids playing what is seen as a dangerous game. The Damar Hamlin situation is certainly affirming their concerns.
 
From si.com:

As we’ve said for a couple weeks now, Gannon is very much a name to watch. He interviewed well in Houston last year, and may have gotten the job if not for some factors outside his control, and has strong ties to fellow northeast Ohio native Nick Caserio through mutual friend Josh McDaniels. Internally, there’s a strong belief that Gannon would be a much better philosophical pairing for Caserio than David Culley or Lovie Smith were.
 
eaglesfan216 said:
What's interesting about OLA is that the neighborhood around the school has gotten better over the last 15 years. OLA is no longer the Irish-Catholic, blue collar grade school it was for a long time. A lot of the yuppie crowd from Ohio City and Tremont move in when they start a family. My thought has always been they're still in the city, but now have an actual backyard, can park the new minivan in the garage, and are generally less worried about petty crimes. So the demographics have changed a bit, it's no longer a blue collar type of area, it's a lot of young professionals and families, and weirdly enough a lot of people from outside of the area (I know one that moved their family from California, cost of living was a no brainer). But, they aren't Catholic and they are baffled by the obsession with football in Cleveland and Ohio.

So ironically it's actually the upward mobility of the neighborhood itself. In my experiences, youth football is losing fervor with highly-educated parents who don't want their kids playing what is seen as a dangerous game. The Damar Hamlin situation is certainly affirming their concerns.
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Less schools too. In the 70s St. Mel's, St. Pat's, Ascension, St. Philip and James all were open. Now you only have St. Mark's and OLA. I feel that Ed's and Ignatius have done the best job in the Cleveland area of remaining relevant and vibrant as Catholic school communities. Some of that was born out of a necessity to change though, that I have not seen happen in CYO grade schools. They also need to give credit to one another that nothing causes a greater impetus for change than a mirror image of yourself drawing students from the same areas. Part of this relevance has been Athletics but as plenty have noted on threads like this or the Ed's ones, there is way more to the schools than this and neither is beholden to Athletics as much as outsiders, even fellow Catholic schools, think they are.

CYO schools are slower to adapt. For one there are a lot more of them and for another, most are attached to a parish where the school community has to work with a pastor who has final say on decisions. This has been a great failing on the diocese for the past 30 years. They knew in the 80s there was going to be a religious vocation shortage. They knew that they would have to hire more lay teachers and lay teachers were not going to stay and continue to work for a pittance in salary or benefits. Very little was looked at or done to change their operating procedures. Costs went up and for many families they'd rather invest in their children's education at the high school level than the grade schools. Throw in the scandal, a more educated population than ever before and a lot of priests who feel holier than thou and why would a family feel a need to bow, pray and obey? The high schools are more welcoming, open doors to families through their programming and are more engaging with their communities. And all of that is true whether you go to mass on Sundays or not, went to a Catholic grade school or not, it's really a no brainer when you think about it.
 
West side also had good feeder programs with Annunciation, Mount Carmel and St Ignatius grade school. Catholic grade school closings has also affected east side HS of St Joesph ( VASJ) and Benedictine which is down to about 270 kids.
 
Although I lived some 400 miles away, I managed to see only one Ignatius game a year. And in the games I saw, Gannon was my favorite player. Plus, I loved the story about him failing to make the freshman golf team, and being suggested that the might try football instead.
 
arizonawildcat said:
Although I lived some 400 miles away, I managed to see only one Ignatius game a year. And in the games I saw, Gannon was my favorite player. Plus, I loved the story about him failing to make the freshman golf team, and being suggested that the might try football instead.
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Is this really a true story?
 
hdvhsmgr said:
What I have so far:
CLEVELAND ST. IGNATIUS
1 - @ Springfield
2 - @ Mentor
3
4
5 - (H) Akron Hoban
6 - @ Toledo Central Catholic
7 - @ Lakewood St. Edward
8
9 - (H) Cincinnati St. Xavier
10
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Has Pitt Central Catholic @ Ignatius week 3 been confirmed? Also seeing PCC off the St Edward schedule
 
I don't know if any other Ignatian did this, but Gannon was on three different teams that won state championships: football, basketball, and track.
 
arizonawildcat said:
Wasn't all that impressed with his play-calling last year.
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Playcalling was very conservative. Tough situation with a 3rd play caller in 3 seasons. Hopefully some more continuity this year allows them to open up the playbook more. Need to have trust in whomever the ultimately go with at QB - that will be an interesting early decision that tells us something about how Franzinger will steer the ship.
 
Wildcats1886 said:
Playcalling was very conservative. Tough situation with a 3rd play caller in 3 seasons. Hopefully some more continuity this year allows them to open up the playbook more. Need to have trust in whomever the ultimately go with at QB - that will be an interesting early decision that tells us something about how Franzinger will steer the ship.
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Agree.
 
With still 2 weeks to fill, that schedule, both in terms of opponents and travel is idiotic....already 6 out of 8 are away games
 
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