2023 St. Ignatius Football

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PDC

Well-known member
No one expects a return to dominance. We do expect to defeat Eds on some level- something that hasn't happened since 2019.

And putting money into the program isn't the only solution. Kids at the school don't see football as the main sport right now. Or even one of them. Outside of the football players themselves of course.

Finally, it isn't just talent that needs to change. The current offensive system needs an overhaul. And for the love of God, get the plays in before 3 seconds on the clock every down. Ignatius doesn't huddle yet it takes an eternity to actually run a play.
 
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sehs

Well-known member
PDC said:
No one expects a return to dominance. We do expect to defeat Eds on some level- something that hasn't happened since 2019.

And putting money into the program isn't the only solution. Kids at the school don't see football as the main sport right now. Or even one of them. Outside of the football players themselves of course.

Finally, it isn't just talent that needs to change. The current offensive system needs an overhaul. And for the love of God, get the plays in before 3 seconds on the clock every down. Ignatius doesn't huddle yet it takes an eternity to actually run a play.
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I do wonder what the cultural shift was in regards to football? Ed's has a ton of guys on both state championship teams ('21 and '22) that play a sport outside of football. I know they are dominant in soccer but their soccer dominance began while being football dominant. Hockey has won titles in the last decade and changed their approach overall in that time but I have a hard time believing that all of those guys only play hockey. It would seem being contending in football would help plenty of other programs too or vice versa.
 
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znewem

Member
sehs said:
I do wonder what the cultural shift was in regards to football? Ed's has a ton of guys on both state championship teams ('21 and '22) that play a sport outside of football. I know they are dominant in soccer but their soccer dominance began while being football dominant. Hockey has won titles in the last decade and changed their approach overall in that time but I have a hard time believing that all of those guys only play hockey. It would seem being contending in football would help plenty of other programs too or vice versa.
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The cultural shift away from football is broader than Ignatius. Add in demographic factors in NE Ohio and you have multiple factors reducing the available talent pool. To me at least, beyond the players and the coaches, who obviously want to win as much as ever, the student section at an Ignatius game is quite vibrant and engaged...I can't see that much difference thru the years.

So what is different in terms of Eds vs. Ignatius? Simple, Eds draws from a much wider base...so one pool is down, they go draw from another. Ignatius doesn't, for the most part, do that, do they?

What percent of Ignatius players in the 2-deep came from west side CYO? What percent of Eds players did?
 
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bluengold

Well-known member
I looked at an Ignatius football program from this past season as it lists the 34 seniors and what grade schools they came from:

West suburban CYO: 16
East suburban CYO: 12
South suburban CYO: 2

West suburban middle school: 2
East suburban middle school: 1
South suburban middle school: 1

City of Cleveland: none
 
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SVillegrad

Well-known member
bluengold said:
I looked at an Ignatius football program from this past season as it lists the 34 seniors and what grade schools they came from:

West suburban CYO: 16
East suburban CYO: 12
South suburban CYO: 2

West suburban middle school: 2
East suburban middle school: 1
South suburban middle school: 1

City of Cleveland: none
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Is that counting fringe city of Cleveland Catholic middle schools like St. Mark, OLA, St. Leo, etc., as suburban? If not, that is crazy that not one senior lived in the city when St. Ignatius is located about as close as it gets to the heart of Cleveland.

I remember 20-25 years ago when the rumblings were about St. Ignatius potentially moving to Strongsville because it was tougher to attract suburban kids to Ohio City. From this, it seems like it's just suburban kids, at least for football. With Ohio City now being the "it" place in Cleveland, you would think that suburban (CYO/public), city (CYO) and muny league families would be trying to beat down the doors to get their kids in at Ignatius.
 
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tom 48

Well-known member
SVillegrad said:
Is that counting fringe city of Cleveland Catholic middle schools like St. Mark, OLA, St. Leo, etc., as suburban? If not, that is crazy that not one senior lived in the city when St. Ignatius is located about as close as it gets to the heart of Cleveland.

I remember 20-25 years ago when the rumblings were about St. Ignatius potentially moving to Strongsville because it was tougher to attract suburban kids to Ohio City. From this, it seems like it's just suburban kids, at least for football. With Ohio City now being the "it" place in Cleveland, you would think that suburban (CYO/public), city (CYO) and muny league families would be trying to beat down the doors to get their kids in at Ignatius.
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Does City of Cleveland mean Cleveland Public Schools?
 
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bluengold

Well-known member
To clarify - for this past season, there were zero seniors (class of '23) on the FB roster from Cleveland CYO (OLA, St. Mark's, etc) and the city of Cleveland public (CMSD)

Looking at the class of '22 on the FB roster, there were 37 seniors:

West suburban CYO: 13
East suburban CYO: 6
South suburban CYO: 8

West suburban middle school: 1
East suburban middle school: 1
South suburban middle school: 3

City of Cleveland CYO: 5 (OLA and St. Mark's)
City of Cleveland public (CMSD): 0


The primary feeder schools (all students) for Ignatius are St. Raphael (Bay), Gesu (University Hts), Holy Trinity (Avon), St. Chris (Rocky River), St. Albert (North Royalton) and Lakewood Catholic Academy. St. Albert's is, by far, the largest Catholic grade school in the diocese
 
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eaglesfan216

Active member
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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CatAlum

Well-known member
SVillegrad said:
I remember 20-25 years ago when the rumblings were about St. Ignatius potentially moving to Strongsville because it was tougher to attract suburban kids to Ohio City. From this, it seems like it's just suburban kids, at least for football. With Ohio City now being the "it" place in Cleveland, you would think that suburban (CYO/public), city (CYO) and muny league families would be trying to beat down the doors to get their kids in at Ignatius.
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The potential move was being discussed around 45-50 years ago (in the 70's). Fr. O'Reilly, the president at the time, concluded that the school's mission was in the city and we stayed put. There have been no discussions of moving up and out since then. And, imo, the rebirth of Ohio City owes more to that Jesuit's decision than anything else that happened.

As for where our students come from...they're the same people they've always been...heavily Catholic, signficantly Irish by ethnicity. Their grandfathers went to places like St. Colman and St. Ignatius of Antioch. They may live in Avon today but it's the same families.
 
Wildcat97

Wildcat97

Well-known member
Yes.....and no. I say this while first hand knowing a friends kid who is a freshman, from a a suburb, a sport other than football no Ignatius lineage as most of us, and not Catholic.



Granted, there are many of us who are no longer Catholic (and it has zero to do with the school).

So, many same families, but, not completely.

That also can lead to not playing the talent, but playing the name, as I mentioned a bit earlier
 
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ESPN 990

Active member
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.
 
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eaglesfan216

Active member
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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tom 48

Well-known member
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.
 
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sehs

Well-known member
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.
 
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Redflagday

Active member
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.
 
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arizonawildcat

Well-known member
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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stripe29

New member
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?
 
EagleFan

EagleFan

Fan of Eagle
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
 
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arizonawildcat

Well-known member
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.
 
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