The overall athletic offering at Ignatius has never been stronger than the last 10 years (perhaps no other school in the state has enjoyed as much broad-based athletic success). I don’t think Elder is a good model to understand what’s been happening at Ignatius, which has never been a neighborhood school in the same way (at least not in the last century) and has forever drawn from a huge geographic area, not just for football or athletics but for the overall student body.
Ignatius has been very successful in drawing students from non-Catholic grade schools in general, and a much higher % of the student body comes from public or non-religious private schools than did 20 years ago. Most of that success has been with kids who are demographically similar to the feeder school kids and who would have been at Catholic grade schools in years past.
There have been decades of effort at reaching kids outside the typical feeder channels (not for athletics specifically…regular students) with some success, although perhaps not as much as many would like. Things like the Magis program and Welsh Academy.
St. Xavier is a much better model for R4 denizens to understand Ignatius, culturally, academically, economically. The football issues are mostly idiosyncratic to that program. For decades and decades Kyle and staff knew the best CYO players would mostly just show up at their door, and the best CYO players were good enough to win state championships. There was not rapport or relationships built with the Muny League, MYEFC, etc. The CYO talent has somewhat dried up, and many kids in the core Ignatius community have eschewed football for year round soccer, lacrosse, hockey, baseball, etc. There is talent in the program now but they are mostly young and playing a Murderer’s Row schedule. There are only 18 seniors on the team. Some of the most talent players in the last two classes quit football to focus on other sports - Spellacy (Hockey, drafted by the Blackhawks), Woidke (Kent State basketball commit, scoring leader on last year’s state championship team).
Ignatius has tons of resources, an extremely engaged alumni base, a legacy on the field. Great academics, a beautiful campus in a desirable neighborhood at the center of the city. They just need the right people steering the football program (not intending to say the current group aren’t) and to execute, and this program can be great again.