2024 St. Ignatius Football

Mentor's reward for a 5th place in points last year was a visit with Ignatius in Week 11 a year ago, which they lost. I am sure Mentor has no delusion of automatic win
I think Mentor this year is a product of a weak schedule and overall weak Region 1. They could very well lose at any moment. But they'll surely lose in the state semi's.
 
I think Mentor this year is a product of a weak schedule and overall weak Region 1. They could very well lose at any moment. But they'll surely lose in the state semi's.
All of Ohio is weak with the exception of maybe 15 schools. D1 is incredibly down.

Mentor beat everyone they played and had no control over how bad their competition was. They massacred most of them as they should.
 
Mentor beat everyone they played and had no control over how bad their competition was. They massacred most of them as they should.
Agree. I'm not saying Mentor didn't play anyone on purpose. Not their fault the teams on the schedule stunk. I'm just saying that I'm not sold on them as a great team.
 
Here’s a fact st Ignatius hasn’t lost a first round playoff game since 2018 and that was against st Eds who went on and won the state championship that year
 
Crazy that Region 1 is up for grabs for the first time in 3 years, but Ignatius is too down to make a run.

I don’t believe D1 is up for grabs. IMO, Moeller is the heavy favorite.
Mentor is beatable---Strongsville---absolutely beatable. Then Massillon Jackson or Canton McKinley---they can make a run. But, they have to get past Mentor first.
 
Cleveland CYO football is pretty much dead. That is one of the fundamental issues facing Ignatius these days. They haven't adapted as well as the other catholic schools have to the major and fairly swift decline of CYO. This isn't 1995 anymore.
I was referring to playing like CYO football, not the state of it. I think if Ignatius just went back to basics and ran simple plays like a CYO team they might stop the bleeding. In any event, I do agree with your point on the state of CYO.
 
Is that just declining Catholic grade school enrollment or have athletics been hit harder?
In my experience it's the alternatives that kids in grade school have now. Plenty of kids in Catholic grade schools on the west side but playing for West Side Football would be one example. Schools like OLA don't even have a football team anymore, it's a strange hybrid OLA-St. Marks team. I don't think the actual student numbers are all that down either.
 
Is that just declining Catholic grade school enrollment or have athletics been hit harder?
Regarding football, kids aren’t playing it the way they used to. Parents are opting for other sports in the fall—basketball and baseball (both of which have almost turned into year round sports).

But IMO, the woman in charge of cyo sports is just awful. The point should be getting as many kids playing cyo as possible, but she doesn’t see it that way.
 
There's a first time for everything?

Regarding football, kids aren’t playing it the way they used to. Parents are opting for other sports in the fall—basketball and baseball (both of which have almost turned into year round sports).

But IMO, the woman in charge of cyo sports is just awful. The point should be getting as many kids playing cyo as possible, but she doesn’t see it that way.
Oh boy another diversity pic?
 
Is that just declining Catholic grade school enrollment or have athletics been hit harder?
Here’s some annual elementary school (pre-K to 8) enrollment data that I’ve seen from the Cleveland diocese’s “Keeping the Faith” initiative on the future of Catholic elementary schools.

Lot of factors involved in the trends – demographics in NE Ohio (overall population loss, birth rates), financial challenges for families, etc.

1976 to 1984: >60,000 students in ~170 to 180 schools

1985 to 1990: trending downward toward 50,000 students

1990-2000: high 40s to ~50,000 students (fairly steady) in ~140 schools (2000)

2000 to 2022: steady decline
.. 2005: ~40,000 students
.. 2010: ~35,000 students in ~110 schools
.. 2014: ~30,000 students
.. 2022: ~26,000 students in ~90 schools

2022 to 2024: some growth
.. 2024: ~28,500 students

There’s some enrollment growth more recently - speculate that vouchers are playing a role ... plus perhaps increased birth rates in recent years, coming after a decline during the aftermath of the Great Recession (which is affecting high school and college enrollments right now).
There is also, from what I've heard, the football "concussion" concern. It's out there.
 
Regarding football, kids aren’t playing it the way they used to. Parents are opting for other sports in the fall—basketball and baseball (both of which have almost turned into year round sports).

But IMO, the woman in charge of cyo sports is just awful. The point should be getting as many kids playing cyo as possible, but she doesn’t see it that way.
Are you talking about Mary Ann? If so, I think you are misguided here. She is a good person and has the kids' best interests at heart. It is easy to blame her, but the real problems lie at the school and parish level. Short sighted budget cuts, letting parents who donate have too loud of a voice, treating volunteer coaches like crap, letting parents treat referees like crap. That isn't Mary Ann's fault. She's been given chicken poop and asked to make chicken salad from it. She ain't the problem.
 
Ignatius mission is not to win state championships. The conversation re "having to adapt" because there just are not enough good athletes coming from the feeder schools is concerning.
I get it. You are taking the moral high road. But the conversation isn't about whether Iggy is a great school with a great mission or not. I don't think many here could craft an argument that would suggest that it isn't. The conversation is around why they have declined in football. And if they want to be good again in football, they will have to adapt to what is happening at their traditional feeder schools.
 
The biggest thing hurting CYO is all the travel sports. Everyone wants their third grader to dedicate to one sport year round, and even during the CYO season for that sport, some of the best players are choosing to only do travel and not CYO, and then do no other sports.

It's not just football, either. Soccer and volleyball are big into this now, too.
 
Here’s some annual elementary school (pre-K to 8) enrollment data that I’ve seen from the Cleveland diocese’s “Keeping the Faith” initiative on the future of Catholic elementary schools.

Lot of factors involved in the trends – demographics in NE Ohio (overall population loss, birth rates), financial challenges for families, etc.

1976 to 1984: >60,000 students in ~170 to 180 schools

1985 to 1990: trending downward toward 50,000 students

1990-2000: high 40s to ~50,000 students (fairly steady) in ~140 schools (2000)

2000 to 2022: steady decline
.. 2005: ~40,000 students
.. 2010: ~35,000 students in ~110 schools
.. 2014: ~30,000 students
.. 2022: ~26,000 students in ~90 schools

2022 to 2024: some growth
.. 2024: ~28,500 students

There’s some enrollment growth more recently - speculate that vouchers are playing a role ... plus perhaps increased birth rates in recent years, coming after a decline during the aftermath of the Great Recession (which is affecting high school and college enrollments right now).
There is also, from what I've heard, the football "concussion" concern. It's out there.
It is a strange time when suburban Catholic schools are either struggling or closing (St. Adalbert in Berea, St. Francis de Sales in Parma), and schools in the city are actually growing in enrollment (St. Stanislaus and Mary Queen of Peace, both in Cleveland).

It's nice to see the folks in the city and inner-ring suburbs (many of whom are not Catholic) recognize the value of a Catholic education.
 
I get it. You are taking the moral high road. But the conversation isn't about whether Iggy is a great school with a great mission or not. I don't think many here could craft an argument that would suggest that it isn't. The conversation is around why they have declined in football. And if they want to be good again in football, they will have to adapt to what is happening at their traditional feeder schools.
This is a great point.

Having spent time in both northern and southern Ohio, there are some parallels to Elder and Ignatius. Both great schools, and also both with fantastic football history that has lost some of its shine recently.

When this topic is broached, it often comes back to this "moral high road" with Elder and Iggy proponents. They see adaptation as "cheating" or "lowering their standards". What it really is is a blind spot and an unwillingness to admit that their path to success in the past is no longer a path that even exists anymore. And if it does, it's not a paved road.

So much has changed in HS sports over the last 20 years, as well as within society. It's tough to let go of some of the roots of big time success. The reality is, school choice isn't limited anymore. As bad as you want your schools to be neighborhood landing spots for the feeder kids, the pond is much much bigger now.

And while it sucks it's not the way it was, it also provides tremendous opportunity to be great again if you push ego to the side and expand your thinking and possibilities to a refreshed approach. These two schools have to let go.
 
It's nice to see the folks in the city and inner-ring suburbs (many of whom are not Catholic) recognize the value of a Catholic education.
I love this thinking. Many in southern Ohio can't even begin to wrap their heads around non-Catholic kids being part of a Catholic high school. They literally see it as selling out. I just don't understand it, especially with how dire the need is for Catholic schools to be attracting more followers.

At the end of the day, it's fear. Fear of someone disrupting "their" culture, fear of of their kid losing playing time, fear of losing that connection to the past. A fear that is often vastly unwarranted.
 
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.
 
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.
Fair points. The comparison was more towards the thought process and mindset of how to implement positive change (while not completely disrupting culture), not so much the similarities in the schools.

The mindset around admitting change is needed is step 1.
 
Every team ebs and flows with talent and subsequent success. St. Ignatius is not a Colerain as far as their program goes and I’m sure they will be back on top faster than you think.
 
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