Picking Non-League Games - Part II

Unlike the Philly Pub, the Philadelphia Catholic has been playing more teams from outside of their own league than their counterparts in the Pub over the past 5 seasons. The 2008 season is no exception. The Pub has 23 non-city teams scheduled for the 2008 season, while the PCL has scheduled a 5 year high of 40 non-league games against non-PCL teams. One reason for the spike this season is due to the odd number of teams in each division and the extra week of pre-season for the AAA teams.

In the past 5 seasons, the PCL has played 149 pre-season games against opponents that were not from the PCL. In 2008, there are 40 such games scheduled.

2003 – 12 teams – 20 games
2004 – 13 teams – 29 games
2005 – 16 teams – 35 games
2006 – 14 teams – 33 games
2007 – 14 teams – 32 games
2008 – 16 teams – 40 games

In case you don’t want to do the math, that’s an average of just about 32 games played by PCL teams against non-PCL teams. This total excludes the annual Thanksgiving Day games against pub teams. The PCL has gone 71-78 in those non-league games, which to me means that most of the teams have scheduled games against quality opponents (see part 1 for my definition of “quality games”). Unlike the pub non-league selections, the PCL teams have played teams that, in most cases, you really don’t know who will win. To show that point, almost half of all the non-league non-city teams played by PCL teams over the past 5 years have been decided by 2 touchdowns or less.

AAAA
Some of the better non-league games in this classification will involve Prep, LaSalle and Roman. Prep will take on two of the better eastern PA teams (Parkland, North Penn), while LaSalle and Roman will be playing the best of the Philly Inter-Ac when Lacrosse powers LaSalle and Malvern meet, and Roman plays Chestnut Hill Academy.

Other than the games mentioned above, the majority of the PCL AAA teams are playing quality games against non-league opponents, with games set up against teams from District 1, 11 and 12 (Pub), as well as three games against out of state teams. Unlike the Philly Pub, the PCL teams, at least in this division, have mostly quality games scheduled for the non-league season. However, there are a few games in this division that I do question. What is Cardinal O’Hara doing scheduling games with Germantown and Haverford? Talk about games in which the outcome is already known. The Lions are trying to work their way back to prominence in the PCL. Playing teams like this won’t get you on anyone’s pre-season top 10 lists. Haverford is the type of team that Bonner should be playing (they are) as they rebuild that once proud program.

AAA
I n the AAA division, the winner for most challenging pre-season non-league games goes to Lansdale Catholic. The Crusaders, a former AA team which moved up to AAA this season, has scheduled Downingtown East and North Penn this pre-season. Talk about big time pre-season games. They have also scheduled two games against AAA opponents which should be a little easier (Upper Moreland and Oxford Area). The runner up is a toss up between Wood and Northeast Catholic. (Side Note: The Falcons of North Catholic hasn’t played a non-PCL opponent in the pre-season since 1990. As a matter of fact, North Catholic is the only team that has not played a non-PCL in the pre-season in the past 10 years.) The Falcons will play District 1 teams Coatesville and Pennridge, while hosting the Holy Cross Crusaders from Queens, NY. These three games, as well as a game against PCL AAAA team, Ryan, should tell us whether or not the Falcons are still headed in the right direction. Archbishop Wood will take on a top team from both District 1 (Pennridge) and the Inter-Ac (CHA). It looks like the Vikings are tuning up for another run at the division crown. The only disappointment I see in this division during the pre-season is Neumann-Goretti. The Saints will play Philly Pub “A” team, Prep Charter. Although this would be a great match up of basketball teams, it should be pretty ugly for the Prep Charter team. But, the Saints balance this game with one against Upper Merion, which has a better than respectable season in 2007.

AA
This division, on the surface, looks to be the dog when it comes to scheduling pre season games. But, if you look closer, you’ll find several quality games, as well as a couple of humdingers. The two big contests will both involve West Catholic. The Burrs will play the last two PCL AAAA champs (Roman and LaSalle). I’m expecting real good games here, especially since for the next 9 or 10 weeks, West will be running through their opponents. I like McDevitt’s and Kennedy-Kenrick’s choices. McDevitt will play Lower Moreland and Cheltenham, while Kennedy-Kenrick will take on teams such as Academy New Church and Bristol, with hopes of making some noise once the league games get underway. The only team whose schedule makes me wonder is Carroll. Carroll starts off with Cardinal O’hara and then follows up with Conwell-Egan and Overbrook. It seems as though their competition gets worse each week. This is no way to prepare to play West Catholic in their PCL opener. But, I’ve definitely been wrong in the past.

Summary
The bottom line is that if you compare the quality of non-league pre-season games of the Philly Pub and the PCL, you’ll waste less money by seeing some PCL games in the pre-season this year. For the most part, the PCL picks non-league games based on a team’s ability to provide a good game, while the Pub seems to pick games based on nothing other than availability, even if that means they will get smoked in most of those games. When the revived city championship games are played in November, remember that you read it here first that building a competitive schedule begins in the pre-season, and teams who are representing the city at states probably had more quality games at that time of the year.

Epilogue
After writing this article, I received a note from a very reliable source who is close to the N-G program explaining how the Saints ended up with Prep Charter on their pre-season schedule. But, before I get to that, I should explain a couple of things. First, my observations in this blog are just that….observations. I don’t track down every coach, player, AD, etc before writing my articles. Afterall, I’m not part of the professional media. I just write what I see from my Monday morning armchair. Second, I used the word “disappointed” when describing the Saints’ schedule. At first, I thought this word was too harsh, but since I know Coach Sytsma personally, I know that he’d rather play the best team available than schedule a game that he knows he’ll win. You see, he doesn’t take the easy way out when it comes to his team, and he certainly doesn’t expect his players to do so either. Ok, now about the aforementioned note; What happened in the scheduling this season was that N-G was scheduled to play West Catholic and tried to get a game with O’Hara. But, since the AA division had to start their regular season a week earlier than originally expected, the West game was cancelled and O’Hara decided not to play N-G, leaving the Saints with NO OTHER CHOICE but to play Prep Charter. Chalk this one up to the growing pains in joining the PIAA.