Until I was 11, I lived in Bloomfield and remember the Montclair vs Bloomfield games, watching my cousin play. All that tradition is out the window and I believe it started with the AAU basketball and baseball travel teams. Throw in the showcase events and loyalty to your town was history.
...it seems like over the last 16 or so years the primary 'focus' of HS sports has shifted to 'getting a scholarship' instead of 'playing the sport'...and it definitely seems like we've lost something along the way.
You nailed it.When I played HS Baseball and football, the Privates and Parochial schools weren't allowed in the Shore Conference postseason tournaments, mostly keeping the best kids in town for sports. The reason was it would create an unfair advantage of recruiting or just getting the best talent from surrounding towns. Once that ban was lifted and as you said the goal was scholarships, loyalty to your town went out the window. I played in the early 70's and didn't start coaching rec and travel until the late 90's so I don't know when the switch from town loyalty or chasing college scholarships happened exactly.
The Catholic schools really helped kill the history and tradition of highschool football in New Jersey by their recruiting arms race. I first noticed that in my home town in Wayne in the early 80s when the better players in Wayne started to enroll in DePaul Highshool instead of attending Wayne Valley and Wayne Hills. At least two of the players that went to DePaul made it to the NFL (Tommy Vigorito and Vyto Kab).
I went to Wayne Valley also. I loved the Passaic Valley rivalry. What year did you graduate?
Even then, it was nothing like it is today. DePaul was a nonfactor against the bigger football schools, and when I was there in the mid-late '80s, we were competing (and usually competitive) in our league of Group I and II publics and a few Catholic schools. Butler, a terrific Group I, was our major rival. Local kids like Vigorito and Kab went to DePaul, but it was more within the normal distribution of local kids choosing to attend a Catholic school for the fait-based aspect more than for football. The Kabs' parents were Polish immigrants if I remember correctly (they were on my Herald News delivery route!), and were pretty big on the Catholic thing. Kids I went to school with virtually all came from Passaic County, and mostly the upper half of it. We got more kids from Clifton, Paterson, and such when Paul VI in Clifton closed after my freshman year.
Yeah in north jersey the parochials raid all the publics. West Essex/Rutgers alone for example wouldve had kyle monangai, christian dremel in football and austin williams in basketball
I remember the Roy Rogers, but it was already the Sandwich Pub by the time I was in school. I came to know it very well once I turned 21, but my strongest memory of it was being out on our practice field in early November, when the air was turning crisp and chilly, and it was getting to be past 5 p.m. or so. The smell of frying onions coming from their kitchen (which was directly behind our practice field; their current game field) was so incredibly good, the way it traveled in that crisp, dry air. We hadn't eaten since about 11:30 that morning, and we're all growing boys, so that's always when the coaches lost me. I was thinking about nothing but dinner from that point on!
God forbid that some families and players look at this as a way to get into college, esp with the tuition prices as ridiculously high as it is today. Even better with school districts who continues to hire friends of friends who are clueless but is only there for the $10K stipend and some perks while qualified coaches are stugotzed.
Well My mother and father were the first to Graduate from Wayne HS in 1955. My first Principal was Van Dyken, he was also my parents Principal. My father told me about the fights between the 2 towns back in the 50"s.
My first principal was also Mr. Van Dyken. Small world.
Matawan’s youth travel program has 11 kids going to BC in the Fall. They had a good run to AYF nationals at the D1 level not so long ago. BC is definitely doing a great job recruiting.
I'm not trying to be disrespectful but I think you're bringing up 'straw man' arguments. Of course sports offer an avenue to give people opportunities at higher levels; never once did I say this shouldn't be the case. What I am saying is that I don't think most people start playing sports as children just to get a scholarship; they play to learn (and hopefully love) the sport and it's different aspects-dedication, teamwork, improvement, etc., and if they have the right mix of talent, effort and opportunity they earned scholarships. Now you're seeing HS and even youth sports become 'professionalized' to the point where it's almost pretty much all a business now, with little to no consideration given to the longer-term consequences for the kids involved and their long-term outcomes. Are these kids being taught the necessary skills they'll need to succeed once they actually get to college, or is the goal just to 'get a scholarship' and hope that magically parlays into a pro career?
Are schools able to give athletic scholarships at the HS level? Thought this wasn’t allowed.
Pierce Frauenheim Sr. was a great coach because he was the first to start recruiting Central Jersey before anyone even knew what it was. My neighbor was Jr. and he tried to get me to go there. I looked him square in the face and told him, "you're fvcking crazy, I played with most of my friends since the 3rd grade, no way am I going to play with a bunch of douchebags who turned their backs on their friends."
I’m like you, no way was I leaving my hometown
You are about 30 years early in regards to recruiting arms race. There was no arms race when you were In school. Those kids went to DePaul because their parents valued a Catholic education. It had nothing to do with football or scholarships. Hell, at that time Hills and Valley both had tougher schedules than DePaul.
Depaul had a pretty shit schedule
Agreed- the 'divide' didn't become a canyon until the late 'aughts' (2007-08) and beyond.
In hockey in Mass it's even worse. The Catholic schools used to steal all of the good players from the towns to build all-star teams. But that was like ages ago. Because then the NESPAC schools started stealing all of the Catholic school kids, so few high end players are even playing MIAA anymore at all. But now all of a sudden there is an explosion of 'hockey academies' where kids pay 80K a year to do a couple hours of school (often times online) and then play hockey like 4 hours a day 9 months a year...no other sports, no short 3 month winter hockey season. The irony is some of these academies are actually partnered with catholic schools that are now desperate and willing to pimp themselves out in order to attract some extra students.
The whole system of high school sports has gotten to be a joke with specialization. Every parent thinks their kid is going to be a superstar professional athlete and theyre robbing their kids of their youthful experiences. The purest athletics can still be found at public schools where kids are still kids
That’s false as you have a clock just like with college. But yes, kids will repeat 8th grade. In fact, there are two “academies” and half the parochials offer a program just for that. It’s actually bigger with wrestlers than football players
As of this year, public high school coaches can legally “recruit”. The smart ones are now recruiting youth in their town just like the parochial schools do.
Correct, the HS coach in my town has been talking to and watching my son since 6th grade.
There was actually a public HS coach from a school very north of where we live reaching out to my kid’s IG page last year (as an 6th grader) to recruit him. Only thought private schools could recruit like that!
HS!?
Pope John in Sussex County holds/held a Football camp every summer, It was started by Paternostro. He got the pick of the litter every year.
Which was technically illegal until this year. Crazy but public HS coaches weren’t supposed to talk to kids in their own town
It’s not crazy. People don’t do it(most at least) because they think their kids are going to the NFL. What is one year of extra school vs a few hundred k of college debt? My brother and I were both born in November when that was the “cut off” date. My parents put him ahead. He was always small and immature. As a result, they held me back. Had nothing to do with sports obviously. I had my major growth spurt prior to my junior year. As a result, I went off that year and earned a bunch of offers. Got to go to college for free. If that didn’t happen until my senior year, I’m probably written off and am borrowing 200k. Well worth an extra year.
