Word is the Tri-County Athletic League will make a proposal to the Central Coast Section, asking that all private schools play in their own postseason bracket for football as early as next fall.
It's highly unlikely that the West Catholic Athletic League or Palma for that matter, would agree to this. But the format used for the football playoffs right now is not working.
Teams are being forced into the Open Division just to fill out the eight slots. Since adopting an Open Division, it has never been filled.
And ask Carmel how it felt playing a WCAL power in the Small Division playoffs?
John Devine has been writing about high school sports in Monterey County since, well, practically since he was an athlete at King City in the days just after leather helmets. In PrepNation, John has even more in-depth analysis of the latest results and news he's brought to you in The Herald and in his weekly videos.
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3 comments:
I disagree.
The idea of the open division was to have the sections best play against the best. Last season pitted two public schools in the finals (Oak Grove v Gilroy). If Oak Grove didn't lose their star RB in the second quarter, they would have most likely defeated Valley Chrisitian. All this stuff goes in cycles.
In the NCS the public schols for the most part (with the exception of DelaSalle) are the top programs in the section (just look at the EBAL).
The primary issue is that the Monterey Bay area programs and TCAL especially) need to get a little better after having a few down years. Even Palma has been a little down (lack of speed) compared to many years where the coaching doesn't get them through a faster and just as well coached program as Oak Grove, a public school.
Good football is about continuity in good coaching and dedication of the student athlete. Both those formulas are requirements to a consistent winning program.
I would also disagree that Gilroy and Oak Grove (who opted up to open division)were unhappy about being placed in the open divivon. Maybe only North High was unhappy about it (and I would think Coach Zenk would be happy this program made it to the division), and possibly Milpitas. The fact is that all these programs are used to playing A level competition and warranted a shot at playing against the best.
I do agree that all A league teams (including WCAL, TCAL, MHAL, and DeAnza private and public schools) should be prohibited from playing in the small school division. Teams like Palma, Sacred Heart Cathedral and Valley Christian should not be in this division due to their level of play is way to high for most of the other programs in the division.
I agree with John's (not this John) comment that all teams that play in an 'A' league should play in a higher division.
Great point.
I'm not sure a private school only playoff format would work. What do you do with school's like Stevenson or Menlo?
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