Classyposter58;1412200 wrote:Great idea! Talk about a fix, however how do you define districts? Youngstown Cardinal Mooney still is Youngstown, thus won't be punished for kids from the city? The problem isn't private schools in D1, it's the smaller ones where they absolutely dominate. I mean seeing my high school in 2008 go to the D4 Final Four and play Kettering Alter, who had 120 kids on their football team is unreal. They're supposed to be in D4? Heck Chris Borland the following season was B1G Frosh of the Year
Haven't been here for awhile, but was surprised to find somebody complaining about my beloved Alter. As a football alum from the school's second class, I've seen Alter grow for 50 years.
Alter has 120 kids on the team because they took all freshmen through seniors in the football program to the state championship games, to have a great experience. There are about 330 boys in the school (270 or so in grades 9-11). Alter competes with Centerville, Kettering Fairmont, Bellbrook, Oakwood, West Carrollton, Miamisburg and stragglers from a couple other public districts for students. The cool thing at Alter is to play sports, especially football, soccer and basketball, although baseball and boys' volleyball are big, too. A lot of the younger guys are getting into lacrosse. The country club sports (golf and tennis) are popular, too, but only a few guys are good enough to play.
As for Chris Borland, he's the second last son of a very competitive family. Dad played college football at Miami. Older brothers played football and soccer - Mark was an All American soccer player at Wittenberg. The whole family went all the way through St. Albert's and Alter. Dad was scoutmaster at the Church scout troop for several years, and coached grade school sports with his kids.
Chris is the hardest working weightlifter I ever saw. He's not very tall, and seeing him early in high school you never would have predicted his college success. He epitomizes the Alter model: work hard and play with intensity. Chris's example spurred the rest of the team to work hard. But the secret of Alter's back-to-back state championships, in addition to Chris, were the Boucher brothers. Austin gathered the team and challenged them to win state. He also told them that anybody out running around on weekends, doing things they shouldn't, would be found out and kicked off the team. Colin was the defensive leader until he broke his leg in the Fairmont win (first game of the season) his senior year. Then Austin changed his jersey number to Colin's, and led the team, along with Chris and a strong team effort, to win back to back.
All in all it's a great sports success story. They beat a good Steubenville team and a great Chagrin team those two years.
So sorry for your bad luck in meeting the Knights.
This year we hope for great senior leadership again. Hope to see you at the end of the season.
