CHSFL rankings: Week 6
The playoff picture, and where the teams stack up, is starting to get clearer with two weeks left in the regular season. The top two squads St. Joseph's by the Sea and Holy Trinity remain unchanged.
Xaverian and Fordham Prep each earned important wins last week to keep themselves in the final slots of the Class AAA playoffs. That's why the Clippers jump up to the No. 3 slot and the Rams are now No. 4. Monsignor Farrell had worked its way up into the top three, but dropped down to fifth. The biggest movers in the rankings may yet be Cardinal Hayes, especially if they beat Stepinac Friday.
Ranked #8. Xavier (3-3) (Last Week Ranked #9)
Don’t look now, but here comes Xavier. After scoring a combined
13 points in back-to-back losses to open the season, the Knights young
offensive line has gotten a bit older and running backs Jonny Clark, Chris
Mattina, John
Wilson and John Gearity are more confident. The result? Three wins out
of their last four games and two more winnable games on the horizon.
Next: Cardinal Spellman (Oct. 24, 8 p.m.)
CHSFL predictions: Week 7
Cardinal Spellman @ Xavier (Saturday, 1 p.m.)
Staszewski: The Knights, winners of three of their last four games, have been one of the hottest teams in the league. That trend should continue against a young Spellman squad. The Pilots gave up big plays on the ground to Christ the King two weeks again and likely could again against Xavier’s single-wing offense. Coach Chris Stevens has been raving about his defense. We should see a good performance again. Pick: Xavier
Butler: I’d love to be different here and go out on a limb, but I’m not that crazy. Cardinal Spellman doesn’t have a win and the Pilots don’t get one here. Xavier is beginning to roll after a slow start and the Knights will use the single wing to fly all over Spellman for a third straight win. Pick: Xavier
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Player of the Week Nomination
Nominee:
John Wilson
School:
Position: Wing Back & Weak Safety Opponent: Cardinal Spellman
Date
of Game: 10/24/09
Ht. 5’11” Wt.
185 Class: Sr.
Hometown:
Details
of nominees performance:
Xavier
defeated Cardinal Spellman 46 – 6 to go 4-3 Overall and 4-2 in the CHSFL
AA-A Division. The Xavier
Offensive unit managed to score 6 TDs (40 pts.) in the first half deciding
the outcome of the game. This
week’s nominee John Wilson carried the ball 4 times for 3 TDs and 208
yards. He scored on the very
first play of the game with a 71 yard run and had two other TD runs of 46
& 79 yards. The two 70+
yard touchdown runs are Xavier longest from scrimmage this season.
Xavier tailbacks also combined to rush for 200 yards as well and
that is because of John’s great edge blocking at the wing position in
Xavier’s Single Wing attack.
Class
Honors:
John has a 95+ average at Xavier and has achieved 1st honor
grades in every marking period over the last three years.
John is also the fastest player on the Xavier team and is one of
the 4 300+ pound bench pressers on the Xavier squad.
League
Honors:
The Xavier Class of 2010 has
compiled a 25-9 record on the football field in the past 3 1/2 seasons.
On both the Freshman and Junior Varsity Football teams, John was
selected as the team’s Most Valuable Defensive Player.
Last season as a Junior, John was selected as Xavier’s best
offensive player with 975 yards on 83 carries and 13 touchdowns.
He also rushed for 100+ yards in 4 different games.
This is the 1st time he has rushed for over 200 yards.
Other
Sports & Honors
John
is a two year starter on the Xavier Rugby Team during which time they have
won the East Coast Championships twice at
Good evening, Dylan (Butler of the New York Post).
I'm writing for a couple of reasons. First, if you're interested, here's an irrelevant but interesting angle to this Saturday afternoon's Xavier-Cardinal Spellman game. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is an alumnus of Xavier (Class of 1953), while brand-new Justice Sonia Sotomayor (Valedictorian, Class of 1972) is an alumna of Cardinal Spellman. I like to imagine them betting on the game, with the loser having to wear a baseball cap from the winner's school— on the court bench—for the next week.
Second, I enjoyed your September 24th blog about Cardinal Spellman's nickname change from Falcons to Pilots, and on team nicknames in general, and now that Xavier is playing Spellman, I thought you'd be interested in the unusual history of team nicknames at Xavier.
Xavier, which was founded in 1847 and has been playing football since 1883, has a strong military tradition that dates back to 1889, when the New York National Guard helped the school organize the Xavier Regiment and began a military program for the students.
The War Department assumed control of the military program in 1891, and in 1892 assigned Captain John Drum, a veteran of campaigns against the Comanches and Geronimo's Apaches, to be Xavier's first senior Army instructor. His actual title was Commandant of the Xavier Cadets. (Captain Drum remained at Xavier until he was recalled to active duty in the Spanish-American War. He was killed in action during the Battle of San Juan Hill outside Santiago, Cuba on July 1, 1898.)
Beginning in September, 1895, participation in Xavier's military program was made obligatory. With all students now cadets in the Regiment, it was not long before the school's athletic teams became known as the Kaydets.
The Xavier Regiment became an ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) unit in 1935, and in its centennial year,1947, Xavier, with over 1,000 cadets, became the largest Junior ROTC high school in the nation. In 1968, Xavier High School was officially designated a military institute by the Department of Defense.
Then, in the spring of 1971, school president Father William Wood stunned the Xavier community when he announced that, after 76 years as “the Jesuit Military School” in New York City, Xavier’s military program would be made optional, effective with the 1971-1972 school year. The move, a reaction to the tremendous turmoil in New York and across the nation caused by the Vietnam War, was extremely controversial, especially among the older alumni. (Antonin Scalia, Class of 1953, would have nothing to do with Xavier for many years afterward.)
With the military now optional. Xavier's athletic teams dropped the nickname Kaydets, but in a development that may be unique in the history of American high school sports, each program was allowed to adopted its own nickname. The football team became the Bruins, the basketball team renamed themselves the Warriors, the swim team were rechristened the Dolphins, and so on.
More than a few eyebrows were raised in high places in 1976 when the newly-formed Xavier rugby team voted to call themselves the Outlaws. The kids maintained that they were naming themselves after a popular rock group of the period— and, indeed, the rugby players did tend to favor the "Southern Rock" bands of that time— but many of their elders at 16th Street weren't so sure.
This silliness came to an end in 1986, when all of Xavier’s teams once again became known by a single monicker: the Knights.
As Casey Stengel famously said, "You could look it up!"
Feel free to use any of the foregoing should you follow up on that great September 24th blog, Dylan.
Regards,
Tom O'Hara
