2023 GCYL League Discussion

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Doublehelix

Well-known member
Not looking good for the westside schools this year. The best teams are probably Cov Cath, Michaels, SMOY and James. Omar needs to find some studs to get to Elder.

The best of the traditional westside teams is Visitation, but they aren't in the same tier as the teams above. The Vols, Victory, Antoninus and Ignatius aren't very good honestly.

Varsity will probably come down to Cov Cath and Michaels.
 
 
Is Cov Cath the only school to have a 7th grade only team? Seems the other schools have a mixed 8/7 team?
Even though their 7th gr isn’t competitive, seems like it really benefits their 8th graders playing up a year in 7th grade vs sitting the bench 7th gr year.
 
This year they are the only one. It’s much more common at Pony and Reserve. No doubt it helps with development. Many varsity teams with enough players will play B games. Not sure how many are happening this year - our school had enough last year but not this year so we aren’t really involved.
 
Very misleading. You have 5-6 schools on the varsity level that basically operate as club teams now for certain high schools while most of the others remain either single school teams or basically 2 school teams. (Visi, Victory, Jude, Susanna, IHM, Guardian Angels, Ignatius, Antoninus, etc.)

James is a perfect example. They have a boatload of schools but also added about 10 public school kids to varsity this year. Mike’s and SMOY basically do the same thing.
 
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Don Flamenco said:
Very misleading. You have 5 schools on the varsity level that basically operate as club teams now for certain high schools while most of the others remain either single school teams or basically 2 school teams. (Visi, Victory, Jude, Susanna, IHM, Guardian Angels, Ignatius, Antoninus, etc.)

James is a perfect example. They have a boatload of schools but also added about 10 public school kids to varsity this year. Mike’s and SMOY basically do the same thing.
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Probably true, but doesn't change the idea that the westside schools simply aren't very good this year.
 
The divisions should be broken down this way IMO. It’s insane someone like SMOY plays in D2.

D1 (Club Teams):

James, SMOY, Mikes, CovCath, CPS/St Mary’s, QOP

D2 (Single or 2 School Programs)

Susanna, IHM, Visi, Victory, Jude, Guardian Angels, Antoninus, Ignatius, SASEAS, All Saints
 
Don Flamenco said:
The divisions should be broken down this way IMO. It’s insane someone like SMOY plays in D2.

D1 (Club Teams):

James, SMOY, Mikes, CovCath, CPS/St Mary’s, QOP

D2 (Single or 2 School Programs)

Susanna, IHM, Visi, Victory, Jude, Guardian Angels, Antoninus, Ignatius, SASEAS, All Saints
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Not a bad idea.

But it's obvious looking at these lists the east and westside schools, within the same league, have a completely different philosophy. We can argue until the cows come home about which is better, but it's pretty obvious it's not a level playing field.

If that's truly the case, they shouldn't be in the same league.

How did it ever get to this point without intervention from league leaders? I find it hard to believe that it's turned into this knowing it has its roots as a westside league.
 
Don Flamenco said:
The divisions should be broken down this way IMO. It’s insane someone like SMOY plays in D2.

D1 (Club Teams):

James, SMOY, Mikes, CovCath, CPS/St Mary’s, QOP

D2 (Single or 2 School Programs)

Susanna, IHM, Visi, Victory, Jude, Guardian Angels, Antoninus, Ignatius, SASEAS, All Saints
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The IHM/GA split has been rough on both schools numbers wise.
I agree with you on SMOY
 
Doublehelix said:
Not a bad idea.

But it's obvious looking at these lists the east and westside schools, within the same league, have a completely different philosophy. We can argue until the cows come home about which is better, but it's pretty obvious it's not a level playing field.

If that's truly the case, they shouldn't be in the same league.

How did it ever get to this point without intervention from league leaders? I find it hard to believe that it's turned into this knowing it has its roots as a westside league.
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No clue what happened but it’s all out of whack. I had someone at James tell me a couple weeks ago they picked up all these new kids in response to how Cov Cath and Mikes runs their programs. They have about 50 kids on varsity and maybe 15 see meaningful snaps?

The simple answer is to have the schools that operate as club teams in one league and the one or two school programs in a separate league.
 
So there has to be rules about outside kids coming in to play for these parish teams. Is the league even checking if they are following the rules and expectations?

How does a public kid become eligible to play for St James?
 
And to be clear, I don't care if a league is started that allows anyone and everyone to play in it. To each their own.

But what has happened was never the intent of the GCYL, yet here we are.
 
Doublehelix said:
LOL and the league is checking up on this?
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I know back in the day Victory would check up on it. The coordinators for each sport had to turn in the list of all the kids signed up for their sport to the parish office. If any of the kids that signed up were not registered for shool at Victory or for Victory religious ed class we were told they could not play. I only had to make that call one time in my time there and let me tell you it wasn’t an enjoyable experience.
 
To be Devils Advocate, Public schools kids can go to Elder, Lasalle, Moeller without going to a feeder school and without taking Religious ed classes, correct?
They don’t have to be Catholic, so why would we want to turn them away from Youth Football? I would think it’ll make the GCL stronger.
 
Don Flamenco said:
No clue what happened but it’s all out of whack. I had someone at James tell me a couple weeks ago they picked up all these new kids in response to how Cov Cath and Mikes runs their programs. They have about 50 kids on varsity and maybe 15 see meaningful snaps?

The simple answer is to have the schools that operate as club teams in one league and the one or two school programs in a separate league.
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I've got a buddy that coaches for St James and he told me he's not sure where all the kids even go to school?

The league is in a rough spot. There's only a handful of schools that can field a single school program like Visi. On the other hand some of these teams/clubs have way too many kids on them.

I am not sure if it's still a rule that the kids have to be enrolled in religious ed classes?? Or if anyone really checks up on it?
 
Who are the 5-10 best players in the league this year.

I've heard lyons from Visi is really good. Cov Cath has some really good players I've heard as well, but I am assuming they will end up at a n ky high school.
 
PonyKeg said:
To be Devils Advocate, Public schools kids can go to Elder, Lasalle, Moeller without going to a feeder school and without taking Religious ed classes, correct?
They don’t have to be Catholic, so why would we want to turn them away from Youth Football? I would think it’ll make the GCL stronger.
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I don't have an issue with this, but that's counter to what the league has been, and if I had to guess, not what westsiders want it to be.

I think it makes some sense to have some sort of open enrollment for the league (it would probably help Elder honestly). But the eastside and westside thought process on this is VERY different. Eastsiders are fine with it, and westsiders think it's immoral. How do you solve that?
 
I've never heard of kids needing to go to PSR / CCD. I've never even heard of needing to be an actual parishioner.... especially if your school (public or private) doesn't offer a sport.

And again, not saying it happens much if at all, but what if a kid attends school for 1 church/team and actually is a parishioner at another?

I know pastors don't want to get involved, but they may have to especially with teams not matching up with families and everyone seemingly being in a free for all. There's too much uncertainty right now it seems and having Cov Cath in the league which isn't even a part of the archdiocese and obviously has a completely different set of rules they abide by.
 
The lack of leadership is why the league is in this spot. They let Cov Cath, Queen of Peace and mikes join even though they are club teams. So then schools like Smoy, CPS, and James have followed their lead to keep up with them. The league needs to make some tough decisions quickly.
 
Mad Dogg said:
The lack of leadership is why the league is in this spot. They let Cov Cath, Queen of Peace and mikes join even though they are club teams. So then schools like Smoy, CPS, and James have followed their lead to keep up with them. The league needs to make some tough decisions quickly.
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You are 100% right. I’ve been surprised that there hasn’t been any extreme conversations about the parish football vs club team football.
 
EHS 2001 said:
The same way they always have been by the family registering as parishioners and sending their kids to PSR classes.
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I have no inside knowledge one way or another, but I would be absolutely shocked if most of these kids/families were doing all of this. It has really turned into a free for all. And the numbers are out of control. Heard SMOY has close to 50 kids again. James has a good number. Mikes didn't look like they had as many this year, but still close to 25-30. Conversely, this has to be the smallest varsity team, number wise that Visitation has had in 20 years.
 
I guess I don’t get why you wouldn’t want the stiffer competition? If the league allows it, they’re all playing fair.
Better competition will be better when the are 9th graders.

Unless everyone wants just West side teams to battle other West side teams which seems crazy to me. I’d rather see the better kids than dominate weaker kids from down the road just to say we got the win.
 
Per a coworker, CCH actually has 2 7th and 2 8th grade teams so instead of having giant teams, they put one of each in our league and one in their public school league bc there are no catholic school leagues in nky. I certainly don’t call that club team in majority are feeder kids, their grade schools are just way smaller.
 
Mad Dogg said:
The lack of leadership is why the league is in this spot. They let Cov Cath, Queen of Peace and mikes join even though they are club teams. So then schools like Smoy, CPS, and James have followed their lead to keep up with them. The league needs to make some tough decisions quickly.
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One of the few times I agree with you.
 
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