Anonymous wrote:St Albans is desperately trying to keep their program afloat. They need numbers. If you son has applied for upper-school in particular, make sure that you let the AD and the other AD know of your son's interest in football. It may be the edge in admissions you need.

Now THAT sounds like a program a rising freshman may want to avoid.

St Albans is desperately trying to keep their program afloat. They need numbers. If you son has applied for upper-school in particular, make sure that you let the AD and the other AD know of your son's interest in football. It may be the edge in admissions you need.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the best local players in the NFL rift now, is an alum of Maret, yes Maret! He happens to be one of the Steelers best defensive backs and free safety. There are plenty of individual players on MAC and IAC rosters who could easily start in the WCAC.

Sidwell is pathetic, and Maret barely can field a team. Those two may be gone from football by the time your kid is a senior. Parents won't risk the brains of their precious little ones. I'll take money that both schools are in their last few years, with Maret falling writing a couple years when even more kids will have to play both ways (which is a sure way to up the injury rate and completely deplete the bench.

After back to back appearances in the City Title game, including the 2015 Championship, Sidwell had one senior this year and 13 freshman - and the senior suffered a season ending injury early in the year. Despite that, the senior is going to the Ivy League and the several juniors are being recruited by fantastic schools. Will any of them play at Ohio State? No, but then very few if any Sidwell students go to Ohio State. I doubt with 13 freshman as a core, the team will be gone in 5 years.

Anonymous wrote:One of the best local players in the NFL rift now, is an alum of Maret, yes Maret! He happens to be one of the Steelers best defensive backs and free safety. There are plenty of individual players on MAC and IAC rosters who could easily start in the WCAC.

Sidwell is pathetic, and Maret barely can field a team. Those two may be gone from football by the time your kid is a senior. Parents won't risk the brains of their precious little ones. I'll take money that both schools are in their last few years, with Maret falling writing a couple years when even more kids will have to play both ways (which is a sure way to up the injury rate and completely deplete the bench.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prep and perhaps other schools require all freshmen to play on the freshman team. No freshman play on JV or varsity. The freshman team will give your son plenty of time to get to know the coach and for the coaching staff to assess if he will be able to play at higher levels. Everyone who wants to play on the prep freshman team is welcome. It's a great bonding experience for the boys. If he works really hard and takes part in the drills during the summer and the camps, he will probably get a chance to be on the team even if it's not a starter. I mean he will probably get a chance to play on the JV and maybe varsity team as he ages, because the coaching staff takes into account kids motivation although he may not actually play much. It is still fun to be a member of the team

Is this a true statement for Prep? Although not common, I had thought a Freshman - if deemed varsity caliber by the coach - could play varsity. Maybe it's just a football requirement due to "satefy" issues. I didn't think this applied for basketball at Prep.

Any feedback from Prep parents is welcomed.

Prep graduate here. For exceptional talent, Prep will elevate freshmen to varsity. Marcus Mason and Andrew Philips are two examples that come to mind. This past Fall, Prep had a good amount of senior talent at running back—otherwise, a freshman would have likely started.

One of the best local players in the NFL rift now, is an alum of Maret, yes Maret! He happens to be one of the Steelers best defensive backs and free safety. There are plenty of individual players on MAC and IAC rosters who could easily start in the WCAC.

There are Division 1 players at every school in the MAC and IAC. Some have more than 1. The coaching in both leagues is probably the best of any private school league around. The difference between all the leagues is numbers. The bigger the school is the more players it has on the teams.

"

The MAC is terrible at football. The IAC is terrible at football outside of EHS, Bullis and Prep.

I absolutely disagree with this statement. What objectives are you using? Wins and losses? Level of Coaching? Number of D1 recruits. Sure none of these teams are on par with the big 4 in the WCAC, but these programs are not going out and spending countless hours recruiting families and often times entering into bidding wars for HS athletes. Other than Georgetown Prep ,who is significantly larger than any school in the MAC and IAC, every school in the WCAC is at least 2x and even 3x the male enrollment than those in the MAC or IAC. Lets also not forget about admissions standards either.

Every school now has individual talent roaming its halls. Clearly some schools have more individual talent than others. St Stephens had a player who started for the University of Maryland this past Fall. A player who graduated from Landon last year saw major time as a freshman at the University of Oregon. Bullis had several kids playing in the Big 10 as well.

If your son is big, and loves football as you say, he could have significant playing time in either conference in JV then V. If he is smaller and not highly skilled you may want to go the MAC route. Bullis, Episcopal and Prep all have several boys that go D1 each year. Episcopal has 6 players this year that weighed 280 plus. Size will make a difference eventually.

Of course it's all relative. The WCAC regularly has lineman that are 360 and up.

The MAC is terrible at football. The IAC is terrible at football outside of EHS, Bullis and Prep.

If playing time is that important, look at the schools with lesser programs. If not, don't base your school choice on football.

Based on your post, it's unlikely your son will see much PT at any school, so be realistic and pick a school that is suited for him academically and socially.

Anonymous wrote:Flint Hill beat St. Alban's by a pretty good margin this year. Flint Hill should be in this discussion from a football point of view. Not sure about their academics. Maret won the MAC this year by a landslide and was a top 20 team, but that was a rare year.....Potomac and Sidwell both really were bad, but have been good in the past. If you ask me if you took Saints, Landon, STA, Flint Hill and Maret they are all about the same football wise.

Flint Hill football is pretty good. I did not include it in a prior post I made in this thread because it is further out in Virginia and generally people do not see it as one of the top academic schools (which is what the original poster was asking about).

STA has been very down for their standards the past 3 years. Just one league W in that short span. This year they were much improved, with a senior heavy roster and still only managed to finish in 5th place in the IAC.

The idea of forming a football only league between Maret, Potomac, STA, Flint Hill, Sidwell, Saint Stephens and even Landon is not too far fetched.

Flint Hill beat St. Alban's by a pretty good margin this year. Flint Hill should be in this discussion from a football point of view. Not sure about their academics. Maret won the MAC this year by a landslide and was a top 20 team, but that was a rare year.....Potomac and Sidwell both really were bad, but have been good in the past. If you ask me if you took Saints, Landon, STA, Flint Hill and Maret they are all about the same football wise.

Anonymous wrote:

Other than St. Alban's, what IAC school has academics on par with Sidwell, Maret, or Potomac?

Get over yourself PP. My son was accepted into STA and Potomac and we opted for Landon. I'm pretty sure any top student at an IAC school would do just fine at a Sidwell or a Potomac.

Landon is academically on par with St. Alban's and Potomac? OK. Yeah.

Other than St. Alban's, what IAC school has academics on par with Sidwell, Maret, or Potomac?

Get over yourself PP. My son was accepted into STA and Potomac and we opted for Landon. I'm pretty sure any top student at an IAC school would do just fine at a Sidwell or a Potomac.