Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I am surprised by how few people really understand the move SJC is making. This is an agressive move to shift the athletic program at SJC and will have some level of impact on the school as a whole.

It's going to interesting to watch. They will likely have move toward boarding student athletes in this push to create a national program. I've known about the football for the past few months (good friends with a football mom who has been filling me in). I'm very curious if they're starting with just football and will move to other sports or if they will be pursuing this two-tier athletic program across other sports.

Read the subject line. This is akin to putting a mini IMG into the existing SJC structure. There will be two varisty football programs - the one that is all recruited top athletes playing the big national programs - IMG, Don Bosco, etc. And the existing program playing in the WCAC. Will this come to basketball? To soccer? Baseball? Lacrosse? Which girls programs?

But in Southern California, the Don Boscos play public schools that have equally competitive programs. St. John’s won’t have much local competition from D.C.-area public or private schools. Southern California has always been a wellspring of top tier football talent, where large public and private schools play in the same conferences.

I could see St. John’s become rivals with up-and-coming St. James in Virginia, and that other religious Catholic school in Baltimore, St Frances Academy.

That’s not true. SJC played Friendship Collegiate a DC charter and only won by like 3 points. The best MD and VA public’s probably would have beaten this past year’s team which was not strong.

SJA destroyed good counsel and St Francis destroyed SJA. Both would have likely beaten SJC very badly.

The best public local football teams are definitely competitive with WCAC.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The amount of misinformation and bad faith argument on this thread is pretty shocking... but I guess we're seeing what happens when teenage keyboard warriors become adults?

Regarding sports at SJC: if you weren't aware, SJC football already travels and hosts nationally, and has done so for years. Texas, Georgia, Florida, California... they even hosted a team from Hawaii last year. Nothing substantive is changing on that front, and they are far from the only team at St. John's to do this. Track just went to Tennessee; girl's Basketball went to New Jersey; swimming went to New York. And if you think SJC is the only school in the area doing things like this, you haven't been paying attention to the high school sports landscape for the past decade.

SJC teams travel too much, particularly in sports for which top-tier competition can be found locally. It makes clear the priority they put on sports over academics.

Track just went to Tennessee over spring break, not missing any school, yet the music department missed several days for a competition in Disney. Are the performing arts "traveling too much"? Did St. John's "prioritize music over academics"? "Too much" is a completely subjective criticism: what's too much for one parent is not enough for another. The reality is that the majority of SJC teams do NOT travel out of the DMV area, and the ones that do typically only do so once per season. St. John's focus is on educating the whole individual, so while I can't agree that the school prioritizes sports OVER academics, I would concede that many stakeholders in the community give them equal footing. That may be an unacceptable equation for families who believe everything else should take a backseat to academics... but considering the number of parents these days who have no problem pulling their kids out of school for club competitions (let alone the number of organizations who feel completely comfortable scheduling their competitions during school days to begin with), it seems like SJC is just meeting families where they are and providing opportunities for their students to excel in a variety of fields, skills, and interests.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The amount of misinformation and bad faith argument on this thread is pretty shocking... but I guess we're seeing what happens when teenage keyboard warriors become adults?

Regarding sports at SJC: if you weren't aware, SJC football already travels and hosts nationally, and has done so for years. Texas, Georgia, Florida, California... they even hosted a team from Hawaii last year. Nothing substantive is changing on that front, and they are far from the only team at St. John's to do this. Track just went to Tennessee; girl's Basketball went to New Jersey; swimming went to New York. And if you think SJC is the only school in the area doing things like this, you haven't been paying attention to the high school sports landscape for the past decade.

SJC teams travel too much, particularly in sports for which top-tier competition can be found locally. It makes clear the priority they put on sports over academics.

Track just went to Tennessee over spring break, not missing any school, yet the music department missed several days for a competition in Disney. Are the performing arts "traveling too much"? Did St. John's "prioritize music over academics"? "Too much" is a completely subjective criticism: what's too much for one parent is not enough for another. The reality is that the majority of SJC teams do NOT travel out of the DMV area, and the ones that do typically only do so once per season. St. John's focus is on educating the whole individual, so while I can't agree that the school prioritizes sports OVER academics, I would concede that many stakeholders in the community give them equal footing. That may be an unacceptable equation for families who believe everything else should take a backseat to academics... but considering the number of parents these days who have no problem pulling their kids out of school for club competitions (let alone the number of organizations who feel completely comfortable scheduling their competitions during school days to begin with), it seems like SJC is just meeting families where they are and providing opportunities for their students to excel in a variety of fields, skills, and interests.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I am surprised by how few people really understand the move SJC is making. This is an agressive move to shift the athletic program at SJC and will have some level of impact on the school as a whole.

It's going to interesting to watch. They will likely have move toward boarding student athletes in this push to create a national program. I've known about the football for the past few months (good friends with a football mom who has been filling me in). I'm very curious if they're starting with just football and will move to other sports or if they will be pursuing this two-tier athletic program across other sports.

Read the subject line. This is akin to putting a mini IMG into the existing SJC structure. There will be two varisty football programs - the one that is all recruited top athletes playing the big national programs - IMG, Don Bosco, etc. And the existing program playing in the WCAC. Will this come to basketball? To soccer? Baseball? Lacrosse? Which girls programs?

But in Southern California, the Don Boscos play public schools that have equally competitive programs. St. John’s won’t have much local competition from D.C.-area public or private schools. Southern California has always been a wellspring of top tier football talent, where large public and private schools play in the same conferences.

I could see St. John’s become rivals with up-and-coming St. James in Virginia, and that other religious Catholic school in Baltimore, St Frances Academy.

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I am surprised by how few people really understand the move SJC is making. This is an agressive move to shift the athletic program at SJC and will have some level of impact on the school as a whole.

It's going to interesting to watch. They will likely have move toward boarding student athletes in this push to create a national program. I've known about the football for the past few months (good friends with a football mom who has been filling me in). I'm very curious if they're starting with just football and will move to other sports or if they will be pursuing this two-tier athletic program across other sports.

Read the subject line. This is akin to putting a mini IMG into the existing SJC structure. There will be two varisty football programs - the one that is all recruited top athletes playing the big national programs - IMG, Don Bosco, etc. And the existing program playing in the WCAC. Will this come to basketball? To soccer? Baseball? Lacrosse? Which girls programs?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The amount of misinformation and bad faith argument on this thread is pretty shocking... but I guess we're seeing what happens when teenage keyboard warriors become adults?

Regarding sports at SJC: if you weren't aware, SJC football already travels and hosts nationally, and has done so for years. Texas, Georgia, Florida, California... they even hosted a team from Hawaii last year. Nothing substantive is changing on that front, and they are far from the only team at St. John's to do this. Track just went to Tennessee; girl's Basketball went to New Jersey; swimming went to New York. And if you think SJC is the only school in the area doing things like this, you haven't been paying attention to the high school sports landscape for the past decade.

SJC teams travel too much, particularly in sports for which top-tier competition can be found locally. It makes clear the priority they put on sports over academics.

Track just went to Tennessee over spring break, not missing any school, yet the music department missed several days for a competition in Disney. Are the performing arts "traveling too much"? Did St. John's "prioritize music over academics"? "Too much" is a completely subjective criticism: what's too much for one parent is not enough for another. The reality is that the majority of SJC teams do NOT travel out of the DMV area, and the ones that do typically only do so once per season. St. John's focus is on educating the whole individual, so while I can't agree that the school prioritizes sports OVER academics, I would concede that many stakeholders in the community give them equal footing. That may be an unacceptable equation for families who believe everything else should take a backseat to academics... but considering the number of parents these days who have no problem pulling their kids out of school for club competitions (let alone the number of organizations who feel completely comfortable scheduling their competitions during school days to begin with), it seems like SJC is just meeting families where they are and providing opportunities for their students to excel in a variety of fields, skills, and interests.

66-75% of the students on the music trip were traveling and performing as an academic requirement for their music elective, not as an extracurricular activity.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The amount of misinformation and bad faith argument on this thread is pretty shocking... but I guess we're seeing what happens when teenage keyboard warriors become adults?

Regarding sports at SJC: if you weren't aware, SJC football already travels and hosts nationally, and has done so for years. Texas, Georgia, Florida, California... they even hosted a team from Hawaii last year. Nothing substantive is changing on that front, and they are far from the only team at St. John's to do this. Track just went to Tennessee; girl's Basketball went to New Jersey; swimming went to New York. And if you think SJC is the only school in the area doing things like this, you haven't been paying attention to the high school sports landscape for the past decade.

SJC teams travel too much, particularly in sports for which top-tier competition can be found locally. It makes clear the priority they put on sports over academics.

Track just went to Tennessee over spring break, not missing any school, yet the music department missed several days for a competition in Disney. Are the performing arts "traveling too much"? Did St. John's "prioritize music over academics"? "Too much" is a completely subjective criticism: what's too much for one parent is not enough for another. The reality is that the majority of SJC teams do NOT travel out of the DMV area, and the ones that do typically only do so once per season. St. John's focus is on educating the whole individual, so while I can't agree that the school prioritizes sports OVER academics, I would concede that many stakeholders in the community give them equal footing. That may be an unacceptable equation for families who believe everything else should take a backseat to academics... but considering the number of parents these days who have no problem pulling their kids out of school for club competitions (let alone the number of organizations who feel completely comfortable scheduling their competitions during school days to begin with), it seems like SJC is just meeting families where they are and providing opportunities for their students to excel in a variety of fields, skills, and interests.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The amount of misinformation and bad faith argument on this thread is pretty shocking... but I guess we're seeing what happens when teenage keyboard warriors become adults?

Regarding sports at SJC: if you weren't aware, SJC football already travels and hosts nationally, and has done so for years. Texas, Georgia, Florida, California... they even hosted a team from Hawaii last year. Nothing substantive is changing on that front, and they are far from the only team at St. John's to do this. Track just went to Tennessee; girl's Basketball went to New Jersey; swimming went to New York. And if you think SJC is the only school in the area doing things like this, you haven't been paying attention to the high school sports landscape for the past decade.

SJC teams travel too much, particularly in sports for which top-tier competition can be found locally. It makes clear the priority they put on sports over academics.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I should add, I have no idea if that is going to lead SJC to modeled after IMG but they didn't purchase the nursing home across the street with all those quasi-dorm like rooms for nothing.

They bought that building for faculty housing. Which honestly is a nice idea for Catholic school teachers, given the cost of living in NW Chevy Chase or surrounding.

What's the plan for the big house and lot they purchased right behind the athletic fields?

You mean the house near the upper field? IIRC, SJC has the option to buy that property (and a couple of others) once the owner dies.

My guess is they convert that area into solely a baseball field (don't they use that for softball right now). This would allow the main stadium to be used solely for football, lax and soccer games/practices, like most schools use their main stadium for. This would allow the field they used to use as student parking as a practice field/maybe jv game field. Alternatively, they could build a stadium up there and convert the Fernandez stadium to only baseball.

Anonymous wrote:The amount of misinformation and bad faith argument on this thread is pretty shocking... but I guess we're seeing what happens when teenage keyboard warriors become adults?

Regarding sports at SJC: if you weren't aware, SJC football already travels and hosts nationally, and has done so for years. Texas, Georgia, Florida, California... they even hosted a team from Hawaii last year. Nothing substantive is changing on that front, and they are far from the only team at St. John's to do this. Track just went to Tennessee; girl's Basketball went to New Jersey; swimming went to New York. And if you think SJC is the only school in the area doing things like this, you haven't been paying attention to the high school sports landscape for the past decade.

Anonymous wrote:Not necessarily. There are some great D3 programs that are strong academically. DC plays a Varsity sport at SJC. I would prefer a D3 program at a stronger school than a D1 program.schools like MIT, University of Chicago, Caltech, Williams, Amherst, Carnegie Mellon, Swarthmore, and Johns Hopkins University,etc.

Most athletes are not going pro after college.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Basketball announced the same 2-team model last week.

So is this correct: WCAC is for the recruits. The independent league is for regular kids like it used to be back in the day? And this 2-team model means that some kids who would have been edged out by the recruits might now have a chance to play? What's the down side?

Only potential downside is to the student body overall if they will recruit for these varsity B teams.

Just looking at FB, basketball and baseball (girls too for basketball?)…that’s like another 100 kids just for those three sports, so nearly 10% of the school.

Is that too much? For those of you who seek out the SLACs....what is their model of recruited athletes as a % of the entire student [academic] body? Checking online, if appears to be > 10%, at schools many of you love.

At highly selective SLACs (the “elite” tier), it's frequently 30%–40%+
Examples:
- Amherst ~33%
- Bates ~39%
- Williams ~40%

Well, that’s another 10% on top of like the current 25%.

It’s also safe to say that SJC athletes aren’t all that interested in playing for D3 schools…so not sure why you interjected those.

The poster was clearly just using it as a point of comparison of student bodies.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Basketball announced the same 2-team model last week.

So is this correct: WCAC is for the recruits. The independent league is for regular kids like it used to be back in the day? And this 2-team model means that some kids who would have been edged out by the recruits might now have a chance to play? What's the down side?

Only potential downside is to the student body overall if they will recruit for these varsity B teams.

Just looking at FB, basketball and baseball (girls too for basketball?)…that’s like another 100 kids just for those three sports, so nearly 10% of the school.

Is that too much? For those of you who seek out the SLACs....what is their model of recruited athletes as a % of the entire student [academic] body? Checking online, if appears to be > 10%, at schools many of you love.

At highly selective SLACs (the “elite” tier), it's frequently 30%–40%+
Examples:
- Amherst ~33%
- Bates ~39%
- Williams ~40%

Well, that’s another 10% on top of like the current 25%.

It’s also safe to say that SJC athletes aren’t all that interested in playing for D3 schools…so not sure why you interjected those.