MickeyBern

The big stumbling block was money. DV was offering $12,000 & it would cost roughly $130,000. IMG coming to NJ was a no brainer.

I'll take your word for it

interesting..I was told by my source that he was glad they are playing IMG & not Duncanville. There was a lot of respect for the physicality of the Texas teams and he was worried about injuries to start the season. He said they feel they can hang with IMG. The belief was a Duncanville game could have had similarities to the Chaminade game. Not as quick or athletic but definitely a very well rounded & coached team that was a lot more physical.

You know what is interesting, from what I've been told, the players were consulted on the 2 OOS games (especially IMG) and it was they who pushed for the games.

Don't know much about him but seems to have a good stats against not so great competition.

Well that is 1 way to look at it. 5 years ago I would have wholeheartedly agreed with you but now my view is more nuanced. The public schools in NJ have screamed about the Catholic schools for years as they came to dominate most sports but we were at least confined by a certain geography. You had to at least be able to get there everyday. But now it has been taken up a notch. Bergen Catholic lost its entire starting basketball team in the off season to transfer with 4 of them going to Academy schools. Link Academy in Missouri has been a popular destination. No one is crying for the local private schools who have feasted on public school competition over the last 20 years because their programs are now susceptible to the same poaching that they have been accused of committing in years past. But this does lead to a tremendous amount of turmoil & just like I have said in the past, what happens at the collegiate level eventually comes down to high school sports. No stability, no loyalty & no school spirit. Just seems to take all of the fun out of it. Programs won't be built--They will bought.

from the way I understand it the timeline went something like this (THIS IS MY INTERPRETATION)--Blair Academy in Blairstown NJ has been the perennial national champion in wrestling for over 30 years. Although they always had kids from all over the nation wrestle there, they always had about 60% (depending on year) of their team consist of kids from Eastern PA, NY & NJ. They had the pick of the litter but over time the local private Catholic schools built up their programs, especially Bergen Catholic (my alma mater). Our program has now taken a fall & Delbarton has pretty much taken the mantle. The talent gap began to close and it culminated in 2018 with BC defeating Blair for the 1st time. Many of the top BC wrestlers would no doubt had been at Blair a decade earlier. So the next year the Blair team became somewhat more national as they went out and aggressively recruited and lo & behold they land California State Champion Dominick Matte from Poway. Blair was the evil empire that everyone already hated (I would kind of think how Mater Dei is perceived in football). This recruiting coup was tantamount to pissing on a hornets nest, for the Cali wrestling community went parabolic and in their haste got this rule passed. But it wasn't just wrestling it was for all sports. In wrestling it has had a profound effect on tournaments as the Cali teams no longer go to the #1 tournament in the nation the Walsh Ironman in Ohio because Blair and other prep teams are there. Hope this gives some clarity.

The Cali rule was put in place explicitly to curb recruiting Prep teams like Blair & Wyoming Seminary in wrestling, IMG and the like in football as well as all of the basketball academy teams. I believe the rule states that in order to be eligible to compete against Cali schools you must play in your respective state's State Championship. Don't hold me to all the details. This rule was actually launched because of a wrestling matter but it was made all encompassing.

that stinks. oh well I guess they still need a Week 1 game though correct?

understood just happy Bergen isn't shying away after our visit to Hollywood last season

Those are 2 really solid games by BC

No Bergen?? WTF

This is absolutely horrible

I did my best Charlie Harper impression last night. I'm paying for it today.

Yeah I was drunk