The Washington Catholic Athletic Conference is arguably the toughest high school sports association in the United States of America.
The toughest conference in America.
The WCAC has been at the forefront of ushering in a new era of recruiting that has shifted the landscape of secondary education, and football is no exception.
The tale of the WCAC in football, and really all the sports played is a story of the best of teams and the worst of teams. The conference known for producing nationally ranked basketball teams in the same season is unique in that all programs at least enjoy the privilege of greatness by association. Unlike basketball, which has exhibited relative parity over the years, WCAC football programs are worlds apart. The schism between schools that made the unwavering commitment to compete on a national level in football and those that didn’t clearly strained the organization more than the other sports. The result was a lopsided mess military guys call a SNAFU: systems normal all fouled up.
DeMatha, Good Counsel, Saint John’s College, and Gonzaga would all make headlines with their football programs by notching clutch wins in national upsets. The four schools with the biggest football traditions in the WCAC continued to prosper, and all of them could be seen on national broadcasts via ESPN over the last five years. The WCAC schools in Virginia were the first to secede and they ultimately identified football as the cause. Bishop Ireton, Paul VI, and then Bishop O’Connell decided that they couldn’t compete with the rising talent level that all of the exposure generated for the Big Four. Archbishop Carroll, Bishop McNamara, and Saint Mary’s Ryken were equally unnerved by the massive arms race occurring in football but hung on despite taking a lot of lumps.
The WCAC was forced to reorganize and update the rules to accommodate a stronger commissioner. Next year they will unveil a two-tiered football schedule and they have expanded to include The Heights School, which is already competing in soccer this year. The conference will be unified in the sport of football again, but in this interim year get ready to see more of just how we got this way in the first place. The Big Four will continue to dominate, sometimes shuffling win and losses between each other but with seldom a loss to the other WCAC members. The 2017 WCAC football season has already begun with Gonzaga pummeling Bishop McNamara 38-0 on Eye Street with a freshman starting at quarterback.
There just aren’t too many schools that want to face that kind of ability to reload on a yearly basis and the Mustangs (0-5) deserve some sort of award for courage. Deeper programs like Gonzaga keep attracting Division 1 caliber players because of examples set by alumni like Kevin Hogan in the NFL. This is just one example but the Gonzaga Purple Eagles (5-1) are still fighting to break into their first WCAC championship game since 2011. Gonzaga is clearly a playoff team. The Eagles were even cut off from competing for the tiny DC “state title,” but they haven’t won a WCAC football championship since 2002. Gonzaga is our pick to finish fourth this year but if they stay healthy they can give anyone problems, for a spell.
Our Lady of Good Counsel will also be challenged to sustain their glory on the gridiron in 2017. The WCAC’s winningest football coach Bob Milloy retired in 2016, after only the second season since 2004 in which they didn’t appear in the championship game. Replacing legends is never easy but the Falcons (4-1), again, looked within their program and picked a gamer in head coach Andy Stephanelli. Good Counsel is still solid and they have shocked teams in the area that might have forgotten that the Falcons were league champions in football from 2009-2012. Still, after facing what should be the top two teams in the WCAC in the ensuing fortnight we believe that home field advantage should be enough to rattle Gonzaga on October 27.
The Saint John’s College Cadets are proof that the transition to elite status in football can come at a steep price. SJC suffers from an identity crisis and every season that goes by seems to make it worse because they certainly sacrificed the most and have the least to show for it. The Cadets opted to go the full-on Moneyball route, but cash hasn’t proven to be a panacea so far. Program alumnus and Under Armour founder Kevin Plank financed a complete overhaul that included an injection of transfers and two head coaches at one point. The Cadets have been knocking on the door in recent years with a lot of notable wins, but none against the defending WCAC champions in the last quarter century.
SJC was supposed to be overwhelming the league with their unlimited resources, but they have underachieved in WCAC football and they have to look back to the old Metro conference for their last title in 1989. Head coach Joe Casamento is trying to change all of that by unleashing the new and improved program on the top teams in the nation but the cracks in the plan have been obvious. The Christian Brothers are probably wondering if a 2-2 record was worth these changes but they haven’t given up the lofty expectations that they have for their football program. School missions aside, whether or not superstar transfers can manufacture enough team chemistry for a title is the question that has relegated the Cadets to second place of late, despite attaining a national ranking in USA Today earlier this season.
The four-time defending WCAC football champion DeMatha Stags have also had a lot to do with that. Head coach Elijah Brooks is now unquestionably the best in the league and his players desperately want to add to this budding dynasty. The Stags lost their opening game of the season but have reeled off four straight wins since then, two of them shutouts. The DeMatha defense hasn’t given up a score in the second half of a football game since Bishop Gorman got the better of them in August. DeMatha (4-1) will open WCAC play against a Gonzaga team that already has three shutouts under their belt on October 6. It is safe to say that everyone is coming for the kings of the WCAC and SJC and Good Counsel are good tests for the Stags to improve their national ranking in USA Today.
It is a long way down from the top and the rest of the WCAC will just be searching for ways to get by in football in 2017. The faces and names might be old news but the essence of the conference is probably going to remain the same for a little while.
With a league that routinely produces heavyweights, the WCAC will realize that they were wise to err on the side of caution and let some teams sit the football slugfest out. What we have this year are six teams competing for the WCAC trophy in football and the rest will rejoin the league next year when the new rules take effect. DeMatha, SJC, Good Counsel, Gonzaga, McNamara, and Carroll could finish in that order during this abbreviated 2017 football season.
It is worth writing that basketball seems to be the honey that kept Bishop Ireton, Ryken, O’Connell, and Paul VI in the WCAC hive. (Those teams will all play independent schedules in 2017, and they won’t be in contention for a title in football this year.) The overall risk-reward for student-athletes is better in basketball and the notoriety of the league has made it a pipeline to Division 1 schools, and beyond. Football is still trying to find a balance in the WCAC, but the shadow of a more formidable conference is still going to bash each other with everything they have in the meanwhile. The only thing that could stop this show is if the culture changes and WCAC football is on the rise.
As per usual, the traditional rivalry games are worth experiencing live. The oldest, continuous football game in the country between Gonzaga and Saint John’s is on November 4. Bishop McNamara is hosted by Archbishop Carroll on October 7. Good Counsel will try to pull off an upset against DeMatha on Friday, October 13 at the PG Sports & Learning Complex. Then DeMatha will travel to Saint John’s on Military Road on October 21.
Did we forget to mention that DeMatha vs Gonzaga is October 6? We hope that you tune into DM Stags TV to check this one out free of charge on the NFHS Network. The Big Four are all ranked in the top ten in The Washington Post, so everyone should remember. Follow the #WCAC hashtag on Twitter if the #DeMatha (live) hashtag is too lit. We have you covered here at The Chronicles of Six, so always check for updates in our Sports category! Let us keep connecting you to the reputable sources.
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