PAL shuffle

[colhenrylives]

It appears reasonable to speculate that the PAL's three divisions may look like this in 2019:

Bay Division (A) _ Menlo-Atherton, Aragon, Terra Nova, Sacred Heart Prep, King's Academy, Burlingame.

Ocean Division (B) _ Menlo School, Half Moon Bay, Capuchino, Jefferson, Carlmont, Sequoia.

Lake Division (C) _ Mills, El Camino, South San Francisco, Woodside, Hillsdale, San Mateo.

 

[HurricaneFan1990]

It appears reasonable to speculate that the PAL's three divisions may look like this in 2019:

Bay Division (A) _ Menlo-Atherton, Aragon, Terra Nova, Sacred Heart Prep, King's Academy, Burlingame.

Ocean Division (B) _ Menlo School, Half Moon Bay, Capuchino, Jefferson, Carlmont, Sequoia.

Lake Division (C) _ Mills, El Camino, South San Francisco, Woodside, Hillsdale, San Mateo.

Looks good except Parodi won’t want to go down and Jefferson won’t want to go up. Other than that looks good

 

[colhenrylives]

Looks good except Parodi won’t want to go down and Jefferson won’t want to go up. Other than that looks good

You may well be correct.

 

[colhenrylives]

For what it's worth, the current Freeman league rankings for California have the PAL Lake rated above the PAL Ocean today.

 

[hsfb44]

HMB will want to move down
Menlo will want to move down
Kings will want to come up but Lavorato will let it play out in the meeting and accept whatever the publics say.
Bgame will want to stay put and did leapfrog SHP to go down last year. Again private schools don't get much say.
Hillsdale will want to stay in the ocean.

So I don't see two up two down working out.
San Mateo may go back down and Carlmont up for sure.

HMB will go down before menlo and but lets see if Bgame remains and Kings jumps up. Wouldn't be surprised if they ask Kings to come up if Bgame wants to stay!

 

[SPortela24]

Looks good except Parodi won’t want to go down and Jefferson won’t want to go up. Other than that looks good

You may well be correct.

Jefferson wants to move up. I know that for a fact. The real question is why you're making this between Hillsdale not wanting to go down and Jefferson not wanting to go up while putting Capuchino in the Ocean? Jefferson just beat Capuchino, thus they should be the second team up, not Cap. I get that the Mustangs believe they should be playing in the Trinity league with Bosco and Mater Dei but that just isn't the case.

 

[GOTF]

You guys gotta take into account the above mentioned schoool’s current JV win loss record. That almost always becomes part of the conversation.

 

[SPortela24]

HMB will want to move down
Menlo will want to move down
Kings will want to come up but Lavorato will let it play out in the meeting and accept whatever the publics say.
Bgame will want to stay put and did leapfrog SHP to go down last year. Again private schools don't get much say.
Hillsdale will want to stay in the ocean.

So I don't see two up two down working out.
San Mateo may go back down and Carlmont up for sure.

HMB will go down before menlo and but lets see if Bgame remains and Kings jumps up. Wouldn't be surprised if they ask Kings to come up if Bgame wants to stay!

Philipopulous has been wanting out of the Bay Division for a while and that isn't for lack of ability but rather citing a declining turn out for football. I see them opting to stay put and giving TKA the option to move up which I see Lavorato gladly accepting.

The team that will move down is Half Moon Bay. They've been making the same pitch as Burlingame for years except they claim they want to play in the Lake Division.

San Mateo may have a chance to move down if they want to as Jefferson wants up. We know Cap wants up too but they're third in line.

Carlmont will opt up for South City who got blown out by Jefferson, Capuchino, Mills, Woodside and will likely lose their first Bell Game to El Camino since the stone age this week.

TKA, SHP and Menlo should all be permanently stuck in the Bay Division.

 

[colhenrylives]

Philipopulous has been wanting out of the Bay Division for a while and that isn't for lack of ability but rather citing a declining turn out for football. I see them opting to stay put and giving TKA the option to move up which I see Lavorato gladly accepting.

The team that will move down is Half Moon Bay. They've been making the same pitch as Burlingame for years except they claim they want to play in the Lake Division.

San Mateo may have a chance to move down if they want to as Jefferson wants up. We know Cap wants up too but they're third in line.

Carlmont will opt up for South City who got blown out by Jefferson, Capuchino, Mills, Woodside and will likely lose their first Bell Game to El Camino since the stone age this week.

TKA, SHP and Menlo should all be permanently stuck in the Bay Division.

Great point about the privates. They play by much different enrollment boundary rules _ basically none whatsoever.

 

[SPortela24]

You guys gotta take into account the above mentioned schoool’s current JV win loss record. That almost always becomes part of the conversation.

Lightly. Most decent coaches dont want to Coach JV. Great Freshmen and Sophomore players dont play JV. Look back at some of these team's past JV head to head scores and compare them to their Varsity scores this year. I'm sure you will find a lot of discrepancies.

 

[SPortela24]

Great point about the privates. They play by much different enrollment boundary rules _ basically none whatsoever.

Its beyond that.

Those three particular schools have money. They have all the resources you could ever want. My old Landlord was a Quality Control guy at Menlo (former marine who had never played football) and said he was paid by the hour and that the school checked to see how much film he was watching in order to pay him for every minute he dedicated to football. That's insane! Yeah, of course you're going to be able to hand pick your coaches.

They have strength and conditioning coaches. They have updated weight rooms. Some of them have long snapping coaches. Honestly, they should be in the WCAL.

 

[colhenrylives]

Hmmm. Maybe the WCAL should add the three PAL private/parochials, add Palma as well, and create A and B divisions. Like this:

Pope Francis Division: Palma, Bellarmine, VC, SF, Mitty, Serra.

Pope John Division: Menlo, SHP, TKA, SI, SHC, Riordan.

Probably won't happen for a lot of reasons. We can dream.

 

[831ccschamp]

Hmmm. Maybe the WCAL should add the three PAL private/parochials, add Palma as well, and create A and B divisions. Like this:

Pope Francis Division: Palma, Bellarmine, VC, SF, Mitty, Serra.

Pope John Division: Menlo, SHP, TKA, SI, SHC, Riordan.

Probably won't happen for a lot of reasons.

I love this idea

 

[colhenrylives]

Such an arrangement, unlikely though it may be, would solve the WCAL's persistent imbalance problem (the SF trio vs. the five southern schools). It would also free the PAL publics from the private/parochial issue.

 

[dcpanda]

SHP is currently a wcal school in aquatics only. Other wcal schools have been trying to get them to be an all-sport member for years, but SHP has steadfastly refused.

 

[HurricaneFan1990]

Jefferson wants to move up. I know that for a fact. The real question is why you're making this between Hillsdale not wanting to go down and Jefferson not wanting to go up while putting Capuchino in the Ocean? Jefferson just beat Capuchino, thus they should be the second team up, not Cap. I get that the Mustangs believe they should be playing in the Trinity league with Bosco and Mater Dei but that just isn't the case.

Sorry didn't get back to this sooner. Here's the why. Jefferson won the league last year and didn't go up by choice (it wasn't a group decision.) I'm not sure how this year will be different? I'm not in their meetings so not sure.

They have now been beaten soundly by HMB and Carlmont, the only two decent teams on their schedule. You could make the argument that they beat Cap and should go up (and you would be right) but that doesn't mean it will happen. Cap I think wants up, right or wrong. May happen we will see.

I think HMB is an Ocean team with a great staff, system and tradition. They are ultimately a small public school that at times over achieves as they did last year, but that cannot be expected as the norm. I think South City with the coaching change is a Lake team.

As far as the SHP/TKA/Menlo moving out of the PAL argument, I would say the following. They are able to pay coaches much more than any of the publics, and they do. This is a sticking point as well as the fact that they have no enrollment boundaries. Their statement when pressed is that the publics should "work harder and step up to the challenge." I would say "Work harder and step up to the WCAL." But I think all 3 being smaller private schools with small rosters, they would have to make a commitment to bring in more football playing kids, which means more "aid" to able bodied individuals, and I'm not sure if their boards are ready to go that route.

 

[colhenrylives]

Excellent analysis. Well-done.

 

[SPortela24]

Sorry didn't get back to this sooner. Here's the why. Jefferson won the league last year and didn't go up by choice (it wasn't a group decision.) I'm not sure how this year will be different? I'm not in their meetings so not sure.

They have now been beaten soundly by HMB and Carlmont, the only two decent teams on their schedule. You could make the argument that they beat Cap and should go up (and you would be right) but that doesn't mean it will happen. Cap I think wants up, right or wrong. May happen we will see.

It wasn't be choice. Jefferson was open to either or. Initially, Carlmont wanted up but changed their tune at the meeting. Ultimately, Jeff made it clear they were Lake Division Champs willing to go wherever the votes took them. It was San Mateo who blatantly said they felt they were an Ocean Division program and wanted to go up and got voted up. They're not the only team that did that. Terra Nova also said they could be a Bay or Ocean Division team. Sacred Heart Prep said they could go either way.

I will make one other argument. I think whoever gets promoted / demoted should be forced to stay in that league for at least two seasons. Why? There isn't much of an opportunity to establish yourself if you get promoted and typically when you get demoted you go from playing tougher competition to playing lesser competition.

I think HMB is an Ocean team with a great staff, system and tradition. They are ultimately a small public school that at times over achieves as they did last year, but that cannot be expected as the norm. I think South City with the coaching change is a Lake team.

As far as the SHP/TKA/Menlo moving out of the PAL argument, I would say the following. They are able to pay coaches much more than any of the publics, and they do. This is a sticking point as well as the fact that they have no enrollment boundaries. Their statement when pressed is that the publics should "work harder and step up to the challenge." I would say "Work harder and step up to the WCAL." But I think all 3 being smaller private schools with small rosters, they would have to make a commitment to bring in more football playing kids, which means more "aid" to able bodied individuals, and I'm not sure if their boards are ready to go that route.

 

[Pigskins&Leather Helmets]

I see that both the PAL and SCVAL have same issues. Year in and Year out 3 or 4 schools dominate the A Leagues. Why not merge the 2 Leagues into a 32 team league. Last year SCVAL did approach PAL about merging.
A League = Wilcox; Palo Alto; Milpitas; Los Gatos; M-A; SHP; Terra Nova; TKA
B League North = Menlo; HMB; Burlingame; Aragon; Hillsdale; Cap; Carl; Jefferson
B League South = Cupertino; Fremont; Homestead; Mt. View; Saratoga; Santa Clara; Monta Vista; Gunn
C League = Lynbrook; SSF; Los Altos; Woodside; Mills; El Camino; San Mateo; Sequoia

 

[SpeedCity51]

I see that both the PAL and SCVAL have same issues. Year in and Year out 3 or 4 schools dominate the A Leagues. Why not merge the 2 Leagues into a 32 team league. Last year SCVAL did approach PAL about merging.
A League = Wilcox; Palo Alto; Milpitas; Los Gatos; M-A; SHP; Terra Nova; TKA
B League North = Menlo; HMB; Burlingame; Aragon; Hillsdale; Cap; Carl; Jefferson
B League South = Cupertino; Fremont; Homestead; Mt. View; Saratoga; Santa Clara; Monta Vista; Gunn
C League = Lynbrook; SSF; Los Altos; Woodside; Mills; El Camino; San Mateo; Sequoia

PCAL has this issue too with Palma, Hollister, Aptos, and Salinas. The BVAL is the only equity league that doesn’t have as big of an issue with this, but that is just because the league as a whole just hasn’t been that great recently.

 

[colhenrylives]

So what happened at the PAL coaches' meeting? Who's up? Who's down?

 

[SPortela24]

Hasn't happened yet.

 

[colhenrylives]

Hasn't happened yet.

Thanks.

 

[shcguy92]

Re: SHP to the WCAL, they were a charter member when it added the girls. For six years they hung in there but left because their school size was not able to have them compete with the big four ( SI, SHC, MITTY, ST. FRANCIS)

So based on that experience they are opting not to join the WCAL as a full member.

 

[SPortela24]

2019 PAL Alignment (OFFICIAL)

BAY

Menlo-Atherton
Sacred Heart Prep
Terra Nova
Burlingame
King's Academy
Aragon

OCEAN

Menlo
Half Moon Bay
Carlmont
Hillsdale
Sequoia
San Mateo

LAKE

Jefferson
Capuchino
Woodside
El Camino
Mills
South San Francisco

 

[colhenrylives]

2019 PAL Alignment (OFFICIAL)

This seems reasonable.

BAY

Menlo-Atherton
Sacred Heart Prep
Terra Nova
Burlingame
King's Academy
Aragon

OCEAN

Menlo
Half Moon Bay
Carlmont
Hillsdale
Sequoia
San Mateo

LAKE

Jefferson
Capuchino
Woodside
El Camino
Mills
South San Francisco

 

[colhenrylives]

Re: SHP to the WCAL, they were a charter member when it added the girls. For six years they hung in there but left because their school size was not able to have them compete with the big four ( SI, SHC, MITTY, ST. FRANCIS)

So based on that experience they are opting not to join the WCAL as a full member.

SHP boys have never been a full WCAL participant.

 

[shcguy92]

I was referring to the girls not the boys. SHP girls were a full member when WCAL added girls about a decade ago and it added SF MITTY AND PRESENTATION along with the defunct GPSL which brought in SI, SHC, NOTRE DAME BELMONT, MERCY BURLINGAME, and SHP