D3 CONTENDERS
- Thread starter armyof11
- Start date
It's probably going to be close, but I still consider Catholic as the favorite. More size and speed than what they have had in the past, with excellent coaching, fantastic conditioning and solid fundamentals. I saw their game against North Cross. They looked nervous in the first half and threw a pick-six on the last play of the game in a desperate attempt to put a few more points on the board, but that game was a lot closer than the 34-14 score suggests. Minus that last desperate play, RC matched them in the 2nd half, after they settled down. Their QB gained a lot of experience that night, throwing under pressure, and getting hit on every pass play. His game has improved significantly in just a couple of weeks. Massanutten didn't test them, and, although Fishburne wasn't extremely competitive, the RC QB went 8-8 with two touchdowns and no int's in that game. They have extraordinary depth at running back, with one of them, arguably perhaps at this early point in the season, the best player in the entire division. They also play a more difficult schedule, having to play North Cross, Auburn and Fuqua before they get to Christian. That will be valuable experience. Christian travels to Roanoke toward the end of the season for what will probably be the matchup of the season at D3. Fuqua is still a wild-card, and one never knows how they will try to get around the VISAA rules, but my feeling at this point is that they will come in at #3 in the division this year. My prediction is two more wins for Catholic this year against Richmond Christian, both of which will be played in Roanoke, the last of which will be the state championship.
Fuqua, as you say, might skirt the rules, but Richmond recruits better than anyone in D3. Their running back thet got from Cosby, who isn't listed on the maxpreps roster, had 240 yards on 10 carries against Norfolk Christian, who beat NSA in 1st game. Richmond had 70 guys in high school, but 25 are stellar football players. I'd be curious to see how much tuition is paid by their top 10 players on the roster compared to non athletes in school.
As far as Fuqua, I heard in their 66-35 win at GCA, the kept 1st string offense in the game, but put 2nd and 3rd reserves in on defense to keep game closer. They are worried about losing the small schools on their schedule next year if they blow them out this year.
As far as Fuqua, I heard in their 66-35 win at GCA, the kept 1st string offense in the game, but put 2nd and 3rd reserves in on defense to keep game closer. They are worried about losing the small schools on their schedule next year if they blow them out this year.
You're not supposed to say such things about recruiting and tuition. I've never posted here before today, but have read plenty. I find it humorous how hard some people here try to convince others that schools like North Cross and Fuqua (and IOW last year, at least) doesn't aggressively recruit. Not sure why they try so hard. Just admit it, you know? Everyone already knows it's going on and they know which schools do it the most. I posted today simply because I don't see a lot of love thrown the way of Roanoke Catholic. When they won the D4 title two years ago, no one had any idea how good they were. Just wanted to put a few things out there about them and your original post gave me a good excuse to do so. They have a good team this year, and the outlook is that they will have a good one for awhile longer. They just happen to have a lot of athletes at the high school level right now, but, given their philosophy toward athletics, it won't last forever.
Roanoke Catholic is a good program, year in and year out, no doubt. No one away from the Roanoke area has any idea about their athletes and how they have come up through the Roanoke Catholic system because Roanoke Catholic never puts a roster up on Maxpreps like 99% of the other schools do? Is that some kind of secret strategy so others cannot follow or check your athletes out? How do we know your athletes are home grown? We never see a roster listed. Just wondering.......
Roanoke Catholic is not a good program year in and year out. Not always. They had some success in the early and mid 2000s, but I'm pretty sure they had more losing seasons than winning seasons the last 6-7 years or so leading up to the state championship year in 2014. Heck, leading up to the state title team of 2014, Catholic had gone 4-6 in consecutive seasons and hadn't made the playoffs. And, as a side note - guess how many athletes RC re-classed that played on that state title team? ZERO. Nada. They are always well-coached, but don't always have the athletes and "older" kids that other private schools thrive on. RC has an excellent 10th grade class - it's filled with about 10-12 athletes that have been homegrown since elementary school. They will be contenders every year just due to that class. But no telling what they will have after that class moves on...
As for not posting rosters on Maxpreps, be honest, 99% of high schools do not post football rosters on Maxpreps, and for the ones that do, you can't count on them to be accurate - just look at the comments above about Richmond and they don't even have their transfer stud RB listed on their Maxpreps roster. It's certainly not some RC secret strategy because to my knowledge, Catholic exchanges film AND rosters with every team they play weeks in advance. They've done that for years under current coach.
And yes, Richmond looks to be a top contender along with Catholic, but Fuqua looks very good, too. I'm sure they are still smarting from state championship loss at home two years ago, and their roster is huge. Fuqua has at least 33 kids listed on their roster which makes them the largest roster in D3. And they have incredible size and lots of seniors. Look for Fuqua to be right in the thick of things in D3 this year.
That 2014 RC team, which was small and slow, had no business winning a state championship. It was so gratifying to watch Fuqua compromise their integrity for the sake of winning football games, only to come out and get beat by a team (TWICE!) that was smaller and slower than they were. That RC team there is a testament to what excellent coaching, superior conditioning, and truly inspirational on-field leadership can do.
I have asked Pope Francis to canonize that championship team.
