Father Ryan Football " Purple Pride"

[cbg]

Rome was not built in a day and the Father Ryan football program will not get back on top in one season. From the outside things seem to be moving in the proper direction. I noticed that the freshmen team and JV team went undefeated so they must have a few athletes in the pipeline for the future. How do the players and alumni feel about the program?

Edited November 4, 2005 by cbg

[uncfan13]

Because of JPII diluting FR's historic pipeline, a resurgence is going to be tough. Of course you can pull a BA and build a quality team pretty quickly.

[Eireannach go Bragh]

Because of JPII diluting FR's historic pipeline, a resurgence is going to be tough. Of course you can pull a BA and build a quality team pretty quickly.

 

UNCFAN,

 

It's interesting that MBA should be discussing "academic" prowess and "dilution" when I know for a fact that since the big "E" has opened it's doors, MBA has

suddenly started to accept students & student/atheletes that would have normally

not been accepted. As Ensworth grows I think it will be interesting to see how this impacts the need for MBA to recruit outside their usual bounds. Sure JPII has had an impact. I think the greater impact in favor of FRHS is the new coach and the

increase enthusiasm for the future by the students.

 

Tough year ? Yes.

Improvement? Absolutely!

 

The BOLD prediction:

Look for exponential improvement next year & a contender for the title in the next

2 to 3 years. Very athletic young men in this years freshman and sophmore

group. With a hunger for wins and the scattered talent of the next years seniors

the leadership base is there to help our new coach produce.

 

Tiocfaidh 'ar la'

"Our day will come"

[itzme]

Because of JPII diluting FR's historic pipeline, a resurgence is going to be tough. Of course you can pull a BA and build a quality team pretty quickly.

You are stunningly ignorant.

[uncfan13]

UNCFAN,

 

"It's interesting that MBA should be discussing "academic" prowess and "dilution" when I know for a fact that since the big "E" has opened it's doors, MBA has

suddenly started to accept students & student/atheletes that would have normally

not been accepted. As Ensworth grows I think it will be interesting to see how this impacts the need for MBA to recruit outside their usual bounds. Sure JPII has had an impact. I think the greater impact in favor of FRHS is the new coach and the

increase enthusiasm for the future by the students."

 

Since the purpose of the parochial school system is to educate Catholic youth and not necessarily to win TN football championships, and since there are now two Catholic high schools educating 50% more Catholic youth, and since the population of Catholics to be educated in the greater Nashville metro area hasn't grown by 50% in the last 6 or 7 years, and since FRHS isn't going to go out and give a lot of scholarships to non Catholic football players, I say that it is a pretty good bet that the negative impact of JPII on FRHS football will be greater than the positive impact of a new coach.

 

The good news is that in 10 months one of our predictions will be validated.

[rollredroll]

It's interesting that MBA should be discussing "academic" prowess and "dilution" when I know for a fact that since the big "E" has opened it's doors, MBA has

suddenly started to accept students & student/atheletes that would have normally

not been accepted. As Ensworth grows I think it will be interesting to see how this impacts the need for MBA to recruit outside their usual bounds. Sure JPII has had an impact. I think the greater impact in favor of FRHS is the new coach and the

increase enthusiasm for the future by the students.

 

First, the comments about dilution and academic prowess on this thread were made by a McCallie fan.

 

Second, it seems to be a trendy, "in" thing for people to comment about the impact Ensworth is having on MBA. I have heard so much conflicting information, and coincidentally enough from both sides of the table to promote/discredit whichever school they support/dislike. While I initially cringed at the politically correct "the addition of another choice [Ensworth] is good for Nashville private schools", I think that sentiment will actually prove true over time.

 

I've seen Ensworth's roster. I know and have talked to parents of current EHS football players. To a man (and woman), none of those people is convinced that all of their student-athletes are coming at the expense of MBA (my two cents from my side of the table).

 

Back to Father Ryan...

[BigDogDaddy]

Fr. Ryan has an extremely bright future. I've seen their varsity push Franklin around and I've seen the horses they have on the freshman team. Mentally they were coached extremely well to come into Howard Gamble stadium and take down last years 5A runner up. They executed well no mistakes, no heros, just a well oiled machine. I look for them to take down the likes of BA and MBA in years to come.

Edited November 4, 2005 by BigDogDaddy

[Father Ryan Wrestling]

Because of JPII diluting FR's historic pipeline, a resurgence is going to be tough. Of course you can pull a BA and build a quality team pretty quickly.

 

Pope mainly takes kids from St.Joseph(Tate) from us, and when we got kids from HRA(all the good athletes from HRA go to FR anyway, guy wise), St. Henry, and Stedwards coming, we really dont care about Pope taking kids from us. As long as they get a good Catholic education. Our talent lines are quite filled to the tap. The freshman team beat both MBA and McCallie, and the JV team beat BA. Note the fact that most of the JV is the same excact freshman who turned a lot of heads with a good season. The seniors this year missed out, but they had the most potent season with this one.

 

People overlook our junior class. It hasnt had a lot of press, but there are guys names in here that used to make me fear playing them in parochial schools. Now this class has the chance to felx its muscles with and excellent junior class and an excellent sophmore class coming up. If this is my last season, then I will be walking home with the state championship trophy, I garuntee it. Oh, and Tex, I need my kleets back for next season. Buckle Up!

[KWoodroof]

I would think that JPII would take kids form St. Joseph away from Ryan, although I don't know how many of their kids made the trip to Father Ryan. I suspect JPII opens up the Catholic education to more kids in the Madison-Hendersonville-Goodlettsville area, rather than taking away from Ryan. I applaud anybody who takes note of the fact that a school's purpose is to provide an education (Catholic in this case), and not solely to warehouse kids during the daytime hours before practice.

 

I'm an MBA alumnus, and I'd be delighted to see FR's fortunes improve. The MBA-Ryan rivalry is old and has a lot of great moments, and I'd like to see that return as the marquee game in the Nashville area.

[Romper]

I could be a little off, but the problem as I understand it is this...FR has sorta put themselves in a Vandy of D-II position. They are trying to live, predominately, with the kids from the parochial system and play people who get everyone. Not only that, but they are also losing parochial kids to MBA, BA and now some to JPII and eventually Ensworth, too. (Anyone who thinks Ricky Bowers can't recruit is insane.) Just as Vandy recruits a "self-limited" pool and tries to play with people who can go after anyone in the country, FR is recruiting a "self-limited" pool and trying to play with people who go after anyone. It is my understanding though that their Freshmen and JV teams were pretty good, so good luck Irish.

[KWoodroof]

I could be a little off, but the problem as I understand it is this...FR has sorta put themselves in a Vandy of D-II position. They are trying to live, predominately, with the kids from the parochial system and play people who get everyone. Not only that, but they are also losing parochial kids to MBA, BA and now some to JPII and eventually Ensworth, too. (Anyone who thinks Ricky Bowers can't recruit is insane.) Just as Vandy recruits a "self-limited" pool and tries to play with people who can go after anyone in the country, FR is recruiting a "self-limited" pool and trying to play with people who go after anyone. It is my understanding though that their Freshmen and JV teams were pretty good, so good luck Irish.

 

There's probably something to that. In the early '70's, there was a very limited number of choices for parents who wanted to send a child to a private high school. I recall MBA, Ryan, BGA, possibly Goodpasture (not sure exactly when they opened their high school). Ryan, while a Catholic school, accepted a lot of protestant kids (and not just athletes). Parents have a lot more choices in the independent school "market".

 

I'm not sure how limited Ryan's draw is. Perhaps it is; I'm more inclined to think that Ryan's football fortunes are just in a bit of a slump, and with decent coaching, things will get better. MBA has certainly had a good run the last several years, but from '74 thru '78, MBA went 6-4, 5-5, 2-8, and 6-4. It happens sometimes.

[DS2001]

Romper, you have come closer to identifying Ryan`s problem better than anyone who has written in these threads. The fact is, is that Ryan is going to continue to get the majority of their students from the Catholic Elementary/Middle schools. They simply do not have the financial resources to fund a lot of Non-Catholic scholarships. I think currently the non Catholic -population at Ryan is less than 10% whereas it is around 40% at Pope John Paul. Geographically, JPII has an advantage in that there are not that many private school options in the Sumner County area. Ryan, on the other hand is surrounded by quality private school options that are throwing out all kinds of financial aid packages to deserving student athletes.

I think our football teams will ebb and flow as the Parochial teams feed good and not so good athletes each year. We truly are the only school in D-II AAA that are in this unique situation. Christian Brothers in Memphis is really more aligned with the other 6 schools as they are not affiliated with the Catholic Diocese.

We must take what we get each year, coach them up to compete against our peer D-II brethern and see what happens.

I believe we have a quality head football coach who will eventually get his assistant coaches in place and also get a new stadium.

I`m optimistic that we can get to the point that we can hold our own with our opponents and become a more competitive member of D-II AAA

 

Besides, everybody locally likes to play us because we always bring a big gate. As bad as we have been in the past five years in football, I have yet to see any team locally outdraw our crowd. We have tremendous support.