DETROIT — Based on its past record of championship success, the Catholic High School League has earned a lot of respect in prep football circles.
But how does a team earn respect from within the league?
If this fall’s pre-season coaches poll is any indication, taking on any and all challenges brings a lot of credibility.
All four teams predicted to win division titles — Toledo Central Catholic, Jackson Lumen Christi, Detroit Loyola and Clarkston Everest Collegiate — are much smaller than their opponents enrollment-wise, yet each takes a big-program approach while aiming for end-of-the-season accomplishments.
After joining the Catholic League in 2023, Lumen Christi won the AA Division, the Prep Bowl game and the Division 7 state championship. Head coach Herb Brogan said the Titans’ rugged regular-season schedule was excellent preparation for its deep post-season run.
“It was the teams we played. It was the meat of the schedule; right in the middle, playing against big, physical kids with skill,” Brogan said. “Nobody loves getting beat up every week or stepping up in class every week, but it paid benefits down the road. You can’t do it for nine weeks, but that three-week stretch really made our kids believers. We were 3-0 but we really hadn’t played anybody before we were playing (University of Detroit Jesuit). Our kids started believing that week.”
Each of Lumen Christi’s AA Division opponents — University of Detroit Jesuit, Dearborn Divine Child and Toledo St. Francis de Sales — dwarf them when it comes to the number of students enrolled, by as many as 1,000 students. And following two consecutive state championships in Division 7, the Titans are opting to play in the Division 6 playoffs this fall.
“We’ve always played up,” Brogan said, “and what I’ve found over the years, playing against good football teams so many times, that when you get to the playoffs you’re not seeing the best team you’ve seen all year — but they’re seeing the best team they’ve seen all year. That’s where playing good football teams comes into play.”
Despite the enrollment disparity, Brogan is taking the pre-season prediction with a grain of salt.
“It’s great to win league titles, but the regular season is a stepping-stone,” he said. “Our first goal always is to make the playoffs. Sometimes that doesn’t require a lot for us — if you can win four games, you’re in for sure. But you can’t win a state title if you aren’t in the playoffs. That’s our first and most important goal is to get to the playoffs, and we always feel that if we get to them, we have a chance to make things happen.”
Newcomer Loyola tabbed in Intersectional-1
Loyola, with 284 students, had also played in the AA Division for the past 11 years with some success. This fall, a league realignment has placed the Bulldogs in the smaller Intersectional-1 division, although they will still face a schedule of mostly larger schools.
“I think it’s a perfect fit,” head coach Tee Sims said. “We’re a good, quality team, and we’re looking forward to matching up with those guys — Lutheran North, Liggett, Gabriel Richard, Cranbrook. We played Cranbrook last year (a 59-20 win) so we got a little taste of one of the teams, so we’re looking forward to the year.”
Even though Loyola is new to the Intersectional-1, the division’s other coaches didn’t hesitate to make the Bulldogs the consensus favorite.
“I don’t know if it’s good or bad; it’s just a target on our back,” Sims said. “It’s probably because of the competition we’ve been playing over the last few years. They know we’ve been playing schools much larger than us, so now, we’re right where we fit. I appreciate that gesture, but we’ve got to live up to it.”
Loyola has reached the MHSAA playoffs in 15 of the past 17 years, won the Division 7 state title in 2014 and made three other appearances in the state championship game. Loyola usually plays a regular-season schedule that is among the most challenging for any team in the state, and is taking a similar approach this fall. Sims agrees that it can pay dividends.
“One hundred percent,” he said. “Our non-league play will enhance that also. All of our opposing teams are higher divisions. We open up with Romulus, then (Detroit) Cody, and we play Country Day.”
Sims says the league realignment opens up some new possibilities for his team.
“Our goal is always 1 and 0 (each week), of course,” he said. “We want to build that momentum going into the Catholic League play, but we really want to go to the Prep Bowl and compete. We’d love to have a chance to play down at Ford Field. Obviously winning the division puts us in a good place in the playoffs. It’s the spot we want to be.”
Toledo CC, Everest poised to repeat
Toledo Central Catholic was another CHSL newcomer in 2023, and the Fighting Irish made believers out of the other Central Division schools right out of the box. Toledo CC won all six of its league games, beat Detroit Cass Tech 48-23 in the Prep Bowl, and eventually completed a 16-0 season by winning its second consecutive state title in Ohio.
Now, Greg Dempsey’s squad is ready to pick up where it left off, and is favored to repeat its success in the Central Division. The Fighting Irish, too, are smaller than their division foes, with an enrollment of 500 which places them in Ohio’s third-largest playoff division. Every team on its 10-game schedule is larger.
In the Intersectional-2, Clarkston Everest Collegiate is expected to continue its measure of dominance. Everest — one of the smallest schools in Michigan playing 11-man football — has won all but three of the 34 league games it has played since the Intersectional-2 was established eight seasons ago. The Mountaineers won the league title in six of those seasons, and have four Prep Bowl victories.
And how’s this for a non-league schedule? Everest will play both of the teams that competed for the 2023 Division 8 state championship, Ubly and Ottawa-Lake Whiteford, along with Warren Michigan Collegiate, who played in the Division 6 final in 2022.
The regular season kicks off on Aug. 29 (it began Aug. 23 in Ohio, where teams play one more game than the Michigan schools). The Prep Bowl takes place at Ford Field on Oct. 25, with state playoffs beginning one week after that.
Here are the results of the Catholic League pre-season coaches’ polls:
Central Division predicted finish: 1.) Toledo Central Catholic, 2.) Detroit Catholic Central, 3.) Warren De La Salle, 4.) Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, 5.) Toledo St. John’s Jesuit, 6.) Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice.
AA Division predicted finish: 1.) Lumen Christi, 2.) Dearborn Divine Child, 3.) University of Detroit Jesuit, 4.) Toledo St. Francis de Sales.
Intersectional-1 Division predicted finish: 1.) Loyola, 2.) Macomb Lutheran North, 3.) Ann Arbor Fr. Gabriel Richard, 4.) Riverview Gabriel Richard, 5.) Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook, 6.) Grosse Pointe Woods University-Liggett.
Intersectional-2 Division predicted finish: 1.) Everest Collegiate, 2.) Marine City Cardinal Mooney, 3.) Madison Heights Bishop Foley, 4.) Allen Park Cabrini, 5.) Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes, 6.) Royal Oak Shrine.
Copy Permalink
