NORTH DEFEATS BONNER - HEADS TO THE PCL CHAMPIONSHIP!!!

the north catholic wrestling team defeated monsignor bonner on saturday 46-20 on saturday afternoon to ensure themselves another trip to the pcl finals. North will wrestle rival LaSalle on wednesday night at 7pm. The match will take place at the famous north catholic "pit". i would recommend that you get there early...i have a feeling it is going to be packed....

NORTH WRESTLING WINS ABINGTON'S GHOST TOWN DUALS!

Another weekend, another impressive showing by the north catholic wrestling team. north catholic earned 5 hard fought victories to come away with the team title at the abington duals. this marks the 3rd tournament trophy for the north catholic squad out of 4 tries (although an 8th place showing at the escape the rock was not too shabby!) here are scores from this weekend:


NC - 41 - Abington - 21
NC - 50 - Pottsgrove - 24
NC - 37 - Upper Moreland - 36*
NC - 51 - William Tennet - 18
NC - 39 - Plymouth Whitemarsh - 27


* the match with upper moreland was tied 36-36 after regulation. big pins by anthony white, aj vizcarrondo, and david davidson allowed us tie the score. nc won the match on the 8th criteria - most 1st points scored.


some notes from this weekend:

- Mike McCall, David Davidson, Anthony White, AJ Vizcarrondo, and Jeremy Reith all went 5-0 on the day.

- also of note: erik stankiewcz, tommy goodyear, will trainor, and tim maguire all went 4-1.

- anthony "technique tony" siwek got his first varsity pin.

- AJ Vizcarrondo ended the day with 29 takedown in this 5 matches.

- David Davidson was awarded the most outstanding wrestler for the day.

COUNTDOWN TO 100!
David Davidson and Mike McCall creeping up on the 100 win plateau. David has 94 and Mike currently has 93. Both wrestlers are wrestling extremely well right now and should eclipse the mark somewhere during their state tournament run.

NORTH WRESTLERS IN THE STATE RANKINGS

there used to be a time when a north wrestler in the southeastern pa rankings was big news. however, after being ignored most of the season, 5 north wrestlers are currently ranked in the top 25 in the state of Pennsylvania. The rankings are:

mike mccall - 19th @ 103
david davidson - 25th @ 125
anthony white - 7th @ 140
aj vizcarrondo - 15th @ 215
jeremy reith - 12th @ 285

all of these wrestlers have high goals and although a ranking now is nice, the only ranking that matters is the second week of march. i would not be surpised to see all 5 of these wrestlers on the podium in Hershey.

lastly, i would like to thank everyone who turned out for our beef-n-beer on saturday night. i was great as always to see many of our old parents and wrestlers. please keep the last saturday in april open of the north catholic alumni and friends of the program bash. more info to follow.....

North Wrestling goes 3-2 at the NHSCA Wrestling Festival

The North Catholic wrestling team traveled up the northeast extension this weekend to attend the NHSCA Wrestling Festival held in Broadsheadville, PA. North competed in 5 duals and ended the day with a 3-2 record. North wrestled hard but were not able to overcome a lot of pins that were given up by our inexperienced wrestlers. Here are the match scores.....

North Catholic 49- Ponoco Mountain West - 24

North Catholic 37 - Emmaus - 40

North Catholic 49 - Central Bucks East - 24

North Catholic 29 - Stroudsburg 39

North Catholic 43 - East Stroudsburg South - 25

Some notes on the matches:

- Mike McCall, Erik Stankiewcz, David Davidson, Anthony White, and AJ Vizcarrondo all went 5-0 on the day for the varsity and Anthony "technique tony" siwek and Gary Robinson both went undefeated on jv

- David Davidson and Mike McCall increased their career win totals to 88 and 86 respectively. Both will have a chance to surpass 100 career wins by the end of the season.

- Gary Robinson went 1-0 in his only varsity match increasing his varsity record to 2-0.

- Gary also beat a wrestler from Blair Academy and Easton in the same day....

- Coach Rick lost us his first team point of the season and 5th for his career. he only has to get thrown out of 5 more tournaments and lose 13 more points to surpass the career totals of former coach Bill Hunter.

North wrestling returns to action this weekend. We wrestle Germantown Academy on friday night at GA and travel to Abington to compete in the postponed Abington Duals on Saturday.

WRESTLE-PALOOZA

yesterday, the north catholic wrestling team had their annual wrestle-palooza inter-team wrestling tournament. after 2+ hours of intense wrestling, Anthony White defeated Jeremy Reith in the ultimate rideout to win 3-2 and become 2010's wrestle-palooza champion. Congrats also go out to coach canc for this stunning fall over coach cosimo to take 3rd place and finish on the podium for the first time in his career. Here is a picture of coach cosimo on the medal stand....

as for coach savage, he was the victim of shady seeding politics and even shadier officiating and dropped both of his matches to go 0-2 on the day. he had to defeat coach mascino and coach murphy to advance. after giving up 50+ pounds to each coach and wrestling like the warrior he is, he lost 4-2 (in OT) to coach rick, and 6-4 to coach teddy. if some of you dont know what they look like, i have attached some photos.....

Coach Rick Mascino

Coach Ted Murphy

Lastly: the north catholic wrestling beef-n-beer will be held this saturday at 7pm at north catholic. tickets are $25 and can be bought at the door. hope to see you there.

One Alum's View of Cristo Rey and NC

Background

To begin with, I will admit that although it sounded exciting to me when I found out about the possibility of North Catholic staying open, or re-opening, as a Cristo Rey Network school, I was a little skeptical about the idea.

I was told that these schools are high caliber academic places at a fraction of the cost to the students’ families. With education costing around $10,000 or more per student in this area, how could someone provide a better education at a fraction of the $5,200 per year that it currently costs for an archdiocesan school? But, be the ever diligent guy that I am, I looked into this network myself. I visited school sites of other Cristo Rey schools, I read news reports, watched the 60 Minutes story, and I asked a lot of questions. What I found out was that this is a model that has worked in about 2 dozen other schools, so why can’t it work at Northeast Catholic?

Keep in mind that at this time, the Cristo Rey plan for North Catholic is not a “done deal”. But, the work that the team has done to date had me leaving the meeting last night with a very optimistic feeling that this is going to happen, and real soon. The expectation is that by mid to late February, the team will complete the feasibility study, which will then be presented to the Cristo Rey Board for approval. If all goes well, and the plan is certified, it’ll be all but a done deal. But, at that time, there will still be a lot of work to be done if this model is to be implemented by the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year.

Informational Meeting

I wasn’t able to attend the first meeting which was held on January 7, 2010, but that was mainly for current and prospective students and their families. I decided that I would attend the January 14th meeting and listen to what the Feasibility study group had to say. I have to tell you, I was impressed. The thing I liked the most was that this group dispelled many of the bad information that has been floating around. And, because of some of those rumors and innuendos, the group has launched an informational website (see link at the top of this page). My opinion changed from “can this happen?” to more of a “when will this happen”. I know most of the people on this team, either personally or through others, and I’ll tell you that these are some of the best and brightest people that North Catholic has produced. And, like many of us, they have an unwavering passion for our alma mater.

Myths and Other Bad Information

Since Cristo Rey option has been made public, I’ve spoken with many people about the prospects of this keeping North open. And, more often than not, I’m told things that sound less than promising, and some things that are downright depressing. Last night, many of those things were addressed. I’ll try to sum up what I heard at the meeting, and attempt to separate some of the fiction from the facts that I’ve heard over the past month or so. If anyone reads this and knows that I am writing anything that is not true, please let me know and I will make corrections.

Rumor - The new school would be called Cristo Rey.

Fact – The new school will be called Northeast Catholic, a Cristo Rey Network School. The colors will remain Red and White. The mascot will be the Falcon. Even the current uniforms will remain the same. Basically, the identity of the school will not change.

Rumor – The school would have to be purchased, and it’ll cost several million to do so.

Fact – The group is pursuing a couple of options. The hope is that the school would be purchased from the archdiocese, but before that can be done, an owner would need to be named. In many of the Cristo Rey schools, a religious order is named as the owner, but in some instances, a group of lay people, as a foundation, owns the building. At this time, no owner has been named, but work is being done to do so. As an alternative, in the unlikely event that a deal cannot be struck with the archdiocese to purchase the current building, the team is exploring other options, including other existing buildings and/or sites for a new North Catholic. This option would be more of a contingency plan, as the group stressed that their desire is to use the existing building. At this time, the cost of the school has not been made public.

Rumor – Some alumni only tried this “last ditch” effort to bring Cristo Rey to North Catholic after the archdiocese decided to close North.

Fact – This is absolutely false. Some of the members of the Feasibility board have been looking at the Cristo Rey model for more than two years. One of the board members mentioned that he actually visited a Cristo Rey school in Boston in 2007. The network was engaged about the possibility of coming to North long before the announcement was made.

Rumor – The income requirements for the new school would exclude most of the current students and their siblings.

Fact – The North Catholic group has worked out a deal with the Cristo Rey network to waive any income requirements for existing students. Basically, if a student is currently enrolled at North, they will be guaranteed a seat in the new school, regardless of family income. What should be pointed out is that this waiver only applies to current students. If a currently enrolled student has a younger brother who is not yet in high school, the income guidelines would be used for that not yet enrolled student to determine eligibility. As for the exact income requirements, that has not yet been determined. But, it should be pointed out that there is not a single requirement across the entire network. Each school in each community sets its own requirements. Those guidelines are based on the economic situation of that community. Finally, the income requirement is a “net” number, meaning it depends on income less expenses and size of family. The group is working to develop a formula and they expect to have more information in the next month or so.

Rumor – The new school will not have athletics, and if they do, they would participate as an independent school.

Fact – The expectation is that North will have the same sports and other extra-curricular activities that the school has now. Furthermore, the expectation is that the sports teams will continue to participate in the Philadelphia Catholic League and the PIAA. The PCL athletic board will not take up the matter until we know there will definitely be a school, but based on informal inquiries, there doesn’t seem to be a problem with the PCL accepting North as a member in the future. The PIAA may be another matter, but the board is confident that they will be able to convince the PIAA board to continue North Catholic’s membership in that organization.

Rumor – The jobs that the students will have are all meaningless minimum wage jobs, where the student will not get any real experience.

Fact – Based on what I heard last night, the jobs that the students will have are white collar clerical type jobs, and the responsibility of the jobs increases as the student moves from 9th through 12th grade. These jobs are expected to pay an annualized salary of $26,000 to $29,000. Of course, during the school year, the salaries for these jobs will be paid directly to the school to offset the tuition for the students. In other cities where Cristo Rey operates, many of these students are kept on during the summer, if they choose, and the money earned during the summer will go to the student.

Rumor – None of the current teachers will be offered jobs at the new school.

Fact – When it comes time to hire teachers, the school will do what any other private schools attempts to do; hire the best teachers they can find. What that means is that any current North Catholic teacher can apply for a teaching position at the school. Some may choose to do so, while others may not. From what the folks on the board said, the salaries will be comparable to the salaries of the archdiocesan teachers, and there will be benefits (medical, life insurance, LTD, 401(k) plan, etc) that go along with the position. But, those benefits may not be as good as a tenured teacher working for the archdiocese. That will be a personal decision made by each teacher.

Well, that's about all that I have to say at this time. I'm just one alum who is passionate about Northeast Catholic and interested in keeping the school open. This new school is an opportunity for the North Catholic community to come together and help the school and the community where most of us began our lives.

North Catholic Wrestling Escapes from the Rock!!!!

NORTH WRESTLING FINISHES 8TH OUT OF 24 TEAMS IN THE EXTREMELY DIFFICULT FIELD!



this past friday and saturday the north catholic wrestling team traveled to council rock south high school to compete in the escape the rock wrestling tournament. over the past 4 years, this tournament has been considered one of the toughest tournaments in the east. this past season, the tournament boasted 5 teams that were ranked in the top 40 teams in the country by W.I.N. magazine...they were....wyoming seminary - 6th, central mountain - 8th, parkland - 27th, council rock south - 34th, paulsboro - 38th.... after a tough two days of wrestling, north catholic finished in 8th place....2.5 points out of 6th and 5 points out of 5th! here is a breakdown of the placewinners and notable wrestlers....


mike mccall - 103 - 3-2 - 5th place - mike lost his semi-final match to the #15 ranked kid in the country. two of his wins were against the #4 seed who finished 3rd in the delaware state tournament last season.


erik stankiewcz - 119 - 3-2 - DNP - erik dropped to very close decisions to the #6 and #7 seeds. erik make it to the round of 12 and would have placed if he won his last bout. he has improved dramatically the past few weeks and is wrestling very well.


david davidson - 125 - 5-2 - 4th place - david came into the tournament un-seeded. all he did was defeat the #8 seed, the #5 seed and the #6 seed to finish 4th. he also beat 2 PIAA State placers.


anthony white - 140 - 3-2 - 4th place - anthony lost two very close battles to the #3 and #5 ranked kids in the state. with some more big match experience, anthony has a chance to defeat both of them later on in the season.



thomas goodyear - 145 - 3-2 - DNP - thomas saw his first action since before christmas break and came within one match of placing. he entered the tournament not seeded and came within a hair of defeating the #6 seed in the 2nd round. all 3 of his wins came via pin fall to lead the team.


aj vizcarrondo - 215 - 4-2 - 4th place - aj had a great tournament. he was seeded 7th and defeated the #5 seed and #4 seed and the #5 ranked sophomore in the country. he lost a heart-breaker in ot to the 4th place finisher in the PIAA state tournament last season (personally i think he was hosed!)

jeremy reith - 285 - 4-1 - 3rd place - jeremy finished the highest of all the north catholic wrestlers with his 3rd place finish. jeremy lost his semi-final bout 3-1 to the #1 seed and the #2 ranked wrestler in the state. jeremy also did not give up a takedown in all of his bouts to keep his season total of takedowns against at 1!

the escape the rock was a total team effort...also winning matches were: will trainor (152) tim maguire (160) and brian sweeney (171). full results can be found here: http://www.crsd.org/5034011314232/lib/5034011314232/ETR2010_final%282%29.pdf

WRESTLING BEEF-N-BEER

JUST A REMINDER: THE WRESTLING BEEF-N-BEER IS LESS THAN 2 WEEKS AWAY! TICKETS ARE $25 AND CAN BE BOUGHT AT THE DOOR. PLEASE CONTACT ME AT 215-831-5246 OR AT THESAV150@AOL.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION....