Virginia Catholic League -- Not Happening in 2016-17; Future Uncertain

The proposed Virginia Catholic League will not be forming for the 2016-2017 school year, and opinions vary as to whether the league will be conceived at all.

Under the initial concept, the four Catholic high schools from Northern Virginia (Bishop Ireton, Bishop O’Connell, Saint John Paul the Great, and Pope Paul VI), Benedictine from Richmond and Bishop Sullivan in Virginia Beach would merge to form a separate athletic entity.

The possibility of creating such a league was the topic of a Washington Post story on January 7, 2016 by Brandon Parker, and was published a week after five of the six school’s athletic directors met at Saint John Paul the Great in Dumfries to discuss the idea. The idea of a six-team VCL became realistic in late 2015 as O’Connell withdrew its football team from the highly competitive Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC). For a school to compete as a full member of the WCAC, it must compete in either basketball or football, or both.

At the time, O’Connell Athletic Director Joe Wootten told the Post that the “exploratory committee of sorts” was engaged in “very preliminary” talks. He added that “this is more so something to look at two or three years down the road.”

Six months later, little seems to have changed, except that the formation of a VCL for the 2016-17 school year will not happen. As for the future, there is no certainty of the league forming, mainly because the first meeting has not developed into a second.

Bill Simmons, Athletic Director at Ireton, recently said, “I don't see this happening. We talked about football just to see and fill up our schedules. The developments at (Bishop) Sullivan make it less likely even that will continue. Northern Virginia schools can get all of that approach in the WCAC without going to Virginia Beach.”

Rich Hine, Athletic Director at Bishop Sullivan, told Recruit757 that the Crusaders will stay in the Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools (TCIS), but that the football team will play an independent schedule, analogous to Notre Dame, which once competed at the college level in the Big East for all sports except football. At the time of the Post article, Hine noted that several WCAC teams had called him to explore the possibility of scheduling a game.

Bishop Sullivan’s entry into the upper echelon of prep football schools was cemented after the hiring of coach Chris Scott, who stepped down from the same position at Ocean Lakes after sporting an 86-10 record, while winning a state title in 2014. Several of Scott’s star players including Khalan Laborn, are also transferring to Sullivan, immediately making them one of the better teams in Virginia, private or public.

Ryan Hall, Athletic Director at Benedictine, also stated that the league “will not happen” next year, but left open the remote possibility of a future merger. Hall noted that there was a lot of work needed if a Virginia Catholic League was to be formed.

“We would need to sit down and draw up a mission and vision statement – one that matches with each school’s Catholic identity,” said Hall. “It’s not like you can schedule the games, hand out a trophy and call it a day.” He added that another meeting would have to be scheduled in the future to discuss these matters, and “that meeting has not happened yet.”

On the other side, Hall added, “We are definitely scheduling each other for football next year.”
Here’s how a Virginia Catholic League might look

1)    Benedictine (2015 record – 10-2 – VISAA Div. I State champions)
2)    Bishop Ireton (2015 record – 8-3 – VISAA Div. I runner-up)
3)    Bishop O’Connell (2015 record – 1-8, 0-7 WCAC, #12 in VISAA Div. I)
4)    Bishop Sullivan (2015 record – 4-6, 3-2 TCIS, #6 in VISAA Div. II)
5)    Pope Paul VI (2015 record – 2-8, #11 in VISAA Div. I))
6)    Saint John Paul the Great (2015 record – 7-4 - #5 in VISAA Div. I)

In fact, Ireton and Sullivan will square off in each team’s opening game, and Benedictine will open their season on August 27th against John Paul the Great. Last fall, Ireton and Benedictine met in the VISAA Division I state final, a game that Benedictine won 35-6.

Currently, Ireton, O’Connell, John Paul the Great and Paul VI compete (John Paul the Great on a limited basis) in the WCAC, a league which will become more elite with the recent $16 million donation from Under Armour founder Kevin Plank (’90) to his alma mater, WCAC member St. John’s College High School. The money will be spread throughout the school’s programs, but can be used for capital expenditures, such as enhanced athletic facilities.

Benedictine competes as an independent school, and all six Catholic schools are also members of the Virginia Independent School Athletic Association (VISAA) as Division I or II participants. There are four divisions in the VISAA, and inclusion in Division I is defined by the enrollment of over 180 students per gender.

However, according to Hine, “VISAA determined, after the 2015 season, to consolidate the football teams into three divisions - from the four that were previously in play.  With that re-divisioning - Bishop Sullivan was moved up to Division I, and is now the smallest school in Division I.”  All other major VISAA sports have three divisions, while several (i.e. cross-country and track) are divided into two.

The six schools vary in size from 429 total students at Sullivan to over 1,150 at O’Connell.




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