Commentary
Catholic schools send message: 'We're just as good'
You can see the slowly evolving football community in Western New York headed toward the day when all schools, public and private, will stand on equal ground and the deep-seeded tension that separates them now, will fade out of focus with the passing of time.

That change took a giant leap forward Friday night when St. Francis annihilated North Tonawanda in the first game between public and private large schools in four years. St. Francis, last year's runner-up in Monsignor Martin Association League AA cruised to a 42-13 victory over the Section VI Class AA runner-up Lumberjacks and announced to everyone that the Catholic schools can play just as well as the public schools. St. Mary's of Lancaster also put a 21-7 hurting on Alden.

It's about time we get to see some of these dream match-ups, games that seemed like only fantasies not too long ago. And things will get even more interesting with more match-ups later in the season. We have Cleveland Hill at St. Mary's, which has shaped up to be a pretty good rivalry over the past two years, Niagara Catholic at Roy-Hart and St. Mary's at Eden to look forward to.

But the bone of contention in the past hasn't been about whether or not the Catholic schools were as good. It's been that Catholic coaches have wanted inclusion in Section VI and been denied, while pubic coaches haven't even wanted to schedule non-league games against them.

The fear among many public school coaches is that the Catholic schools will try to recruit away the best players. And they're not entirely wrong. Catholic programs may recruit players from anywhere in Western New York, while public schools can only draw players from their own districts. And if St. Joe's wants to go after Orchard Park's best running back, there's no stopping them. At the same time, players at St. Joe's and all the other private schools pay upwards of $8,000 per year in tuition, on top of the school taxes for whatever district they live in. And there is no state tournament for Catholic teams. When St. Joe's won the MMA League AA title last year, the season ended. Orchard Park and the other Section VI champions moved onto the state tournament.

Almost considered an outcast in Western New York, the Catholic schools have been forced to play games against teams from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Rochester and Toronto in recent years just to fill out a schedule. It would make much more sense and provide football fans the opportunity to see some great contests if MMA and Section VI could schedule more inter-league games. Imagine what rivalries could develop if you could see teams in close proximity to each other start playing regularly. Envision, St. Joe's vs. Kenmore West, Cardinal O'Hara vs. Kenmore East, St. Francis vs. Orchard Park, St. Mary's of Lancaster vs. Depew. Then maybe we could get a definitive answer each year to the question of which team is the best.

Now, I'm not suggesting Catholic schools should be admitted into Section VI, but a baby step of scheduling more non-league games is a great move. Hopefully the trend will continue and grow.

Of course, this is a slow process, because, as President Woodrow Wilson once said: "If you want to make enemies, try to change something."

e-mail: mkrueger@beenews.com@beenews.com