Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
Second in an occasional series.<\/p>\n
The sound inside the locker room was already overwhelming, Father Judge\u2019s coaches and players shouting and singing after their 52-46 victory over Archbishop Wood in the Philadelphia Catholic League boys\u2019 basketball semifinals last February. And every time someone opened the door to exit, the noise in the room rose, because a sold-out Palestra crowd was now roaring over the night\u2019s second game: Neumann Goretti vs. Bonner-Prendergast.<\/p>\n
Still, the kid who had been the primary cause of the celebration, the 6-foot-4 senior guard who had made the night his, was calm. Derrick Morton-Rivera had scored 27 points on an array of three-pointers and pull-up jumpers, leading the Crusaders back from an early 16-point deficit.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying in front of 10,000 people every year, there\u2019s nothing like it,\u201d Morton-Rivera<\/a>, now a freshman at Temple, said after the game. \u201cI never knew about the PCL until my eighth-grade year. That\u2019s when I learned.\u201d<\/p>\n How did he end up at Judge?<\/p>\n The coaches \u201crecruited me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n With that one verb, recruited, Morton-Rivera touched the live wire that crackles among coaches, parents, administrators, and players throughout the high school sports scene in Pennsylvania. House Bill No. 41 \u2014 a measure that would allow the PIAA to create separate postseasons<\/a>, one for public schools and one for private, parochial, and charter schools \u2014 passed the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives in April. And of all the factors that play into the longtime dispute over whether boundary and non-boundary schools should compete against each other for championships, none generates as much heat and controversy as recruiting.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s two different worlds,\u201d longtime Lower Merion<\/a> boys\u2019 basketball coach Gregg Downer said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t put massive talent out in basketball or football or soccer or lacrosse, you\u2019re going to get run over.\u201d<\/p>\n Since the Catholic League joined the PIAA in 2008, just one of its coaches, Archbishop Ryan football coach Mark Ostaszewski, has been suspended<\/a> for recruiting violations. At a January 2025 football camp, Ostaszewski asked a student from the Bensalem School District if he wanted to apply to Ryan. District 12, the association\u2019s umbrella for the Philadelphia Catholic and Public leagues, banned Ostaszewski for a year; he has returned to his role this season.<\/p>\n Locally, recruiting accusations often put programs from District 12 at odds with those from District One, which comprises schools in Philadelphia\u2019s suburbs. And that confirmed example is tame compared to the more intense efforts that coaches have allegedly made to coax athletes to their programs.<\/p>\n A former basketball standout who graduated recently from a District One public school and his father told The Inquirer on the condition of anonymity that, while the student was in eighth grade and throughout his high school career, representatives from three Catholic League programs pursued him. One head coach offered him free tuition, a stipend, and the use of an apartment near campus. The coach also had his team\u2019s star player send several direct messages on Instagram to the player in an attempt to persuade him to attend the school.<\/p>\n Another program had an assistant coach and a parent take the player\u2019s father out to lunch twice, telling him at both meals that he would not have to worry about paying any tuition for his son. The third program\u2019s head coach told the father that, if his son helped the team win the Catholic League championship, a booster would provide a house for the player. Each of the three schools were located between 15 and 35 miles from the player\u2019s home.<\/p>\n \u201cThey can twist this however they want,\u201d Downer said. \u201cThese kids are targeted because they\u2019re good at sports. I could list 50 examples of kids who have been recruited.\u201d<\/p>\n Morton-Rivera\u2019s path to Father Judge captures the murkiness of the entire issue. Jim Meredith, a 1992 Judge graduate who became its president in late July<\/a>, noted in a recent interview that while in eighth grade, Morton-Rivera had visited the school and taken its entrance exam \u2014 and that he grew up and lived in Lawncrest, just a mile-and-a-half from Judge.<\/p>\n They can twist this however they want. These kids are targeted because they\u2019re good at sports. I could list 50 examples of kids who have been recruited.<\/p>\n Gregg Downer, Lower Merion boys’ basketball coach <\/p>\n \u201cI can say with full confidence that we\u2019re following PIAA rules and regulations,\u201d Meredith said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to put out an excellent product for our school and our students. Part of that is making sure we adhere to the guidelines that are prescribed to us.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked how Morton-Rivera ended up choosing Judge, head coach Chris Roantree pointed out that Morton-Rivera\u2019s background and family history made it natural for him to consider attending a school with a strong basketball program. D.J. Rivera, his father, finished his high school career in 2006 as Neumann Goretti\u2019s all-time leading scorer before playing Division I ball at St. Joseph\u2019s and Binghamton.<\/p>\n \u201cPhiladelphia basketball is a very small community,\u201d Roantree said. \u201cThere are different relationships that everybody has. When somebody shows interest in us, we sell the school. When we bring guys in, we show them our career-pathway center. We show them our academic center. \u2026<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately, \u2018recruiting\u2019 is a very broad thing. It\u2019s going to be questioned because we\u2019re a Catholic and private school. He\u2019s within a mile or two of the school. To me, that\u2019s no different from [a public-school coach] talking to someone from a Plymouth Whitemarsh middle school or an Abington<\/a> middle school. He\u2019s not a transfer. We didn\u2019t aggressively go after him like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Under Article VI, Section 11 of its bylaws<\/a>, the PIAA forbids \u201crecruiting [that] is materially motivated in some way by an athletic purpose. Recruiting<\/a> for athletic purposes is directly contrary to fundamental interests of PIAA and its member schools, and any school engaged in such conduct should do so with the expectation that it will be treated harshly upon proof of such conduct.\u201d <\/p>\n As clear as that excerpt might seem, determining whether a student\u2019s decision to attend a particular school was \u201cmaterially motivated\u201d by athletics requires hard and fast evidence, such as text or direct messages between a coach and the athlete, said Sean Kelly, District One\u2019s vice-chairman.<\/p>\n If a principal or athletic director files a formal complaint charging an opposing program with violating PIAA bylaws, the association\u2019s corresponding district committee will hold a hearing on the matter. <\/p>\n \u201cSometimes I\u2019ll get a call from a coach or an AD or somebody who\u2019s associated with one of the schools who says, \u2018Hey, this is what we\u2019re hearing. We\u2019re hearing Student A is going to go to this school,\u2019\u201d Kelly said. \u201cI just ask them, \u2018What evidence do you have? Are you saying they\u2019re just transferring, or are you saying they\u2019re being recruited?\u2019 We take some time to make sure we pump the brakes because people get very sensitive and very emotional.\u201d<\/p>\n Article VI, Section 11 applies to both boundary and non-boundary schools, but suburban public school coaches bemoan what they see as an inherent imbalance in the system: To play a varsity sport at a public high school, a student-athlete must live in that school district. But private, parochial, and charter schools, such as those in the School District of Philadelphia<\/a> and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, can draw their student-athletes from anywhere. Too many of those institutions, several District One coaches said, bend the rules to do it.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just not fair,\u201d said Joe Dempsey, who has been the boys\u2019 basketball coach at Spring-Ford High School in Royersford since 2021. \u201cThey have the ability to go and get players, to which I say: Let them do that. If they want to go play in that sandbox, let them go.\u201d<\/p>\n Dempsey had previously coached at La Salle College High School for 27 years, including 14 as the program\u2019s head coach. At CYO games, he would see a promising seventh- or eighth-grader, he said, then approach the player\u2019s parents without talking to the player. <\/p>\n \u201cLa Salle made it very clear: Don\u2019t step over the line. Don\u2019t get us in trouble,\u201d Dempsey said. \u201cOnce a couple of schools took the gloves off, the pressure came. The pressure was on me at La Salle. I went to the administration: \u2018Are you looking around the Catholic League? I can\u2019t just sit on my hands and wait on some wonderful 6-foot-7 kid who can pay a lot of tuition and go to school with all boys and get bused here. It ain\u2019t going to happen by accident.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n That archdiocesan schools compete for students within District 12\u2019s open-enrollment landscape only complicates matters further. Consider one example: Bonner-Prendie, nestled in Drexel Hill<\/a> in Delaware County<\/a>, won the 2024 PIAA Class 4A football championship. Of the top six zip codes from which the school drew students that year, five were within Delco, and the other was just nearby \u2014 the Overbook section of Philadelphia \u2014 according to Steve Clement, the chief administrative officer of the archdiocese\u2019s Office of Catholic Education.<\/p>\n How many of its football players did Bonner-Prendie recruit, if any? How many did it have to recruit, given the school\u2019s proximity to West Philadelphia<\/a>? And if a school such as Bonner-Prendie draws students from the city or St. Joseph\u2019s Prep draws them from Camden \u2014 less than five miles away \u2014 how different is that from the dynamic at a public school in an especially large district?<\/p>\n \u201cThe reality,\u201d Clement said, \u201cis that these schools are still serving the areas they were intended to serve.\u201d<\/p>\n Similarly, parents can and do contact the School District of Philadelphia to ask what high schools would best fit their children\u2019s skills and interests: maybe sports, maybe drama, maybe career and technical education. Starr Davenport, the district\u2019s director of finance for athletics, said she frequently fields phone calls from parents of rising ninth-graders who ask her about the quality and array of athletic programs at a particular school, and she is happy to answer their questions.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: The divide between Pa.\u2019s public and private high school sports<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a recruitment strategy,\u201d Davenport said. \u201cIt\u2019s just transparency. When they want to know, it means they\u2019re trying to find their school home. That selection process seems equitable because we\u2019re not putting it out there, \u2018Go to this school if you like football.\u2019 But if a parent or student-athlete inquires, we are definitely transparent in terms of the full gamut of what is offered at a school.\u201d<\/p>\n As for making competition across the state and the Delaware Valley more equitable \u2014 that is, giving boundary schools a better chance of beating non-boundary schools \u2014 it doesn\u2019t matter much whether gifted student-athletes who already live within the city\u2019s borders attend public or non-public schools. As long as it stays in Philadelphia, that talent will reveal itself in the results one way or another.<\/p>\n \u201cHere\u2019s the thing: Philly is Philly,\u201d Roantree said. \u201cSo if you want all the Philly kids to go to public schools, they\u2019re still going to dominate. There are six, seven, eight, 10 good teams in the Catholic League. If they\u2019re in the playoffs, they\u2019re going to make some noise\u201d in the state tournaments.<\/p>\n The primary complaint among suburban public school coaches and administrators, of course, is that non-boundary schools don\u2019t limit themselves to drawing talent from the city or the neighborhoods that surround them. To some public-school coaches, the notion of recruiting is an alien concept, one they wouldn\u2019t consider if for no other reason than they or the athletes\u2019 families would have to make the necessary arrangements for the athletes to live within district boundaries \u2014 say, finding a long-lost aunt whose house was within walking distance of a school bus stop.<\/p>\n Liz Potash, who retired earlier this summer after 13 years as Central Bucks East\u2019s girls\u2019 basketball coach, said she never sought out players to refill her program\u2019s talent pool. \u201cIf I wanted to recruit, I wouldn\u2019t be a public-school coach,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to beg an eighth-grader to come to East.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone\u2019s doing it,\u201d said Daniel DiBerardinis<\/a>, who spent 11 years as a Catholic League athletic director \u2014 six at Roman Catholic, five at St. Joe\u2019s Prep \u2014 before becoming Penn Charter\u2019s AD last year. \u201cPublic schools are recruiting. They recruit. People move to different zip codes all the time.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not going to put any school on blast, but I know intimate situations \u2014 I know families who got an address to be a part of a district. I\u2019m not going to say any schools, but I do know it happens. The rules are super-gray, and people are always going to find workarounds.\u201d<\/p>\n Football, boys\u2019 basketball, girls\u2019 basketball: It\u2019s within the worlds of those three sports that the debates and bickering around recruiting are the loudest and have the most relevance. Rep. Scott Conklin (D), who introduced House Bill No. 41 and represents the 77th district, in State College, all but admitted that the bill was aimed at stopping private, parochial, and charter schools from recruiting \u2014 and from continuing to move into the next frontier: wielding sponsor dollars or name, image, and likeness deals to entice athletes.<\/p>\n \u201cTechnically, yes, public schools could cheat,\u201d he said in a phone interview. \u201cBut we know how difficult that is. I\u2019m 67 years old, and I can win the high-jump competition \u2014 technically. But we all know it\u2019s never going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n In that Palestra locker room back in February, Roantree snickered at the mere mention of the subject. \u201cEverybody says it\u2019s an unfair advantage,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat I say is, every kid\u2019s got a dream of playing Division I, and there are a lot of coaches in our league who can make that happen. We don\u2019t have to recruit as much as kids want to come and play for us.\u201d<\/p>\n Four days later, behind a team-high 14 points from Morton-Rivera, Father Judge beat Goretti to win its second straight PCL championship<\/a>. The Crusaders advanced to the semifinals of the PIAA Class 6A tournament<\/a>, where they lost to a city rival, Imhotep Charter, which then lost in the championship game to Harrisburg\u2019s Central Dauphin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min Second in an occasional series. 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