Cub Football - Big challenge awaits Loyola in 2024
LOYOLA MOVES BACK TO THE STATE'S SECOND BEST LEAGUE IN 2024 . . . A BRIDGE TOO FAR?
Various publications rate the CIF Southern Section's Mission League as the second best prep football conference in California, and one of the best in the country. The Southern Section's Trinity League, of course, is regarded as the best loop in the nation populated by virtual football all-star conglomerates, but the Mission is pretty darn good in its own right.
After a four-year tenure in the Angelus League, Loyola will be returning to the Mission League in the fall of 2024. The Catholic Athletic Association goes through a league realignment evaluation every two years.
After St. Francis defeated the Cubs, 26-21, this fall in the first Angelus League contest dubbed by some as "The Mission League Bowl", it was predicted that the Golden Knights would move up to the Mission League, but after St. Francis was the victim of a stunning upset by St. Paul on the final Friday of conference competition, it was Loyola that received its moving papers for placement in the rugged Mission circuit.
In a September 30th article by Tarek Fattal in Scorebooklive.com, the challenge of competing in the conference was characterized thusly, "To be a part of the Mission League sounds great, but to play in it takes a different operation from a football standpoint, especially with programs like Sierra Canyon and Gardena Serra in the league." That "different operation" calls for all hands on deck.
Heading into the CIF Southern Section's championships weekend, CalPreps ranked Sierra Canyon (11-1, lost to Mater Dei in the Division 1 semifinals) fourth in the state behind St. John Bosco, Mater Dei and Corona Centennial; Serra of Gardena (9-4, lost to Servite with two key starters sidelined by injuries in the Division 2 semifinals) was ranked 12th; Chaminade (7-6, a team with which the Cubs played toe to toe in a non-league contest, was defeated by Warren of Downey, 36-35 (OT), in the Division 2 semifinals) was the state's 44th-ranked squad; Bishop Amat (4-7, lost to Rancho Cucamonga, 31-20 in the first round of the D-2 playoffs) was ranked 48th in the state; Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks (5-5, did not make playoffs) was ranked 56th; and Loyola, the circuit's new member (6-6, lost to Yorba Linda, 17-10, in the Division 4 quarterfinals) was ranked 81st in the Golden State. Alemany was moved down to the Angelus League in the recent realignment.
Suffice to say, the going will be getting, to understate it, a lot tougher as the Cubs return to the Mission League, in which it was most recently a member from 2014-2019. Loyola's six year stint in the conference was not particularly successful, as it won only nine out of 33 conference games during that period.
As written by Sportsbooklive.com, indeed it will take a "different operation" to play with success in the Mission. Dedication to off-season training is where it will start if the Cubs want to compete in the powerful conference. The step up in competition will be exponential. A bridge too far? The answer will come next fall.
Loyola certainly has a good personnel base with which to compete, as seven underclassmen, including the Angelus League's Defensive Player-of-the-Year, will be returning with All-Angelus accolades out of 14 returning starters. Several players from the league champion sophomore and 7-3 freshman squads promise to be contributors as well.
RETURNING TO THE GOLDEN ERA? IT CAN BE DONE
In the 18-year period (1988-2005) before and including the last season Loyola won a CIF Southern Section Division I championship, the Cubs were crowned CIF D-I title winners three times (1990, 2003, 2005), and were CIF Div. I runners-up on four occasions (1992, 1995, 1996, 2000). Out of those 18 campaigns Loyola advanced to the CIF Southern Section Div. I playoff semifinals, or beyond, 12 times. An unbelievably impressive skein for an academic school of Loyola's stature, to say the least.
The rote, boring canard is that the landscape of high school football has changed so dramatically that the program can no longer compete at that level. It is true that Loyola's academic standards have not changed, nor should they, as it is those standards in particular which set the institution apart from its football competitors.
That being said, playing great football and the Jesuit educational mission are not mutually exclusive. Examples of Jesuit college preparatory schools that are perennial state and national powerhouses are St. Joseph's Prep in Philadelphia, Loyola Academy in Wilmette (Chicago suburb), Illinois, and Tampa Jesuit in Tampa Bay, Florida.
Over the past ten years, Loyola Academy has amassed a 114-16 record (88%) and has been the best prep football program in Illinois in that span. St. Joseph's Prep has a ten-year record of 110-14 (89%) and is a perennial national top-ten ranked powerhouse and is the best prep grid program in Pennsylvania. Tampa Jesuit is annually one of the top ranked teams in Florida. Its ten year record is 110-25 (81%). St. Joseph's Prep, Loyola Academy and Tampa Jesuit are all ranked as preeminent academic schools as is Loyola High School of Los Angeles.
There are 12,534,000 people who reside in the Los Angeles Metro Area, and the City of Los Angelus has a population of 3,769,485. Returning to the Golden Era is simply a matter of where there is a will, there is a way, from everyone on board. The tired mantra of "we don't want to be like [you know the names]" misses the point entirely. Ask St. Joseph's Prep Loyola Academy and Tampa Jesuit, each of which is located in populous metro areas. Their educational and cultural mission are the same as Loyola's.
With an enrollment of over 1,200, Loyola has an immense advantage to be in the thick of Southern Section competition, save perhaps, for a small handful of schools at which the same academic requirements do not exist and the cultures and missions are different. By comparison, the ninth through twelfth grade approximate male enrollment numbers of the other Mission League schools are as follows: Bishop Amat-519, Chaminade-665, Notre Dame-614, Serra-272, and Sierra Canyon-470.
Rather than bemoaning the move up in competition, the ascendence should be embraced and celebrated.
It will be exciting to see the Cubs attack the offseason as they prepare for the Mission League battles of 2024. And to begin a new era of Cub Football.
2023 LOYOLA RECORD (6-6 overall, 4-1 Angelus League)
August 25 @ Damien (L 35-14)
September 1 Culver City (W 24-6)
September 8 Leuzinger (L 35-14)
September 15 @ Chaminade (L 42-35)
September 22 Oaks Christian (L 31-14)
September 29 @ St. Francis* (L 26-21)
October 6 St. Paul* (W 25-11)
October 13 @ Crespi* (W 45-28)
October 20 Paraclete* (W 36-7)
October 29 @ Cathedral* (W 27-6)
November 3 Norte Vista (First Round CIF) (W 35-7)
November 10 @ Yorba Linda (Quarterfinals CIF) (L 17-10)
(* denotes Angelus League contest)
CUBS IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Thirty-four Loyola grads are competing on college football teams this fall at schools from Storrs, Connecticut to Los Angeles; Northfield, Minnesota to New York City; Fort Worth, Texas to Princeton, New Jersey; Grinnel, Iowa to Berkeley; South Bend, Indiana to Starkville, Mississippi; and Austin, Texas to Chicago.
Here is the current list of Cubs on college football rosters (in alphabetical order):
NICK ANDERSON ‘20, OL (Denison)
SINJUN ASTANI ‘17, DL (USC)
CHAD BAILEY ‘20, DB (Tulane)
JP BAUTISTA (Pasadena College)
NICHOLAS BARR-MIRA ‘19, K (Mississippi State)
GEORGE CARATAN '18 , P (Connecticut)
JAC CASASANTE ‘18, LS (USC)
COLIN CRUCE ‘22, OL (Bowdoin)
ALEX JOHNSON '18, DB (UCLA)
JEFFREY JOHNSON '21, TE (Cal)
JACOBY KELLY ‘22, WR (Cerritos College)
ANDREW KOZHAYA ‘21, DL (Grinnel)
LEIGHTON LINE '23, DL (Cal Lutheran)
CARTER LINK ‘20, LB (SMU)
SHAWN LIN ‘22, DL (Columbia)
CONNOR McDOWELL ‘21, DB (Angelo State)
JUSTIN MURRAY '22, LB (Santa Monica College)
BLAKE NEITHART ‘20 DB (Carleton)
TAHJ OWENS ‘22, DB (Princeton)
JACK PARIS '23, OL (MIT)
RYAN QUINTANAR ‘20, LB (TCU)
XAVIER RICE '23, QB (Duquesne)
DAKOTA SMITH '18, LB (Minnesota State)
PATRICK SODL ‘22, LB (Columbia)
ZAKHARI SPEARS ‘21, DB (Connecticut)
HENRY STICKLER '21, WR (SMU)
JACK SUSNJAR '23, OL (USC)
JOE TATUM ‘22, QB (Texas)
EVAN THOMAS ‘20, DB (UCLA)
ALEX WHITMAN '22, WR (Notre Dame)
WILKE WILES '23, WR (University of Chicago)
HOLMES WORMALD '23, TE (Merchant Marine Academy)
CEYAIR WRIGHT ‘21, DB ( USC)
SAM YOON ‘22, OL ( UCLA)
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