Lourdes Regional Saga Finally Over

Dave Schweitzer between drills on Tuesday

How does a team with 24 players and a 6-1 record become so controversial and maligned? Once again as this football season winds down, Lourdes Regional finds itself at 6-1 and challenging for a post season birth. The double edge sword for Lourdes is the post season. If the Red Raiders qualify for district and opt out, they are ducking the competition. If they accept the district bid, their schedule doesn't measure up to any of the teams that qualified or got displaced.

This past Tuesday, I made my way up to Lourdes Regional and asked coach Mike Klembara about his teams post season plans. "It is easy," said Klembara. "The PIAA made the decision for us." "The way the class system is structured right now on the state level, there is no way we could compete." Klembara indicating about the PIAA possibly moving to six classes in the future. "As athletic director, I have to look at what is best for the kids not only in football, but all sports."


Head Coach Jim Roth of Southern Columbia(he has mentioned this to me long before the current situation) along with the PSFCA have long advocated a six class system for football. For the most part, it would move the super schools into a 6A class. The bottom schools population wise would move into the 1A class. The remaining four classes would be divided up among the remaining four classes. Part of the hang up is the local districts loosing control of a playoff format. With 25 to 30 teams in 6A and 1A the 12 district structure isn't really needed. The biggest disparity in Pennsylvania high school football are small quad A's trying to compete with the big boys and small single A's competing with the top of class A.


Looking at the Lourdes situation right now, they have not had a freshman in over 20 years. They cannot commit to a JV schedule due to numbers. On the bright side, the Red Raiders are getting contributions from the basketball team. The first eight players on the basketball team are playing football. Also, the football team competes with soccer and golf for able bodies.


Charlie Roth of the News-Item has a good take on the situation here. Harod Raker of the Daily Item has his take here. 24 student-athletes at Lourdes Regional don't need to apologize to anyone.