St. Mary’s has won an appeal to the MIAA Football Committee that will enable the Spartans to be in a division (for playoff purposes) with most of the same teams they have been with for the past four years.
The MIAA realigns divisions every four years and this was a realignment year. The Spartans were in Division 4 last year and were in Division 4 under the new alignment, but according to St. Mary’s athletic director Jeff Newhall, what was Division 4 is now Division 5, with the exception of a couple of Boston schools added to the mix.
“On paper, it says we dropped down. We aren’t dropping down. We have been placed back to where we were,” Newhall said.
Newhall said St. Mary’s will continue to be with other Catholic Central League teams like Bishop Fenwick and Austin Prep (both CCL Large) as well as Matignon, Pope John and Lowell Catholic (CCL Small). Cardinal Spellman and Archbishop Williams, also CCL Large teams, will be in Division 5 South, as will Abington, the team the Spartans lost to in the Division 4 Super Bowl this past fall.
Division 5 North also includes Commonwealth Conference Large teams Shawsheen (St. Mary’s opponent in the playoffs), Northeast, Whittier Tech and Greater Lawrence, as well as CAC Small team Greater Lowell. There are also a couple of Cape Ann League teams, Georgetown and Manchester-Essex, and a couple of Boston teams.
“The majority of those schools are in five. The only school they tried to move to four was us; that’s why we appealed,” Newhall said. “We didn’t go to the Super Bowl, lose and go down.”
Newhall said the Spartans won the Catholic Central Large this year, which was the first time since they returned to the CCL. They lost to Abington in the Super Bowl, and Abington is in Division 5 South.
Had St. Mary’s not won the appeal, it would have been in a division comprised primarily of Cape Ann League and Northeastern Conference teams, as well as Belmont, Bedford, Watertown and Weston.
Peabody didn’t win its appeal. The Tanners will stay in Division 1 with the likes of St. John’s Prep, Central Catholic and Everett, with Brockton on the South side. Athletic Director Phil Sheridan said he wasn’t happy to be in a position where he felt an appeal was needed.
“We’d much rather be doing well,” he said.
Sheridan said the team has averaged seven losses a year since 2005 and during that stretch, has lost 58 games. Peabody, in the past, has dropped down a division in boys lacrosse, rebuilt the program and gone back up. The same happened in boys hockey.
Despite losing the appeal, Sheridan was hopeful for the future.
“We’ll move on. We’ll make this program better. I don’t see any reason to cry over it,” he said. “We have every intention of working hard being in Division 1. We want to be a Division 1 team.”
The Tanner football program was in turmoil last fall when head coach Scott Wlasuk left midseason and was replaced by his offensive coordinator, Matt O’Brien, on an interim basis. The job was posted last week with the deadline for applications Jan. 17. Sheridan said he has already received seven or eight applications.
Chelsea also appealed and was allowed to move down, but Peabody and nine other north schools, Lexington, Chelmsford, Lawrence, Reading, Arlington Catholic, Pope John, Matignon, Lowell Catholic and Revere, were all denied. They have until Jan. 15 to appeal that decision with ratification of the new alignment scheduled for Jan. 22.
Only one team in the south, Dennis-Yarmouth, won its appeal. In that case, Sharon was moved up.
Joyce Erekson can be reached at [email protected].
