By Joseph Santoliquito
Special to MaxPreps.com
They talk about it among teammates on the practice field, among family, among friends who are players on other teams. They speculate, they theorize, but mostly they talk and wonder. It’s all the Malvern Prep football team, rated No. 1 in Pennsylvania by MaxPreps.com, and considered by many local experts in the Philadelphia area as the best high school football team in the state, can do: Speculate and talk. And that’s all it will ever be for this very special group.
That’s because Malvern Prep won’t play football again beyond Thanksgiving Day weekend. It’s the way it is at Malvern Prep and in the Inter-Academic League. It’s the way it’s always been. It’s a league that has turned out such stars as the Atlanta Falcon’s Matt Ryan (Penn Charter and Boston College), but it’s comprised of strong academic schools that believe in the tradition of old-school athletics—nothing beyond the league.
The Inter-Ac finds itself the last bastion of major high school sports leagues in Pennsylvania; the only league not involved in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA), the governing body of sports in Pennsylvania.
The Philadelphia Public League joined the PIAA in September 2004, and this year the Philadelphia Catholic League became fulltime members. They were the last two major holdouts before 2008, along with the Inter-Ac League, comprised of 10 private schools (Chestnut Hill Academy, Episcopal Academy, Germantown Academy, Haverford School, Malvern Prep, Penn Charter, Agnes Irwin, Baldwin School, Notre Dame Academy, Springside School).
Of those 10 schools, six schools are football-playing schools (Chestnut Hill, Episcopal, Germantown Academy, Haverford School, Malvern Prep, Penn Charter).
Over the last 20 years, Malvern Prep has been a football powerhouse, led by 70-year-old legendary coach Gamp Pellegrini (think the high school football version of Joe Paterno). This season, the Friars are 8-0 and are averaging 46.5 points a game, winning by mercy rule (35-point margin during the game) in six of their eight games. Pellegrini is in his 31st year at Malvern Prep, and this version of the Friars, who are going for their fourth undefeated season in Pellegrini’s long, storied tenure, could arguably be the best.
They’ll never get the chance to prove just how good they can be statewide.
“There’s no question this team could be among my best; I don’t think I’ve ever had a team that’s 8-0 that’s had the kind of victory margin that this group has had,” said Pellegrini, a grandfatherly type who turned 70 in April, and who has coached two, going on three generations of Malvern players. “In fairness to the kids, we’ve had a lot of games where we didn’t have our first group out on the field. I could say this year, this team could compete for a state championship. But I’m not into that whole thing. I’d be happy to be in the PIAA, but the fact is that we’re not. It doesn’t upset me that much. We play our schedule.”
It’s a schedule that this season included LaSalle, a traditional Catholic League power (47-21 Malvern victory), and West Chester Henderson (42-0), a finalist in 2007 in the PIAA District 1 Class AAAA playoffs. If Malvern was in the PIAA, the Friars would most likely be a Class AAA school. By the scores and competition the Friars have played this year, it’s easy to think they would be capable of going deep into the state Class AAA playoffs.
But Malvern seniors Rob McCabe, Neil Willis, James Connelly, C.J. Mooney, Joe Price and Billy Conners will never get that chance.
“It would be real nice to play a team like Gateway, and other teams ranked at the top of the state,” said Price, a 6-3, 185-pound receiver who is getting attention from schools like Villanova and Delaware. “We have our schedule, and play in our league. We’re still having fun. But among the players, we talk about it. We would love to play this year in the states, but we accept the reality of it. I hope the whole Inter-Ac League does go in the PIAA.”
“I guess it is kind of unfortunate, and we joke around about it in practice,” said Conners, a 5-11, 170-pound quarterback, who is headed to Duke on a lacrosse scholarship next fall. “I think if you asked our team, every player to a man would want a chance at a high school state championship. That’s every high school football player’s dream is to win a state championship. We have a competitive group that would love that challenge, from the coaching staff on down.
“We’re not a typical prep school, we don’t have post-graduates on our team. We just have to go out and prove every week what kind of team we are, since we can’t prove it in the state playoffs. At times, it is frustrating; at times. You do think about it. There are a lot of ‘what ifs,’ but that’s all it seems we’ll ever have, ‘what ifs.’ The biggest question we will all be wondering, 30 years from now, is what if we got that shot.”
Joseph Santoliquito covers high school sports for the Philadelphia Daily News and is a frequent contributor to MaxPreps.com.
