Observations on Jesuit's Style of Play

[mrdashriprock]

What makes Jesuit so consistently head and shoulders above the rest? I know it's a huge school, but so are Lafayette, Fontainebleau, Brother Martin, and Rummel. These are the five largest schools in La. (Obviously the co-ed schools {Fontainebleau and Lafayette} have about half the numbers of boys as the others, but they have both beaten Jesuit once in the last year.) So school size is obviously the major consideration. But beyond that, how has Jesuit maintained such a consistency? After all, with all five of these schools having the luxury of choosing 11 starters from at least 1000 young men you wouldn't think that one set of eleven starters should have that much of an edge over another eleven. So is it coaching? I didn't see Jesuit doing anything THAT much different in the games I've seen them play. It appeared to me that they had one objective - win the ball, send it to the outside, send it down the flanks with long passes, and then make the crosses. Of course they do that very well, but what am I missing? And why can't opposing coaches solve it? What do they do when the crossing gets bottled up? Unfortunately, I haven't seen that happen yet. I'm not a coach by any means, but I find it odd that no one tries to dissect such a consistent program on a forum such as this.

[hideki]

They work very hard in practice and it shows in the games. They don't do anything special, they just do lots of things extremely well.

[beckhamismyidol]

i would suspect that it's likely because there aren't many people capable or discussing team structure and styles of play and the ones that can, are at the schools that have beaten jesuit or are most likely to. Sadly I never got to see them play for 4 years so I don't have much to say about them but it's obvious there aren't many coaches that understand fully the tactics of the game, especially at the highschool level. Therefore the teams that have the best coaches are usually consistently at the top of the divisions every year. Highschool soccer needs way more good coaches for it to be consistently more competetive and for other teams to break through and start winning some championships.

[garrincha]

beckhamis my idol is correct. Caddo's coach, Radi (understands and plays the game) has a very small window to work with his team, lacks a schedule of though competition and has players that are not in the necessary form or have the abilities to change tactics on the fly and respond to different opponents styles. Caddo enters the pitch playing the only game they know : their own style (that's why they were very succeful whenever they played a team with similar style - St Pauls). Caddo is unable to respond to man marking, and are slugish on their transitions which create many opportunities for their opponents. When you look at Jesuit, they pressure the ball and they have a great transition. They communicate very well in the pitch and move as a unit by constatnly giving feedback to each component. If you listen to their keeper you will get many clues to their organization style.

[Pitchstalker]

There is no secret here...the schools that are consistently at the top have the BEST PLAYERS TO CHOOSE FROM. Sure the coaching is good...take nothing away from them...but there is NO SECRET that MOST really good soccer players have #1 grown up playing soccer usually in SELECT programs and #2 the kids that have done that "usually" come from a priviledged background because they can afford the SELECT programs which #3 makes them able to afford to go to Jesuit, Brother Martin, etc. So sure you might be "drawing" from the same numbers as other schools but the pool of students you are drawing from is most likely populated with "more" talent than a "normal" public school is. Lafayette Parish isn't exactly the same, but the school system in Lafayette is established in a manner that allows incoming Freshmen to "choose" which high school they would like to attend REGARDLESS of attendance zone. So these schools aren't limited by "district lines" in who attends their schools. Shreve and Caddo are both Magnet schools, I believe, so they aren't limited by attendance zones.

What puts Jesuit and BM consistently at the top is the numbers of TALENTED players they have available to them. Another school MIGHT be able to muster together 11 players in any one year that might can play with Jesuit on "a given night", but if they play 10 times, then things will ALWAYS be in Jesuit's favor.

Please don't try to "sell" the idea that its all coaching. There are many coaches that work extremely hard and have enough knowledge to coach. Just think of it in this way. You take the coaches of Jesuit and BM and put them on a middle of the road team, one that is LIMITED by district lines for attendance...take your pick...I won't name any and do you think these teams would be competing for championships year in and year out just because you have those two coaches? NOT HARDLY...they may have an impact, but they won't compete.

[The Irish Fro]

just to let you know, all boys schools of jesuit, rummel, brother martin, etc. have their student populations doubled when put into classifications. so when they have a reported student poulation of 1500 per say, they really only have 750 boys.

[lakeview]

Jesuit has been listed, Pre-K, at about 2950 students. Divide by 2 and you will see the number of boys. Similar numbers for BM and Rummel.

Also, as far as coaching, look at A. Deritter. Moved from BM to Shaw to allow Louie to coach. AD is a top - notch coach. He will have to get those players to play rec first, and then premier.

[mrdashriprock]

mynameisntnoah said:

just to let you know, all boys schools of jesuit, rummel, brother martin, etc. have their student populations doubled when put into classifications. so when they have a reported student poulation of 1500 per say, they really only have 750 boys.

I did not know that. So they really are on par male student-wise with Fontainebleau and Lafayette. That still gives them over a 1000 kids to choose their teams from. Here's the LHSAA school numbers on the Week 7 Div I TOP 10 used in Nov to determine classification for next year:
1 Jesuit - 2316
2 Br Martin - 2216
3 Carencro - 1413
4 Lafayette - 2242
5 Caddo - 1145
6 Fontainebleau - 2242
7 Acadiana - 1727
8 St Paul - 1318
9 Rummel - 2192
10 Catholic - 1820

By the way, 1084 is the cutoff for DI before being eligible for DII.

[icarustea]

Players do have the most impact on the end results of games, but I do believe it takes a good coach to guide and keep them on task as well as to uphold discipline and focus and to push them to do their best. One has to wonder if teams like Jesuit would do just as well w/o a decent coach. Would the presence of one determine how they manage their practices and play their games? I certainly think it has something to do with it. Besides that, I'm sure that a player on Jesuit's varsity (or Lafayette, or BM) has a certain expectation of all the other players on their respective rosters. That in itself is a good motivator.

However, besides the size and quality of the player pool, bottom line is schools that usually do well are the ones that make the very best of what is offered to them. A good coach + a good solid roster + good discipline (physical and mental) + good managing = good results, guaranteed. You just heard that the team practices hard and do most things extremely well (good discipline). They have mostly juniors and seniors who are experienced and play on premier club teams, not just the starters but apparently even the subs (good roster). Their coach probably knows all of them or has coached them or played against them on their club teams so he knows exactly what his players need to do (good coach). Finally, they're undefeated with only 2 goals scored against them in all competitions. Conclusion: players in their respective positions are put there for a reason by the coach and the coach knows exactly what each player is or is not capable of doing (good managing). But you can say this of any team that does this well.

It's a long season - maintaining consistancy in all these areas to the end is probably the most difficult part of playing any sport. Just look at all the big teams in any sporting venue. Look at Chelsea, Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool. Year in, year out, you always hear about these teams - they are all exceptional in their own way, but the club team that can be consistant all the way to the end will wind up winning the championship. Same with Jesuit, Lafayette, BM, Teurlings, etc etc.

Affluency can be a factor in how a school team as a whole plays, but Lafayette is a public school, as is Carencro, Fontainebleu. They are good because most of their players play on good select/premier club teams. That is where they receive their training, not whether they are privileged or not. These kids are the ones that are good players on their varsity teams.

[hideki]

If it was about affluency you'd think that Newman, St Martins and Country Day would be the powerhouses of New Orleans.

[foxtrot]

mrdashriprock said:

mynameisntnoah said:

just to let you know, all boys schools of jesuit, rummel, brother martin, etc. have their student populations doubled when put into classifications. so when they have a reported student poulation of 1500 per say, they really only have 750 boys.

I did not know that. So they really are on par male student-wise with Fontainebleau and Lafayette. That still gives them over a 1000 kids to choose their teams from. Here's the LHSAA school numbers on the Week 7 Div I TOP 10 used in Nov to determine classification for next year:
1 Jesuit - 2316
2 Br Martin - 2216
3 Carencro - 1413
4 Lafayette - 2242
5 Caddo - 1145
6 Fontainebleau - 2242
7 Acadiana - 1727
8 St Paul - 1318
9 Rummel - 2192
10 Catholic - 1820

By the way, 1084 is the cutoff for DI before being eligible for DII.

hah teurlings who is predicted to be ranked 2nd overall has close to 700 people (girls & boys) altogether and not 1 cut was made so i heard.. not bad

[mrdashriprock]

foxtrot said:

hah teurlings who is predicted to be ranked 2nd overall has close to 700 people (girls & boys) altogether and not 1 cut was made so i heard.. not bad

That sounds like great coaching ! How many club players do they have on the team?

[foxtrot]

i believe around 7-8 on varsity if i remember correct

[icarustea]

hideki said:

If it was about affluency you'd think that Newman, St Martins and Country Day would be the powerhouses of New Orleans.

Took the words out of my mouth. (or schools for that matter). I think affluency has something to do with our nation as a whole in recruiting, scouting, and training young players. We are definitely missing out on a large chunk of people who can play soccer as good as those in other countries if we just gave them a chance (not make it so WHO DAT expensive).

But in this topic, I think the playing field is even when it comes to who does well in the high school arena.

[alfred]

beckhamismyidol said:

i would suspect that it's likely because there aren't many people capable or discussing team structure and styles of play and the ones that can, are at the schools that have beaten jesuit or are most likely to. Sadly I never got to see them play for 4 years so I don't have much to say about them but it's obvious there aren't many coaches that understand fully the tactics of the game, especially at the highschool level. Therefore the teams that have the best coaches are usually consistently at the top of the divisions every year. Highschool soccer needs way more good coaches for it to be consistently more competetive and for other teams to break through and start winning some championships.

Well said...I think it takes a good (and most importantly, intelligent) soccer player (not someone who hasn't ever played competitive soccer in their life) to make a good coach and high school soccer in LA just hasn't hit that mark yet for former players to become coaches yet. As a former high school player, most of the people on my team were able to "see" things on the field that our coach couldn't. I'm sorry, but raw talent does no good if you don't have the brains or ability to observe what the other team is doing and exploit their weaknesses. This might be a little extreme but if I was a high school soccer coach I would coach like American football coaches. I would try to scout most of the teams I would play and produce game film to show my players how to beat certain, better-talented teams by also improving the way my own team performs.

[a]

that method would work in district play but come playoff time you cant "scout" a team and get film on them if youre byrd or shreve and try to get film on a team like jesuit