Boarding School Playing for the State 4A Mississippi High School Championship

Brian Fisher By Brian Fisher on December 04, 2009 3 Comments
Boarding School Atheltics, Boarding School News, Boarding School Students, Boarding School Thoughts, Private School Blog, Southern Boarding Schools Blog

Football championship gameWe’ve got something out of the ordinary happening here in Mississippi.

Saturday at 3 PM, in Jackson, the St. Stanislaus Rock-A-Chaws play the Lafayette County High School Commodores for the 2009 Class 4A football championship. The Rock-A-Chaws and the Commodores are the south and north half champions respectively.

Other than the fact that I live in Lafayette County and my wife teaches at Lafayette, why is this noteworthy?

It’s the first time that I’ve ever seen or heard of a private boarding school participating in state supervised public school athletics. I’m sure it happens elsewhere, but I’ve never seen it.

From what I understand, to participate St. Stanislaus College is handicapped (in the racing sense) by rule. By student population, St. Stanislaus would qualify as only a 2A school; but, because they draw students from all over the country and, can, to some extent, recruit, they must play two steps up the population ladder.

The game is Saturday at 3PM and, like all the championship games, will be broadcast by Mississippi Public Broadcasting.

From the name game perspective, the St. Stanislaus quarterback is Dylan Favre, nephew of the NFL’s Brett Favre.

From the Oxford Eagle:

“…Favre owns nine state records: single-game passing yards (562), single-season touchdown passes (60), single-season passing yards (5,090), single-season touchdown responsibility (76), single-season total yards (6,347), career touchdown passes (141), career passing yards (12,140), career total touchdowns (164) and career total yards (13,755).

‘He is one of the best competitors I’ve been around,’ St. Stanilaus coach, Williams said. ‘He knows what he wants to do and how he wants to do it and doesn’t make a lot of mistakes.

‘If he’s hot and he’s on, that picks up everyone else around him.’

This season, Favre leads the country with 5,090 yards and 60 touchdowns passing, while completing 319 of 499 passes (63.9 percent) and only throwing 15 interceptions…

Favre is also SSC’s rushing leader, having rushed for 1,107 yards and 16 scores. (OE)

Lafayette counters with its own star quarterback, sophomore, Jeremy Liggins, 1,419 yards ruching and 1,362 yards passing. (CL)

Read:
“Farve does it all for Roack-A-Chaws”
“‘Dores Contiue Work for Title Game”
“Prolific Farvre and Large Liggins Trigger High Octane Offenses”

Photo credit: acaben

Related posts:

  1. St. Stanislaus College Takes the Mississippi Class 4A Football Title
  2. Two Boarding School Alumni in Tonight’s BCS National Championship Game
  3. Top Notch Boarding School Basketball Welcomes a High Level Coach
  4. Insight Into High Level Prep School Basketball
  5. Westtown School’s Daniel Ochefu: Sports Illustrated’s High School Player of the Week
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About the Author
Brian Fisher

  • SSC whipped you

    Wow, You're whole article is incorrect. St. Stanislaus is a private catholic school for boys. With about 1/2 the students boarders and the other 1/2 day students. The school is all MALE. They would be 2A, but because they are all MALE they double their actual enrollment, hence the 4A. And they do not recruit by the way. If they did, Dr. Ennis Proctor of MHSAA, would not allow them to compete. I graduated from SSC back in the 80's and they have always played public school and been a part of MHSAA. It is with out question one of, if not the best prep school in Mississippi. And BTW, there something called GOOGLE that should help in preparing your future yapping.

    • Brian Fisher

      Sorry to learn of your displeasure with our St. Stanislaus piece. We were working to disseminate a good boarding school story to larger audience.

      We certainly know that St. Stanislaus is all male but I stand by my observation and understanding, from speaking with coaches here in Mississippi, that St. Stanilaus plays larger than they really are. St. Stanislaus has an 9-12 student body of 246 (approx.). Current Mississippi 4A schools range in size from 477-754. In arithmetically perfect world, St. Stanislaus might fit into the bottom of the 4A schools. They look more like a strong 3A school to me.

      In terms of recruiting, only the smallest boarding schools with consciously small-scale athletic programs do not take athletics into consideration when admitting some students. Whether or not a school calls it recruiting, drawing athletes, especially for a private boarding and day schools, is no accident. Strong athletic programs require resources beginning with the admission office, to the classroom, to the field, to hiring coaches, all the way through development. I've known some prep school coaches who can work the phones in the evening as well as any college coach. Populating a private boarding or day school with strong athletes is no accident.

      Regarding your understanding of the current state of happenings and policies at St. Stanislaus, I'd be interested to know if you hold a current position or relationship with the school? I, too, am a boarding school alumnus (and class agent) from the mid-nineteen eighties, but I know that I can't speak with certainty on current school policy or the current internal state of affairs at my alma mater. One other personal note, I live in and write from Mississippi.

      We contacted St. Stanislaus twice to participate in the article. The school did not respond to our requests. Instead, I spoke to other coaches and used public resources here in the state. We would have loved to provide a richer picture benefitting from St. Stanislaus' direct participation.

  • Knows Ofwhatispeak

    St. Stan isn't operating at any disadvantage because of being in 4A. Most co-ed schools, in fact, have more female students than male. To my way of thinking, SSC is right where they should be in 4A, unless you know of male athletic teams somewhere that depend heavily upon female athletes to fill out their rosters.

    By the way, ever hear of French Camp? They've participated in public school athletics since before WWII. Boarding school too. Basically, you're just talking out of the top of your hat, without doing any research other than looking through the inside of your own head.

    Also by the way, does going to a boarding school teach you to turn flips into the end zone after touchdowns and generally show off and draw unsportsmanlike conduct penalties as SSC did during the entire game against Lafayette? Smacked of at least eliteism to me. That's okay though, it inspired the Commodores to come back and win a state champtionship yesterday 31-6. The boys were bitterly disappointed that they didn't get to roll over SSC though. Oh well, maybe next year.

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