Recruiting madness surrounds North Jersey’s Parochial Programs

Recruiting has been a part of parochial high school football in New Jersey for many years. Jabrill Peppers, a freshman cornerback at Michigan transferred from Don Bosco to Paramus Catholic following his sophomore football season season in the spring of 2012. His move to PC (that did not have any specific reasoning until now) brought several other high school football players to Paramus Catholic, a team that had not won a sectional championship since 1990. In fact, PC didn’t even compete with the other parochial schools in their division (Bosco, St. Joe’s and Bergen). Peppers move to PC sent North Jersey high school football into a transfer frenzy and ultimately balanced out the power within North Jersey parochial school football.

Timeline:

In a story published on September 30 by NJ Advance Media on NJ.com, St. Peter’s Prep head coach Rich Hansen called Paramus Catholic head coach Chris Partridge “dirty” for trying to get one of his players, Alabama commit Minkah Fitzpatrick to come and play at the Bergen County prior to his junior season.

On Wednesday, October 8, USA Today posted a preview on their website for this weekends Don Bosco vs. PC game. Don Bosco head coach Greg Toal introduced his team’s rivalry vs. PC by saying that he did not believe himself and Chris Partridge “could be in the same room together”. Toal also told USA Today that “he (Partridge) stole a bunch of my players and has a history of recruiting.”

On Thursday, October 9, The Record’s Darren Cooper published an article with a text message from Jabrill Peppers stating why he left Don Bosco. Peppers told Cooper, “My transferring process was a complete disaster, there were threats made to me, notes left in my locker by students, the coaching staff telling me that I’ll miss a whole year of eligibility, telling me any school I go to they would take them down, spreading a bad.” Peppers said he ultimately left Bosco because he was “unhappy”. He also said that Bosco “said it was going to be”. I give credit to Peppers for unleashing a statement. Regardless if he was telling the truth or not, he finally came out and said something. He gave people a reason to believe that he did not leave Bosco for football reasons. Most importantly, Peppers added more hype to the new rivalry between Bosco and PC.

So now its Saturday, October 11. Bosco plays PC for the first of what could be two meetings this season (if the two teams meet in the playoffs.) There is more fire between the two schools even with Peppers gone to college. This game is going to come down to the last few minutes, how could it not?

My take: 

The ‘information’ was bound to spill out at some point. There was no definitive reason why Jabrill Peppers, one of the most talented and sought after players to ever come out of the New Jersey high school football system, left Don Bosco until now. Peppers, a sophomore helped Bosco win its sixth consecutive Non-Public, Group 4 sectional title in 2011. More importantly, Bosco was at the top of most national high school football polls for the second time in three years. Peppers move to Paramus Catholic ultimately balanced out the playing field among the parochial schools in North Jersey (Bosco, Joes, and Bergen Catholic).