As probably most of Metro Detroit knows by now, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep will not be participating in the Catholic League for 2016-17.
The situation stems from Notre Dame Prep’s refusal to play Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice in football, and after a long process, decisions were made that the Pontiac school would not participate in other league sports in the coming academic year.
In a letter dated Jan. 24, 2016, Notre Dame Prep’s president, Fr. Leon Olszamowski, SM, told parents, staff and supporters:
“Our school administration and our athletic department personnel have tried to make it clear that we have decided not to participate in the Catholic League (for 2016-17). We have not been booted out as one news article had said ... nor have we been suspended by the Catholic League as another article had said.”
The controversy revolves around two principles — league integrity and a moral stance regarding the safety and welfare of student-athletes.
How did all of this unravel, much to the dismay of both Notre Dame and the CHSL?
“It’s a process,” said Vic Michaels, who is in his 14th year as director of the league, with a roster of 27 schools playing 30 sports for boys and girls on varsity, junior varsity and freshmen levels.
“We don’t have a better league member than Notre Dame,” Michaels said. “They support everything we do, and are most generous. But if members don’t accept the schedules, then we don’t have a league. I wish there was a way out.”
The issue is the scheduling of football crossover games — a smaller school playing a larger school — among the league’s four divisions: Central (five Class A all-boys schools); AA (one boys, three coed schools: two Class B, two Class C); Intersectional 1, (four coed schools: three B, one C); and Intersectional 2, (five coed schools: two C, three D).
The process kicked off in November with a meeting of presidents, principals and athletic directors of Central and AA Division schools, chaired by Superintendent Brian M. Dougherty, Ph.D., for an in-depth discussion of the issue.
Among 23 crossover games in the proposed football schedule were Notre Dame Prep (coed enrollment 778) vs. Brother Rice (all-boys 639), Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard (coed 556) vs. Detroit Catholic Central (all-boys 1,069), Dearborn Divine Child (coed 827) vs. Warren De La Salle (all-boys 786), and Detroit Loyola (all-boys 138) vs. Orchard Lake St. Mary’s (all-boys 516). The practice of crossover games has been in place for more than 40 years, Dougherty said.
A vote was taken at a second meeting two weeks later. The proposal passed with one dissenting vote, Notre Dame Prep’s.
In December, the proposal was on the agenda of two more board meetings: the league’s athletic directors and the Executive Athletic Board (comprised of 18 principals and ADs elected by their peers, who, Michaels said, “govern the league”). In both instances, the vote was all for with the exception of NDP.
Finally, at a Jan. 12 meeting, the EAB met again to hear what Fr. Olszamowski called “an eleventh-hour appeal” of a proposal the Irish “leave football for one year” and forfeit the game to Brother Rice. He also included an either-or condition: if the appeal was denied, then “with great regret” Notre Dame “will decline membership in the league in all sports for the 2016-17 school year.”
The board turned down the appeal, and imposed a further restriction that the other Catholic League members could not play Notre Dame during its yearlong withdrawal.
In a letter dated the next day to the Notre Dame community, Fr. Olszamowski expressed disappointment over the decision. “We love the Catholic League,” he wrote,” but we love our students more and will not willingly put them into a position that will jeopardize their health and well-being.”
The last Central Division foe Notre Dame played was Catholic Central from 2005-08, losing four games by a cumulative score of 182-31. “We sustained many season-ending injuries playing CC,” Fr. Olszamowski wrote.
On the other hand, since 2011, Notre Dame has played seven Class A public schools, winning all of the games. Last fall, the Fighting Irish beat Redford Thurston (enrollment 1,064), 45-24, and Owosso (961), 43-8.
In December, the Michigan High School Athletic Association released preliminary data from 744 — or 99 percent — of its member high schools for the fall season showing 2 percent of more than 100,000 high school athletes experienced concussions (79 percent in football, 11 percent in soccer), and 27 percent of high schools responding reported that none of their athletes experienced concussions while participating in MHSAA sports. Data was not available with regard to larger schools playing smaller schools.
“Football is safer today than ever, but there is an inherent risk in playing football,” said Brother Rice AD Jeff Calcaterra, saying Rice would “honor the schedule the league gives us.”
At Ann Arbor Fr. Gabriel Richard, Principal Brian Wolcott said his school “was given relief” from playing Catholic Central when both schools, with CHSL approval, found another opponent for the week they were scheduled to play.
University of Detroit-Jesuit was the only school not part of the crossover, Michaels said. The Cubs had asked for a break from playing Central Division squads. When U-D shut out Brother Rice, 34-0, last fall, it was the first win for the Cubs against a Central Division team since 2006 — a span of 10 years and 40 games.
Jesuit will play St. Mary’s and De La Salle from the Central while seeking opponents elsewhere to fill out a nine-game schedule.
The pain of separation is felt on both sides for Notre Dame Prep and the Catholic League.
Since 1994, when Notre Dame Prep moved to its current location, Betty Wroubel has served as AD, teacher and coach.
“I love the Catholic League,” she said “This is horrific for me.”
Don Horkey may be reached at [email protected].
