SLUH has, without question, one of the toughest prep schedules in the area. Among the opponents on the 10-game regular-season schedule are DeSmet, defending state champion Webster Groves and CBC — ranked No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, in last week’s St. Louis Post Dispatch prep football poll.
And last weekend, hands-down, the season’s toughest opponent: Not Webster Groves — The American College Test. The ACT.
About a dozen members of the Jr. Billiken varsity squad made an appearance at the weekly post-game dinner organized by parents, woofed down some pizza, then left to go home to bed. The alarm would go off early the next morning and they had to be back at SLUH or another testing site by 8 a.m. with No. 2 pencils in hand.
What would transgress over a few hours Sept. 10 would have far more lasting lifetime effects on those young athletes than the score of the Webster Groves football game the night before. SLUH hung in tough, but lost to an extremely talented and skilled Statesman team, 49-28.
The weekend’s toughest opponent was not on a football field, but in a classroom. The results of the test taken that morning would go a long way to determining things like college choices and admissions decisions.
Fair? Not really. So much is put on a single test score, but that’s the way the system has evolved. Matt McCarthy, No. 45, was on his second go-round with the ACT and had a very specific goal and very specific score in mind. Can he achieve his goal without this particular score? Probably, but I worry about the pressure he might be putting on himself, and indirectly, the pressure his dad and I put on him by strongly suggesting he take this test a second time in September.
“Really, this test is gravy,” I told him beforehand. “You’ll have another chance in October and November.” I believe that. I hope he did too.
And I didn’t tell Matt this, but I watched the SLUH-Webster Groves game — his first start at defensive end — with new worries. Every hit, every tackle made me wonder if it would affect him the next morning.
How’s he going to concentrate tomorrow if he gets knocked up the side of the head tonight? …. Of all nights to start. … Against the defending state champs. …. Oh man, that Webster offensive line is huge … They’re bringing their tight end to pass block. … Player down on the field … oh no, not again. …. ok, he’s back out there … tackle McCarthy … tackle Jedlicka and McCarthy … oh no, the defense has to go back out there … tackle, tackle, tackle….
Turns out, I wasn’t alone and probably not the only mom thinking thoughts worthy of italics throughout the game. The Sansones, the Jedlickas, the Hawkins, the Knesels, all these families, among others, had one eye on the scoreboard and one eye on the next morning.
“We were all wondering,” Matt said later, “why our parents made us take it in September.”
Good to know we weren’t the only parents who “strongly suggested” the September ACT test.
Our boys are going to do fine. I’m pretty sure they are going to get into good colleges because they’re not only football players, they are in the National Honor Society and the Student Council and are Senior Advisors for the freshmen and they run track and play baseball and participate in community service and take courses such as Calculus and Physics and Greek.
Matt got up the next morning without prompt, ate a “pregame” breakfast of a bagel and a banana, and drove back down to SLUH to take the test. I went to 8 a.m. Mass, to pray not for a successful score, but that God would guide him down the proper path and that what was meant to be for him would be.
Next week’s game is against CBC — the No. 3 team who beat the No. 1 team last weekend. But before that, there is homework to be completed and tests to take. No let-up for these scholar-athletes, but there are lessons to be learned — on and off the field — in having one of the area’s toughest schedules.
Would you want it any other way for your son?
Like these pictures? To view more from this season’s SLUH varsity team by photographer Nancy Winkelmann, visit nancywinkelmann.zenfolio.com/varsitypix.
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