Keyshawn Johnson sat down with St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy head coach Devah Thomas, who led her group to its first CIF-Southern Section championship title after an 0-8 begin to the season and a closing report of 1-9.
How did St. Pius, a small non-public coeducational Catholic highschool from South Los Angeles with about 520 college students, accomplish such a feat?
First of all, his program was robust sufficient to earn an at-large berth within the postseason, for Sports Illustrated.
“People cannot imagine it,” Thomas mentioned within the newest version of “All Facts No Brakes.” “I do not make the principles, I simply comply with them,” Thomas added of Calpreps, the pc system used to create playoff divisions.
“I believed if we gained one or two (video games) we may get in as a result of our program was among the best in California,” Thomas mentioned. “Every group we performed (within the common season) made the playoffs besides one out of 9 groups, all in the next division than us besides one group. … (There are) groups that went 7-3 that did not they managed to make the playoffs, I imply, they performed the Little Sisters of the Poorand so he reached them.
“They need aggressive fairness…. The CIF is following that precept… (and) we meet the standards.”
Competitive Equity is a brand new playoff system that locations groups within the applicable division to make aggressive video games. If there are nonetheless spots accessible within the 16-team subject, groups are typically positioned in Calpreps rating order from highest to lowest. St. Pius’ Calpreps rating is 96. Its schedule energy is 17.2, which is greater than that of all its playoff opponents besides Cypress (18.1), who St. Pius beat within the first spherical , 21-14.
St. Pius defeated Serrano within the CIF-SS Division 8 closing Friday evening, 38-19. Junior quarterback Jassi Williams threw 25 passes to 6 totally different receivers for 444 yards and scored a complete of 5 touchdowns (4 passing, one dashing).
Thomas went on to clarify why he thought St. Pius would have slipped away if that they had made the playoffs. “You simply noticed the grit, the hassle of those guys,” he mentioned. “They by no means gave up. They got here each Monday after a loss and have been nonetheless motivated.”
The Warriors soccer group consists of solely 30 gamers whole, with solely two seniors on your entire group.
The state regional recreation will likely be Saturday evening. St. Pius will host San Diego-based St. Augustine, which went 0-10 in its common season, in Division 4-A play.
St. Pius had beforehand reached and misplaced the Division 14 closing in 2019 and the Division 7 closing in 2021, which was Thomas’ first season. Thomas has gained playoff video games in each season since.
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