The memories of December 9, 1995, remain fresh. As they
should. The day that Bishop McDevitt High School took its place in PIAA
history with its Class AA football championship is a day to be remembered,
a day to live on in the hearts and minds of all of the people who played
important roles in such an exciting, monumental moment. The list of people
involved in making it happen is endless: Players, coaches, students, faculty,
fans, community. Do you think we have the room in this story -- or the
inclination -- to list all of those names? We might as well just rewrite
the Greater Harrisburg White Pages. The question that is now before us
foiiuwing Bishop McDevitt's 29-0 victory over Burrell on that blustery
day in Altoona is not whether McDevitt had the finest Class AA team in
Pennsylvania this past season. That has been proven, and your heart tells
you if they played the state playoffs 100 times, Bishop McDevitt would
win it 100 times. (Missed team dinners excepted, of course.) The real question:
Is this the best Class AA team in Pennsylvania ... ever? Now that's a question
worth pondering. Unfortunately, it is a question not readily answered.
Indeed, it is a question that can never be answered. But observers of the
PIAA Football Championships, since their inception in 1988, are hard-pressed
to point to a Class AA team with more speed, more quickness, more strength,
more raw ability, better coaching and more versatility than the 1995 Bishop
McDevitt Crusaders.
The closest team would probably be Dallas' 1993 state champions. That team was big (like McDevitt), was strong (like McDevitt), had good offensive variety (like McDevitt), a suffocating defense (like McDevitt), and was well-coached (like McDevitt). But was that Dallas team faster? No, not even close. Was it stronger? Hard to say. Was its defense more stifling? Not likely. Of the players who have appeared in Class AA state championship games since 1988, have any been better than Raki Nelson, Jordan Scott, Jacoby Pittman, Corey Deibler, Dave McKenzie, Todd and Tommy Mealy, Steve Spoljaric, Don and Drew Painter, Chance Carter, Ajani Walton, Kenny Borreli, Mike Eismann, Spencer Waters, Bill Seibert, Joe True, Todd Rombach, Rocco Cangialosi, and Kahlil Nash? Not many.
Hickory's Andre Coleman, currently with the San Diego
Chargers, is certainly one of the best. Could Raki, headed for Notre Dame,
reach the NFL in a few years? Only time will tell. The acid test might
lay in the following question: Could any of those state championship teams
have beaten Harrisburg or Cumberland Valley the way McDevitt did this year?
It's highly doubtful. The point of all of this is to underscore something
you already know: The 1995 Bishop McDevitt Crusaders, from stars to subs,
were something special. True, you can say that of any team that wins a
state championship. A state title by its very nature connotes something
special about the team and individuals who won the championship. But this
year's Crusaders left opponents shaking their heads.
Line Mountain head coach Mike Carson, whose team was victimized
40-6 by McDevitt in the PIAA quarterfinals, said he could not envision
a better Class AA team. "We had a good football team, a really good team,"
said Carson when asked his opinion of McDevitt at the state championships
in Altoona. "And at every position, they were bigger, stronger and faster
than us. We did everything we could, and we couldn't stay with them." It
was a common theme repeated throughout the Mid-Penn Conference and postseason
playoffs. Cocalico head coach Phil Kauffman, whose Eagles were crushed
34-7 in the District 3-AA championship game, knew his team was overmatched.
"No one has stopped our running game all year," he said. "And except for
one play McDevitt didn't give us any room to run. None at all." "That was
a Quad-A team," said Burrell head coach Tom Henderson after the state championship
game. "And a darn good Quad-A team, too." The numbers bear that out. McDevitt's
472 points was the fourth highest total in the state this year behind Southern
Columbia, Berwick and Manheim Central. That made McDevitt the state's highest
scoring Class AA team in 1995. At 31.5 points per game, the Crusaders were
15th in the state overall and third among Class AA teams.
The defensive numbers were good, too. McDevitt gave up 107 points, for a per-game average of 7.7 points yielded which was 10th in the state and second in Class AA. Its average friargin of victory - 24.3 points per game - was 14th in the state, third in Class AA. And keep in mind, that was against the best schedule of any Class AA team in Pennsylvania. It was a team that produced the Associated Press Small School Coach of the Year (Four Chapman) and the Small School Player of the Year (Raki Nelson). It's the first time the Coach of the Year and the Player of the Year came from the same school. Raki, Jordan and Corey were first-team all-state players.We realize you know all of this. But isn't it nice to read again? and again ...and again ... and again... ·
-Rod Frisco