H.S. NOTES

Stephen Wood suffered through a 9-17 season last year, including a 1-12 mark in the CHSAA AA division.

But when he found out from McClancy head coach Don Kent that the Crusaders would be leaving AA – arguably the best high school league in the country – he wasn’t pleased.

“Even though we were losing, I still wanted to play against the top competition,” the 6-3 junior said. “I wanted to stay up there to see how well I could do.”

But the decision had already been made. And after years struggling near the bottom of the league and getting blown out by teams like Rice and Christ the King, the Crusaders have finally found some success.

“Last year, we had a negative attitude because of our record,” Wood said. “This has been a big change.”

The Crusaders have their first playoff game tomorrow after a 16-8 season (12-6 in CHSAA A).

The move hasn’t hurt Wood’s game, either. He’s averaging 22 points per game and scored a career-high 50 against St. John the Baptist in December. Kent said that St. John’s and Fordham were Wood’s top pursuers.

“This hasn’t just been good for Stephen, it’s been good for our whole program,” Kent said. “We didn’t have a chance against the better teams the last couple of years. I convinced Stephen that this would be a more level playing field for us and it is.”

St. John’s Prep head coach Jim Gatto thought the same thing nearly 25 years ago, when he decided to move his team down.

“It was the best thing I could have done,” said Gatto, who led the school to championships in 1978 and 1979 when it was still Mater Christi. “We were going in a different direction.”

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The CHSAA AA sectional playoffs were postponed yesterday. St. Raymond’s will play All Hallows today at 1 and Farrell plays Rice at 8, both at Mt. St. Michael. Xaverian plays Holy Cross at 6 and Loughlin faces Christ the King at 7:30 at Bishop Ford.