Thoughts on Pontiac Notre Dame Prep possibly joining the OAA.

Written Wednesday January 13th at 9:30 PM

The OAA will be down to 23 schools by the end of the school year with Southfield and Lathrup is merging into one school.

23 is an odd number.

There is a school looking to join a conference and have stability. Oddly enough its Pontiac Notre Dame Prep.

The Irish were kicked out of the Catholic League on Tuesday for refusing to play Birmingham Brother Rice in football citing safety concerns. They are not allowed to play any Catholic League teams unless it is the State Tournament.

Could the OAA take a chance on bringing in the Irish??? Well here are some pros and cons to bringing in Pontiac Notre Dame Prep.

What is Working in Favor For Pontiac Notre Dame Prep.

The Irish are very competitive in many sports especially volleyball, football, girls basketball, softball, and boys basketball.

They would have a natural rivalry with Pontiac, something that the Phoenix and the city of Pontiac have long wanted because when Pontiac Northern and Pontiac Central merged the rivalry went with them.

Location, they are in the center of OAA Territory. Southern schools would not have too big of an issue.

Pontiac Notre Dame Prep can create new rivalries with other OAA Schools and could encourage Ferndale and Hazel Park to stay in the OAA.

The Irish have played OAA schools in the past such as Orion, Clarkston, Farmington, Oxford, Stoney Creek, and Rochester among others.

What is Working Against Pontiac Notre Dame Prep.

You have to enroll to get into Notre Dame Prep. They only have about over 700 students enrolled there. Avondale, Berkley, Hazel Park and especially Ferndale can compete with the Irish because of enrollment but they will be forced to play schools that are bigger than them and has more kids not to mention the OAA has a realignment policy which means Notre Dame Prep will more than likely play bigger schools for league games and that could also happen for football.

Pontiac Notre Dame Prep is a private school, the OAA in the past has voted down private schools joining the league. In 1997 Birmingham Detroit Country Day and Cranbrook-Kingswood applied to the OAA but were turned down by the league because they were private schools and Cranbrook is a Boys only school.

My Thoughts.

To me in my opinion this is close to a slam dunk based on location and travel would be far less than they would have to do as an independent but I do have some concerns though with this move if the Irish were to enter the OAA because Pontiac Notre Dame Prep is a private school and they RECRUIT. Now I know there are private schools in other leagues around the state like Flint Powers Catholic is in the Saginaw Valley League and I do understand why the Southern schools like Royal Oak and Farmington don’t want Lapeer, Davison, and Grand Blanc in the league and it’s because of travel.

Another concern that I have is the competitive advantage that Pontiac Notre Dame Prep would have in football because of their recruiting ability. Take the recruiting process away and I would let them into the league in my opinion.

I don’t think it’s likely they will join the league but its a close call (probably 60-40 no) because of the private school and recruiting debate but then again Pontiac Notre Dame Prep isn't Birmingham Brother Rice or Orchard Lake St. Mary's where they give stuff to athletes to go to their schools but anything is possible.

Pontiac Notre Dame Prep will have to petition the OAA to join the league but the other 23 high school principals will be the ones who decide if the Irish were to join the league or not.

We’ll see what happens, stay tuned to OAA Now for complete coverage on the possible expansion. Also we are keeping an eye on the Kensington Lakes Athletic Association situation as the Athletic Directors of each of the KLAA schools have met about keeping the 24 schools together despite the fact they are rumblings that some schools want out of the league if the divisions are the same based on geographic and not by realignment every few seasons.