West Catholic and Two Others Football Schools to Remain Open

by Jeff Fisher
High School Football America

There were a lot of hallelujahs coming from four Philadelphia catholic high schools recently when the archdiocese decided to keep open four schools that it announced it was closing on January 6th.

West Catholic, Conwell-Egan, Monsignor Bonner/Archbishop Prendergast and St. Hulbert (all-girls, no football) will remain open and be playing football in the fall thanks to a tremendous outpouring of support since the January announcement.

The decision was made after close to 20,000 financial donations were received from a wide range of people.

The announcement is especially exciting for West Catholic head football coach and alum Brian Fluck, who now has a chance to build on last year's 10-4 season that ended with a loss in the Class AA state semifinals.  However, there will be a question on whether Fluck will have his senior, blue chip running back David Williams in the backfield.

Williams, who moved to West after his sophomore season when North Catholic closed, had begun looking at other schools, such as defending Class AAA champ Archbishop Wood.

Back on February 16th I spoke with Fluck on the High School Football America radio show about the close.  Click here to listen to that interview.