It’s Groundhog day! With the Super Bowl next week, football season is officially coming to a close. For those in the CHSFL, the season has been over for 64 days already. We are about to enter the dog days of winter and spring, where we spend our time watching other sports, celebrating the end of the school year, and enjoying well deserved time off in the summer. Though here, on my site, I have still been posting, asking around, shaking the tree for information for the 2025 season. You would be surprised at how much is decided for the next season in January. The CHSFL is indeed making some changes to the divisions, and adding teams to the league. 

First, let’s welcome the two “new” teams in the CHSFL. St. Dominic’s High School of Oyster Bay on Long Island, and Nazareth Regional High School in Brooklyn. Both schools have historical ties to the CHSFL. Most notably for each team- St. Dominic’s High School won the first ever League Championship game in 1975 against St. Francis Prep, and Nazareth, won two lower division championships (back in those days it was ‘A’, but it is effectively an ‘AA-1’ crown) in 1984 and 1985. I welcome back the Bayhawks and Kingmen into the CHSFL. As smaller schools, both programs will be competing at the ‘AA-2’ level. 

Some other changes:

• The ‘AAA’ has been shrunk to six teams
• Kellenberg Memorial has been moved to the ‘AAA’ to the ‘AA-1’
• Holy Trinity Diocesan High School has been moved from the ‘AA-1’ to the ‘AA-2’

By my count, this grows the league to 23 teams, across three divisions. 

See below for the pre-season rankings and the divisions:

‘AAA’ 

1. Iona Preparatory School
2. St. Anthony’s High School
3. Cardinal Hayes High School
4. Archbishop Stepinac High School
5. Chaminade HIgh School
6. Monsignor Farrell High School

‘AA-1’

7. Kellenberg Memorial High School
8. St. Joseph by the Sea High School
9. St. Peter’s High School for Boys
10. Moore Catholic High School
11. Fordham Preparatory School
12. Xavier High School
13. St. Francis Preparatory School
14. St. John the Baptist Diocesan High School

‘AA-2’

15. Xaverian High School
16. Holy Trinity Diocesan High School
17. Holy Cross High School
18. Academy of Mount Saint Michael
19. Christ the King Regional High School
20. Cardinal Spellman High School
21. Kennedy Catholic College Preparatory School
22. St. Dominic’s High School
23. Nazareth Regional High School

After taking a look at the long history of the CHSFL, over the next month or so, I am going to review how each program performed, and what the outlook is moving forward. I am going to make assumptions, criticize, and be honest about each program’s prospects as a CHSFL title contender next season.

Fortunately, I was able to acquire the 2025 league schedule as well, which I had originally planned to release, when the NYCHSFL posted them. To my surprise, Iona Prep and Kellenberg already released their schedule for 2025. I am going to look at their League schedule. I am going to go through each team and make a rough prediction about how many wins they should have for the year, based on their schedule, and personal opinion. Obviously, the more information, the more detail I can go into. As I work down the divisions, the less information I have on each program due their program size.

For these posts, I am going to start with a summary of the school in recent history, the record of each program since the 2021 season, the first season after the Covid-19 pandemic, and how I think they may go. I chose this as a natural point because every single player that was a freshman during the 2021 season, is now gone, and so we get to see the evolution of each program through that lens. 

See you all in March-ish!