Folks following this page since the early Spring may remember the spat that former head coach Nick Giannatasio had with the Moore Catholic administration. This disagreement, led to the head coach, who led the Mavericks to three straight ‘AA-1’ titles over the past four years, to “mutually part ways.” Oddly enough, Nick did not stay without a coaching job for long, as he was able to land a head coaching job at Moore Catholic’s rival, St. Peter’s Boys High School, the same day that this all went down. Suspicious, huh? From an outsider’s perspective, this seems rather orchestrated by Head Coach Mark DeCristoforo, a once vocal critic of Nick, and Nick himself. Let’s dive in, shall we?

The official letter from the Moore Catholic President below:

From talking to folks around Staten Island, the issues with how Nick was getting athletes to come to Moore, the quality of those students, and the ethics of that program were all concerns from the administration, which started their tenure rather recently, and had to be an evolving discussion over the season. While I don’t exactly know what this means, it seems like a dog whistle, and for the school founded in 1962, saying that you just don’t like (or they don’t meet your standards) the quality of students in the building really only says one thing, especially if those students are the base of your athletic program. Just some of the rumors floating around about Nick, and note that these are just rumors, is that Nick was covering the tuition for these students, having them stay at his house, that some of these students would attend Moore for the football season, and that there were considerable behavior concerns. The other side of this discussion is that the school had allowed this behavior to go on for so long, Nick was hired in 2015, and the Mavericks went 57-31 during this time, winning two ‘A’/’AA-2’ Championships in 2016 and 2019 and then went to three straight ‘AA-1’ title games from 2021-2023. So the school had ignored the issues during this time, enjoyed the success and notoriety of having a strong football program, and now it’s an issue? How else does a school with barely 430 students (co-ed) compete with the likes of Monsignor Farrell, and the rest of the Catholic League? The school was okay with this success for close to 10 years, and then grew a conscience about how it was done? It’s not like this is new to Moore Catholic too. They folded in 2010 due to lack of football players enrolled. 

Now for my take: 

I do think that Nick Giannatasio likely saw the writing on the wall, and decided to sow the seeds to do as much damage to the Moore Catholic Football program as possible. 

Knowing that this was an issue, and that it was likely to be irreconcilable, I believe that Nick likely started talking to head coach and athletic director Mark DeCristoforo at St. Peter’s about joining his staff a bit after the season– one that ended with St. Peter’s losing to St. Joseph by the Sea in the ‘AA-1’ Championship. Transfer rules are important here, as transferring schools and playing football is not allowed in the NYCHSFL past your freshman year of high school. The only way that the league would allow it, is if your school’s program folded. Mark, seeing an opportunity to knock out a rival, and possibly get some great transfers to reload for another championship run, was receptive to this. Note that there is nothing inherently wrong with Nick doing this. People switch jobs, interview for other jobs all the time.

So, Nick then goes to winter league meetings, and submits a ludicrously high pre-season ranking for Moore Catholic– which was granted (they are ranked 10). This pits them against two ‘AAA’ teams and much of the strongest teams in the ‘AA-1’, then bolted to St. Peter’s.

Moore Catholic’s 2025 Schedule is below (note-bolded games are league matchups): 

Moore Catholic
Week #	Opponent	Result
Week 0	Abraham Lincoln HS (PSAL AAAA)
Week 1	Fordham Prep
Week 2	BYE
Week 3	@ Cardinal Hayes
Week 4	@ Xaverian
Week 5	@ St. Peter’s
Week 6	Monsignor Farrell
Week 7	@ Xavier
Week 8	Holy Cross
Week 9	St. Francis Prep

Because the league does not change league preseason rankings, or league schedules after they are set, Moore Catholic was now left with a ludicrously hard schedule, and no head coach. And of course, rumors were swirling around that Nick and Mark, now co-head coaches at St. Peter’s were calling families to encourage the Moore Catholic football players to transfer, and to transfer to Peter’s. This inevitably caused a flood of transfers, at least one major player to St. Peter’s, but most to Curtis, or Tottenville. 

Moore Catholic responded as quickly as they could, and hired Staten Island Hurricanes (a youth football program) founder Anthony Barnes, who had previous tenures at Nazareth High School, and at Curtis High School, to try and salvage the 2025 season. The program, and the school was determined to field a team, but it became very clear towards the end of the season that this just was not going to happen, which leads to today, where Moore Catholic was forced to fold the program for the 2025 season. 

What are the implications of this? 

As Moore Catholic looks to rebuild their program, which they have done before (now twice in the last 15 years)– the immediate consequences of this is– what happens to the 2025 NYCHSFL season? The league schedule has been set for some time now, and now every team that Moore plays, has 1 less game. While for non-league matchups, this is fine, but for league matchups, it provides an issue.

I see three options:

• The league reshuffles the schedule with 22 teams instead of 23. This is not realistically possible. It is mid-July, and permits are set, logistics are set, and I just don’t think asking Athletic Directors and Head Coaches to scramble is fair. 
• The league counts every game Moore had scheduled as a forfeit– awarding the seven teams that were supposed to play them with a win. This is unfair, as all those teams get an impressive win vs the #10 ranked team– which will inevitably affect power point calculations. 
• The league just drops those games, but that means every team that plays Moore only plays six league games, instead of seven. This is also unfair to those teams, and would inevitably affect power point calculations.

 I would be interested in what the league decides to do. 

The other side is, is this what the NYCHSFL is turning into? There have been grumblings of ‘AAA’ teams recruiting, and programs using their notoriety to deprive the ‘AA’ programs of quality talent back from when I was in high school, but this is another step forward. This looks like intentional sabotage by one school to another school, and for a school like Moore Catholic, this affects their enrollment severely. How could the folks at St. Peter’s– a fellow Catholic institution, be okay with possibly being one of the reasons Moore struggles as an academic institution? Their conduct during this whole saga unconscionable. All for what? A chance to win a ‘AA-1’ championship– as St. Peter’s Head Coach described it ‘a 8th place title game’ (well 7th in 2025). With all the negative publicity, all I have to say is that Mark DeCristoforo and St. Peter’s better win the ‘AA-1’ in 2025. Note that this is not the first time Mark has been at the center of questionable behavior around how he manages the St. Peter’s football program.

What is to stop other ‘AAA’ schools from doing this to ‘AA’ schools in the future? I think it is quite clear that ‘AAA’ teams use their vast enrollment, and their large alumni base to gain a clear competitive advantage regarding transfers, and recruiting, but I don’t think I have seen one Catholic school intentionally sabotage another one like this. Is Moore Catholic blameless? No. But what is to stop St. Anthony’s from attempting to tank St. Dominic’s program, or St. Francis Prep trying to tank Nazareth, or Christ the King’s program.

What can we learn from this? Schools need to either be okay with what their programs are doing, and accept it, or just cut bait. You cannot have it both ways. I find it very difficult to not see Moore Catholic’s complacency in reaping the benefits of Coach Nick’s generosity and time for nearly a decade, as this is the core issue of why this happened the way it did. Everything from the red turf, the uniforms, equipment, were bankrolled by Nick, and for Moore Catholic.

Regardless, I am interested and will be following the situation as closely as I can. I now need to edit a lot of my August posts to take this into account.

Have a nice rest of the summer!