Cold War: Holy Spirit, Cherokee vie for supremacy

They never stare at each other across the field.

They never glare at each other across the line of scrimmage.

They aren't in the same league, same group, or same area code. They don't compete for the same championships or the same hotshot eighth graders.

But Cherokee and Holy Spirit are rivals just the same, at least when it comes to a single, burning question: Which is the best football program in South Jersey?

Cherokee's case: The Chiefs were 23-1 the last two seasons. They finished No. 1 in The Inquirer's South Jersey rankings in each season. They became the first team from the traditional South Jersey area to win back-to-back Group 4 sectional crowns since the playoff system began in 1974.

Cherokee might be reloading a bit this season, given the talent drain over the last two years. But with strong lines, a potent one-two punch at running back, and rich tradition, the Chiefs remain the team to beat in the West Jersey American Division and South Jersey Group 4.

Holy Spirit's case: The Spartans went 12-0 last season and won the Non-Public 3 state title, beating North Jersey power St. Joseph's of Montvale in the championship game at Rutgers. Coach Charles Roman thinks this year's team, which is loaded along both lines, at linebacker, and in the offensive backfield, could be better than last year's.

If the Spartans run the table again, they would have fashioned one of the most remarkable five-year runs in South Jersey history, with undefeated seasons and state championships in 2007, 2010, and 2011.

"They do it in different ways, but they both are great programs," said Oakcrest coach Chuck Smith, whose team opened the 2010 season with a lopsided loss to Holy Spirit and closed the season with a lopsided loss to Cherokee in the South Jersey Group 4 final.

The debate over which team was No. 1 in South Jersey began to heat up late last season, as both teams were cruising toward 12-0 finishes. Cherokee went wire-to-wire as the No. 1 team in The Inquirer's rankings, but many Holy Spirit supporters, Cape-Atlantic League fans, and others believed the Spartans were the area's best team.

"I think mythical games are a waste of time," Cherokee coach P.J. Mehigan said. "But I think their supporters had every right to claim they should have been No. 1. And I think our fans had every right to claim we should have been No. 1. That makes it fun and exciting."

The teams are Nos. 1 and 2 again in The Inquirer's preseason top 10, but they've switched positions: Holy Spirit is at the top, and Cherokee is next.

It's a long, hard road from now until the final ranking, and both teams will face demanding schedules, both in the regular season and in the state tournament. But both are capable of standing alone again in December, linked again by the argument over the No. 1 spot in the rankings - and by the debate over which program is the best.

"They are exactly what we are," Roman said of Cherokee. "They are a program that has created a great atmosphere, that works at it all 12 months of the year, that wins, that sends kids to college. I'm sure the kids that grow up in Marlton want to go there to play football."

The Athens and Sparta of South Jersey football are different in many ways. But they are similar, too, with deep traditions, supportive fan bases, engaged alumni, and committed coaching staffs.

Mehigan credits varsity assistant coaches Matt Schultz, Mike Porter, Ryan Walsh, Mike Jackson, Brian Glatz, and Shawn Divece for much of his team's success. Roman does the same with varsity assistants Leo Hamlett, Mark Barbetto, John Knoff, Pat Applegate, Tiger Minnetti, and Andy McElroy.

"These guys work 12 months at this," Roman said of his assistants. "I'm sure those guys [Cherokee's coaches] are the same way. That's how you develop these kids."

Holy Spirit is the classic nonpublic football power of this era, a program built by attracting top talent from a variety of school districts and melding those players into a cohesive team. The Spartans are 55-11 since 2005, and they have sent players to such high-profile programs as Michigan and USC and several other Division I schools.

Roman, like many contemporary private-school coaches, knows one of the keys to his program is talent. Some call it "recruiting." Other refer to it as "attracting." Semantics aside, Roman knows the success of Holy Spirit football hinges on persuading athletic eighth graders to attend the school on Route 9 in Absecon.

"The only way to attract kids is to build a program that not only wins, but also develops athletes into players who can play college football," Roman said. "Not every kid is going to get a scholarship. But when you win and you have this kind of atmosphere and you start sending kids to college, then eighth graders and their parents are going to look at you as an alternative to public school."

Oakcrest's Smith calls Holy Spirit "an all-star team." The Spartans have a strong tradition, but they have risen to another level in the last four years, winning two Non-Public 3 state titles - and shocking North Jersey powers in the process - and overwhelming many public-school opponents in the Cape-Atlantic League.

"Talent prevails," Smith said. "They go out and get the cream of the crop."

Cherokee is the classic public-school football program. The Chiefs are 56-12 since 2005. Their success is built on a feeder system of players who are groomed in the Marlton Rec Council youth program.

"We feel like our young kids are our kids," Mehigan said. "They are our future."

Cherokee has one of the strongest traditions in South Jersey, at least since the school opened in 1975. But like Holy Spirit, Cherokee has kicked its game up a notch in recent seasons, becoming the first program to win consecutive South Jersey Group 4 titles since Brick Township in the early 1980s.

Since they also won a Group 4 title in 2005, this year's Chiefs are looking at extending a remarkable run that would include four Group 4 sectional crowns in seven years - an unprecedented feat at the highest level of competition.

"We've had some great players," Mehigan said of the team's success in the last two seasons. "Those were great players who really bought into what we're trying to do here. This team has to establish its own identity."

Although the teams never play, they are symbolic of the off-the-field struggle between public and nonpublic programs, a battle that seems to have grown in intensity in recent years.

Mehigan says he doesn't "recruit" players. But he readily concedes that one of the keys to being a successful public-school coach is to keep athletes in the district from deciding to attend private school.

In that sense, public and nonpublic school coaches in 2011 have the same goal: to create a program that talented young athletes want to join.

"I'm a public-school guy and I believe in the whole town thing, the Friday Night Lights thing," Mehigan said. "We don't recruit kids in our own district. They are our kids. But we know we need to create an atmosphere of excitement so that they will want to be a part of our program.

"We have deep connections to our community. We want these kids, when they are tempted to maybe go to a parochial school, to think about the atmosphere of Cherokee football and to want to be a part of that.

"We want 10-year-olds in our district to be excited about the possibility of wearing the orange, of walking down the hill" that leads to the Chiefs' field.

Mehigan and his staff run clinics for the youth coaches in his district. They run a summer camp. They invite youth players on the field before a Cherokee game.

"You have to build those connections," Mehigan said.

The harsh reality is that Roman and his assistants have to break some of those ties to sustain the success of their program. They get some players who went to private grammar school and were long ticketed for private high school. They get some players with family connections to Holy Spirit.

But they also get a lot of players who have no ties to the school, other than a desire to play for a top program and improve their chances for a college scholarship.

"I had no idea I was going to go there until they came after me," said Holy Spirit senior running back Donta Pollack, who grew up in Atlantic City and Brigantine. Pollack scored 29 touchdowns last season.

Competition for top players is fierce among many private school programs. In the Cape-Atlantic League, Holy Spirit, St. Joseph, and St. Augustine Prep often vie for the same athletes, along with the public school in the youngster's district. In Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester Counties, private schools such as Paul VI, Camden Catholic, Bishop Eustace, Gloucester Catholic, and Holy Cross are competing on the field - and off the field in trying to attract student-athletes.

"I hate the recruiting part of it," Oakcrest's Smith said. "It's one of the things you always are dealing with as a coach of a public-school program."

Roman knows there are fans and public-school coaches and officials who resent powerful private-school programs that attract top athletes.

His response?

"Take care of your own program," Roman said. "Win and create a great atmosphere where there's a 12-month commitment to the program and develop athletes who go to college."

Sounds like Cherokee.

Sounds like Holy Spirit, too.