SVP Media Group, LLC

By: Ron Brocato

With one game remaining in the preseason leading to the start of District 9-5A competition, the countdown to the 70th season of Catholic League football is about to begin.

Coach Mark Bonis will take his undefeated Brother Martin Crusaders on a 300-mile bus ride to New Hope, Mississippi, to face the once-beaten Trojans on Friday. The 7:00 p.m. kickoff is the final game of the pre-district season for the Crusaders, who have won their first two games in an active early campaign. New Hope, whose unbeaten season was brief, hasn’t played a game since September 5th, when the Trojans lost to Choctaw County, 35-24. The setback places their record at 2-1. A Crusader victory would end the non-district season with a 3-0 record after having beaten East Ascension and St. Paul’s at their opponents’ fields.

Similar to its Catholic League counterparts, Brother Martin has a history of success leading into district play. Having joined the district in its first year as a high school in 1969, Martin has posted an impressive win-loss record of 145-55-2 against non-district opponents. In its 69 years on the gridiron, the school has enjoyed 64 winning seasons with just five with losing records.

Coach Bonis’s teams are among the most successful against non-district opponents, having recorded a combined 56-14 record since he became the head coach in 2009. His 70-percent success rate ranks second only to that of legendary mentor Bob Conlin, whose 61-21-2 record reflects a winning mark of 72.6 percent.

Victories against non-district opponents have become commonplace in the Catholic League, which was formed in 1955 when the addition of two consolidated Jefferson Parish public schools to the New Orleans Prep League made it necessary to separate the city’s five Catholic schools (St. Aloysius, Holy Cross, Jesuit, De La Salle, and Redemptorist) from the then six public schools. Since then, the fabled Catholic League has undergone 15 alterations that included adding and then subtracting both Catholic and public schools to/from the district.

In its initial football season, the five Catholic schools posted a combined record of 20-13-2 against non-district opponents. The following year saw the five parochial schools win 24 of 30 times against their public counterparts. But in 1957, after adding Algiers Catholic school, Holy Name of Mary – a Class C state champion in 1955 – the league record faltered, thanks to a 0-9 record by the new member. The Blue Knights’ dismal showing, which gave the district its first losing record (13-16-1) against non-league foes, was Holy Name's final year as a high school.

The city’s Catholic schools enjoyed winning seasons for the next 33 years before its pre-district success percentage dropped to .444 in 1991, as a result of 0-4 records by Holy Cross and De La Salle against non-district opponents. Over the decades, the Catholic League timeline has shown the following changes:

• 1964-65: The LHSAA added Thibodaux, Terrebonne, and South Terrebonne to the district because it was the closest to the Houma-Thibodaux area.
• 1966: Archbishop Rummel joined and remains a mainstay today, having won state championships in 2012, 2013, and 2019.
• 1967: St. Augustine and Archbishop Shaw were added. St. Augustine has since won three state titles (1975, 1978, and 1979), and Shaw gained its crown in 1987. 
• 1968: Cor Jesu was added to the league for one year before the Brothers of the Sacred Heart combined Cor Jesu and St. Aloysius to create Brother Martin High School. The Crusaders were state champions in 1971.
• 1970: Chalmette lobbied to be placed in a district with the Catholic schools when the former Louisiana Interscholastic Athletic and Literary (LIALO) became defunct and its public schools were admitted into the LHSAA. It then joined the Jefferson Parish district in 1989.
• 1973: Redemptorist dropped down a class and out of the Catholic League after an 18-year membership.
• 1993: Slidell became the fifth public school added to the league. The Tigers’ stay lasted just two years.
• 2003: De La Salle, a charter member, ended its 48-year stay by dropping down in class. Although the school’s basketball and baseball teams were highly successful, the Cavaliers played for a football state title just once in 1961 and finished as the runner-up.
• 2005: Hurricane Katrina caused the cancellation of the district season for many south Louisiana schools.
• 2006:  Shaw dropped down a class. Holy Cross followed in 2007, but Chalmette briefly returned.
• 2009: Shaw returned to the district after gaining consecutive Class 4A runners-up trophies in 2006-08. Shaw would stay until 2022.
• 2011: St. Augustine dropped down to Class 3A and was replaced by West Jefferson for two years. St. Augustine and Holy Cross returned to the Catholic League in 2013
• 2014: Jesuit, the lone member that remained in the league throughout its existence, has won state titles in 1960 and 2014.
• 2015:  John Curtis became the seventh non-catholic school to join the district, winning Division I trophies in 2018 and 2022.
• 2022:  Edna Karr replaced Shaw in the league. The Algiers charter school won the D-I crown in 2024.
• 2024: The enrollment at Warren Easton, Louisiana’s oldest high school, made it mandatory for that school to rise to 5A status, and they became the latest addition to the district. Easton has not won a state championship since 1942.

Entering week 3, the eight Catholic League members have a combined 15-1 non-district record. The only loss came when Lafayette Christian edged Rummel, 27-26. Brother Martin will open the Catholic League campaign on September 26 at Tad Gormley Stadium, and undoubtedly, the Catholic League will enter district play with another season of success against non-district opponents.