On The Rarity of Two Final Four Teams

Last week during one of Coach Rogers’ interviews on Jock 98.7, he pondered how many times the boys and girls soccer teams at a school had been to the Final Four in the same academic year. That pondering resulted in a research assignment.

The answer: Having both the boys and girls soccer teams at a school advance to the Final Four in the same academic year happens regularly for the smaller schools, but it is a rarity in the state’s largest class.

Glendale is the first school in the state’s largest class to get it’s boys and girls soccer teams to the Final Four in the same academic year since the girls expanded to more than one class during the 1998-99 school year. Francis Howell North (1994-95) and Oakville (1989-90) accomplished the feat when the girls had a single class. This year, the girls were divided into three classes for the first time.

Advancing two teams to the Final Four from the same school happens regularly in the state’s smaller classes. St. Dominic has done it three times. Duchesne and O’Hara have done it twice. This year, in addition to the Falcons, the feat has been accomplished by three schools in Class 1: Trinity Catholic, St. Pius X (KC), and Springfield Catholic.

The feat is less common in the state’s largest class due, at least in part, to the dominance of single-sex parochial schools, especially in girls soccer.

The question that can’t be answered from the data is how many of these schools had the same coach for the boys and girls teams. Aside from Coach Rogers, I’m reasonably certain that it has been done by Greg Koeller at St. Dominic, but I don’t know about the others.

The data for this analysis was pulled from the 2006-2007 MSHSAA Records Book & Yearbook and the MSHSAA Web site.

Corrections and additional information are welcomed.

2008-09
Glendale
Trinity Catholic
St. Pius X (KC)
Springfield Catholic

2007-08
Duchesne

2006-07
St. Dominic

2004-05
St. Dominic

2003-04
O’Hara

2002-03
Cape Notre Dame
O’Hara

2001-02
St. Charles West
Helias

1995-96
St. Dominic

1994-95
Francis Howell North

1989-90
Oakville

1988-89
Duchesne