School officials confirmed that Lowell High head boys basketball coach Scott Boyle has taken a 1-year leave of absence. A search is underway to find an interim coach to serve as the head man for the 2009-2010 season.

    Attempts to reach Boyle have been unsuccessfully so far.

Is it possible for #1 ranked Xaverian to lose on Thanksgiving to St. John’s Prep and still get in to the playoffs? Is BC High already eliminated from the post season?

Thanks to a loyal reader, he has spelled out the possibilities.

First let us reiterate that if Xaverian defeats St. John’s Prep they would go to the playoffs. If St. John’s Prep defeats Xaverian plus BC high loses to Catholic Memorial, Prep goes to the playoffs.

Now let’s look at the other option. Here are the assumptions this premise is predicated on.

St. John’s Prep defeats Xaverian. BC High defeats Catholic Memorial.

This would leave all three teams with identical (3-1) league records. Which would bring in to play the Catholic Conference 3-way tiebreaker which was detailed by the Boston Herald’s Danny Ventura last year. The goal of which is to eliminate the team with the lowest points. Assuming this tie breaker is still in place here is how Xaverian can still go to the playoffs even if it loses and how BC High is already eliminated.

First is to determine your own value. Ten points for a win over a Division 1 team, eight over Division 1A and six points for any team D2 or lower. In this exercise St. John (S), Springfield Catholic, Mt. St. Joseph (MD) and Hudson Catholic (NJ) are all being considered D1 schools.

OWN VALUE

BC HIGH St. JOHN’S PREP

D1 Brockton 0 D1A Peabody 8
D1 Springfield Cath 10 D1 Central Catholic 0
D1A Acton-Boxboro 8 D1 Everett 0
D2A Falmouth 0 D1 Brockton 0
D1 Everett 0 D2 Mt. St. Joseph (MD) 10
D1 Cambridge 10 D1 St. John’s (S) 0
D1 Malden Cath. 10 D1 CM 10
D1 Xaverian 0 D1 Malden Catholic 10
D1 St. John’s Prep 10 D1 BC High 0

OWN VALUE 48————38

Xaverian

D1 Malden Catholic 10
D1A Waltham 10
D1 Brockton 10
D1 Somerville 10
D1 Hudson Cath (NJ) 10
D1 Everett 10
D1A BR 10
D1 St. John’s (S) 10
D1 BC High 10
D1 Catholic Memorial 10

OWN VALUE 96

The second part is a two step process to determine an opponent’s value. Each team receives six points for each victory over a team it has defeated.

OPPONENT VALUE (Part 1)

BC High St. John’s Prep

Springfield Cath 4 x 6 24 Peabody 3 x 6 18
Acton-Boxboro 6 x 6 36 Mt. St. Joseph (MD) 2 x 6 12
Cambridge 0 x 6 0 CM 5 x 6 30
Malden Catholic 3 x 6 18 Malden Catholic 3 x 6 18
St. John’s Prep 4 x 6 24

102————————–78

Xaverian

Malden Catholic 3 x 6 18
Waltham 5 x 6 30
Brockton 8 x 6 48
Somerville 3 x 6 18
Hudson Cath (NJ) 2 x 6 12
Everett 6 x 6 36
BR 8 x 6 48
St. John’s (S) 8 x 6 48
BC High 5 x 6 30
Catholic Memorial 5 x 6 30

318

Each team receives two points for each game one by a team it lost to. Xaverian has not lost yet so they won’t be in Part 2.

OPPONENT VALUE (Part 2)

BC High—————St. John’s Prep

Brockton 8 x 2 16 Central Catholic 7 x 2 14
Falmouth 9 x 2 18 Everett 6 x 2 12
Everett 6 x 2 12 Brockton 8 x 2 16
Xaverian 10 x 2 20 St. John’s (S) 8 x 2 16
BC High 5 x 2 10
66——————————-68

Which results in these totals going in to the final games.

TEAM OWN VALUE OPP VALUE (P1) OPP VALUE (P2) TOTAL

Xaverian 96+318+0 = 414
BC High 48+102+66 = 216
St John’s Prep 38+78+68 = 184

Now you divide the number of points by games played.

Xaverian 414 / 10 = 41
BC High 216 / 9 = 24
St. John’s Prep 184 / 9 = 20.4

Since there is only one game left nobody can catch Xaverian in points so win, lose or tie they would be one of the teams involved in a head-to head elimination after the 3-way tiebreaker. Which means under no scenario can BC High go to the playoffs since they lost to Xaverian. It also means that as of right now, even if St. John’s Prep defeats Xaverian PLUS BC High defeats Catholic Memorial, Xaverian would go to the playoffs.

So now the question becomes, can St. John’s Prep catch BC High making their date on Thanksgiving with Xaverian winner-take-all. Or could they be at the mercy of waiting to see if BC High loses to Catholic Memorial. Let’s plug in those results.

OWN VALUE

BC High——————-St. John’s Prep

D1 Brockton 0 D1A Peabody 8
D1 Springfield Cath 10 D1 Central Catholic 0
D1A Acton-Boxboro 8 D1 Everett 0
D2A Falmouth 0 D1 Brockton 0
D1 Everett 0 D2 Mt. St. Joseph (MD) 10
D1 Cambridge 10 D1 St. John’s (S) 0
D1 Malden Catholic 10 D1 CM 10
D1 Xaverian 0 D1 Malden Catholic 10
D1 St. John’s Prep 10 D1 BC High 0
D1 Catholic Memorial 10 D1 Xaverian 10

OWN VALUE 58——————48

This adds 10 points to BC High for their win over CM and 10 points to St. John’s Prep for their win over Xaverian.

OPPONENT VALUE (Part 1)

BC High—————-St. John’s Prep

Springfield Cath 4 x 6 24 Peabody 3 x 6 18
Acton-Boxboro 6 x 6 36 Mt. St. Joseph (MD) 2 x 6 12
Cambridge 0 x 6 0 CM 5 x 6 30
Malden Catholic 3 x 6 18 Malden Catholic 3 x 6 18
St. John’s Prep 5 x 6 30
Xaverian 10 x 6 60
Catholic Memorial 5 x 6 30

138————————–138

This adds 5 points to BC High for Prep’s win over Xaverian and 30 points for its win over Catholic Memorial. It adds 60 points to St. John’s Prep for its win over Xaverian.

OPPONENT VALUE (Part 2)

BC High—————–St. John’s Prep

Brockton 8 x 2 16 Central Catholic 7 x 2 14

Falmouth 9 x 2 18 Everett 6 x 2 12

Everett 6 x 2 12 Brockton 8 x 2 16

Xaverian 10 x 2 20 St. John’s (S) 8 x 2 16

BC High 6 x 2 10

66————————-68

BC High gets zero points and St. John’s Prep gets 2 points for BC High’s win over Catholic Memorial.

So let’s see where we now stand.

TEAM OWN VALUE OPP VALUE (P1) OPP VALUE (P2) TOTAL

BC High 58 138 66 262
St John’s Prep 48 138 68 254

A 32 point deficit by St. John’s Prep has shrunk to eight.

Now the games of their opponents become critical so here are the remaining points available for each team. Since both teams beat Malden Catholic and lost to Everett and Brockton the results of the games involving those teams on Thanksgiving become irrelevant. They would add the same number of points to each team.

Let’s look at how many points possibly remain for each team. Remember we’ve already adjusted the points for the Xaverian-St. John’s Prep and BC High-Catholic Memorial game.

OPPONENT VALUE (Part 1)

BC High————————-St John’s Prep

Springfield Cathedral 6 Peabody 6

Acton-Boxboro 6

Cambridge 6

18——————————–6

OPPONENT VALUE (Part 2)

BC High———————-St. John’s Prep

Falmouth 2 Central Catholic 2

                                              St. John’s (S) 2

The maximum number of points left for Prep to earn is 10 (Mt. St. Joseph’s (MD) season is over). For that to happen Peabody, Central Catholic and St. John’s (S) would ALL have to win.

The maximum number of points left for BC High to earn is 20 if all their opponents win.

So in order for St. John’s Prep to go to the playoffs with a BC High win they would NEED Peabody to win PLUS Central Catholic and/or St. John’s (S) to win PLUS Springfield Catholic, Acton-Boxboro, Cambridge and Falmouth to lose.

    Patriot quarterback Tom Brady weighed in on playing football on Thanksgiving. Here is his comment, which was given to Herald reporter Ian R. Rapoport.

Q: An off-topic question, but Thanksgiving Day is coming up. What kind of memories do you have playing on Thanksgiving? How special is that?

TB: We did it once in the pros, where we played on Thanksgiving Day, but for the most part, for the high schools around here, I know it’s a real fun day for them. Even when I was in Michigan in college, I know they did the same thing. In California, football is over by then. It’s a pretty cool tradition, and I see all the coverage and we follow it around here for most of the teams that we know. But it’s a fun day for those kids.

A shoutout to coaches, athletic directors and league representatives: please send us your league all-star and all-scholastic nominations: They can be e-mailed to my attention at dventura@bostonherald.com

DIVISION 1
1. Xaverian
2. Brockton
3. Billerica
4. Everett
5. BC High
6. Central Catholic
7. St. John’s Prep
ON THE BUBBLE: Andover, Chelmsford

DIVISION 1A
1. Gloucester
2. Bridgewater-Raynham
3. Lynn English
4. Westford Academy
5. Acton-Boxboro
6. Barnstable
7. Lynn Classical
ON THE BUBBLE: Needham, Taunton, Weymouth

DIVISION 2
1. Reading
2. Natick
3. Franklin
4. Dracut
5. Walpole
6. Mansfield
7. Methuen
ON THE BUBBLE: Foxboro, North Attleboro, Wellesley, Winchester

DIVISION 2A NORTH
1. Marshfield
2. Falmouth
3. Masconomet
4. Duxbury
5. North Andover
6. Scituate
7. Wilmington
ON THE BUBBLE: Bedford, Concord-Carlisle

DIVISION 3
1. Bishop Feehan
2. Dighton-Rehoboth
3. Somerset
4. Swampscott
5. Marblehead
6. Beverly
7. Fairhaven
ON THE BUBBLE: Hanover, Martha’s Vineyard, Rockland, Wareham

DIVISION 3A
1. Cohasset
2. Holliston
3. Medway
4. Westwood
5. Abington
6. Lynnfield
7. Austin Prep
ON THE BUBBLE: Arlington Catholic, Mashpee

DIVISION 4
1. Whittier
2. East Boston
3. Manchester Essex
4. Bristol-Plymouth
5. Lynn Tech
6. Greater Lawrence
7. Southeastern
ON THE BUBBLE: Madison Park

DIVISION 4A
1. Latin Academy
2. Northeast
3. West Bridgewater
4. Chelsea
5. Pope John
6. Tri-County
7. North Shore
ON THE BUBBLE: Lowell Catholic, O’Bryant

INDEPENDENT SCHOOL LEAGUE
1. Lawrence Academy
2. BB&N
3. Belmont Hill
4. St. Sebastian’s
5. Brooks
6. Roxbury Latin
7. Middlesex
ON THE BUBBLE: Rivers

    The site for Saturday’s Super Bowl game between Brooks and Pingree has been moved from Belmont Hill to Endicott College. The starting time remains 1:30 p.m.

In an effort to create a more equitable experience for our student-athletes, the South Coast Conference Principals Association voted unanimously to explore possible league expansion. The expectation is that the conference would expand for the fall of 2011. Letters of interest should be forwarded to the SCC, in care of Michael Devoll, Principal, Old Rochester Regional High School, 135 Marian Road, Mattapoisett, MA 02719. Application deadline is Monday, February 1, 2010.

    Watertown senior forward Brittany Obi-Tabot signed her letter of intent to attend Fairfield University on a basketball scholarship. Also earning a scholarship was West Roxbury guard Ryia Newsome, who will attend Temple.

    Bridgewater-Raynham won the coin flip and will represent the Old Colony League in the playoffs. The Trojans will face the winner of the Bay State Carey, a league which has three teams still in the hunt (Needham, Weymouth and Framingham).

    The coin toss, which took place a short while ago, was necessitated when Bridgewater-Raynham defeated Taunton Sunday night. As it turned out, the odd team out in the flip was Barnstable (heads), which left Bridgewater-Raynham and Taunton (both of whom flipped tails)  in a head-to-head situation.

    “We’re feeling pretty good right now,” said B-R coach Dan Buron. “When we lost to Barnstable, I told the kids let’s just focus on Taunton because it is out of our hands now. If we beat Taunton and won on Thanksgiving, we’d be 9-2 and have a share of the OCL title which is a pretty good season.

    “I slept pretty good last night because I knew there was nothing I could do about (the coin flip). The way I looked at it, any one of the three teams would have been a good representative for the Old Colony League. Barnstable is playing great football right now and Taunton is a very good football team.”

    St. John’s (Shrewsbury) senior Nathan Lapointe has signed an NCAA National Letter of Intent to attend Boston College.  He will join Head Coach Mik Aoki and the Eagles baseball team as they compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

    Lapointe was a member of 2009 district champion and state finalist team; his primary position is catcher but he has also pitched, played outfield, and served as the designated hitter for the Pioneers.  He is a member of the National Honor Society and was selected to represent St. John’s at the national conference for Xaverian Brothers Sponsored Schools.  

    At BC, Lapointe will be re-united with former Pioneer shortstop Garret Smith (SJ class of ’07).  

    “The coaching staff and Nate’s teammates are very excited for him,” said SJS baseball coach Charlie Eppinger. “We have a very talented and unusually deep graduating class, so it’s quite an honor for Nate to be the first player to formally commit.  As his coach and his math teacher I’ve witnessed just how hard Nate works to succeed.  His baseball potential is very high, and his strong work ethic will help him as he tries to fully realize that potential.”

    According to sources involved in the process, the Old Colony League will hold a coin flip tomorrow morning to determine the league champion in football. Taunton, Barnstable and Bridgewater-Raynham all finished with a 3-1 record in league play.