For years and years, come "championship" time in high school sports, fans usually see a team with a "St." in front of the name playing for a state championship. This year is no exception, with St. Edward the odds on favorite to take home the crown. Every year, there seems to be some sort of outrage about how it isn't fair about recruiting, etc...
Is it really that unfair?
What we are going to be doing is a three part series is looking at this from both points of view, then coming to a conclusion on what can be done, if anything, about what seems to be a growing gap in competitiveness. First some facts:
In the last 30 years...There has been a private school in the Division I championship game 23 times. In those 23 games, the private school has won 18 of them, including 10 by St. Ignatius. Cincinnati Moeller has won three, and Elder and St. Xavier from Cincinnati have each won two. Leading the public schools are Hilliard Davidson, Cincinnati Princeton, and Canton McKinley, each with two.
The public school arguement...
Recruiting...This is the big one as far as the public school arguement. Do private schools recruit? Of course they do! There is no debating this. How else are they supposed to atrract students to their school? They have no district requirements. If you tell a private school not to recruit, you might as well ask them to close their doors. There is no way around it. When you read articles in the newspaper about 8th graders and how it was agonizing trying to pick a high school, that pretty much seals the recruiting deal right there. When each private school can hand pick who they want to go to their school, it does create an unfair advantage as far as athletics go. The private schools are getting the best of the best. Not only that, but it takes a kid away from the public school that he or she may have attended.
Exposure...The newspaper loves the private schools. The coverage of these teams are severely slanted towards the private schools not only in print, but also on TV. All the college recruiters from the high profile schools come out and pay more attention to the private school kids because of the "St." in front of their school. Remember the lovefest that St. Ignatius had while they were winning championships? Wonder if a public school would have gotten that amount of attention? More exposure means more attention. More attention means that colleges will take an extra close view of the athletes involved.
Scheduling...One may argue that private schools play a more difficult schedule than public schools. They probably are right, but the public school arguement is that they should play schools that are most similar to them. The public schools have to play in a conference, where not all the teams will be as competitive as the ones on a private school schedule.So, by the time the playoffs roll around, the team with the most talent, and playing against the better competition, should always come out on top.
Consistentcy of winning...The private schools, through their recruiting efforts, make it possible to obtain a long stream of success. Look at the St. Ignatius football dynasty, or the wrestling dynasty of St. Edward. Public schools can get by the private schools from time to time (Wadsworth wrestling last year), but for the most part, it is very difficult, if not impossible for a public school to be on the elite level year after year. It isn't always about the quantity of the kids, but the quality of the kids.
The public school solution...What many people believe is fair is for private schools to have their own division to play in to level the playing field. In hindsight, it really isn't all that bad of idea. You can have the Moellers, Elders, St. Xaviers, St. Ignatius, St. Edwards, Toledo St. Johns, Columbus St. Francis DeSales all play each other. You would have a level playing field of recruit vs recruit, where everyone is playing with a stacked deck. That would leave the public school powers to play for their own championship. It would be school district vs school district. It isn't like the public schools don't like competition, but in some of their minds, its like bringing a knife to a gunfight.
In part 2, we will look at the private school arguement. About how there are many more reasons than just athletics to attend one of their schools.
Comments
Here's my take on it from a column in The Lima News in April, 2010:
"Two state tournaments proposal misses mark"
The Ohio High School Athletic Association says it will form a study group this spring to explore the subject of establishing separate state championships for public and private schools.
This is a response to a survey reportedly sent to every school in the state by a group of northeast Ohio public school superintendents.
While “study group” might be a euphemism for “place where ideas go to disappear without a trace,” the surveying superintendents claim to have received a positive response about changing the tournaments from around 200 superintendents across the state. So, this effort to split the private and public schools or impose an enrollment multiplier on the private schools, might have a little more traction than past efforts.
The best reaction to this idea can be summed up in two words: Bad idea.
It’s a bad idea for three reasons.
First, it’s questionable that diluting the tournament would make it better.
Second, it could turn into a case of don’t wish for something because you just might get it. The backers of two tournaments might end up with just that, but not the way they want it.
If the OHSAA tries to relegate private schools to their own tournament, those schools might decide to run their own tournament instead.
Finally, the idea that two separate tournaments will create — or in the minds of some, restore — fairness in state tournaments is based on a flawed assumption.
To believe this would be a cure-all is to believe all public schools are innocent until proven guilty and that all private schools are guilty until proven innocent.
What exists in high school sports in Ohio is not two kinds of schools, but four kinds. You have private schools who cheat or recruit. You have public schools who cheat or recruit. You have private schools who don’t cheat or recruit and you have public schools who don’t cheat or recruit.
If you’re going to have separate tournaments, you need four of them, not two.
The success of private schools at the state level is a recent phenomenon. Take boys basketball, for example.
From the start of OHSAA-sponsored boys state basketball tournaments in 1923 through 1969, there were only seven private school state champions in 57 years. Since 1970, private schools have won 49 state titles in boys basketball.
That seems to indicate more is at work than just private schools recruiting athletes or accepting students from large geographic areas. The drastic decline in population of urban cores and the reduction in the number of high schools there have played a role. And going to three divisions in 1971, then four divisions in 1988, might also be a factor.
Full disclosure: I am a public school graduate, son of a public school superintendent and a public school teacher and brother of a public school teacher and public school guidance counselor. No one in my family has ever attended a private high school.
Calling it a private versus public debate might not be the most precise label. Of the 56 boys state basketball titles won by private schools, all but three were won by Catholic schools.
Sports and religion are two areas where people tend to have strong emotional reactions. And it seems like this proposal has a significant amount of emotion in it.
The subject of two tournaments was raised on a statewide OHSAA teleconference of the coaches in this year’s boys state tournament last month.
A small portion of what LCC coach Bob Seggerson said was published in The Columbus Dispatch. Here’s his entire answer:
“I’m a big believer that the high school tournament in Ohio is a great tournament. All you have to do is take a good look at the history of this tournament and you can see it’s one of the best tournaments in the country.
“I would say, if you want to break it, go ahead and separate them out. If you want to break a great tradition of high school basketball and ruin a good tournament, then go ahead and let that committee decide to separate those teams out. That will break it. That will break a great tradition.
“I’m a little sensitive to it because we’re a private school that does not recruit. We’re a small school in a small area. Almost every time we have success, there will be a certain segment of people who will automatically knee jerk in reaction to that and assume that everybody we have is recruited.
“I can’t think of a more moronic idea than separating them out. I don’t think that will happen. There are too many smart people down there (at the OHSAA). If they did do that, after they got done separating them out, does that mean they are going to separate out all the public schools that are accused of the same thing? It gets a little silly after a while. I think what we need to do is just enforce the rules that are on the books. If someone is recruiting, nail them and punish them. You don’t tear apart a great tournament and start all over again.”
saying a private school doesnt recruit is like saying you dont need air to live. ALL private schools recruit for sports or else they wouldnt be private. Its a shame parents put their kids through private schools. I live in Missouri and attened a public school. As a freshman I started on the football team. My freshman year our team went 1-9, after busting our asses all summer the next year our record improved to 8-3, making our first playoff apperance. Losing in the first round drove our team to work even harder. The next year we also finished 8-3 losing to the same team in the first round of playoffs. My last year of football our team went 14-1 losing in the class 1 state championship to a private school, who we had previously beaten in the regular season. The game was blown by the referees with no time left in overtime. We lost the state championship in overtime by 1 point . For those who havent experienced this let me tell you its the absolute worst feeling in the world. Imagine someone taking your heart and ripping it out of your chest. To this day i still believe the game was blown due to the fact the private school we played was the favorite to win. I was apart of school history and have never expericened something so special as one class on kids failing at something and working as hard as they possibly can, believing in themselves and each other, getting to experience their dream, and getting it all ripped away because of a private school. Because of the name on the oth
- other teams jersey. for those of you reading this and not believing it please feel free to look up the Westran hornets versus Valle catholic and watch the full game down until overtime. Not only did we get screwed in overtime, but make sure you dont miss the 3 calls that should have been fumbles for the valle.
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