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| Bishop McDevitt football dominates District 3 football. |
There
is a current struggle in high school sports that need to be addressed. The public vs. private school sports battle
is a real issue that must be taken care of.
Private schools are given the right to recruit, kids may go to their
school that live out of the district, and they are typically better funded than
public schools. This issue has been
noticed and addressed by states nationwide.
First of all, there are many states
that have not had a true issue with this so they have not made any laws or
rules to plan against it. In other
states, the private schools and public schools compete in separate bodies of
athletics and have different state championships. This works well in tearing down the
boundaries that separate the two teams so that they will not have to compete
against each other. Other states use a
multiplier which makes the school multiply their population size by a certain
amount because they are private. This
multiplier makes the state championships more competitive because the private
schools must move up in classifications and compete against bigger schools with
a lot more students.
The
pros of keeping the schools together in the state championships is that then
the state will have a true state champion and everyone competes in the
state. The schools will be able to
create rivalries and maintain a strong competition throughout playoffs. And if private schools are allowed to play
public schools, than travel for private schools would be less because there are
more public schools in a small density.
The
cons of keeping the schools together in the state championships is the
domination of private schools throughout playoffs. The private schools are allowed to recruit
players and provide financial aid to students that would like to come to their
school for athletics. Many private
schools are run like colleges in how they draw players to come to their school
with the lure of a competitive team, nice facilities/gear, and a high-class
education. The private schools that I
have seen in our area recruit players from out of their jurisdiction just to
have the most competitive athletes possible.
For example, Bishop McDevitt has won the 3A District championship 6
years in a row, while having players from Harrisburg, Central Dauphin, Central
Dauphin East, Susquehanna Township, Bermudian Springs, Cedar Cliff,
Mechanicsburg, and other schools in the area.
Another dominant private school in the area is York Catholic in girls’
basketball because they have won the 2A District championship 11 years in a
row. These schools recruit people from
around their area in order to give themselves the best teams possible, while
public schools are at a disadvantage because they are not allowed to recruit
players.
My
stand on this issue is that the private schools and public schools should be
split up and not compete against each other.
The private schools are too dominant in state championships and they are
a huge disadvantage to public schools who do not get to have the same rights as
private schools. At worst, there should be
a multiplier to force schools to move up classifications and make the
competitions more competitive for everyone.
Private schools have too many advantages over public schools to be in
competition with them.
Sources:
http://www.athleticbusiness.com/demand-to-close-gap-between-public-non-public-schools-increases.html
http://www.rrstar.com/article/20120614/Blogs/306149895
http://highschoolsports.cleveland.com/news/article/-4000324031846785879/ohsaas-competitive-balance-referendum-the-latest-round-in-a-national-fight-between-public-and-private-schools/
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/113694-high-school-sports-private-vs-public
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