League pushing for public-private split

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports

The news came out on Wednesday of this week – an athletic league in northeast Ohio is leading the charge to have Ohio High School Athletic Association playoffs and tournaments split, public and private.

Administrators at member schools of the Suburban League are circulating petitions in hopes of placing a referendum for a public-private split before all member schools of the OHSAA next spring. The administrators will need at least 75 signatures from high school principals around the state to be considered for a vote by the full membership. There are some other requirements that must be met as well.

The Suburban League is a 16-team league that is split into two eight team divisions – Brecksville-Broadview Heights, Highland, Hudson, Medina, North Royalton, Solon, Stow-Munroe Falls Wadsworth in one division, and Aurora, Barberton, Copley, Kenston, Mayfield, Nordonia, Revere and Twinsburg in the other. The first eight are Division I and II schools, while the remaining eight are mainly Division II and III schools. All are public schools and all seem to be rather well off.

There are parents and fans of high school sports that are in favor of such a split. The most common reason is the belief that private/parochial schools have an unfair advantage by recruiting.

Here are two reasons why it’s not a good idea. 

Goodbye

I’ve said this for years – if such a referendum item were to pass, it would almost certainly be a matter of time before the private and parochial schools left the OHSAA and formed their own association. They’d really have no reason to stay.

For those that say “good, let them leave” think about this – a PPHSAA (I’m calling it the Private Parochial High School Athletic Association) wouldn’t be bound by OHSAA rules. If you think recruiting is a problem now, think about how bad it could be if those schools didn’t have to abide by OHSAA rules. The answer is it could be much worse.

Open enrollment

The vast majority of Ohio’s public schools offer open enrollment, which allows students from other districts, usually neighboring districts, to enroll at a particular school. It’s believed somewhere between 75 to 80 percent of public school systems in Ohio offer open enrollment and it’s been somewhat of a game changer. One can easily argue that open enrollment could enhance schools’ athletic programs just as well as or better than private-parochial school recruiting.

Is there a plan to offer separate tournaments for open enrollment schools as well? Of course not, but it does beg the question – why not? If you want to separate playoffs for certain schools over perceived advantages, what about the open enrollment schools?

It would be interesting to find out how many of the Suburban League schools offer open enrollment.

Is private-parochial school recruiting a problem?

It’s a small sample size but just as an example – how many private-parochial schools won state football championship in Ohio last year? The answer is one – Columbus Bishop Watterson. The remaining six state champions were public schools. How many private-parochial schools won boys’ basketball state championships? Two – Lutheran East in Division V and Delphos St. John’s in Division VII. As far as the Blue Jays, the players on that team were home grown. There has been grumbling about Lutheran East, a program that has won four consecutive titles. The school is voluntarily moving up to Division I for this basketball season.

Yes, there are other sports that seemingly have a high number of private-parochial schools that dominate but overall, how big of a problem is this? Some will say not a problem, others will say it’s a problem. It depends on your perspective.

What happens?

It will be interesting to see if this makes it to a vote next spring. Early on, it doesn’t seem as there is much support for this, so it’s possible it could flame out. It’s also possible it could indeed make it to a vote. If it makes it to a full OHSAA member school vote, it appears it would be a longshot to pass. Two previous attempts, in 1978 and 1993, failed.

I should note – my hometown has two high schools – a mid-size public school and a small parochial school. I attended the public school K-12. Rarely did any of the public school student-athletes transfer “across the street.” It wasn’t an issue. The kids at the parochial school were home grown and attended one of two Catholic churches in town. It was extremely rare that anyone would enroll from outside the city and to my knowledge, that’s still the case today.

If you’re wondering, only eight states have separate public-private playoffs/tournaments.