Catholic vs Private Schools

In the state of Kentucky, the separation of private and public schools in state athletic tournaments has gotten a lot of attention in the past year. The four classes of state football championships this season did nothing but stoke a roaring fire.

Consider this, of the eight teams competing for state championships in their respective classes, five were private catholic schools. By my quick, very unofficial count, only eleven of the 221 high schools that play football in Kentucky are private. I'm almost certain that count is off, so take it with a large grain of salt, but the point is a very small percentage of schools are private, yet they made up 63% of the participants in the state football title games.

An even better argument in my opinion is the argument of Bowling Green High. BGHS dominated the regular and post seasons, with only a loss to 4A champ St. Xavier (a Catholic school.) BGHS gave up only 54 points in their first fourteen games. If you're scoring at home, that's about 3.86 points per game. In the title game against Lexington Catholic, they gave up 49 points. BGHS didn't suddenly forget how to play defense, they got beat by a team that recruits better players than BGHS sees enroll.

Two losses on the year, both to Catholic schools. 103 points given up on the year, 62 to Catholic schools in two games (just 41 to 13 other opponents.)

I don't want to see the schools divided because for schools like Owensboro Catholic and other small private schools, it would be a death sentence. But for football at least, something needs to be done to once again level the playing field. If not for OCatholic's loss to Russell in the 2A title game, Catholic schools would have swept the state titles. It's time for a change.