Sivart and I have had extensive discussions about the whole public vs. private school debate in high school athletics, but the KHSAA just came down on one of the main schools in question recently.
Lexington Catholic High School is having to pay thousands of dollars in fines and the football and baseball teams are being sanctioned among other things and they are going to have to forfiet some wins.
Anyway, all of that aside, when it comes down to it, if the KHSAA comes down on these schools so that they don't have to split up everything, will these schools really have anything to worry about?
Early on when LexCath decided to bolster its athletic programs in order to draw in more students, then maybe they could have improperly helped out some student athletes to get the ball rolling. But right now their reputation should be all they need. I'm sure they make a ton of money from athletics. Our local high school girls team is there as we speak fixing to take on another private school in the biggest girls' basketball tournament in the state. You WKU Lady Topper fans know of Sacred Heart.
It's kind of mind boggling how LexCath had to, for lack of a better word, cheat a little bit in order to get some kids into the school. LexCath is an athletic mecca in this state. And I can't see how the KHSAA is going to fix the public vs. private school problem. I can see how the private schools dominate the state championship title counts, but I'm afraid of how things might shake up.
And there are other problems out there too. If they split up the public and private schools, how can they leave the Louisville area wide open? If you live in Louisville, you can go to any school you want as long as you can get a ride. I don't know how it is in other cities, but Louisville and cities like it have a built in advantage there.
At least in Owensboro you have to pay a little bit extra to go to a school out of the district where you live. It's not much but at least that gives people some incentive to stay close to home and not move kids around.
It's a crazy situation because there is not a good way to fix it. Sure you want the public schools to have a shot at winning more often, but can you sanction the private schools and hinder their money making abilities?
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
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3 comments:
After a lengthy letter from the KHSAA citing "lack of institutional control" (sound familiar UK fans?) they decided NOT to strip LexCath of any postseason wins.
Goodness gracious, how do you think they won those titles?!?
Like bratch said, there's just no simple solution to the private vs. public debate here because of the state's layout. Most of the schools in question are in L'ville and Lexington, but if you completel seperate them, Owensboro Catholic athletics would cease to be.
My simplest idea (which if explored in detail, may prove to be worthless) would be to decree that schools cannot offer financial assistance to athletes at a rate above that of the student body. So if the student body gets 60% assistance, then athletes can get no more than 60%.
And restrict recruiting. If a student hasn't gone to school within a certain radius of that school for the majority of that student's career, then they are ineligible to participate.
And furthermore, I'd like to declare that Ohio County be given a bye to the state championship game in soccer due to the "best interest of the game" rule.
When schools stop making money on their athletes then most of this "recruiting" will stop. I don't see that happening in the near or distant future nor should it. The more you win, the more money you make and that's what it is all about in the end.
I dig your percentage of assistance idea. I don't know how much assistance is being given to athletes anyway, but you would think they get a lot since they bring in the revenue.
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