I agree wholeheartedly.

 

But systems as they are, are needed in today's society. We lose either and we are the worse for it.

 

But that makes them apples and oranges placed in one basket and a competition to pull out the best fruit. Both types are fruit are great and needed. But it does not make them the same and equal and on the same playing field.

 

My point, YES emphatically YES, privates have advantages. And 99% of their advantages are NOT bad things.

 

YES, emphatically YES, publics have advantages. And 99% of their advantages are NOT bad things.

 

Still doesn't make them on the same playing field. To say they are equal is to me, having a blind eye. The questions is, to me, are those advantages enough to warrant separation.

 

Exclude four schools from your analysis - X, T, Sacred Heart and Assumption. These are schools with numbers advantages (although PRP, Eastern and Henderson County have similar numbers of girls as do the latter two). What advantages do privates have that outweigh public advantages? Would your school trade its situation with Louisville DeSales? Virtually all DeSales students live within a ten mile radius of the school. Hypothetically DeSales can accept students from anywhere but in the real world they are bound by the realities of competition, and X, T, and Holy Cross tend to attract a large majority of the boys within their respective geographic areas. Balance this hypothetical advantage DeSales has against the advantages of your school. There is the initial multimillion dollar head start when your school was built for you by tax revenues paid in part by the parents of DeSales students. Athletic facilities? DeSales has no football stadium (nor does X, but that is another story). Your local public high school probably has a stadium. Throw a couple more million on the ledger in your favor. Those same DeSales kids’ parents paid in part for your stadium. Still want to trade with DeSales? Don’t forget teachers’ salaries. Every year the tab comes due for this bill. Did we discuss furnishing that empty multimillion dollar school facility you were given? Desks, labs, lockers…. You may have taken these for granted, something the blue collar parents of DeSales students, located in a blue collar neighborhood, are acutely aware of. We still haven’t discussed support staff. Somebody has to keep the physical plant operational and clean. Set aside another huge block of money-every day. Is your desire to trade with DeSales for their hypothetical advantage waning? It just gets worse. We haven’t discussed medical benefits, pensions and vacation pay for teachers and support staff. And don’t forget building upkeep, expansion, legal expenses and myriad other expenses that go into providing a first class education to young people. Now substitute Covington Catholic, St. Henry, Mercy, Pres, Christian Academy, or any other private aside from the four in my initial sentence. If you are honest, you will admit that the playing field is not level, but it tilts in a direction that many do not want to admit, and this exists whether rural or urban.

Here is the problem though BBall King, if you are intent on resting all of this at the private's feet, what are going to do about Manual that can draw kids from anywhere IN THEIR COUNTY (Jefferson County) and a school from EKY will have a difficult time competing against them? Or what about a Highlands, Beechwood that can draw and pay tuition from the 5 county area of NKY? Or what about Kenton County schools of Dixie Heights, Simon Kenton and Scott that can have kids coming from anywhere within their county?

 

You STILL will have inequity issues except they won't be named St. X, Trinity Lex Christian or Lex Catholic.

Simple solution. Put all schools with 'open enrollment' and all 'privates' into one state competition.

Place all 'non-open enrollment' and 'non-privates' in a separate state tourament.

Problem solved!

Simple solution. Put all schools with 'open enrollment' and all 'privates' into one state competition.

Place all 'non-open enrollment' and 'non-privates' in a separate state tourament.

Problem solved!

Someone back in January made this proposal to BGP.

 

http://www.bluegrasspreps.com/showthread.php?t=86225

6 teams will win a state football title. I believe there is around 220 football teams. That is 2.7% of the football teams in the state of KY will claim a KHSAA State Football title.

 

Presently, 4 teams win at a 1.8% rate. So we are seeing a .9% increase.

 

Wow!!! I didn't know that LESS THAN 1% was considered watered down. We skyrocketed from 1.8% to 2.7%. At that low of a %, does it really matter what is going on around us?

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

The argument of watering down has been officially been squashed by LBC !

Those who are worried about watering down are just whining for the sake of whining!Every year from now on, there will be maybe 100 or more kids who

will get to call themselves state champs than in years past!These are KIDS,

this is SPORTS,and any argument against giving some more kids this kind of

joy is just selfish and eletist!!!:fight:

Then let's stop keeping score and declare everyone a winner and thousands more kids will get to call themselves champions:rolleyes:

 

If anyone argues against that are they being selfish and elitist?

Then let's stop keeping score and declare everyone a winner and thousands more kids will get to call themselves champions:rolleyes:

 

If anyone argues against that are they being selfish and elitist?

 

 

NO...NO...NO...Lets keep the 4 class system and kick out all private schools that have numerous advantages!

NO...NO...NO...Lets keep the 4 class system and kick out all private schools that have numerous advantages!

With all due respect even if all the private schools were gone how many championships would Lincoln County win? No, no wait let me guess you're a fan of ALL public schools and as long as one of them is winning you'll be perfectly happy.

The bottom line is the public high schools and private high schools are structured totally different. There will never be equity in athletics and/or any other extra-curricular activity as long as a Catholic or private school has 80 feeder schools and a public school has one feeder school.

 

There are 2 simple solutions to solving this problem. One is to follow other states and separate public and private schools (in which this will never happen because of the politics involved). The second option, which was suggested by a private school spokesperson at an A.D. meeting, is to count 1.5 or 1.75 / student at private schools vs 1.0 at public schools. There are only 4 private schools in which this would not affect classification and those schools are currently at the top of the enrollment scale now. What this means is that a private school that has 800 kids and 80 feeder schools would play at a level of 1200 to 1400 students of enrollment. Thus, evening the playing field.

 

I know that some people are going to say that this is unfair to count a private kid as more than a public kid; however, it is just as unfair to allow a kid from Richmond go to school in Lexington and/or a kid from Indiana to play in Kentucky athletics. Which leads to my next statement.

 

Kids from out of state that play in Kentucky should count at a specific rate as well (if they are going to be allowed to participate in athletics). A kid from West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, etc. should be worth the same ratio at a public and/or private school. Therefore, if you have 200 kids in your school from another state, you should have to count it as 300 to 350 kids. Nothing is perfect; however, this would definitely even the playing field somewhat.

^ Welcome to the site....school systems hamstring themselves...why would we do the same? We built ourselves up from NOTHING. No one is stopping anyone.

The bottom line is the public high schools and private high schools are structured totally different. There will never be equity in athletics and/or any other extra-curricular activity as long as a Catholic or private school has 80 feeder schools and a public school has one feeder school.

 

There are 2 simple solutions to solving this problem. One is to follow other states and separate public and private schools (in which this will never happen because of the politics involved). The second option, which was suggested by a private school spokesperson at an A.D. meeting, is to count 1.5 or 1.75 / student at private schools vs 1.0 at public schools. There are only 4 private schools in which this would not affect classification and those schools are currently at the top of the enrollment scale now. What this means is that a private school that has 800 kids and 80 feeder schools would play at a level of 1200 to 1400 students of enrollment. Thus, evening the playing field.

 

I know that some people are going to say that this is unfair to count a private kid as more than a public kid; however, it is just as unfair to allow a kid from Richmond go to school in Lexington and/or a kid from Indiana to play in Kentucky athletics. Which leads to my next statement.

 

Kids from out of state that play in Kentucky should count at a specific rate as well (if they are going to be allowed to participate in athletics). A kid from West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, etc. should be worth the same ratio at a public and/or private school. Therefore, if you have 200 kids in your school from another state, you should have to count it as 300 to 350 kids. Nothing is perfect; however, this would definitely even the playing field somewhat.

Please enlighten me . What private school school in Kentucky has 80 feeder schools ?

Mike Glaser (St. X) posted something on the Ky Football Coaches list-serve email last year that stood out to me. He published the numbers of all kids in the school playing sports, and broke them down into categories as to whether they were Catholic or non-Catholic; if they were Catholic and lived in Jefferson Co., or non-Catholic and lived in Jefferson Co; if they were Catholic and lived outside of Jefferson Co. but still lived in KY; if they were non-Catholic lived outside of Jeff Co., but still in KY; and if they were Catholic or non-Catholic and lived in Indiana. I'll try to find the text of the email and post it, but I seem to remember that of the 1400 boys in the school, the amount that played sports that were from outside what the public schools in Jefferson Co's feeder area, was low, maybe even single digits. I think the number from Inidana that played sports was 1, and he was Catholic. I'll try to find those numbers, or if anyone else on that list serve can, post them. If they are true, it shows that the Louisville area public schools have leveled whatever playing field was unlevel. But if you ask some posters (LBBC especially) they will rightly highlight the ability of schools in highly populated urban areas to have that advantage (a non-level playing field) over schools that are in more rural areas.

Please enlighten me . What private school school in Kentucky has 80 feeder schools ?

Calvary Christian in NKY could draw from any MS in Kenton, Boone, Bracken, Pendleton, Grant, Campbell, Gallatin, and from Ohio. Not sure that is 80 but it is closer to 80 than not.

Calvary Christian in NKY could draw from any MS in Kenton, Boone, Bracken, Pendleton, Grant, Campbell, Gallatin, and from Ohio. Not sure that is 80 but it is closer to 80 than not.

And Boy that has made them quite the sports powerhouse . And the important word in your post is COULD. You know of course that they don't .

Please enlighten me . What private school school in Kentucky has 80 feeder schools ?

To answer your question without specifically naming a school; the arch-diocese of Lexington covers every middle school in Central Kentucky for a 100 mile radius. This means that any Catholic Middle School student that lives within 100 miles from a Catholic school in Lexington belongs to that arch-diocese. Therefore, a Catholic middle school in Richmond, Versailles, Frankfort, Georgetown, Winchester, Nicholasville, etc. can send there kids to participate in Lexington for athletics; however, a kid that is at Good Shepherd in Frankfort cannot participate in extra-curricular's at Bondurant or Hearn.

 

No matter what side of the fence you are on, this creates an uneven playing field. For instance, Western Hills has one feeder school (Bondurant Middle School) Lexington Catholic would have as many feeder schools equaling the number of Catholic Middle Schools within the 100 mile radius.

Interesting side not to this term "level playing field." Over and over we hear that this is not real life and we are raising kids who can't participate in the real world.

 

Watching the news and Katie Courac says that the leaders of the Big 3 met with President Bush because they were not on a "level playing field" with the foreign auto makers. Guess it is part of real, grownup adult life.