Public vs. Private

I've been sitting on this since October, but with this article appearing in today's Daily Record, now is as good a time as ever.

This is a topic that always elicits strong reactions and opinions on either side, and one that doesn't seem to have the "silver bullet" solution.

So the Wayne County schools are now fed up with the imbalance that exists in athletics between private and public schools and wants to lead the charge?  What took so long?  We've been singin' this song since the 70's...apparently.

I was browsing through the Google Newspaper Archives and came across a few mentions of a petition to separate public schools and private schools in Ohio when it came to the state football playoffs.

The articles went on to say that a previous effort was spearheaded by, at that time, Orrville coach Mo Tipton back in the 1970's....1977 to be exact.

Here's the article that appeared in the Toledo Blade in September of 1978 and here's the article that appeared in the Toledo Blade in December of 1978.

Don't they read awful similar to today's issues? So in this case, Mo led a group that collected 285 signatures supporting his referendum, nearly 40% of the entire OHSAA, yet when it came time for a vote, only 122 sided with him and the measure was soundly defeated.

The old article claims that a public school beating Cincinnati Moeller for the state title changed a lot of people's minds, but why would 1 win suddenly be the cure-all to an alleged serious problem? I think when it came time to actually put pen to paper and vote, a lot of administrators didn't feel that obligated to make real change.

What's even more interesting was the timing of this. It was done in the late 70's, Orrville did not make the playoffs in football until 1980. The Orrville teams of the 1970's were not kept out of the playoffs by a private school from what I could tell. I could see this happening in the mid 80's after we had lost to Columbus Ready in the 1983 state finals, to Elyria Catholic in the 1984 state semifinals and to Columbus DeSales in the 1985 state title game, but the state was only 5 years into the playoff system. The timing just seemed odd. Was Mo just a staunch opponent of the parochial schools that felt called to lead this charge?

The Early Years of the Playoffs
Let's look at the landscape of the OHSAA football playoffs in the time they began until Mo filed the petition. At the time, there were only 3 Classes or divisions (AAA, AA & A), but each class still had 4 regions, but back then, only 1 team per region advanced to the playoffs, so the first round of playoffs was the state semifinals. Here's how the first 5 years shook out when looking at public vs. private participants among the teams who made the playoffs.

1972
Class AAA - 0 private schools
Class AA - 2 private schools
Class A - 1 private school

1973
Class AAA - 2 private schools
Class AA - 2 private schools
Class A - 3 private schools

1974
Class AAA - 1 private school
Class AA - 2 private schools
Class A - 3 private schools

1975
Class AAA - 2 private schools
Class AA - 1 private school
Class A - 2 private schools

1976
Class AAA - 3 private schools
Class AA - 1 private school
Class A - 3 private schools

1977
Class AAA - 3 private schools
Class AA - 3 private schools
Class A - 1 private school

So....out of 6 years of playoffs, and 72 playoff berths, 35 went to private schools..or practically 50%. And out of 18 state titles awarded in that same span, 10 went to private schools.

In both cases, it's about a 50-50 split. That's fair right? I guess. But when you consider that 10% (roughly) of the football schools in Ohio are private, it definitely raises an eyebrow.

All you have to do is look at the teams considered dynasties in Ohio high school football....

Cleve. St. Ignatius
Archbishop Moeller
Cincinnati St. Xavier
Cols. St. Francis DeSales
Youngstown Cardinal Mooney
Newark Catholic
Delphos St. Johns

Those 7 teams listed have won a combined 42 state football titles, and have finished runner-up another 22 times.  I don't think you could take the 7 best public school programs in Ohio and come close to those numbers.

Sure you have your public school dynasties like McKinley, Steubenville, Ironton, Coldwater, St. Henry, Versailles and dare I say Orrville, but for every one of them, there seem to be 5 private schools who are just as good.

I'll be clear in saying one thing....the private schools are not cheating, but the rules and how they relate to success on the athletic fields and courts are certainly in their favor.  They simply can do things to attract students (and athletes) that public schools cannot.  That's called an advantage.

What If?
Just imagine if there was a private school in Wayne Co. (let's call it Wooster Christian..err..Catholic) that fielded a football team, and that school could accept enrollees from any resident of the county, or outside of the county for that matter.

So instead of being bound to the limits of a city (Orrville or Wooster) or school district (Green Local, North Central, etc.), a school could have kids attend from anywhere....and said private school could advertise their school's advantages on radio/TV/billboards declaring their school as a better option to those fed up with public schools.....oh, and have we mentioned that we have a football team, that because of our private donations and tuition, we have the nicest uniforms, great facilities, play on turf,
in the playoffs every year and our kids get looked at by colleges more often. Think that would be fair?

Think for a minute about the best 5 kids from every school in the county, and now imagine just 2 of those 5 attending this pretend private school in Wooster. You'd instantly have 20+ all-county kids playing on one team, a team that would probably fall in the smallest of divisions, yet be stacked with talent.   This pretend example plays itself out all over Ohio every year, it's why you see Newark Catholic, Delphos St. John and other similar schools playing in Canton and Massillon every year.

Again, not cheating, they're not taking state dollars, so they can do things how they want, and I'm fine with that, but don't tell me with a straight face that it's a level playing field. It's simply not and the numbers support that.

Separate or Multiply?
To me, this is easy. You multiply. Separate tournaments would not be a good idea. There was something sweeter about beating Ursuline on the way to our 1998 title. The problem with multiplying is what do you do with private schools that are already Division 1 in size? Do you place D1 private schools in their own division? That's an idea, but not a perfect one.

By my count, there are only 28 private schools in the top 3 football divisions in Ohio. Would it make sense to place 16 of those teams into a 4 round playoff each year? Do the same with teams in Divisions 4-5-6?

There are plenty of private schools that don't even field a football team, so the real number of private schools that have an impact on major sports is right around 50.

Maybe I'm a fan of 2 separate tournaments.

Thoughts, mine and yours.
So now this group of county administrators is sending out a survey, which I'm sure will show strong support for a separate system or a multiplier.  But I'll believe it when I see it in terms of real change.

Interesting how this issues comes not a year after two Smithville teams were bounced by parochial schools in the basketball playoffs.  I'd like to know the source of this "referendum."  Is this a Green Local schools issue that needed the support of the rest of the county to be considered legit, or did everyone come up with the idea at the same time?

I know the Riders have seen plenty of defeats to private schools (the 80's in football, the battles with St. V. in basketball, more recently to Mooney in 2006, etc.), so if anyone is qualified to have a valid opinion, it's us.

What do you think should be done, if anything?