*Form a committee of administration and school board
members to discuss the situation and be sure to keep your district updated on
how you vote on this issue
*Find out how your fellow conference members will vote on
these issues
*Ask area schools on how they might vote on these issues
*In areas where possible form a small group of public and
privates to discuss the issues to be voted on and work to find some solutions
*Ask the OHSAA for as much information as possible on the
financial loss or gains from adding more tournaments
*Will private schools leave to form a new association and
how will that make changes in future scheduling for both sides
*Private schools will you leave if the vote is to separate
tournaments
*Down to 700 public schools, how will this effect current
class sizes in various sports
*Are there advantages to having separate tournaments and
will they solve the issues facing the OHSAA
*If this vote fails to separate tournaments will your
school be willing to move forward
These are just a few items that we hope you will consider
in this very important vote.
The Senior Reports asked the
following to private schools around
Email-
We would like a statement from you about the football
playoffs in Louisiana being split for
private and public schools, we will be asking several private schools. Would also like
to know if private schools decide to form a new association what
action will your school take.
EDITOR’S NOTE – Thanks to those
who sent us a reply on this issue
From Steve Folmar, Principal,
We would be
more than happy to form a private association. I have never been so insulted in my life as I was at this meeting. Without any
regard for the private school people in the room these public school principals
made charge after charge of cheating and lack of character. Why would any
private school want to continue associating with these people? What they will
have in the future will be a paper champion.
John Gabriel, High School Principal,
We at
Ted Nixon, Principal,
This is to notify you that
ALL of the selected for separate playoff schools are not happy. In our state
both Football and Non-Football schools were allowed to determine the fate of
the playoff system that has worked for 67 years in
Wes Watts, Principal,
I voted against splitting into Select and Non Select
divisions for several reasons.
1- We should all play against each other period,
it makes us all better.
2- There is an advantage in Select
Schools being able to draw students from all over instead of an attendance zone
but, there is no such thing as a perfectly level playing field in any part of
life. There are advantages for schools or teams at all levels.
Someone will always have some type of advantage so what do you do? You
work harder and do what it takes to be successful.
3- It makes no sense to split Football
when Select schools win 95% of the Volleyball and Cross Country State
Championships and approximately 50% of the Football. Why are we splitting
Football?
4- I feel like we are punishing some for
being great.
5- Athletics is not all about winning the
State Championship trophy, even though we all want that. It is about
winning a state championship every day by teaching work ethic, unity,
sacrifice, rising to the competition, and how to handle success and failure.
There are some adjustments that
need to be made and even some changes that would work but splitting is not one
of them. I would like to see schools allowed to play up all the way to 5A
or give Select schools some type of adjustment to their enrollment. Maybe
count every student as two for athletic purposes which would move them up in
classification. There is no perfect system or perfectly level playing
field. What we have is pretty good and making adjustments is the answer,
not splitting and destroying what we have.
From LHSAA’s Executive Director -
Kenny Henderson-
The following is a copy of the proposal that was
passed by our member school principals this past Friday by a vote of
206-119.
18. Amend Section 14-Football, by adding, amending, or
deleting the following rules in the follow Sections of the
LHSAA By-Laws:
14.3.1 Schools
shall compete in Classes 5A, 4A, 3A, 2A, and 1A and shall compete in
districts as adopted by the LHSAA Executive Committee. The schools in
each district shall consist of both select and non-select admission
schools. Effective for the 2013-2014 season and thereafter, football
schools shall be sub-divided into select admission and non-select admission
schools for playoff competition.
14.3.2 A
non-select admission school is a public school that has a designated attendance
zone. For playoff competition, schools that are classified as non-select
schools shall compete in Classes 5A, 4A, 3A, 2A, and 1A.
14.3.3 A
select admission school is a public or non-public school that has an admission policy
to select the students who attend the school. Select admission schools shall
include all non-public, charter, university lab, and magnet schools.
Dual-curriculum schools that include at least 25% of their enrollment as select
admission students who do not live in the designated attendance zone shall also
be included as a select admission school. For playoff competition,
schools that are classified as select schools shall compete in two
divisions. Schools in Classes 5A, 4A, and 3A shall be combined to form
Division I and schools in Classes 2A and 1A shall be combined to form Division
II.
14.12.4 For select admission
schools, 32 teams shall qualify for the state playoffs. The head coach of
each team in each division will seed the respective teams in their division.
The head coaches in Division I and Division II will seed their divisions on the
dates listed in Rule 14.1, Important Dates, in this section.
14.12.5 Each coach will receive
an information sheet containing the teams in their division. The information
will include the team’s district finish, overall record, district record, power
ranking and strength factor. The coaches will rank the teams in their
respective divisions, 1-31 (1 being considered the best team in the state. Each
coach will leave their respective team out of the ranking.)
14.12.6 Head coaches will have a
time frame between
All rules or parts of rules that conflict with this rule shall be amended
accordingly.
The LHSAA has 291 schools
that compete in the sport of football. Under this new proposal,
approximately 80 schools will be placed in the “select” divisions.
We are still in the
process of breaking down this proposal to see exactly what it means to the
LHSAA in terms of logistics. We play our state football championships in
the Super Dome (since 1983) and with the addition of 2 more games we have to
work out many details. This proposal will definitely change the landscape
of football in our state.
More information can be found on our