Public Schools wanting to go into the D2 category

[EXCHEQUER]

oh geooofff!

[KWoodroof]

and thanks to all you HARD CHARGERS for your service to our country!!! Shoulda figured you for a Jarhead, KW!

 

We think it comes from the three concussions at MBA...and I've added 2 more since then.

 

A previous writer mentioned BA. and particularly the back to back 5A championships they won. A private school makes an easy target in circumstances like that. But I think (and you can check with the BA backers here) that a lot of that boils down to two very good groups of athletes playing for a top flight coach, and BA hasn't had the stars align like that since. It's a combination that doesn't happen often. Maryville is doing the same thing right now, and i think they're encountering similar issues, although to a lesser extent since they're a public school. It seems that our tendency now is to criticize excellence and look for some sort of "cheat", rather than applaud the justifiable fruits of hard work.

[ksgovols]

Well no, Maryville does it with an open zone same as Alcoa. It's an advantage to draw kids from whatever driving radius is reasonable rather than within a defined boundary. By the same token, Joe Blow student has no incentive to go across the boundary all other things being the same. It's similar in nature to Little Leagues having a defined boundary that is, for the most part absolute. You can't play outside that boundary. A travel team however....., if you can make it to practices and games and afford the fees, there's no restriction.

 

Not complaining really. I like the idea of scheduling like minded schools. Closed zoned rural publics should try to schedule other closed zone rural public schools. There are built in advantages for privates, open zoned publics and magnet schools that closed zoned public schools typically can't overcome. That's life in the slow lane. I don't care if they have multipliers applied or not, I do think 8 state champions sort of waters down the achievement and it only makes it more special when the little ole' country school can pull it off.

 

I just don't like to hear that there are no advantages. I mean, Carson Newman isn't scheduling UT every year even though they have access to the exact same student athletes.

[BigRedDad]

Well no, Maryville does it with an open zone same as Alcoa. It's an advantage to draw kids from whatever driving radius is reasonable rather than within a defined boundary. By the same token, Joe Blow student has no incentive to go across the boundary all other things being the same. It's similar in nature to Little Leagues having a defined boundary that is, for the most part absolute. You can't play outside that boundary. A travel team however....., if you can make it to practices and games and afford the fees, there's no restriction.

 

Not complaining really. I like the idea of scheduling like minded schools. Closed zoned rural publics should try to schedule other closed zone rural public schools. There are built in advantages for privates, open zoned publics and magnet schools that closed zoned public schools typically can't overcome. That's life in the slow lane. I don't care if they have multipliers applied or not, I do think 8 state champions sort of waters down the achievement and it only makes it more special when the little ole' country school can pull it off.

 

I just don't like to hear that there are no advantages. I mean, Carson Newman isn't scheduling UT every year even though they have access to the exact same student athletes.

 

 

I don'r deny that the private schools have advantages, if they didn't I would be a fool to have invested all the money in tuition that I have. They generally have more money for better facilities, they have more money to hire coaches, and the coaches are not necessarily required to teach. Since private schools have to recruit all of their students (that's right no child is zoned to go to any private school, they recruit them all), they can include student athletes in the process. those are undeniable advantages

[KWoodroof]

I don'r deny that the private schools have advantages, if they didn't I would be a fool to have invested all the money in tuition that I have. They generally have more money for better facilities, they have more money to hire coaches, and the coaches are not necessarily required to teach. Since private schools have to recruit all of their students (that's right no child is zoned to go to any private school, they recruit them all), they can include student athletes in the process. those are undeniable advantages

 

I would never say that there are no advantages in the independent schools. However, there are problems that an MBA coach faces that are foreign to publuc school coaches. I susepct that the financial downturn has cost MBA some perspective students, and quite likely has led to some attrition, although both are speculation on my part. Similarly, MBA calcualtes a student's eligibility by the grading period, not the semester. this standard is more rigorous than the TSSAA's. Finally, there is the workload at MBA. It is both difiicult in terms of content, and difficult in terms of quantity. Not every young man can get into MBA, and not all who are accepted can (or want to) do the work required to stay there. Within my class, I can think of 4 very good athletes (two with strong family connections to the school) who were dismissed.

 

I would think, though, that our advantages would pretty much be a wash if we competed in the highest division, which we always did.

[ksgovols]

Well, they were a wash. I never considered MBA a football power back when the BA controversy was going on. Baylor or McCallie either. I see where you're going with that I think. There is a point where even if you can attract, recruit and manage to keep in school the best athletes that can afford to go to MBA, there's still a 2000 student public school in an urban area that can put just as many outstanding athletes on the field. I really think that the advantage happens at the lower classifications where a 300 kids in a private school are competing with other 300 kid schools or even 500 kid schools. I think there is a point of diminishing returns and I think the advantages are primarily in football, though if you can 'attract' the right 5 or 6 guys in basketball you can make quite a run too.

 

It's an interesting phenomenon. I'm more ambivalent about the whole thing once TSSAA corrected the mistake of putting 3 rural publics in a region with 5 private institutions. We didn't fit, didn't want to be there and it almost killed our program. It's not about state championships and who can win them to me. It's about recognizing that the playing fields aren't level and putting a multiplier on the private schools is just a bandaid fix to a bigger problem.