TSSAA to Vote on Public/Private Split

[DougS]

Intended to emphasize he word "IF"... if it makes you feel better both were meant to be cap's, and my fingers were quicker than my brain. Maybe if I'd been educated at a private school...

I was educated in a public school in Arkansas in the 70's and 80's so far from the priveledges of a private school.  This is a message board not an English class so instead of continuing to discuss the topic you chose to critize a person that has a different opinion from yours with sentence syntax correction.

[DougS]

Also, there was a question in the same post about fairness...you pointed out the error, can you answer the question?

 

 

My apologies.  I thought I had answered the question but I guess not.  Is it fair to play by the rules that are written?  Yes.  Are the rules, as written, fair?  Probably.  Is TSSAA's enforcement of the rules fair?  That is a BIG NO.  To me, that is the unfair part.  The rules say and i am paraphrasing, a school cannot provide any financial aid to students and be able to play in D1.  When a D1, private school provides any financial assistance for tuition, they should be punished severely.

 

When tthe rules are not enforced, they do not need to be changed, the TSSAA should enforce them.

[movinonup]

The biggest issue is that privates can have students from anywhere. I'm going to pick on TCA because its around me. A student from Dyer (45ish minute drive north of Jackson) can attend TCA, he/she drives right past Trenton Peabody and Humboldt but can not attend because he/she is zoned to Gibson County Special School District. He/she can't attend a public school in Jackson for the same reason. Not sure how that's not an huge advantage.

 

**Funny you "picked on" TCA when anyone around Jackson knows this kid you are referring to (and you are referring to someone specific or you would have not picked an obscure town like Dyer as example)  was a star at USJ.**

[tradertwo]

I was educated in a public school in Arkansas in the 70's and 80's so far from the priveledges of a private school.  This is a message board not an English class so instead of continuing to discuss the topic you chose to critize a person that has a different opinion from yours with sentence syntax correction.

You're right...I had reason, but not the right. If you read the post I'm sure you saw the words superior and mediocre, so I won't bother to defend my actions. I was wrong.

[Guest AllBlue]

The rules say and i am paraphrasing, a school cannot provide any financial aid to students and be able to play in D1.  When a D1, private school provides any financial assistance for tuition, they should be punished severely.

 

When tthe rules are not enforced, they do not need to be changed, the TSSAA should enforce them.

 

I'm coming into the game late (as usual). But this is one of the issues I had last year with CPA girls team. CPA offers financial aid to students through 8th grade. Didn't they have a couple of 8th graders on the varsity team last year? If I'm wrong, I apologize and humbly ask that you let me crawl back into the cave I came from.  thanks.

[anotherback]

Bradley has been a "swap-n-shop" county over the years for sports, no wonder you think there is nothing wrong with it.

Yep. I can name you at least 5 kids that I know that have transferred this last year. Parents choice. For whatever reason.

[DougS]

You're right...I had reason, but not the right. If you read the post I'm sure you saw the words superior and mediocre, so I won't bother to defend my actions. I was wrong.

 

No worries.  I read it and i do agree that that many would drown if they stayed out in the rain long enough

[DougS]

I'm coming into the game late (as usual). But this is one of the issues I had last year with CPA girls team. CPA offers financial aid to students through 8th grade. Didn't they have a couple of 8th graders on the varsity team last year? If I'm wrong, I apologize and humbly ask that you let me crawl back into the cave I came from.  thanks.

 

 

No idea on the financial aid policies of CPA other than what i have read at CoachT and 5 minutes worth of research on their homepage.

[bobcatfan300]

I don't know about some of you (well, yes I do), but I have always wanted my kids to play AGAINST the best... The way you are carrying on, it seems that you feel the privates are better than the public schools in sports. However, I still beg to differ. The private schools never beat us at basketball. Only in track and field, but even then it only made our athletes better to run against them. But even If that is so, then I would want my child playing against the better teams game in and game out. I would rather lose by 2 to a better team than be a district champion in a district where I dominate and win by 20 each night. In the classroom, do you have your students taking regular or remedial classes instead of honors, because they might make a B in an honors class instead of an A in the regular??? Is it really fair that my child has to be in the same class with a kid whose mother and father are doctors and lawyers? I mean, where do we draw the line? Let's make schools quit allowing students to wear Polo shirts or Nike shoes or Southern Tradition T-shirts, because heaven forbid, that might be an unfair advantage. I know I have gone too far on this subject, but it always irks me that parents and coaches complain so much SIMPLY because they can't stand the competition. I am so tired of hearing, "but it's not fair...."   Man, teach your kids to stand up and face stricter competition and do so without making such excuses. Many of you have children who play AAU. You will face teams that are sponsored by NIKE and other all-star teams. Is it fair that those teams who recruit are in the same league as some of the more localized teams? I could go on and on, but I have said too much. I need to stay off coacht, because I just get too frustrated at all the whining!!!!

 

Yes tnwareagle, play against the best on a LEVEL PLAYING FIELD where the rules are the same for everyone.  The school I follow is very small and almost always is very good and in the past played some of the best AAA teams ...such as White Co. when they were #1 in the state and our team lost in overtime at the buzzer, Ezell Harding when they were a top team, Victory Christian when they were nationally ranked and blew them out of the gym, and many others. Bring on the best, but everyone is to play by the same rules and the privates DO NOT. It is fine to play them in nondistrict games, but they do not belong in single A districts.

[tnwareagle]

Bobcat fan, are you from Pickett County? I grew up in Byrdstown, and that was before any classifications. It didn't matter if you were big, little, public or private. You competed just the same. Funny thing is that until TSSAA told these small schools they couldn't compete, and then made all the different classes, they actually competed with them. Yes, there may be some advantages that a private school may have, but publics have their advantages too. I really don't care what they decide. Whatever it is, there will still be complaining and people talking about unfair advantages.

Edited March 14, 2014 by tnwareagle

[ChattTownHoops]

I notice that none of the private supporters attempted to answer my question so I'll ask again. If you don't have any advantage and if everyone should feel compelled to play better competition, why are you fighting so hard to stay out of DII and why are some teams coming back out of DII? Simple answer is that you enjoy the "unfair" advantage that you have over public schools because you can get kids/athletes from all over and do t have to take every kid that walks through your front door. (Same reason you can claim better grad rates and college bound students BTW). My school is a public school but we choose to have private schools on our regular season schedule in every sport. We don't run and are not afraid of them. We win some and lose some vs private schools so it all evens out. But there is no denying that the private schools that we play have a decided advantage over us in the way they can "select" the students who can attend.

[mrbigster]

You have a valid point, true....however, I still maintain that it just gives better competition to the other schools. I hate winning in a weak district by 20-30 points. I would much rather compete with some of these privates that make the districts and regions stronger. But, the privates are not always better. In girls basketball, the privates around here are weaker than the public schools. I guess it is just what you want out of the experience. 

Every team should want to play against better athletes and will have to get better.I also would rather lose to a team by 2 points than to beat some teams by 30 points.at the same time,especially with Single a teams with not many students that play sports,is it really fair to them.I know some Single a schools that havnt won probably ten games in 10 years,A school with maybe 250 students and maybe half are females takes the students down to maybe 125.Then you have freshmen and sophomores and that takes it down even farther.Then a lot of the boys that are left may not be athletes or like sports.So it's hard to maybe compete against schools with even 150 students that are full of athletes.