Special Project---The Great Divide

[itzme]

I am not going to name names here in public view nor PM you. I stated that my bagboy attends Brentwood Academy and that I have friends who's children attend DCA, BGA, MBA and David Lipscomb. My friends and their kids know who they are

I can tell you that there are 9 students from Murfeesboro that go to Brentwood Academy. None (that's 0 ) play varsity football. I believe there is one golfer and a pretty darned good middle school girl soccer player though!

 

Having spoken on occasion to most of these parents, they would be very confused about this whole debate. Athletics is not the reason any of the students attend.

[rollredroll]

Ok, so not everyone who attends a private school lives within walking distance of campus. BIG DEAL. I live in Columbia and graduated from BGA in 2002. I can't throw a pass, hit the hole hard, or throw a block. My jump shot needs serious work, my defense even more. As a sidenote, I can solve a mean math problem.

 

I went to BGA, which is nearly an hour from my home, for the atmosphere and educational possibilities that the school provided. I can assure you that many of the other "out-of-town" BGA students don't play sports at all. Some do, but I was never aware of any that went for that express purpose.

 

I know nothing of MBA's enrollment (they seem to be the focus of this thread of late), but I wouldn't get all up in arms if they have out-of-county students. Most of them are probably unathletic guys like me.

Great anecdotes and perspective, commish. I'd choose you on my pick-up team.

 

When is the day going to come when a school loses a Quiz Bowl to a BGA or some other private school and the cries are heard, "No wonder we lost - they had students from Pegram!"

[davidlimbaugh]

rollredroll, I don't think I ever said ANY private school scours the countryside for players

 

and if I don't type something, you don't have anything to reply to - LOL!!!!!

 

and Public Schools answer would be that for every Math genius from Pegram, a Tight End from Wartrace may also come to MBA. And MBA is a GREAT school with GREAT facilities. Nothing elitist about that

[rollredroll]

…and sometimes the math genius and TE are the same person.

[gobigred]

if MBA's kids don't come from their own back yard and don't come from the midstate, where do they come from?  LOL!!!!!!!!

 

Guys - we can hem and haw and point this out and illustrate that until we are blue in the face.

 

But at the end of the day, SOME public schools and SOME public school supporters truly believe that SOME private schools have SOME advantages that they do not have access to. 

 

I have tried to illustrate that some of those issues might be economic makeup of the student body's parents, their level of involvement, the ability to accept or not accept a student or dismiss a student, the ability to have students from cities and counties that are not the same, the ability to get things done without local political bodies involved and a laundry list of others.

 

Some private schools turn that around and say some of those disadvantages coule be viewed as advantages.  So, instead of calling them PLUS or Minus, advangtage or disadvantage, just call them DIFFERENCES....

Now you are getting the idea, David! Generally, the Nashville area private school students live within a 10-15 mile radius of their school's campus, not all over the mid-state area as you suggested earlier.

 

And yes, we all agree that SOME public schools and public school supporters truly believe that private schools have advantages. SOME of us, both public and private school supporters, truly believe that SOME public schools have advantages over other public schools (open zones, city vs. rural locations, different transfer regulations).

 

Therefore, SOME of us believe that the inequities, or DIFFERENCES, can be mitigated for all through the use of fair enrollment multipliers without further splitting our schools on a strictly public / private basis.

Edited December 2, 2003 by gobigred

[Bighurt]

I was a Math major and Tight End. Sorry. I went to Stratford and we lost to MBA in the 1967 Clinic Bowl.

[commish5238]

Thanks, rollred. Now that I'm just up West End from you guys, it's been a real pleasure to take in some Big Red games the last two seasons (disregarding the fourth-quarter wearing-down of my alma mater this past September ). Great team, great fans. Class acts, too.

Edited December 3, 2003 by commish5238

[rollredroll]

davidlimbaugh's posts regarding where private school students come from got me thinking, so I decided to do a little research on MBA. It's not that easy - you have to know parents' names, current addresses, and admittedly I do not know them all and/or have access to all (and I'm not going to call MBA for a directory), but here's what I have, courtesy of the starting lineups provided by the TSSAA at the Clinic Bowl, public county real estate records, the local phone book, Yahoo! Maps, and MBA's annual report.

 

Of MBA's 11 regular starters on defense in 2003, I have pretty solid info on 9 of the 11. Eight (8) of the nine live in either the MBA zip code (37205) or the adjoining zip code (37215; essentially Green Hills). These eight players live a collective 23 miles from the MBA campus. That's an average distance of 2.88 miles; 6 of the 8 live a distance less than 2.88 miles from MBA. As for the other two, I do not know the names of one of the player's parents; the other player, I do know the names, and I'm pretty sure they live in one of the aforementioned zip codes. That player's parents donated anywhere from 38-76% of the annual tuition of MBA to the school this past fiscal year - safe to say the student is not on aid. Knowing what I know about the aforementioned zip codes, I'd say there's not a lot of aid given to those families either.

 

Of MBA's 11 regular starters on offense in 2003, I have pretty solid info on 9 of the 11. Four (4) of the nine live in either 37205 or 37215. These nine players live a collective 46.5 miles from the MBA campus. That's an average distance of 5.17 miles; 5 of the 9 live a distance less than 5.17 miles from MBA. As for the other two, I have sketchy info on one - he may live 20 miles away (Franklin) - not sure about this one. The other one, I do not know the parents' names.

 

Looking through the depth chart, and taking some random samples, it's more of the same - a lot of kids who live 10 miles or less away from MBA (and many much, much closer than that). Moving away from athletics for a moment, I'd say that the sample taken from the football team is fairly indicative of the geographical demographics of the entire student body.

 

I don't know if MBA has any athletes from Murfreesboro or places that far away; unless I see some names, I doubt it. Regardless of whether they do or not, a little research will yield that the typical MBA kid is a "local" product from a family with the wherewithal to pay most, if not all, of the required tuition (FWIW, MBA's latest tax returns show that only about 6-7% of total tuition dollars were "forgiven" as part of the financial aid program).

 

I'd bet that if any supporter of many other private schools would perform the same research, he or she would have similar data to report.

Edited December 3, 2003 by rollredroll

[rollredroll]

I should probably amend my last sentence. Some private schools would have similar data; probably not a majority. For example, looking at Baylor and McCallie's rosters, one will find quite a few out-of-staters (they are boarding schools, however). And admittedly there are some Nashville-area schools with demographics that are a little more far-reaching. Nevertheless, I think it's only fair to judge/assess individual schools on their own merits and not sweep them all up under one rug.

Edited December 3, 2003 by rollredroll

[VolunteerGeneral]

I think we have all missed the boat here and how this debate can easily be solved. We should have thought of this before. The head whiner Mr. Luker from Collinwood has pointed us in the right direction.

 

"We went down there to USJ, and they had more blacktop on their campus than we have in the whole city of Collinwood," Luker said.

 

From here on out schools should be classified by the amount of blacktop they have. That sounds like a pretty fair way to compare schools to me.

Edited December 3, 2003 by VolunteerGeneral

[davidlimbaugh]

RollRedRoll, you are getting 'too sensitive' on the whole 'my back yard, not scouring the midstate issue'. The 'issue' isn't that they do or don't live close by, but that they CAN live close or farther away.

[MBAalumnus]

good data, RRR. I think that debunks the "they recruit all over the state" argument. I'd say that certainly we have kids from Williamson, Sumner, Cheatam Co's (albeit small #'s), but the point is that they are just normal kids. The kids that come from those regions are there for the academics and in a few cases play sports...they "play sports" like the rest of us, i.e., try out for the team, hope to make it, etc...they certainly aren't a group of ringers piling up stats.

 

what about the 4-5 kids from the late '90s who all went to the Ivy League? Maybe you can fill in details, but I remember reading that Barton Simmons, Jonas Rodriguez, and a few other kids were the best players on the team, were in the MBA chorus, involved in student gov't, and of course were headmaster's list students. I know the group that went to Yale all had successful careers there. That's a remarkable group of kids. I don't want to toot MBA's horn but that group demonstrated how to win the right way...