Legislature threatens to pull publics out of LHSAA

    When Winnfield principal Jane Griffin and her merry band of public school dissidents voted to discriminate against non-public schools by forcing them to compete in separate  football playoffs, they did more than open a can of worms. They opened a crate of cobras that do business in the State Capitol.
    Yep, the Louisiana Legislature has stepped in with a bill whose passage could ultimately end the 93-year-old reign of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association and put a group of well-intentioned administrators out of work.
    Sponsored by Bob Hensgens, R-Abbeville; Wesley Bishop, D-New Orleans; and Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport, House Bill 267 would bar public schools from being members of the LHSAA, alleging that the organization discriminates against schools that select their students.
    In the words of Seabaugh, “When you’re including public schools, I’ve got a big problem with that. The legislature can’t dictate what the LHSAA rules have to be, but we can dictate what the public schools have to do.”
    That’s just what the system needed; having this state Legislature involve itself in matters it knows little about. Thank you, Ms. Griffin, et al.
    Now the LHSAA administration and the Executive Committee are scrambling to figure out how to get the House out of its business.
    LHSAA President Todd Guice, a public school principal from Monroe, said the bill did not address who or what  would regulate high school sports for public schools if the was no LHSAA.
    “The bill did not give us an alternate where we could compete,” he said. “I have a hard time believing high school athletics in Louisiana could end over this.”
No legal guidance
    The Executive Committee had asked a Baton Rouge law firm to give a legal opinion on whether the LHSAA violated its constitution or improperly ruled on the bylaws to hold separate football playoffs, which public school principals overwhelmingly passed.
     According to LHSAA executive director Kenny Henderson, the lawyers were unable to provide the LHSAA with the guidance it hoped for.
    The association’s attorney, Brad Lewis, reported to Henderson that it was his opinion the bylaws do not violate the LHSAA constitution and concluded that there is no clear or firm basis for the Executive Committee to disregard or overcome the majority vote of the membership.
    The Executive Committee is now placing the matter in the hands of a School Relations Committee, which will study the accursed Proposition 18 and report on its findings at the LHSAA’s June meeting.
    That 15-person committee includes 10 representatives from public schools and five from non-public schools. They include outgoing Jesuit principal Mike Giambelluca and Sister of Mount Carmel  Camille Anne Campbell. It also includes Griffin.
    Henderson asked the group to consider three areas of concerns to help reach the LHSAA’s goal of keeping all its member schools together while creating a more balanced method of how schools are placed in classifications and/or divisions.
    Henderson wants the committee to consider one plan that would increase a school’s enrollment by using a multiplier to be applied to several different factors that could give a school an advantage. The factors could include, but are not limited to, the number of students below grade 9, out-of-zone athletes, out-of-parish athletes, and financial aid.
    The multiplier would affect all schools equally and every school, regardless of whether it is considered a “select” or “non-select,” would pass through the same filter.
    The second strategy Henderson lists is the inclusion of a Tournament Success Factor, which is used in Indiana to reclassify its schools on a sport-by-sport basis dependent on the school’s tournament success during the previous reclassification period.
    Schools would be assigned point values based on playoff or tournament victories (4 points for a state championship, 3 for a semifinal win, etc.).
    If a school accrues enough points, it would be moved up in class under this plan.
    Henderson appears to prefer this option. In a recent letter to the principals, he notes, “This seems to be the simplest and easiest formula that is being used by other states at this time. If we choose to go with this idea, this formula has real merit.”
    Henderson’s third consideration involves reviewing all aspects of the LHSAA rules and regulations, including, but not limited to residency, transfers, recruiting and financial aid.
    The School Relations Committee will solicit input from all LHSAA member principals and will hopefully find an alternative plan to quash Proposal 18 (separate playoffs) and return the LHSAA to some degree of normalcy before the bureaucrats in Baton Rouge make it worse.
    “This is not the first time in our history that we have had this type of debate, and Louisiana is not alone in this debate over public and non-public competition,” Henderson wrote. “It seems every state  and everybody wants what is perceived as a ‘level playing field,’ but no one seems to have an agreed-upon definition of a ‘level playing field” or the best way to get there.
    “I think one of the major concerns is a reluctance to change and the fear of the unknown.”
      Ron Brocato can be reached at rbrocato@clarionherald.org.