Separate playoffs result in no true state champion

    Public high school principals may call future Prep Classic football games state championships, but when 206 of their finest discriminated against a minority of their peers by voting to exclude them from five classes of state playoff games on Jan. 25, they struck the death blow to true state championships in the sport of football.
    The margin of their “victory” was by 85 aye votes, the majority of which came from principals of schools in classes B and C, which do not even field football teams.
     The annual meeting on Jan. 25 was the first time my sportswriter colleagues and I had ever witnessed intelligent, educated men and women act like children exacting vengeance on the playground marbles champion. Their action belied their mission as educators to teach children the difference between right and wrong, and what’s fair and unfair.
     They justified their foolishness by admitting through their vote that their athletic programs are inferior to those of schools that are consistently successful. But they refuse to look at why there is such a disparity in the productivity of the schools they label “select” compared to their own programs. They prefer blaming others for their own inadequacies.
    Unless the state Legislature or the court system steps in to squash the outcome, there will be five public school playoff classes and just two divisions for the select schools.
    That may change to three divisions. But whatever is decided, the select school championship playoffs will be far more exciting and interesting than what is left of the publics.
    What one will see are filled stadiums for one set of playoffs and sporadic numbers for the public schools. The exiled schools will be the real beneficiaries of this folly.
    So, who’s to blame? Did the price of success for the reigns of John Curtis and Evangel have to be paid for by all their non-public school peers?    
    Curtis and Evangel have not broken any eligibility (or other) rules in the LHSAA handbook. Had they, the two would have been punished severely. Curtis and Evangel may spend more time than most others on football-related activities during and after the school day is over, but should the others be guilty by association?
    So-called select schools win a large majority of state champions in the sports of swimming, volleyball, wrestling, golf, tennis and soccer because more select schools participate in these sports than their public peers. But public school principals skew the success rate in these sports to bolster their cause.
    Many public schools do not participate in most of the non-major sports because their school boards don’t provide the money for equipment or the funds to pay competent coaches to offer students these programs.
     This mess isn’t over.
    Throughout the week there have been meetings and telephone conversations across the state by many of the exiled principals and coaches to set a course for the future.
    Ron Brocato can be reached at [email protected].