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Tuesday, November 27, 2007
By taking step down are preps really taking a step up?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It might be a little strong to say private schools have dominated athletics in their classifications since 2000, but it’s not all that far off, especially with some sports.
During the 1.5-multiplier system went into effect in 2000, private schools below Class AAAAA won more than their share of state titles: 22 of 24 in volleyball, 40 of 56 in tennis, 14 of 14 in swimming, 36 of 53 in soccer and 55 of 64 in cross country.
But with the multiplier that bumped most of those private schools up one classification being dumped for 2008-10, there are concerns about what will happen from a competitive standpoint as they move down.
Marist has decided to remain in Class AAAA, but that’s the only private school in the metro area that has elected to play in a larger classification than its enrollment requires.
Schools like Westminster, which has won 49 state titles at AAA since 2000, are making the move down one level to compete with schools that don’t have the advantage of having more students.
Whether that amounts to making the competition tougher, though, is up for debate.
“We made assumptions [with implementing the multiplier], like that AAA is harder than AA; in some sports, that’s not true,” GHSA executive director Ralph Swearngin said. “I think it becomes an easy explanation, ‘Why do some schools do well?’ It’s because they’ve got more money, or they recruit. It may be true, but it may not be as prevalent as people think.”
Swearngin may be right, but if Westminster, Blessed Trinity, St. Pius, Lovett, Greater Atlanta Christian and others had as much success as they did against schools sometimes much larger than them, how well can public schools compete when that enrollment advantage is taken away?
If there truly is a competitive advantage for private schools, is the 1.5 multiplier an effective way of dealing with that? Is there another solution that would work better?
Or is it just a matter of schools that put an emphasis on athletics and place good people in the right positions will be successful? And have some of the private schools simply been better at doing this than public ones? If this is the case, why should schools like Westminster be handicapped simply because they do things well?
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