Prep Zone

By Jojajacket

June 2, 2008 11:39 AM | Link to this

Dominance in football is next. Private schools typically have 95% parental support while public schools typically have 20% parental support. That number is based on imperical information gathered from educators and coaches. No surprise that Fayette and Gwinnett public schools are successful. There is a high percentage of parental support in each of those counties. However, as public schools continue to fail, parents will continue the exodus to home and private schools. A growing African American middle class will ensure that all sports at all levels, in addtion to all academics, and all arts will be dominated by private schools. The sports are merely an illustration of the performance gap across the board.

By Raider

June 2, 2008 12:51 PM | Link to this

GO WALTON RAIDERS! GO GO! GO GO!

BACK-TO-BACK!

By Walton Student

June 2, 2008 1:18 PM | Link to this

Alright fourth time in 9 years Walton has been atop the Director’s Cup polling. To ajc’s little article, yes money and coaches are involved, but what team can succeed unless the students are dedicated and put for the long hours to be great? Thats my question for you

Congratulations to all the schools who are winning or will win the Director’s Cup. Also congratulations to all the top schools who might not receive the award, but have great strong programs.

By Ben

June 2, 2008 3:08 PM | Link to this

I graduated from a private school & think the multiplier, at least 1.33 if not 1.5, is a good practice. It would be interesting to see if most private schools in the GHSA are winners or if there is a sizeable percentage of less successful private programs. I applaud Marist for electing to keep playing up at AAAA (according to privatschoolreview.com they have 740 enrolled in 9-12. Is it true that they have a “AA” enrollment? I did not find details in quick perusal of GHSA.net) & am disappointed that Westminster (9-12 enrollment about 780?) will drop to AA.

By TO WALTON STUDENT

June 2, 2008 3:40 PM | Link to this

Walton Student, every other school student’s put in work, don’t flatter yourself :)

By to Ben

June 2, 2008 4:29 PM | Link to this

That was the point I made on here on Saturday. It does seem as if Marist is the only private school that plays above the expected level..that was even with the 1.5 multiplier. They are a AA school and were required to play AAA ball with the multiplier. They appealed to play AAAA the past two years and did again for the next two without the multiplier. According to one report they have 757 students in grades 9-12, but another report does state 740. Not sure, but they are to be commended for it…and congratulations to EVERY school and EVERY student in Georgia for their efforts!!!!!

By Ugly Truth

June 2, 2008 5:09 PM | Link to this

private schools will never dominate football because white boys are smaller, slower, and weaker

By Dan

June 2, 2008 7:10 PM | Link to this

To answer the above questions:

Why do you think football is resistant to private-school dominance? I don’t think it is. Marist, St.Pius, and GAC have been dominant the last few years. They all just had mediocre seasons last year.

Are the ingredients to success a little different from sport to sport? Perhaps a little bit from sport to sport. Football for instance is a game that requires toughness and raw emotion. Baseball requires more patience and is more cerebral in nature. Sports like soccer and basketball require great team chemistry for success while sports like swimming and wrestling are more about individual development and aren’t “team sports” in the truest sense. With all that being said,good coaching and community support is paramount to success at the high school level.

And why are private schools so successful? I think private schools embrace the concept of developing the entire individual, body, mind and spirit. This has a great appeal to students and parents and their willing to pay the big bucks to make sure things are done right. This transfers over to sports as well. When you can recruit certain kinds of kids into your program you’re going to be successful. Kids are comforming to the system, not the other way around.

By raiderpride

June 2, 2008 8:50 PM | Link to this

WALTON COMPLETLY DOMINATES THE DIRECTOR CUP! IT HAS ONLY BEEN THERE 9 YEARS AND THEY HAVE WON 4 OF THEM! THAT IS CALLED DOMINATION!

GO RAIDERS!!!!!!!!!!

By Insider

June 2, 2008 11:58 PM | Link to this

You may have hit upon the main reason but not emphasized it enough, Dan. The word you used is recruit. Private schools recruit players from public schools to come play for them and everyone knows it. You can play that line about “the whole person” all you want but when private schools recruit and offer players “leadership scholarships” to come to their school the field suddenly gets very unlevel. Let the private schools recruit if they want to and let the public schools play them during their respective sports regular season but put the private schools in their own State Tournament. Their dominance in state championships is all the proof you need. Are you listening GHSA? Pull your head out of the sand and do something about it!

By Where are the South GA Readers

June 3, 2008 12:02 AM | Link to this

Don’t see many south Georgia schools on the list….hummm. Guess the gnats got them. For once there’s not a Valdosta fan bragging about and living in the past. Also the Director’s Cup should segregate the ‘soft sports’ from the big 3…that’s football, basketball and baseball. Some public schools can’t or choose not to support the secondary sports.

By ScootBrave18

June 3, 2008 8:49 AM | Link to this

I’ll tell you what’s more ridiculous than Westminister moving down to AA, is Wesleyan moving down to A!! They already win everything in AA (boys and girls basketball, baseball, etc) EXCEPT football because Buford is in there region. They’re scared of Buford and are therefore moving down…TERRIBLE!! Stay in AA where you belong!!

By SouthGARules

June 3, 2008 9:34 AM | Link to this

To Insider: If you think that only private schools recruit, you are crazy. Look at Brookwood, Buford & Parkview. Brookwood (Cameron Smith, the late Daniel Peek) Buford (Masharn Austin) Parkview (Witt kid that “transferred” from Chattahoochee). Yes, there are no South Ga teams on the list, because football has been king, still is king & will be king in the future for many programs.

By Dostahawk

June 3, 2008 10:06 AM | Link to this

Its funny….you No Ga types bring up this “All Sports” stuff every year. Guess it makes you feel better. No one else really cares if it aint football, basketball or baseball.

By bball friend

June 3, 2008 10:23 AM | Link to this

I agree with you ScootBrave18. Wesleyan has no business going to 1A. They should stay in AA. If they want to avoid Buford in football, why not move up to AAA? Whatever region they would have been placed in in AAA couldn’t have been any worse than their current AA region w/ Buford, Lovett, GAC etc.

By Dan

June 3, 2008 10:58 AM | Link to this

To insider…

What I meant about the recruiting part is that private schools can sell kids on their system. For instance, they can sell parents on the value of a private/religious education where there is more individual attention since private schools tend to be smaller. Granted it’s a load of BS at times, but the difference is that when a public school takes a kid out of district it’s just for sports while private schools can at least hide behind the “developing the entire person” part( which isn’t total BS). From a sports standpoint, private schools can pick kids that fit their system( i.e. if they run the wishbone offense, they can recruit players that would fit that offense). But to be fair to the private schools and public schools with winning programs that recruit out of district: if schools with losing programs aren’t willing to step up to the plate and make athletics a priority( from a community and administration standpoint)then top notch athletes will leave them. I mean if your best shot at getting into college is a football scholarship, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to play for a team that will finish 1-9.

By AtlantaNative

June 3, 2008 11:05 AM | Link to this

Good to hear Marist is still playing up-first class team. Wesleyan, Pius, Westminister, Blessed Trinity are weak and only hurting themselves by going down. Don’t forget the academic side of eligibility. Athletes may be recruited at private schools, but they have to be eligible and not by taking light weight shop and pop culture classes. Look at graduation rates at private schools for athletes vs. public schools. Unless they get an athletic scholarship, most don’t make it to college.

By Dan

June 3, 2008 11:13 AM | Link to this

I think another reason why private schools don’t dominate football like other sports is the competition. In football, there are powerhouse teams all over the state. In sports like soccer, you can usually count on one hand the number of schools that will be tough to beat in your region. I went to Lakeside( which has great soccer programs) and for a couple years we played in the same SUB-region as St. Pius, Marist, Druid Hills( all of whome are state powerhouses). You could be a great team and STILL not make the playoffs, where a team like SW whitfield can go like 13-1 without playing anyone. Some sports just don’t have the level of competition that others do.

By Marist playing up is a joke

June 4, 2008 12:32 AM | Link to this

PEOPLE STOP DRINKING THE MARIST KOOLAIDE. First of all why does a team that talks the talk oh were big bad Marist then loses in the playoffs and gets in BRAWLS NOT ONCE BUT TWICE. Marist is a school that lives off positive press from the AJC Dunwoody Newspapers and so on. Marist playing up is a joke, fine boost your low self esteem ego, sooner or later you watch marist will be caught between a rock in a hard place and sent down to AA where they can actually compete. Sorry Marist your not gong to be able to compete with some of the big AAAAA schools that drop down. CHECK THE EGO AT THE DOOR!!

By to Dan

June 4, 2008 12:57 AM | Link to this

Dan since when is religious education a load of BS? I go to a catholic high school just wondering where that came from

By A

June 4, 2008 8:46 AM | Link to this

I don’t get this. Why are private schools even competing in the same leagues as the public schools? Private schools have so much better resources (money, facilities, coaches), but have such lower numbers of students; it just makes a private school a very different “animal.” Private schools should just have their own leagues, and at the end of the season, the respective public and private school champions can challenge one another, if they so wish.

By A

June 4, 2008 8:47 AM | Link to this

I don’t get this. Why are private schools even competing in the same leagues as the public schools? Private schools have so much better resources (money, facilities, coaches), but have such lower numbers of students; it just makes a private school a very different “animal.” Private schools should just have their own leagues, and at the end of the season, the respective public and private school champions can challenge one another, if they so wish.

By Dan

June 4, 2008 11:55 AM | Link to this

Well I thought this was a discussion on high school athletics. But since the question is possessed, I’ll answer it….

I don’t have a problem with religious education. I have a problem with the facade of religious education. Many people say that private schools prepare kids for success in college and the real world, but the numbers don’t back that up. There really isn’t any difference between most private schools and really good public schools. In fact many of these private schools are sub-standard compared to many public schools. Lakeside is just as good of a school as St.Pius if not better, yet parents pay close to what they would pay for a college education to send their kids there. Why? B/c of this bogus sales job that a private school education prepares kids for real life. Don’t get me wrong. I went to a private college, and there are many things that can be gained from a small private school( especially at the collegiate level where it actually DOES prepare you for real life). But these private high schools are fooling themselves if they think they are producing all of these great world leaders. Good students will excell in school and in life regardless of where they go to school.

By Curly Joe Johnson, III

June 4, 2008 12:55 PM | Link to this

How did the Lovett boys lacrosse team win the state championship this year and just about every other year for that matter. They don’t recruit players, have a high school (9-12)of about 600 kids (split between boys and girls), have about 6 or 7 spring sports that split up those 300 boys and still manage to beat bigger schools like Milton, Pope, Walton, Lassiter etc. Their pool of athletes to pick from is much smaller but they still seem to do well. What gives? Do you think it is they just try harder, better coaching, or what. They can’t focus on just one sport or they would never be able to field teams. I wish I knew.

By Gary

June 4, 2008 8:42 PM | Link to this

I must chuckle at the private school bashers who deride schools in GISA for not playing “real” competition and then accusing them of cheating (i.e. recruiting) when they beat you in GHSA competition. I don’t doubt that recruiting goes on in some private AND public school programs. It’s a convenient, feel-good excuse. I suspect, though, we’d be shocked at how few high school athletes actually receive financial aid to attend a particular school. Our final four private school baseball team was filled with players who’d been attending school together since elementary. If we’re that good at spotting and recruiting talent early, I wonder how come John Schuerholz doesn’t come calling.

By to Dan

June 6, 2008 12:18 AM | Link to this

Dan, you are an absolute idiot. I have been to one of the top 10 public schools in the state of Georgia as well as St. Pius and it is not even close. My GPA went from an 85 at Pius to a 97 in public school and the classes I took were at the same levels. They don’t even compare.

By Michael

June 6, 2008 9:27 AM | Link to this

I have been out of Georgia since 1991 and I attended a public school. The private schools have definitely closed the gap in football, but they will never dominate the sport of football. Football is king in Georgia and it will always be dominated by the public schools…..tell Wesleyan to get Charlton and Lincoln County on their schedule.

By heeldawg

June 6, 2008 11:40 AM | Link to this

Dan, you’re just flat out wrong. My son went to Savannah Country Day School and it was rigorous as heck. His average there was a solid B. He went to Georgia and just graduated magna cum laude. He was ready for college work when he got to Athens. Moreover, 100% of his high school classmates went to college (10% of the class went to Ivy league schools), and historically 60% have gone on to do graduate work. There isn’t a public school in the state that can boast that kind of record.

By heeldawg

June 6, 2008 2:58 PM | Link to this

BTW, 14 of the top 25 athletic schools in the state are private schools (9/10 in classes AA/A). I agree that it has to do with parent involvement, better facilities and a sense of school pride. It also has to do with offering more variety in the way of activities (SCDS, for example,has football, baseball, softball, boys’ and girls’ track, boys’and girls’ basketball, boys’ and girls’ tennis, and boys’ and girls’ cross country, soccer, and crew, in addition to boys’ wrestling). About 80% of the kids in high school participate in some interscholastic athletic competition. That’s pretty dang impressive.

By lee champion

June 17, 2008 10:26 AM | Link to this

Well its nice to see Columbus High School continuing its all around sports greatness that has been happening since the 60s. Class of 68 had the best football team (fall of 67)baseball team, golf team, tennis team, track team and turned out many of todays leaders. Go CHS Class of ‘68!

By WheelerWildcat4Life

June 20, 2008 11:13 AM | Link to this

Who cares, Raider fans? The only sports with any attendance are Football (by far) and Basketball. I don’t want to hear about your school’s attendance for other sports. Fact is most schools don’t care about them. Walton Raiders… Gobble Gobble Gobble.