Time to Separate Private and Public
In light of the Fraser Valley Basketball Association ruling to remove both MEI and WRCA from their league in the upcoming season, I thought I would re-hash the debate of whether the Private schools should have their own league.
What's The Big Beef Anyway?
Public schools have a legitimate beef in that the playing field is not level. Especially when a star player transfers to a Private school that competes in your league. Whether it's Kyle Wilson of Surrey playing for WRCA, or Alex Murphy of Richmond playing for St. George's, coaches of Public schools have every right to be pissed when star players go to a Private school in their league and destroy your team en route to the Provincial Tournament.
Recruiting
By suggesting that Private schools should have their own league does in no way endorse the act of illegal recruiting. Recruiting student-athletes in High School Athletics is cheating plain and simple. Whether Private or Public, both should be held to the same standard. A coach or school official who is found guilty of "recruiting" according to the governing association should be punished to the full extent of the law. That said, students should still be allowed to transfer to a school be it for Academics or Athletics as long as they do so within the rules and are not influenced by the receiving school in any way. And they shouldn't be villified for doing so.
So Now What?
Private schools have a distinct advantage in that they don't have catchment boundaries like Public schools do and therefore can accept transfers whenever and from wherever. This fact alone should distinguish them from the Public schools and therefore segregated to compete in their own league. The creation of an all Private league will not solve the ongoing problem of recruiting in High School Athletics. What it will do is allow the Private schools to compete amongst each other without the Public Schools crying foul.
Is There a Model BC Can Follow?
Many states in the US have a Public/Private segregation. For example, in the state of New Jersey, they have segregated the Catholic schools in their own league, the Parochial League with their own State Championship. The state has further divided up the Parochial League into an A division and a B division. National Powerhouse St. Anthony competes in the Parochial B division. At the end of the season, all State Champions compete in a Tournament of Champions tournament.
Final Thoughts
Creating a separate League of Private schools will allow everyone to focus on basketball and less on winners and losers. Private powerhouse programs are inevitable. Schools like Oak Hill Academy, St. Anthony, or DeMatha are going to attract the best talent because of the tradition of coaching excellence and basketball programs they have. They don't need to recruit, kids line up to play there and coaches need to turn most kids away. Meanwhile, Public schools can focus on competing on a level playing field against other public schools, and less on the newest superstar transfer to the nearby Private school that will demolish them in league play.
What’s your take, post or email me at BCSportsFanatic@yahoo.ca.
posted by BCSportsFanatic @ 9:47 AM
11 comments
11 Comments:
Correction.
Kyle Wilson did not transfer to WRCA. He attended since grade school. My inference was to indicate that had Kyle gone to a public school it would've been a public school in Surrey.
In fact, you are incorrect on the non boundary advantage that you preceive private schools to have. Public schools also have no boundaries, provided the school has room. This is taken off the B.C. Government Education website:
School Choices
There are a range of choices available for students today, including community, traditional or alternative schools, aboriginal education programs, French immersion, special needs, full-day Kindergarten, pre-school, distance electronic learning, fine arts, dance, sports or trades.
School boundaries are now open, and students can attend any school in the province, provided there is space
Why is it that players can transfer to public schools without concern, but when they transfer to a private school that is well coached, it's a problem. This year alone the following players transferred to public schools in search of better program for themselves.
Paul Samra - Centennial
Conner Waddell - Terry Fox
Gurjot Jhaj - Richmond High
Clayton Dendy - Seaquam
spliting the leauges wouldnt help. it would make a huge impact in AAA, with some of the powerhouses forced to play in another leauge, but in AA, where there is very little recruiting, it would just hurt the league.
What will happen is that teams will refuse to play a recuiting private school for exhibition, this is what happened with Vc in the 90s
bcsportsfanatic by any chance have you read that book about bobby hurley?? ahah i recognize that model that you described
Good point up there with why is it okay to transfer from public to public but not public to private. You make some good points, especially Paul Samra. It's not like Enver Creek and Centennial are just down the road from each other, after all. My understanding of Jhaj, though, is that because he was not yet in grade 10 when he transferred, he would be clear regardless - at least that was the old rule.
So what happens now? Will MEI and WRCA join St. George's and VC to form an all-independent AAA league? I for one would like to see that. It would definitely appease the anti-private school types, as two of those teams at most would get to go to the Agrodome while the other two (and any others they can think of to add) would be on the outside looking in.
Let us not forget that apart from WRCA, many AAA independent schools are not regular provincial championship contenders, while public school powerhouses like Kitsilano, Handsworth, Pitt Meadows, etc., are usually always very strong.
Yes, I did read the Bob Hurley book and used that as a reference for the model that BC could use.
But you go to most states in the US now and they've separated private and public, each has their own State Championship.
Makes sense, plus a lot of the top private schools in the US travel and compete nationally.
ya, but its not like we have 20 independant schools that can compete with st. georges or wrca every year, so the idea of 2 provincial champions means that there would be the good one, where all the public schools match off. And the crappy one where its gonna one of 4 teams winning year after year
What about Jr teams. Grade 9,8,7,6,...
Girls teams.
Other sports.
Music and Drama.
Scholastic competitions.
The FV coaches do not "believe" in the principle of the issue of catchment areas. If they did then they would fight for all the levels to be in thier own league. They just know that they will now have one more birth into the provincial tournament as most years both MEI and WRCA make it.
You can't just separate the teams that are better than you. It looks pretty silly.
I think that would just create more incentive to go play in a private school program
I think it's fine the way it is, private schools only get one birth anyways
just enforce the rule of recruiting better and everyone should be fine
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