PSR Showdown
Do Private Schools Have An Advantage Over Public Schools?

Nonsense
By Kevin Gorman
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

The story is the same every year: When public schools win a championship, it's because kids from the same neighborhood built a bond together. When private schools do it, it's because they can recruit.

And that's nonsense.

Aside from girls' basketball, suburban public schools have dominated the WPIAL championships in football, basketball, baseball and softball.

Yet, if you listen to their coaches, they're at a distinct disadvantage in competing against private schools.

Actually, it's quite the opposite.

Suburban public schools have the advantage of bigger budgets, lucrative pay scales, first-class facilities and strong community support.

Yes, private schools can draw from outside district boundaries. And they can often provide tuition breaks to talented student-athletes. The majority, however, pay full tuition costs as high as $6,000.

That doesn't come with a championship guarantee.

Consider: While Central Catholic has won back-to-back WPIAL Class AAAA titles and Seton-La Salle claimed Class AA crowns in 2002 and '04, the only other private schools to win WPIAL football titles the past 20 years are Shady Side Academy ('98) and Bishop Canevin ('90).

Central never won a WPIAL championship - even with Dan Marino and Marc Bulger at quarterback - before 2003. And the Vikings don't have the luxury of a home field.

To credit a private school's success to recruiting alone shortchanges the accomplishments of the coaches and players involved and comes across as sour grapes.

Not every private school enjoys success. Central's dominance coincides with North Catholic's demise. Seton-La Salle is winning; Serra Catholic is struggling.

It's not much different in boys' basketball, where you can count the number of private schools to win WPIAL championships since 1984 on one hand. I've covered high school sports in a state (Tennessee) that split its private and public schools into separate divisions over this debate. It doesn't work. Their respective champions didn't have to beat the best to be the best.

Private or public, that's what it's all about.

Kevin Gorman covers high school sports for the Pittsburgh Tribune Review.

Of Course
By John E. Sacco
Pittsburgh Sports Report

Often in college sports we hear of teams that do not rebuild, but rather reload. That's usually case with Miami and USC football, Duke and North Carolina basketball, UConn women's basketball, and Texas and Cal-State Fullerton baseball.

Now, the "reload" phenomenon has reached scholastic levels right here in Pennsylvania.

It has happened because private schools are unabated in their ability to bring "student-athletes" into their fold without adhering to the same rules and restraints that public schools must follow.

Do private schools have an advantage over public schools? I won't dignify the question with the obvious answer.

So much has been made of Major League Baseball's unlevel playing field, yet we ask our young scholastic athletes to compete on uneven, unfair playing arenas as well.

In Pennsylvania and other states, the playing fields, tracks and diamonds are unjustly slanted to certain schools - private schools.

These schools have no boundaries to concern themselves with in terms of students. They can take players from anywhere. Laughably, some are even taking from each other.

Nowhere is the private school factor felt more than in boys and girls basketball.

It needs to stop.

The time has come for the PIAA to take a stand.

The answers aren't easy. Some call for the private schools to play in their own post-season tournaments. Some advocate placing a multiplier on private school enrollment and forcing schools to play in a higher classification. Some favor placing all private schools in the highest classifications.

It's simple; private schools should play amongst themselves. Their rules aren't like public schools' rules. That cannot be debated.

The current system stinks. It needs changed.

Unfortunately, until it becomes a political issue, nothing will get done because the PIAA will do nothing to correct the problem.

John Sacco is an associate editor of the Pittsburgh Sports Report.