TSdude is correct. There are many magnet schools in Shreveport that gather athletes from throughout the area. You say public schools can't recruit? Of course they can and of course they do. If they get caught they will be santioned and if private schools violate LHSAA rules they should also be sanctioned. I once lived in Summerville, SC and Summerville HS had run off multiple championships in the highest classification and dominated HS football in the state. It was widely assumed, and the anecdotes were legion, that they recruited even out-of-state. So this can apply to public schools also. Do you think W. Monroe area just happens to have such rich football talent that the rest of the state lacks? Maybe they do but maybe they don't. Think Southwood HS just happens to have in its district the best female basketball players year in and year out that the state has ever seen? Maybe. I do know that one of the women I work with claims her daughter was recruited to play HS basketball out of district by a public school. I have no vested interest in Evangel or any other private school, I have only been to two Evangel games in the last seven years. I graduated from the public school system but I want what's best for HS football in Louisiana and in Shreveport particularly. They didn't address any problems or find any reasonable solutions. They tossed the problem to 1A and 2A schools that are less equiped to deal with the problem and have less clout to be heard. Then please leave the arena of adult discussion if you can't handle hearing an opposing view.
My brother and I both graduated from John Curtis, we went there when it was a 2A school which is low profile football by your definition (4th grade for me, K for my brother). We were not put into Curtis for sports (although we both played football, baseball, basketball, and track) . . . parents made it our choice if we wanted to play or not. My parents choose John Curtis because they were unhappy with the New Orleans Catholic School system and public school education was not an option. In the 8th grade we were allowed to decide if we wanted to go somewhere else, we both decided to stay at John Curtis. Most of the guys at John Curtis who play football go there as long as we did, and I feel that is where we held a real advantage once we get into high school. It's really no different than playground feeder systems used by the public schools and the Catholic league, but I still feel it was to our advantage. We were playing on the 4th grade team against other schools and playgrounds, when we got to HS it was the same kids playing in the same simple veer/option system, by that time you master it. I didn't see all this recruiting you guys talk about. In fact there is a $10,000 reward for any evidence of recruiting, reported by TP to be paid by John Curtis Sr. Anyway, usually the big knock against Curtis is that the kids are not that talented and can only really play in JT's system. I know private schools have an advantage, considering the district public school boundary lines, but people were not bused in from an unreasonable distance at Curtis, that is no more than someone in New Orleans or Jefferson Parish who attend the Catholic league schools. I can only think of a handful of kids who started at Curtis in the 8th grade and went on to play football in high school, that were transfers. My point is that most of the kids who play any sport at Curtis, are more than likely already enrolled at Curtis in elementary school. However, I do remember some kids who would transfer to Curtis in high school, and then would quit and leave because it they may not start in football until their Sr year. Choosing a high school based on sports is not a wise choice. Education and sports are like anything else, you get out of it what you put into it. I don’t know what the solution should be, maybe a public/private split . . . it just seems no one wants that, and we do not really have enough schools to do it. Parents will continue to send their kids to Curtis, regardless of the classification, because you can get a good education and they still teach discipline and other values not found in other school systems. Personally, I don't mind John Curtis moving down to 2A, and many of the people I went to high school with feel the same way. I was at JC when we were "asked" to move up in the late 80's (when we started playing out of state schools, it was also around the time we were constantly in the national rankings), Curtis did not demand a move up and we didn't actively pursue moving up. My point here is that John Curtis did not move up to further advertise the school or get a foot hold on talented young kids. The big boys wanted to take a crack at Curtis, in the 80’s people believed if John Curtis moved up they would start losing and that would spread the wealth of football power around a bit to other higher classification schools. So they moved us to 3A, and then later to 4A. New Orleans is a big city, kids and parents have plenty of choices for their education. John Curtis was winning titles in the 70's every year just like they do now, classification means nothing. Some of our best football players came out of the 1980's, when the school was 2A. You'd be surprised at the raw talent level at John Curtis, it's not as great as you think. These are just kids, the system has more to do with the team's overall success than the talent level of the players. Moving Curtis down will not start the decline of good coaching and college interest, if anything it might be easier to win a state title (if that is even true, winning a title takes hard work . . . nothing is handed to you, even at a place like Curtis). I do remember the constant reporters snooping at the school in the late 80’s and early 90’s, if John Curtis ran a dirty program you would certain hear about it. Let’s face it, everyone in the LHSAA is waiting for Curtis to make a mistake or slip up. How many schools have reporters combing through the roster and checking backgrounds every single season, not to mention the constant grade evaluations? Maybe John Curtis is a football factory to you, maybe not, I never saw it that way, then or now. We are dedicated and put in a lot of hard work to achieve our goals, just like everyone else. Moving us up or down will not have any effects on the success of the football program, or other sports. The college recruiters know where to go to find well coached players, classification doesn't have much to do with that. If this move does somehow make John Curtis an average high school football program, then fine, we had a great run. I’m sure we will continue to compete and strive to be the best. I was part of a few losing Curtis teams, and every time we walked off the field losers I assumed it was because the other team wanted it more, put in more time, or worked harder. I never considered it was due to some kind of cheating or bending of the rules. My brother and I both got scholarships out of high school, I choose to accept an academic scholarship from LSU and ended up graduating in Architecture, now I work as an Art Director here in Los Angeles. My brother got an athletic scholarship, graduated in education and now works as a teacher out of state. We both have stayed close our high school and keep involved. I consider myself very lucky, I got the chance to attend both John Curtis and LSU, between the two I was very well prepared for life outside of sports and school. Even out here people in Los Angeles know of both schools. Sadly for both, they are better known for sports than anything else. I know this post will open me up to all kinds of negative comments, but if you were using tigerforums and saw your high school being bashed on facts that you know are not true then you would want to respond as well. When I got to LSU I meet a lot of guys who I played against from all over the state, we all ended up friends. All high schools are different, each having different levels of success in different pursuits. Football is important at Curtis, but it is not the main focus of the school. There are strict education standards that have to be reached by the football players, if they are not achieved then you will not play. The football team is so popular because of the success not any classification, JT doesn't cut anyone . . . if you are willing to put in the work, you will have a jersey and chance to play. I can't speak for Evangel, I've never seen the school and really don't know anything about them.
LSUFAN, like Sabanfan says, thanks for the insight. I'll add a little more private school background from the New Orleans area from way back in the late 60's and early 70's. I'm sure much of this is unchanged from back then. I went to Holy Cross for 2 years and than to JFK, where I survived for my last 2 years, literally. All of the Catholic schools and John Curtis recruit, it's just that they don't recruit athletes, they recruit students. They go to many of the grammar schools, elementary schools and junior highs throughtout the New Orleans/Metairie area every year and try to sway kids to pick their school to attend because getting students is a very competitive situation due to the high number of private schools in the New Orleans metro area. I would be willing to bet that there are more private high schools in New Orleans than there are in Atlanta, which is probably 4 times the size. That fact makes it prudent that all private schools recruit students in order to keep their enrollment high and stay in business. They come to the schools and talk about everything they have to offer and athletics is one of the big reasons along with the education, discipline, safety, religion, value's etc. One of the reasons schools like Curtis, Rummel, Holy Cross, Jesuit, Brother Martin, Shaw, etc. have developed great athletic programs over the years is to help attract all students and in the mean time it helps them attract the top athletes as well. So while they are not recruiting illegally, they are in fact recruting in the way that the public schools cannot due to districts, money, facilties, coaching, etc. This is the big advantage they have over public school systems in the state. They are working within the rules of the system that allow for the recruiting and financial aid of all students. And the same thing goes on in Atlanta, just not to the extent that it happens in New Orleans as the Atlanta public school systems are much better and the there is not the proliferation of high schools that there are in New Orleans. One of the few Catholic High Schools here in Atlanta does the exact same things as the New Orleans Catholic High Schools do and they too get accused of recruitng all of the time and have offered the $10,000 payout to any one who can fine any evidence of them recruiting illegally. They can recruit legally, so they don't need to do it illegally. As long as they recruit everyone, it's legal to include great athletes in the mix. And they offer the needy ones financial assistance as well.
Great post! Public education in Louisiana is abysmal. If a private school education is made available to some with athletic talent whose parents couldn't otherwise afford it they would have to be idiots not to take advantage of the opportunity.
The school system (public) is why I left Louisiana after getting my BA and chose to go to Law School in my home state of SC. The only light at the end of the tunnel, as pertains to public schools, is the Magnet program. Some of the people I met in La as a freshman at LSU, that went to various public schools were well below the curve in math skills, vocabulary, etc... I heard from older people that it was because of the "white flight" in Louisiana.
Quick note before my diatribe: New Orleans, Louisiana, is the only major metropolitan area in the United States that has more school-aged children enrolled in private schools than public schools. Any wonder that Orleans Parish Public Schools are the 66th out of 66 amongst pubilc school education systems in the state? Which means they are the worst ranked school system in America: The lowest performing Parish School System in the Worst Performing State School System in the United States of America. Quite an accomplishment. On to my view: If you induce a student to attend your school for the purposes of improving your football program, or if you push your child to attend a school for the purposes of enhancing their future in the sport of football (or any other), then the school that induces or the student that chooses should not be allowed to compete against those that aren't allowed to make those personal decisions and/or don't have a school system near that recruits. If a school recruits, then period, point blank, they should compete only against other schools that do. F-a-i-r is fair. No matter the bloviating that will take places from products of the systems themselves, nor those who want to see what's best for high school football in a certain geographic area of the state, the bottom line is that 14, 15, 16, 17, & 18 year olds deserve to compete on a level playing field. College and professional ranks are one thing. But a 14 year old who starts for North Iberville's defensive line who has to go up against a 18 or in some cases 19 year old from a school like Parkview Baptist, Catholic High, or another private, recruiting school, actually not only slants the playing field, it discourages the 14 year old from competition. It also endangers his safety. Recruiting high school athletes should separate you from a public school. If the rare athlete is attracted to a magnet program for academic purposes, then that's a different story. The decision is being made by an athlete who is putting an academic decision before an athletic one. That should be up for a case-by-case interpretation. If an athlete goes to Evangel High School, founded by the quarterback coach of the high school team and the reverend of the Church, and coached by the Deacons of the Church of the same name, who have n-o-t-h-i-n-g to do with the church that founded the school, who magically have no affiliation with the school other than sports, then that athlete should not be allowed to compete against kids from Byrd or Airline, etc. If you recruit, then you do not compete against teams that don't recruit. I went to Central Private School up until my last year of junior high, from Kindergarten to 7th grade. My sister went up until the 9th grade, from Kindergarten. We played no public school teams. We competed in LISA (Louisiana Independent School Association). After we left, LISA splintered, and Silliman Institute (Our archrival) and CPS went to compete in the MPSA (Mississippi Private School Association). Why can't schools that recruit just bite the bullet and compete against those that walk & talk like they do? Parkview Baptist, Catholic, Redemptorist, the Catholic League, JC, Evangel, West Monroe, and the like should just band together, bite the bullet, raise the travel and logistic funds from tuition, and compete against each other. They can recruit to their hearts content. What is the problem with this? Why would that not work?
Isn't West Monroe a public school? They lost to Evangel last night but by a slim margin and the game was very competitive. Evangel didn't win because they are a private school and West Monroe didn't lose because they are a public school. When I was 14 my junior high school team played the junior high team from Reserve, LA in a road game. We were clearly the better team and we were ahead about 19 or 20 to 0 at the half. In the second half a bunch of older and bigger and faster guys took the field against us in the same uniforms. They kicked our butts up and down the field and we ended up losing something like 47-20. I'm sure they must have snuck some of their players from their high school team onto the field. :cry: :dis:
Thanks for the responses guys. As far solutions, I don't have anything to offer that hasn't already been suggested. A split would be fair, plenty of states around the country have public/private splits and it is working fine. I'm not sure Louisiana has enough schools for a split, however every time it comes up for a vote it fails. One answer might be to go back to the 4 class system for the public schools, based on student population, then create an extra class that only has private schools in it. If any of the private schools want to join any of the publics' 4 classes, they would have to be voted into that particular class. If any of the publics want to play in the 1 private class then they could be voted in as well. That way everyone knows the rules going in. Classification doesn't matter as much as people think, I seriously doubt those 1A and 2A kids are ashamed of their state title victories this weekend. I didn't get to attend the Title games this weekend, I listened to them over the internet. The 4A and 5A games yesterday were pretty good matchups, any of those 4 teams could have won. The best of the day was Evangel and West Monroe, that game came down to the final seconds.
