This fall, there have been many questions and much
misinformation concerning our athletic program’s move from Class 2A to Class 3A
of the Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA). Let me start by saying
that our athletic classification is not something we, as a school or
administration, can predict or control. Here is what it says in the AHSAA Handbook:
High schools are divided into
seven classifications (1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, 6A and 7A) for competition in
championship programs.
Classification is based on Average
Daily Membership (ADM) figures furnished by the State Department of Education
for the upper three grades plus ninth grade students that are retained in the
ninth grade.
An index of 1.35 is used to
determine the enrollment figure for classifying each private school member.
Each private school student counts 1.35 for classification purposes.
Alignments are made for each sport
in a class, based on the number of schools participating in a sport. Some
programs may include two or more classes in a division.
Let me explain this
in layman’s terms. There are seven classifications, the assignment of which is based
solely on our student population in grades 10-12. Every two years, at the
beginning of the year, we submit our numbers to the AHSAA. Since we are a
private school, the AHSAA believes that we have a competitive advantage over
public schools in that we can select which student we admit. Therefore, the
AHSAA multiplies private schools’ enrollment by 1.35. Accordingly, the AHSAA
took our count of 169 students in grades 10-12 and multiplied that number by
1.35, giving us a total student count of 228.15. For your information, that makes us the
smallest school in Class 3A, even with
the multiplier. As it turns out, we were .5 students above the enrollment
cutoff necessary for us to be placed in Class 2A. Without the multiplier, we
are 60 students smaller than the next smallest public school in our division.
When we play Opp this weekend, their 10th-12th grade enrollment
is 106 students greater than ours. If you counted 9th graders, I
would suspect that their overall enrollment is approximately 120 students
larger than ours.
Let me re-emphasize that Houston Academy has absolutely no say in our athletic
classification. All we do is submit our enrollment and let an AHSAA committee
decide where we fall. Moreover, it is totally impossible to predict where our
enrollment will be relative to other schools’ enrollments, year-to-year. In
other words, we have no way of knowing (nor do any other school have any way of
knowing) what the “cut off” number will be for each division, nor do we know
what the student enrollment at other schools will be. Moreover, even if we could predict the enrollment of other
schools relative to ours, “kicking kids out” of HA, or denying enrollment to
qualified students in order to stay in a certain athletic division would be
unethical and contrary to our mission of providing educational opportunities
for students in the Wiregrass. I’m sure that few of our parents would want
their children in a school that would sacrifice its academic integrity for
athletic success.
There is another point worth noting, as well. Two years ago,
the AHSAA decided to go from 6 classifications to 7. The idea was to allow for
more teams to win championships and have more opportunity for success. However,
if Alabama still had 6 high school classifications, HA would fall squarely in
the upper-middle of Class 2A (in terms of enrollment). So, in effect, while
adding the extra division was beneficial for most schools, given our current
enrollment, it has hurt us – especially in football.
In most of our sports, however, the impact of the move to 3A
will be negligible or nonexistent. In soccer and tennis, for example, we were
already in a combined classification of Classes 1A-3A. In bowling, we compete
across all divisions, and in swimming, we will compete against schools in
divisions 1A-5A. In other sports, like baseball, basketball, volleyball,
softball, and cross country, we feel like we can continue to be competitive,
and even compete for state championships. The real issue is football.
This is only my 4th year at Houston Academy, but
I coached for many years at quality, independent schools in both Tennessee and
Georgia. Pretty much everywhere I’ve
been, I have been a part of football programs where we have been undermanned in
terms of size and speed. That is not to say that we don’t have football players
at HA with size or speed, but it’s a matter of depth and number. When we played
Daleville, for example, there were two spots on the line where their offensive
lineman outweighed our defensive linemen by over 100 pounds. Moreover,
Daleville platooned players at multiple positions, whereas we had a number of
players playing both offense and defense.
It’s not so much that our players can’t hold their own on any given
play, but over the course of a game, the punishment inflicted by larger players
on our boys and the wear and tear of having to stay on the field for both
offense and defense causes fatigue. When athletes are fatigued, they are more
prone to injury. Furthermore, with our lack of depth, when our older and more
experienced players get injured or experience cramping, younger players must
step in. Many of our younger players have not developed physically, and in a
very literal sense, we have our boys playing against their men. Because of injuries, on
Friday we will start as many as five sophomores and one freshman against one of
the top ranked football teams in the state.
So with football, we are in a situation that I believe is
patently unfair to our children. Many people working in public schools across
the state believe that we recruit. We do NOT recruit athletes. However, we do
recruit students. We recruit
students based largely on academic prowess, but also based on character,
assiduousness, and a myriad of other talents that our applicants possess. Yes,
some of our students are outstanding athletes, but most of them look at
athletics as but one facet of their lives. Very few of our students will ever
go on to compete at the college level or higher.
What we definitely don’t
do is give our athletes preferential treatment. In fact, the argument that HA
has an unfair advantage in athletics is patently false because most high school
students are not willing to do what it takes to be successful at HA. Frankly,
most kids don’t want to work as hard as our students do, and they would never
think of enrolling at HA. As you know, our workload is heavy, and the college
preparatory curriculum is difficult. Ethically and practically, we can only admit
students we believe can be academically successful at HA. Frankly, that puts us
at a competitive disadvantage
athletically.
Of course, from the public school perspective, private
schools are winning a disproportionate number of state championships. What was
interesting, though, was two years ago the AHSAA provided us statistics on the
number state championships won by schools that have a high percentage of their
students on “free and reduced lunch.”[1]
Basically, the AHSAA showed us that, in Alabama, very few ”poor” schools win
state championships in ANY sport. In fact, if I am remembering correctly, there
was only one school with a high
percentage of their students on free and reduced lunch that won a state
championship in the last few years. Consequently, to me, this issue is not a
private school versus public school issue; it’s a more affluent school versus
poor school issue.
The fact that schools with wealthier student populations
would win more state championships should surprise no one. They can afford to
pay their coaches better, they have booster clubs, they have better equipment,
weight rooms, and training facilities. Additionally, middle class and upper
middle class parents can afford to enroll their children in recreational
sports, provide private lessons and pay for “travel ball,” and afford their
children access to sports like tennis and golf. In fact, most of the rural and
poor high schools in Alabama don’t even field a tennis or golf team.
Regardless, I am more than aware that we are in a situation,
not just where we are at a competitive disadvantage in football, but one in
which the best interests and health of our student athletes is not being
protected. We do not have an option to forfeit games, though, because to do so
would result in sanctions against our entire athletic program. I do believe, however, that the future could
be much brighter, as we have a good bit of young talent in our football program.
It is entirely possible we will be able to be much more competitive in the
future. I also believe that with Coach Howard, we have one of the best strength
and conditioning programs in the state. However, if we find that our student
athletes continue to be put at risk, we may have to pursue membership in a
league outside of the AHSAA.
Meanwhile, I will say that I’ve never been more proud of our boys. Last week, against a
Daleville team that was physically superior, our team never quit. It would have
been very easy for our kids to hang their heads and just try to escape the game
without injury. They did not do that. Instead, they fought hard, played with
passion, and actually narrowed the score differential in the second half.
Importantly, too, no one was injured. Anyone who has coached football knows
that the easiest way to get injured is to play with passivity or caution. Our
boys are not passive. They are leaving it all on the field.
In any case, I would be happy to talk with anyone who has
any questions or wants to provide input or advice. Please know, however, that
we are doing everything we can do to protect our children and to put
competitive athletic teams on the field and on the court.
Go Raiders!
[1] In
educational research, the percentage of students who receive free and reduced
lunch is used as a proxy for the percentage of students living in poverty.
