This is a copy/paste of a post that I wrote over on the Basketball message board. While it may not be 100% applicable, my basic opinion does apply. The post was in a thread about the whole parochial school debate, but my post really isn't. My opinions are coming from the "other side" of the open enrollment issue. I certainly understand that educational opportunities exist in some other school districts. My opinion stands. I believe that we should all have enough pride in our communities and faith in our school district to have our children educated within them. If we don't, then we should move into a school district in which that pride and faith exists.
The issue that I have with this is pretty simple. Yes, all schools (public or parochial) have students migrate around. Do parochial schools "recruit" players? I suppose they may, but I am not sure how convinced I am that there are in home visits with all of the promising 6th graders throughout the State. I can see more "attracting" than recruiting, but that is really not my point.
My kids are part of a football tradition that is poor to say the least. It doesn't seem to matter what we do, there is no light at the end of the tunnel. We get close to a .500 record on occasion, but really we are a 1 or 2 win per season team and have been for 15 years. Within that, we have some defections. These are public school defections. The defectors opt into another school system, and they make significant contributions on the field for their new teams. To be clear, these are all conference caliber players. Would these players make us 8-1 or 7-2, no. Would these players make us 6-3, absolutely. 6-3 with a token playoff appearance, and pretty soon our numbers increase, we get a little excitement about our program, and who knows?
What about the teams that these kids leave behind? What about Cedar Bluffs? How did they get along without their State Tournament qualifying North Bend Tiger? What about Madison? Madison has managed to bring in a very bright and fresh thinking young head coach. How is Madison getting along without their Humphrey St Francis Flyers on their roster? How is this bright young coach ever going to build his own team and program when 40% of his roster is starting for another team?
I don't believe that the multiplier for parochial schools is really fair, because parochial schools are not the only schools that benefit from kids moving around. I do however believe that there needs to be some way to level the field when these kids choose to defect from one school and participate in sports for another school. In my opinion, it isn't really about punishing the school that brings talent over. It is more about giving the school that loses these kids a concession of some type.
I am fairly active with the American Legion Baseball program in Nebraska. While I do not agree with all of their eligibility rules, there are a few that unquestionably keep the field level in the non-metro areas. If a kid from Madison wants to play Legion Baseball for Battle Creek, Battle Creek gets the player but also picks up the entire enrollment of the Madison school into the classification meeting. If you are going to take one of Madison's best players, that is fine...but you may end up being bumped up a Class in the process. Madison is losing their #1 pitcher. This is a player that the community has invested time and money to develop since he was playing T-Ball. Madison deserves a concession for losing this player.
Now I understand that this type of system gets pretty hairy when applied to football. It could end up bumping 8 man teams up to 11 man. But does it really? How many kids are standing on the sidelines of these perennial powerhouse 8 man football teams. I can tell you that my kids are in a mid-size C-2 school, and we are lucky if we get 25 kids to play. I am by no means an expert, but if my kids have to play 11 man football with 3 kids that would have started both ways playing for another school, why can't an 8-man team that has fleeced the school up the road have to do the same?
Others have talked about the commitment that many of the parochial schools have when it comes to athletics. I absolutely couldn't agree more. These programs get after it, and deserve the success that they have both athletically and in the classroom. My opinions are not directed to parochial schools, but rather all schools.