Is PA changing our setup so that every kid gets a trophy?

[exr001]

Was expanding to 6 classes necessary or would re-defining the current 4 class structures have worked? The new distribution goes as follows:

• 1A 1-147
• 2A 148-209
• 3A 210-300
• 4A 301-409
• 5A 410-607
• 6A 608+

So this is telling me that we needed a separate class between 1A and 2A for roughly 50 extra students. A jump from 2A -3A and 3A-4A for for roughly 100 students each. Seems to me that keeping out current setup and having a split around 200 kids each would have been just as effective. That would have given you:

• 1A 1-209
• 2A 210-409
• 3A 410-607
• 4A 608+

Call me old school but I think our kids should learn the reality that you have to compete to get to the top. I'm not a fan of the every participant gets the same rewards structure that our kids are pampered with today.

 

[Fletchster1]

Does your system provide 4 classes of equal amounts of schools?

 

[House1978]

Not a fan at all of the new systems. I think the best teams won't meet up in the playoffs now.

 

[D1football22]

So 1 trophy for every 96 schools is everybody getting a trophy? Top 1.1% get a trophy. 6 total trophies for 586 schools... Or 2 more trophies for the 582 schools that did not win the the 4 trophies in 4 classifications in the current setup? Just my opinion, but I don't see that as giving everyone a trophy. I agree that the current climate in youth sports is out of control with participation stuff, but I don't think this qualifies as that. Some more teams will make Playoffs. If they are not competitive, they will lose in first round. They get 1 more game....

 

[newman107]

Good point, D1. I don't like the new set up, but, so what, a bunch of 16 and 17 year old high school kids get to play another game. I think we all would have wanted that in our day.

 

[coach1378]

I really don't think this address the problem for the state playoffs. If you are going to add classes, I think you should separate the charter and private schools. In my eyes this is the only way to balance things.

 

[exr001]

Does your system provide 4 classes of equal amounts of schools?

No it would be about 220 in Class A and 2A and 110 or so in classes 3A and 4A. What it does do is separate the classifications by logical enrollment groupings. Groups separated by multiples of 200 seems fairer to me than saying ok your class is separated by 50 and yours 100 but yours is 200.

 

[pclfan1]

I see it as a response to the demographic changes going on. No way some of the smaller schools at 4A currently will ever be able to get the school spirit that some of bigger schools have. And reality is that you have to have at least a little success in male sports to get that success.. Will build communities, will build spirit, and guess what....I think it will cut transfers, and you will see 6th graders now who can play football say maybe I want to go to school in town. Why do I need to go elsewhere. I think you will find it very much affect the privates, and who knows...may affect some charters.

 

[SPEED&JUMP DR.]

I never truly understood the enrollement issue from a practical point of view. Schools with 200 kids often feel they have no chance of competing with schools that have 400 kids-so lets put them into 2 different classes. But schools with 700 kids are routinely asked to compete with schools with 1500+ kids and no one sees the correlation.

 

[d1football1]

Still doesn't fix the enrollment imbalance issue in 6A. Make the private and charters play up 2 classes-that would bump 10 lowest 6 A schools to 5A.

 

[AP1999]

Private and Charter should go to 6A. Inherent advantage to recruit/allow kids to come to their schools due to no boundary restrictions.

Even better would be 5 divisions for the Publics and "Private/Charter" division on its own.

 

[exr001]

Private and Charter should go to 6A. Inherent advantage to recruit/allow kids to come to their schools due to no boundary restrictions.

Even better would be 5 divisions for the Publics and "Private/Charter" division on its own.

How do you address the other open enrollment public schools?

 

[reluctant_to_comment]

Open enrollment and recruiting schools go 6A and then leave it alone from there.

 

[exr001]

Open enrollment and recruiting schools go 6A and then leave it alone from there.

So every school from Philadelphia should be in 6A? Really sounds fair for those kids from Kipp Dubois to be grouped with a St Joes Prep or La Salle.

 

[lilromeo]

Open enrollment and recruiting schools go 6A and then leave it alone from there.

That makes no sense at all. We need to just leave it in the hands of the PIAA to decide. Our opinions don't count anyway. Lets focus on the week to week great games we have . The playoffs are getting close !!

 

[reluctant_to_comment]

So every school from Philadelphia should be in 6A? Really sounds fair for those kids from Kipp Dubois to be grouped with a St Joes Prep or La Salle.

It's about as fair as it is to the suburban public schools that get to draw from one township.

 

[ChesmontLeague1]

Why is it ok for the suburban public schools such as Downingtown West take Braden Harper Lb/RB (he played at Shanahan) and Upper Dublin take several LaSalle football players. Isn't moving schools to play football a violation ...someone say a form of recruiting ever addressed during these recruiting debates?

 

[lilromeo]

Why is it ok for the suburban public schools such as Downingtown West take Braden Harper Lb/RB (he played at Shanahan) and Upper Dublin take several LaSalle football players. Isn't moving schools to play football a violation ...someone say a form of recruiting ever addressed during these recruiting debates?

You probably have numerous others that occur also e.g. Garlick from Wood to Quakertown after Russo won the starting job and Urdinski from CB West to North Penn. It just seems to get magnified when it occurs if it involves a championship caliber team as in Wood,LaSalle Imhotep and st. Joe Prep. If North Penn wins a title this year Im sure there will be some people that scream unfair. I think its all bull. Just strap em up and play with whoever is on your team that year.

 

[SPEED&JUMP DR.]

Any transfer for athletic reasons is a violation of PIAA rules-that's in essence the rule-plain and simple. The problem is enforcement and/or interpretation. I think you would be hard pressed both philosophically and legally to prevent a kid from transferring from a private/catholic school back to the public school where he lives, especially if there is no change of address. Family can just say they didn't want to pay the tuition anymore.

The way the PIAA has the enforcement set up, only the original school can object to the transfer. They do this by refusing to transfer over academic records and signing off on the transfer. Only after that objection occurs does the PIAA get involved, and even then its only at the District level. There is a hearing then to determine if the transfer was for athletic reasons. If yes, the kid cannot play. Now, for whatever reason, in SEPA(District 1+12), most schools do not object either because they see no value in it or they do not want to be bothered with the hearing , etc. I know Upper Darby seems to object to kids transferring to Bonner, but other than that we do not see a huge groundswell of schools objecting to kids transferring out of their system.

Now, in WPIALL, objections seem to be more common. Schools out there routinely fight transfers for athl;etic purposes, but I don't know why. Maybe some of the West School posters can shed some light on the "why"?

 

[ChesmontLeague1]

Good response Speed and Romeo. It just seems when the PIAA does address the open enrollment they need to address the transfer piece too. Many tee off on charter and catholic schools but seem to disregard the other problem. Think about the transfer piece as its been going on for years and some say helped CB West win those championships.