BATON ROUGE, La (KMSS/KTAL) – After nine years, the LHSAA has approved changes to the championship split. Just not in the way you might think.
The executive committee approved changes to the definition of what would make a school “select.” The action passed 16-5, with the definition being adjusted to include “lab schools, magnet schools, schools with magnet components, charter schools, parishes that allow open enrollment at all its public schools and tuition-based schools.”
For Caddo Parish schools, the move could mark a major shift. Almost all of the schools in the parish have at least a magnet component, if not open enrollment. The ruling from the LHSAA has left at least one area high school football coach scratching his head.
“We’ve been operating under this understanding of what select and non-select schools were for the last nine years,” said North Caddo Titans Head Coach Johnny Kavanaugh. “I’m not sure now why, during the summer, we decided to change it with the executive committee.”
The answer could be a lack of competitive playoffs across almost all sports, forcing the committee to discuss bylaw 4.4.4, which allows the committee to “make special rules to effect the spirit of fair play and good sportsmanship.” The new guidelines will go into place on July 1, with a deadline of June 22 for schools to change their magnet designation and get rid of open enrollment or stay put and compete on the select side.
“Do those schools that are affected, do they want to continue accepting students from outside of their parish through their magnet components or do they want to stop?” said Athletic Director of Caddo Public Schools Anthony Tisdale. “Those principals will meet with their communities and see what’s best for each school.”
While removing magnet designations and getting rid of open enrollment will ultimately be left up to each individual school in the parish, it remains to be seen, outside of athletic competition, what benefit doing so could bring the schools.
“How do you go and say we’re going to change the structure of our school for athletic purposes? I don’t know how that flies. I just don’t know how you do that,” said Coach Kavanaugh.
“I think that the principals will make the decisions that are best for the school overall. I don’t think the athletic decision will override what’s best for the academics,” said Anthony Tisdale.
And for Caddo Parish schools, would the decision even make sense if almost all of the competition in parish would also be making the move to select?
“Our schools like to compete against the best of the best,” said Anthony Tisdale. “And with this ruling, they’re competing against each other anyway.”
The executive committee’s decision to take this out of the hands of the administrators and principals who make up the LHSAA also leads to an important question: could this set up for a similar situation down the line where executive action puts an end to the split all together?
“If they can change the way our organization operates in the middle of the summer without the principals voting, they could take it into their own hands again and mold it into what they want to,” said Coach Kavanaugh. “And that’s not a great feeling, that our organization can be changed by a small group and in my mind seems to overrule what the majority put in place and how we’ve operated for the last nine years.”
The executive committee also passed a resolution to bring together non-select and select back to the same location for championships.
