Walking past a public high school gym on a Friday night in late autumn gives you a certain feeling. The bleachers smell slightly of floor polish and old wood, the parking lot is half full, and a parent is arguing about a missed call somewhere close to the concession stand. It seems to have been around for ages. However, the trophies inside those gyms are becoming more and more dusty, while buses leaving campuses with well-kept lawns and annual tuition costs exceeding $20,000 are transporting the brand-new ones home.
In American high school athletics, something has changed and has been changing for some time. The Alabama High School Athletic Association ended a 104-year tradition of allowing public and private schools to compete for the same championships in January, which was the most recent shock. There were two votes against and thirteen in favor. In one afternoon, a century of tradition was folded. It was referred to as a competitive balance issue by the board. The majority of coaches I’ve talked to over the years would describe it more bluntly.
When you look at the numbers, they are difficult to dispute. Since 2008, no public school in California has won the Division 1 football championship. Even though there are about three times as many public schools as private ones in the nation, only five of the top twenty-five athletic high schools are public, according to Niche’s national rankings. Seven of the last ten Class A boys’ soccer titles in Minnesota have been won by private schools. Three of the eight state football championship games in Illinois last December pitted a public team against a private team. The private won each.
When he left his position as Palo Alto High’s girls’ basketball coach last season, Scott Peters, who had been in the position for eighteen years, made it clear. He claimed that players from all over a region can be recruited by private schools. Assistant coaches are compensated. People are paid simply to open and operate the gym. He even created his own AAU program at Paly—not because he wanted to, but because the top eighth graders were being subtly siphoned off by feeder pipelines into private schools before they had a chance to choose a high school. Yes, creative. less sustainable.
In plain language, no one enjoys talking about the recruiting question. Officially, it doesn’t take place. It is prohibited by California’s CIF Bylaw 510. In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that private school coaches are not allowed to approach players and offer them a spot on the team. formally. In reality, there are tours of the campus, AAU connections, family friends who also happen to be coaches, and tuition assistance that appears at convenient times. In American youth sports, it is the worst-kept secret, and when sanctions are meted out, they usually consist of slaps.
The split itself isn’t what makes the Alabama decision intriguing. It is the response from private schools, who end up being dissatisfied as well. Alabama Christian Academy headmaster Josh Roberts told the Montgomery Advertiser that the new system actually reduces rather than increases coaches’ scheduling flexibility. Tuscaloosa Academy principal Beckie Share stated that she is still unsure of the true goal. Thus, no one is having a celebration. which is typically an indication that redrawing brackets was never going to solve the underlying issue.
Observing all of this gives me the impression that the public school championship is evolving from a true state title to something more akin to a regional honor. Not in every state, nor in every sport. However, it’s difficult to miss the trend line. Ohio has made numerous attempts to address this. In 2017, Illinois implemented a rule requiring private schools to advance a class if they won two trophies in four years. Since at least 2016, New York has debated holding different competitions. It hasn’t worked at all.
Two championships held side by side with no pretense of fairness—there was never really any—might be the solution. Additionally, public schools might regain their footing, as they occasionally do when a town produces a once-in-a-generation team. However, it is more difficult to undo the larger narrative, the one that has been developing for a long time without anyone noticing. In this nation, ambition, money, and mobility tend to go in one direction. Sports in high school are no longer the exception. They may be among the last locations where we are prepared to acknowledge it.
