School of Choice for Sports….Dangerous

IIf you are a high school coach and are an advocate of the school of choice you may want to switch sites and find another story.

Having recently moved here from the Sunshine State and covered high school sports all over Florida, I have witnessed coaches and administrators so aggressive to win championships they now have difficulty finding games with local schools.

The problem is the teams have been too successful. But is it fair?

It is not uncommon for high school coaches to scout the travel AAU teams, middle school teams and look for student athletes that can be difference makers if they all attended the same high school.
  
Of course the high school team in question would be the one at which he coaches. Hmmmm.

In Miami, Jacksonville, Tampa and Orlando there are both private, Catholic and public schools that have lured the areas best athletes.  Mostly private however.

The results are several state championships and the reputation of being a state power every year.

Before the popularity of school of choice for the student athletes there were hardly any consecutive championships because most schools graduated their seniors and it was hard to replace them immediately.

Along came school of choice.
While the concept is great that you can choose a school because of academics (that was the initial reason), it did not stop there.

Perhaps there are no coaches in Colorado so aggressive they would  want so much talent on their team they would be planning six or seven years ahead----but I doubt it.

Maybe the “private” schools in Colorado are not that sports motivated? Hmmmm.

What high school basketball coach would not want eight or nine 6’8” players and two gifted guards on his team?

The same “idea” applies to football and baseball.

What coach does not want to win conference, regional and state championship by not breaking the rules?  I feel most of them.
  
I know in Colorado, Florida and in most states the student athlete has to sit out a season before they are eligible to compete.

Ok, so now you can “redshirt” the sports gifted eighth and ninth graders in their respective sports. Hmmmm.

Back to the Florida situation where most of the private schools are just 2A and 3A. Now most other 2A and 3A pubic schools will not schedule the private schools.

What coach wants to schedule a game he know his team will lose?  None.

So if the smaller private schools want games they will have to  schedule the 5A and 6A’s schools.

Now, the larger schools don’t want the embarrassment of losing to a smaller private school either.

It is starting to look as if the “redshirt” schools are scrambling for games to show off all their talent.

Maybe their next step is to play Florida, FSU and Miami, because they are running out of teams to play. Hmmmm.

It may never happen here in Colorado, but it might.