Austin McNorton
Student Sports Media
Could private schools be done dominating state high school sports? This is a very serious question in the state of Kansas at the moment, thanks to Paola High school Athletic Director Jeff Hines and Girard Middle School Principal Randy Heatherly’s research.
Private high schools account for 7.6 percent of high schools in the state of Kansas, but they have won 31.9 percent of state championship events, according to the Kansas City Star. An example of a school that has dominated their classification has been the northeastern school of Bishop Miege.
The Miege Stags are the reigning state 4A Division 1 champions in football, boy’s basketball, girl’s basketball, boy’s soccer, girl’s soccer and boy’s track. The Stags regular season includes games against 5A schools and 6A schools such as Blue Valley and Olathe in the Eastern Kansas League where the Stags are the only 4A team in this conference.
In these games, they usually compete with these teams or even beat these larger schools. An example of this is that last fall in football, Miege beat a 5A school, Mill Valley, 64-21 in a blowout. Mill Valley went on to win the 5A state title in football in that same season. This stat proves that Bishop Miege is capable of beating these teams, and yet they compete against 4A schools in state championship events.
There are two options right now to make a change to this dominance. First would be to take the enrollment of private schools and multiply them by 1.35 to make sure they aren’t just lowering their numbers to win in lower classes. This is a rule they have in the state of Missouri.
The second option is if a private school wins a championship in three of the past four seasons, and they will be forced to move to a higher classifications. This is a rule that is implemented in the state of Oklahoma.
In my opinion, the second option would be the best option. If a team is winning multiple years in a row then it is clear they need to be playing against tougher competition. This would eliminate teams like Bishop Miege dominating the 4A classification when clearly they could be doing the same thing to 5A schools as well.
It will be interesting to see what KSHSAA does to take these options into consideration, but I have a feeling it might take a while.
