AHSAA tries compromise but it might not heal the division between public and private schools

 

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Friday’s pronouncement by the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s Central Board was a compromise designed to keep high school athletics from completely rupturing and to keep inept politicians with misguided and possibly corrupt motives from interfering in areas they have no expertise in.

But the verdict to keep public and private schools together except for the playoffs doesn’t mean all the controversy and maneuvering are over.

For one, the AHSAA could alter course two years from now. For another, the white smoke emanating from AHSAA headquarters upon Executive Director Heath Harmon’s widely anticipated announcement represented a split decision that had no chance of making everybody happy — not the lawyers who were salivating over legal fees if the imbroglio between the state government and the AHSAA intensifies; not the private schools, who are no longer shackled by the 1.35 multiplier and the competitive balance rule and can immediately play transfers who use CHOOSE Act funds for tuition; and not public schools, who think coaches were not given enough input and believe the private schools got too many concessions.

But Mobile Christian coach Charles Lawson pointed out those concessions mean nothing because private schools cannot participate in public school playoffs.

It was hard to find any coaches who were happy with Friday’s developments.

“It’s just been a very difficult day, a sad day, as you sort through the decisions that have been made,” said T.R. Miller coach Ronnie Cottrell, who also won a Blue Map at Mobile Christian. “Having been on both sides of this equation, I see it’s going to be difficult for the private schools and on the public school side, we will miss some good rivals. It’s hard to determine if what happened today is good or bad. It certainly has been a confusing process.”

A source told the Call News private school representatives are considering meeting next week to discuss their options because they don’t want playoffs separate from the public schools, which will cost them gate money, travel expenses and prestige. There is also a fear many public schools will refuse to play private schools in the regular season because the public schools think the private schools now have a stronger hand with which to recruit.

Central Board President and former UMS-Wright coach Terry Curtis counseled for the decision to be delayed and policy to be refined over the next two years but he lost that vote 13-2. Almost immediately, the consequences of ignoring his wisdom were seen in the schisms that rapidly appeared moments after the announcement.

“I just thought we were kind of jumping the gun on a bunch of stuff and getting too far ahead of ourselves but the rest of the board didn’t,” Curtis said afterward. “I thought it’d be good to kind of stay like it was for two years but I guess they were tired of hearing it. They’re getting a lot of pressure for this and that and to separate. … They just felt like it was time to (separate) in championship play. How long that lasts, who knows? It could change again in two years or private schools could go off on their own.”

Friday’s proceedings were largely stirred by conservative hypocrites in state government who always rail against government overreach preferred by liberals but basically now want to control the AHSAA, which is a private organization. In another example of government blather gone awry, Friday’s reclassification would have been routine and not resulted in separate playoffs if not for political interference.

“We’ve always had a legislature that respected the AHSAA and its job and they remembered how important it was for them and their own education in sports,” said outgoing AHSAA Communications Director Ron Ingram, who is also a preeminent historian of Alabama high school athletics. “We’ve got a legislature now that has a short memory. They’re looking for votes. Everything is about votes. The big misconception is that the AHSAA is in the business of making kids ineligible but it’s just the opposite. We’re in the business of making kids eligible. Out of 175,000 to 190,000 kids that participate, less than 0.0001 percent are declared ineligible and when they are declared ineligible, it’s rarely the student’s fault. It’s always the fault of an adult, whether it be a coach, a principal or a parent lying.”

The AHSAA gave Gov. Kay Ivey what she wanted in her lawsuit calling for students who transfer to private schools to be immediately eligible if they use CHOOSE Act funds. But Harmon, who was put into an almost untenable position, denied the AHSAA succumbed to political pressure.

“Obviously, we want to work with a political entity,” he said. “At the end of the day, that is not our job to react to political pressure.”

Curtis said the CHOOSE Act was never mentioned during a seven-hour work session on Thursday.

It will be another poor decision if Ivey and the Legislature push a bill that seeks to control the Central Board and the way it adjudicates eligibility cases. It’s also possible Tommy Tuberville will intervene when he becomes governor in 2027.

If the AHSAA pushes back, there is a strong precedent for the Alabama Supreme Court to favor the association, which was founded in 1921 and reconstituted in 1968 by a federal court order to reflect integration and which has historically protected the AHSAA’s independence from political control.

As it is, public schools and private schools each believe the other has been given advantages.

“The CHOOSE Act should remain focused on giving educational opportunity, not serving as a transfer mechanism when somebody’s not happy because I think that’s what it boils down to,” Citronelle coach Jason Rowell said. “Now that you’ve opened up that can of worms, if a kid’s not happy, he ain’t got to move (from his school zone), he ain’t got to do nothing. I think you’re going to see a lot of movement across all of the landscape of high school athletics.”

Also, private schools can be selective with athletes and control their numbers; public schools can’t.

“Public schools have to count kids that are never going to play sports,” Ingram said. “If they’ve got 26 special-needs students or if they’ve got 15 kids in wheelchairs, they have to educate them. Private schools may do that, they may not.”

But the state’s better players might feel they’ll get better exposure to Power 4 college programs by staying with public schools instead of private schools that now feel relegated to second-class status.

“We’ve been essentially punished by the AHSAA for the last four years for a team that won a state championship in 2020,” St. Paul’s coach Ham Barnett said. “We were supposed to move back down to 5A and now our kids don’t get that opportunity. Now we get to play in a private school league and travel a lot more. I think it takes the fun out of the competition, especially for the kids. Mr. Harmon said this is not a separation but to me — and I think most coaches in this association believe — it is a separation.”

Barnett said keeping public and private schools together for the regular season and playoffs remains proper.

“I think we’re always going to wonder was that really the best team in 3A or 4A or 5A or 6A,” he said. “In the private school part of it, we’ll wonder if we could beat certain public schools.”

Rowell said he wants to see the competitive balance rule applied to all schools — public, private and city — and the multiplier used judiciously.

“If a private school chooses not to have a dedicated school zone, I think you should have to take the multiplier,” he said. “And if you adopt a defined school zone, then you don’t have to. I think that would have been the cleanest solution to avoid … and I don’t want to use the word ‘split’ because I know Mr. Harmon don’t want to use that word.”

Whatever it is called, Friday’s decision seemingly did little to bind the wounds that have grown larger with the passing years. The divide between public and private schools appears larger than ever.