George Guido: Time is right for PIAA to settle private vs. public issue

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, July 3, 2018 | 11:24 PM

This is the time of year when not much is happening in scholastic sports.

Spring sports all-star teams were named, the last few graduation parties are wrapping up and many teams will be gearing up for the first official date of fall practice in 40 days.

In Georgia, the July 4 week is considered “quiet time” where no scholastic sports teams can convene for any reason, and violators risk sanctions.

But the start of July in the PIAA realm is different this year.

A board meeting scheduled for July 17-18 could have an impact for many years.

The PIAA is scheduled to act on a several measures that might curtail recruiting and transferring schools for athletic purposes.

One states any student who transfers after ninth grade is ineligible for postseason play for one year.

Another creates a web portal, which would allow the PIAA a better chance to track situations.

A third measure would create a point system where successful schools that commonly use transfers might have to move up in classification.

The PIAA already enacted a measure that prevents a student-athlete from transferring and playing at a new school late in the season. Also, students who are eligible for athletics at the receiving school must sit out 21 days from their first day at the new school.

The PIAA has tried in the past to address the chasm between the private or “nonboundary” schools and the public or “boundary” schools. This time, however, it feels different. It feels like something will be done.

Private schools have dominated the PIAA, especially the past several years.

Many of our readers can recite the facts: Nonboundary schools won 22 of the last 32 PIAA basketball title games and nine of the past 16 PIAA football championships.

A case in point was a PIAA Class 4A first-round game March 9 when Sharon defeated Valley, 72-45. I was thoroughly impressed with Sharon and figured it would get to the state title game, which it did.

But Imhotep Charter of Philadelphia demolished Sharon, 71-35, in that game.

Take the case of Sharon's next-door neighbor, Farrell. In the 2015 PIAA Class A title game, Farrell, whose school district has a population base of 5,712, matched up against Philadelphia Constitution, with a population base of 1.5 million. Guess who won, 85-53?

In softball, Holy Redeemer, a merger of three Catholic schools in the Wilkes-Barre area, has won three PIAA titles in the last four years, including a 10-5 victory over Deer Lakes in 2015.

One person who really got the ball rolling was New Castle Superintendent John Sarandrea, a WPIAL Board of Control member who circulated a questionnaire among fellow superintendents on whether to have separate playoffs for boundary and nonboundary schools.

The response was overwhelmingly in favor of separate playoffs in the WPIAL, and superintendents in District 10, north of the WPIAL, and in York County had similar results.

That notion, however, is a nonstarter because of a 1972 state act that mandates public and private schools be treated equally.

Still, support for that notion was so overwhelming it became apparent that something needs done.

Even the state legislature's Pennsylvania Athletic Oversight Committee, which met two weeks ago, appears on board with the proposed changes. Until now, the PAOC didn't appear interested in the boundary/nonboundary issue.

Sean McAleer, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference and Mike Bariski, basketball coach and administrator at Midland's Lincoln Park Charter School, also appear on board with the proposed PIAA changes.

Those two have been fervently protective of their constituencies in the past.

For many years, irate coaches and fans have contacted yours truly and other high school sports reporters to start a drive to do something about the boundary/nonboundary issue.

Our job, however, is mainly to report and comment on what is already happening. Or, as Steely Dan once sang, “I don't want to do your dirty work.”

What Sarandrea and the PIAA Board of Directors are doing is the right way to handle things.

George Guido is a Valley News Dispatch scholastic sports correspondent. His column appears Wednesdays.