By: TRACEY JAGNEAUX
Sports Editor
The LHSAA as we know it may never be the same.
On Wednesday, 56.5 percent of the 306 principals (out of 396) from the LHSAA member schools voted to keep the select/non-select split playoff system for the sports of football, basketball, baseball and softball that was approved in January. The LHSAA will now have 12 championships for boys/girls basketball, baseball and softball. The LHSAA split into nine select/non-select football championships in 2013.
This left a number of coaches and administrators, particularly from select schools, around the state very disappointed and talking about what this means for the 96-year old organization.
“I’m disappointed because I think we should all be together,” Dunham High School’s head football coach Neil Weiner said. “But obviously, the majority of our association doesn’t feel that way.”
Parkview Baptist head coach Kenny Guillot lamented on the talk of a new association forming; an association separate from the LHSAA made from current select schools.
“When you go up above Alexandria, I think you have about only seven or eight private schools. You don’t have many,” Guillot said. “You have magnet schools and all that, but when you look at it, I don’t know if we can support that organization. Still I didn’t think anything was really accomplished. It might have just split us more and more.”
Even non-select school administrators, such as Central High principal David Prescott, often cite an oversaturated playoff field that has welcomed teams with poor, and even winless, records.
“I don’t know if an 0-10 team might not be better than a 4-6 team in a different area,” Prescott said. “There’s a lot to go into it, but that’s the major drawback I see. So many teams in the playoffs with records that hadn’t earned the right to be there.”
There are other implications besides the fracturing of the LHSAA itself. Money from sponsorships is also on the line with the decision to keep the playoff split in place. Marketing Director Mitch Small told the committee that current sponsors and potential sponsors now have more questions about the LHSAA’s split championships.
“It didn’t used to be a factor,” Small said during his annual report. “But as we go out and make presentations to potential sponsors and talk to current sponsors, they want to know about it. People are watching what happens.” S
Small also reminded the committee that the All-State Sugar Bowl could opt out of its deal based on the split.
Also, venues for the additional championships will have to be found, leading to the question as to whether there will be enough of these places for all of the games added to each sport’s postseason. With that comes the question of the facilities itself that want to hold these games. Will they be the best facilities available?
Already, one facility knows their limit when it comes to hosting playoff championships. Sulphur Parks and Recreation staff has said it would be “impossible” for its venues to host softball and baseball championships over four straight weekends, a likely outcome if the January plan is put into action.
Can and will the LHSAA hold on to its current status?
One group is already contemplating their options. The Bishops of Louisiana issued a brief statement on Thursday, which announces the formation of a task force to study the future of high school athletics for the state’s parochial schools.
The statement is as follows: “The Bishops of Louisiana have approved the formation of a task force to continue looking into all options when it comes to the future of Catholic High School athletics. The task force will continue to meet in the coming months. By no means does this mean the Catholic schools of Louisiana have closed the door on LHSAA membership, nor has there been a commitment to any one future plan. The task force will be working for what is in the best interest of the student-athletes in Catholic schools throughout the state.”
Any attempt to break away from the LHSAA is not going to occur this season. There is not enough time to logistically get that together. However, this is something that can realistically happen by 2017-2018.
So, what will the LHSAA look like in a year from now? Only time and the art of compromise will tell.