skank;873356 wrote:Yep, I DO know.
Public school recruiting is frowned upon, like, 3 year bans from playoff participation frowned upon.
Private school recruiting is accepted a little more, especially depending on who you are, like a $250 fine, and a strongly worded letter.
I wonder if St. Ed will ever dig themselves out of THAT hole?
All schools recruit all kids. It's just that the publics have incredible advantages, like unlimited tax money for outstanding campus amenities, and free tuition for everybody.
A lot of strong Catholic schools don't even have their own stadiums. Moeller, Alter, CJ are some examples in our area. They've all won state championships, and no stadium among the three.
Tonight Alter will play at Fairmont, just like every year, and Fairmont is always the home team. OHSAA says Fairmont had 881 boys in grades 9, 10 and 11 last October, all of whom go to school for free, and Alter had 255. Of course we don't know who will win, but Alter is the prohibitive favorite. That has nothing at all to do with recruiting. Fairmont has at least a dozen players from Catholic junior highs. Alter has 4 from public junior highs.
Alter gets 200 of its 680 students from Fairmont's district, all of whom pay to attend. Some get a break on tuition, based on family financial circumstances. About 15 to 20 get vouchers, and I don't know how many of those play sports. No one gets a break on tuition, fees or anything else to play sports. In fact, Alter has a pay to play policy, where in addition to tuition, families pay for their kids to participate in activities, including sports.
Now you tell me that Alter does anything that's "frowned upon" in order to compete.
A couple of years ago, Alter accepted a kid who went to public school for a year and didn't do well there. His mother took him out of there and sent him to Alter for the change of scenery. He wasn't Catholic. She paid the tuition. After testing, Alter's academic folks recommended that he start over at Alter as a freshman. He didn't play any sports until he was a senior at Alter. His classmates urged him to try football, which he had never played before. As far as the football coaches knew, he was a senior and had been at Alter for four years. He played on the third team.
In the first two games, he got in at the end after the game was a blowout in Alter's favor. Third game was at Ashland, and he had missed practice on Labor Day, violating team rules. He didn't dress. The next week, at a parent conference, his mother was praising the football program for exciting her son and giving him confidence and purpose, while talking with a teacher, who was a coach of a girls sport team. The mother also mentioned that it was so nice in his fifth year in high school to have the opportunity to play.
The teacher heard "fifth year" and went straight to the athletic director, who went to the football coach and the principal. After checking records and the OHSAA rules, a phone call and a letter went directly to the OHSAA, self-reporting the inadvertent violation. OHSAA imposed a penalty of forfeiting the games the player participated in. Had he played in the third game, Alter would not have made the playoffs, despite being undefeated on the field that year.
As a result, Fairmont made it into the playoffs because the forfeit win over Alter gave it enough computer points to get in. Fairmont lost in the first playoff game. Alter won the state championship.
That was a little more than a $250 fine.
I'm tired of your prejudice, your falsehoods and above all, your incessant whining.