Todd James Dufren Sr.
June 27, 2013I really hope boxing returns to its former popular state
July 2, 2013
It took many months of deliberation, but the format of the Louisiana prep football state playoffs is finally set in stone.
The Louisiana High School Athletic Association announced in mid-June its plan for the sport – just weeks before the start of preseason practices.
The LHSAA’s final plan will not impact the regular season in any way, as every school will remain in its previously created districts and will play its previously created schedules.
The change will come in the postseason, as the LHSAA will split public (non-select) and private (select) schools from one another in playoff competition.
Class 1A-through-5A public schools will each have its own league and state champion – just like it’s always been.
The difference will be within the four select brackets that will now also crown state champions.
Class 5A, 2A and 1A select schools will have their own brackets. Because of the lack of select schools in 3A and 4A, those schools will merge and will compete in its own bracket – a move that brings the number of state champions in Louisiana football from five to nine.
The move is controversial and is not overwhelmingly popular among Tri-parish coaches.
The general opinion here seems to be that rule enforcement is the problem that is being avoided by the Louisiana prep sports governing body.
“I would rather stay everybody and keep everything the same,” Vandebilt coach Brad Villavaso said. “I think the LHSAA is doing themselves a disservice by splitting us up. I think it is what it is, but I think if they are having problems with certain schools, they should have just taken steps to prevent those problems from happening in the future, instead of changing the whole system.”
“You’ve got to look at people’s integrity sometimes,” Berwick coach Craig Brodie said. “It’s kind of like cheating in golf – it’s hard to detect. It’s up to the individuals to police themselves. It just makes you wonder, ‘What are you teaching the kids as a coach, if you’re not following the rules yourself?’ … It’s not the easiest thing to detect. I think the LHSAA needs to really focus more on that because if they can get the things that people claim to dislike out of the game, then a lot of the problems that people have are solved.”
HISTORY
The debate between public versus private schools in athletic competition has been ongoing for decades in Louisiana.
Some may go so far as to say it all started in the late 1960s when John Curtis Christian Academy hired J.T. Curtis to man its program.
J.T. Curtis has been in control of the Patriots’ program since 1969.
In that season, the Patriots went 0-10.
In the 43 seasons since that inaugural winless season, the Patriots have won 25 state championships and have lost just 44 total games.
The Patriots’ dominance of Louisiana prep football has not come without controversy, as they’ve faced thousands of critics from across the state over the years who have alleged that they have used their status as a private school to bend the rules in their favor.
The most common accusation zinged toward the program is that they “recruit” players outside of the immediate River Ridge area into their program.
The Patriots have not been found guilty of any wrongdoing throughout their reign of dominance, and maintain that any players who enter their program are doing so because they sought out John Curtis – not vice versa.
Brodie said he agrees with that assessment, adding he doesn’t believe the Patriots do anything wrong, but are just victims of their own success.
“I don’t think John Curtis does anything outside of the rules – I really don’t,” Brodie said. “I think they’ve established themselves as such a great program to where now kids know about them and want to go there. It’s not necessary for them to do anything extra to get players. There’s no reason for them to violate the rules.
“They’ve been having people watching them, and nothing has been found yet, so obviously, they must be doing something right.”
Since the Patriots’ explosion in the 1970s, other select programs have used John Curtis’ blueprint. In Shreveport, Evangel Christian Academy has exploded as a football powerhouse in the past 20 years.
Parkview Baptist has also become an annual threat.
This distribution of power in Louisiana prep football has caused many to speculate in recent years about a split up of public and private schools into separate leagues.
Those talks exploded to their boiling point in the 2012 football season when Rummel, Karr, Parkview Baptist, John Curtis and Ouachita Christian all won the state championship – all select schools.
Having a state championship weekend without a public school champion was the beginning of the end – the final card that needed to fall to create a change in the system.
“It was bad in years where there were two private school champions,” Villavaso said. “Then it got worse when we had a couple of years where it was three. But when we had this last year where it was all five, then I knew that was it. I said to a couple of coaches on my staff that next year was going to be different – way different.”
Villavaso was right. Louisiana’s principals voted this spring at the LHSAA meetings to split public and private schools apart in postseason play.
At the time of the vote, coaches were outraged, because no specifics were released – the vote was purely whether or not to make a change.
“I’m not happy with it – I’m actually quite upset,” Central Catholic coach David Fuhrer said at the time the vote was announced. “We don’t want this, and we don’t think anything good will come from it. I don’t know how it will affect us, because it’s being done without a plan behind it.”
But after months of discussion and planning, the plan was released in mid-June – turning the page and creating a new chapter in Louisiana prep football history.
How the system will look
The newly released LHSAA plan will change the way Louisiana’s prep football season unfolds – drastically.
For public schools, nothing will be significantly different, as each classification will still have its own, five-round playoff bracket to crown a champion.
Little will significantly change except the percentage of non-select schools to reach postseason play will now be slightly higher.
In Class 5A, 52 public schools will compete for 32 postseason spots.
In 4A, there are 49 non-select schools, while Class 3A has 52.
Class 2A and 1A are the thinnest non-select fields with 39 and 27 teams, respectively. In Class 1A, first-round byes will be given to the top seeds determined by the regular season.
“Really very little changes for us here as a 3A public school,” Brodie said. “We still have 52 schools in our classification, so we know going into the season that we have to win a bunch of games and play solid football if we want to have a chance. The system is really different, but I think for us as a non-select school, we still will have a lot of the things we normally had.”
The dramatic changes come when one takes a look into the system in place for the select schools.
For Class 5A select schools (now called Division I), only 10 teams are eligible for competition.
That means that every team will make the postseason – whether 0-10 or 10-0. It also means that one of those same 10 schools will win the state championship every season – something that will eliminate parity in the sport.
For select schools now in Class 4A and Class 3A (now called Division II), it’s not much better. In that classification, 16 eligible schools will compete for the title – a murderer’s row group that contains locals Vandebilt and E.D. White, but also John Curtis, Evangel, Notre Dame, Parkview Baptist, St. Charles Catholic, St. Thomas More, University Lab and Teurlings Catholic.
“That’s a hell of a ride now to win the state championship,” Villavaso said. “We know we will have to plow through some of the best teams in the whole South now to get there.”
Class 2A select schools (now Division III) and Class 1A select schools (now Division IV) will also all reach the playoffs with 15 and 30 eligible teams, respectively.
This format change means congratulations are in order for local select schools Vandebilt Catholic, E.D. White, Houma Christian and Covenant Christian.
All four programs have clinched a spot in the 2013 postseason – more than three months before the playoffs begin and a month and a half before the season kicks off.
“It’s definitely not even,” Brodie said. “I saw that in Division I, just 10 teams will be competing for the state championship. It’s not equal in all of the divisions – that’s for sure.”
Villavaso agreed and said the way the select schools approach the regular season may change.
Coaches may be more likely to rest injured players during the season or to schedule a more difficult schedule.
Why not? No matter what happens in the 10-game season, the playoffs await all the same.
“I can see where that would maybe happen,” Villavaso said. “But for us at Vandebilt, it doesn’t matter to us. We will make our schedule, play our 10 games, hopefully get to the playoffs and then go play wherever they tell us to play.
“This is different, but I’m an old fashioned ball coach. I want to coach ball and face the best teams.”
South Lafourche football players swarm to the football to make a tackle during spring practices in May. The LHSAA announced its final plans for its postseason split this week. In the plans, the state will crown nine state champions. Public and private schools will be split in the new system, which will include new brackets for 5A, 2A and 1A private schools. Class 4A and 3A will also merge to make a bracket.
