The one that got away
January 10, 2012
Roy Ivey
January 13, 2012
Will Covenant Christian Academy be ready to compete athletically with the big boys?
They will find out this month if given the opportunity.
The up and coming private school has applied to become official members of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association.
The move, if approved, would cap a fast ride to official athletic accreditation for the school, which opened its doors in 2007.
“We just felt as a coaching staff that it was time for us to make the jump and make the move,” CCA administrator and head football coach Blyght Wunstell said. “We know it’s going to be much more competitive, but I think as coaches, you get into this being competitive and as athletes, that’s what you want to do, as well. We’re looking forward to the challenges ahead.”
A decision to attempt the jump was made with several years of thought, according to Wunstell, who said even he didn’t expect the school to progress to this point so fast.
The school’s Senior Pastor Dr. Steve Folmar left the final decision to Wunstell and the coaches.
From there, the answer was easy.
“It was unanimous with the coaches,” Wunstell said. “We all wanted to go and make that jump.”
The reason for the united front among the Lions’ administration is because the move does make sense on both logistical and competitive levels n the two biggest reasons for the move.
Covenant Christian currently competes in the lesser-known Louisiana Christian Schools Association.
Because of the league’s lack of statewide depth, the Lions are spread thin in terms of having regional opponents to play.
Wunstell said that lack of competition led to the first factor in making the move n the ability to be in an LHSAA district, which would cut the school’s travel costs and time down significantly.
It would also help the school’s student athletes, as well.
“It was travel time,” Wunstell said. “Our student athletes don’t get back home until 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning. The closest game for us when we have to travel is two and a half hours away.”
Sure, the Lions might make regular trips across the state n a competitive disadvantage.
It surely hasn’t stopped them from excelling athletically n they’ve dominated throughout their inception.
Every sport except boys’ basketball has won a state championship in the school’s five-year history.
CCA’s 2-year-old football team has been at the peak of that dominance, winning state championships in each of its seasons with little challenge along the way.
The coach admitted part of that dominance was because of the LCSA’s weak competition, adding that another reason for the move was to give the school’s student athletes an opportunity to compete in a more level playing field.
“The league we’re in right now is really not a strong league in terms of football,” Wunstell said. “We’ve pretty much dominated each of the past two years. … When you have seniors in football, like this past year, that are just playing half of a game every game, that’s really not fair to our young men.”
What goes hand-in-hand with the opportunity to play stiffer competition is respect n something Covenant Christian athletics hasn’t necessarily received in its 5-year history.
Wunstell said he believes several of the school’s programs can regularly compete with anyone locally, adding that by making this move, all talk of the team playing a “cupcake schedule,” will fade.
“Kids hear it,” Wunstell said. “They hear the whispers, ‘Look, you don’t play anybody. Ya’ll aren’t very good because ya’ll don’t play anybody.’ I think from that respect factor, when we asked the kids, every hand went up and they wanted to join.”
The decision to become a member of the LHSAA is now out of Covenant Christian’s hands.
Wunstell said he and members of the school’s administration will meet with LHSAA officials this week to go over rules and other nuiances involved in the transition.
The coach added that he’s been told that CCA meets every LHSAA requirement for full membership except for one n they have never had a graduating class.
That problem will be fixed in May when the school’s first seniors walk across the stage.
Even without a graduating class, a school can also be an LHSAA member n just in a different bracket, a grouping called provisionally approved.
“Once we have that first graduating class, we’ll make that jump to the highest level, which is fully approved,” Wunstell said.
The coach added that from the meeting this week, a final decision will be made at the LHSAA’s annual meetings in late January.
Wunstell said he “had no idea” what goes into whether or not the entity votes to approve or deny membership, but added that he feels good about the potential outcome.
“From everybody that I’ve talked to, I’ve been told that really no school has ever been denied membership,” Wunstell said. “I really don’t know the details of what they look at, but I know first-off, you have to be an accredited school and we are that. We’re state approved, TOPS approved.”
If the LHSAA does indeed approve the Lions, two things are worth paying attention to.
First is going to be the team’s district. In Class 1A, local competitor Central Catholic competes in District 8-1A, while Houma Christian competes in District 10-1A.
Wunstell said he assumes the Lions would be with the Warriors in District 10, but added he has no definitive information regarding a potential district.
“We’ll go play wherever they put us,” Wunstell said. “In terms of competition, that Central Catholic district is probably a little bit tougher, but we’ll go play wherever they tell us to play.
“I’d be hard pressed to see them splitting up us and Houma Christian, though. We sort of feel like we’ll be together. It’s hard to imagine them breaking up two schools in the same town in the same class.”
Second is that the team’s district will be irrelevant for a year or two anyway, because the LHSAA has rules in place saying that new members must refrain from district championships and state championships for two seasons following acceptance into the organization.
That would mean the Lions would first be eligible for district and state championships in 2014.
The kicker to this is that the probationary limit is being voted on at the same meeting that will decide the Lions’ fate.
There is strong support across the state for the limit to be decreased to just one year.
That measure, like CCA’s membership will be voted on at the annual meetings.
“Either way, we’ll have a probationary period,” Wunstell said. “But it looks like there’s a possibility it could be one year instead of two. They are going to vote on reducing it at the meetings.
“And we told the kids that. They know the situation and the way things will be for us, especially early if we get in. We were up front with them and told them exactly how things were going to work. And like I said, there wasn’t a single hand in the room that said they didn’t want to do this – not a single hand that didn’t want to make the jump.”
District titles or no district titles, the Lions just want to get into the big boys club.
Wunstell said he already has a full 2012 football schedule lined up with eight games scheduled.
If the school is denied, they will play their usual opponents in 2012.
He hopes he can play that schedule as a member of the LHSAA n the icing on the cake of an excited time for the school.
“Our athletes are real excited,” Wunstell said. “This is motivation to our kids when we get them in the weight room and when we start conditioning n it’s that we’re making that jump.
“The message is sort of like, ‘If you want that respect, nobody’s going to just give it to you, you’ve got to go out and earn it.’ And that’s in life, too. Not just on this football field or this basketball court or this baseball diamond. So we’re excited. We believe this will help our school and our young men and women. We’re very excited. This is a bright time in our history.”
