Louisiana has recruiting problem

I was blessed with the opportunity a few weekends ago to sit in the Burton Coliseum in Lake Charles and watch some of the best prep basketball teams in Louisiana compete for the state championship at the LHSAA Top 28 Tournament.

The competition was fierce. The players were amazingly athletic. Many played several inches above the rim – if not more. All-in-all, the entertainment value was well worth the cost of the $10 ticket.

But on the way home, a topic came up. Through talking about all of the dominant players and teams that we saw on the weekend of fun, someone in my party mentioned that almost all of the teams in the field were private schools. The person mentioned that this was a long-standing trend within the state and another in a continued swing of disadvantages that plague public schools in terms of athletics – a problem that has been a hotbed talking point for ages within the halls of the LHSAA meetings.

So I did a little research, compiled a few numbers and discovered that my friend was dead-on.

Louisiana prep basketball does indeed have a serious lack of competitive balance. Public schools in our state almost have no shot to consistently compete with the massive private schools that have created athletic juggernauts – powerhouse programs that may or may not bend the rules in terms of recruiting, but will never be caught because of how asinine the system works in terms of reporting and investigating an alleged violation.

Recruiting is alive and well in Louisiana prep athletics. If you think that it’s not, you’re simply looking at the situation with closed eyes and/or are a supporter of a program that’s breaking the rules, which is thus giving you blinded loyalty.

I’m not pointing fingers, nor alleging anything of any specific school in our state – in no way is that my purpose on this day. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that I DO NOT believe the private schools in the Houma-Thibodaux area are dirty. In fact, I think that all four are 100 percent clean. I think that Vandebilt, E.D. White, Houma Christian and CCA all operate in the true spirit of a private school – simply accepting enrollment from the folks who apply for enrollment in their school. I think that probably 95-97 percent of private schools in the state are the same.

But others around Louisiana – that last 3-5 percent – make me wonder, and the numbers show that it’s highly likely that something is up.

In the past five seasons of boys’ prep basketball within Louisiana, a total of 25 state champions have been crowned across Classes 1-5A.

Of those champions, 19 winners came amongst non-public schools. In this column, we will classify non-public as any private, college preparatory or magnet institution that has the ability to reject enrollment from a child.

The other six titles come from true public schools – the programs that play the hands that they are dealt and have zero control over the student body population in a given year.

That math shows that 76 percent of basketball state champions in the past five years are from non-public institutions. If those titles were being won by traditional non-public powers like St. Augustine, Rummel and other longstanding private school with decades and decades of tradition, it would be one thing.

But they are instead being won by programs that don’t have nearly as much history and are sort-of storming to the top like lightning in a bottle.

That rapid rise has many (including myself) suspicious. And when the same few teams are in the Top 28 over and over and over again, it certainly makes one wonder if a program is truly getting its players randomly (as rules dictate they should) or if the roster is being handpicked.

In both Class 5A and Class 2A, separate non-public institutions have made the LHSAA State Finals for six-straight seasons. In Class 3A, the same non-public school has won the state title in back-to-back seasons.

Is it possible for one school to ALWAYS get the best players in Louisiana without influencing anyone along the way? Maybe, maybe not.

Is it possible for some areas in the state to just have better basketball players than others, which causes a disparity? Again – maybe, maybe not.

But is it also possible that a rule or two is being bent along the way to make this possible? I tend to think yes. Especially when several teams in the Top 28 field have upwards of four or five players within its roster that stand well over 6 feet tall. There’s simply no way that having that many tall kids in an area is natural.

Of course, this problem is nothing new and it’s the very same issue that caused football to split public and private schools from competition in postseason play.

But I think the problem isn’t public vs. private, but is instead rule breakers vs. LHSAA.

The LHSAA rule structure is stupid. It’s set up to where no violations can be levied unless one is caught red-handed because he-said, she-said allegations are never investigated or given credence. This makes it virtually impossible for a cheating institution to get caught – which, of course, gives a green light for programs to break the rules.

It’s time that the LHSAA gets off its high horse and accepts that a problem exists and does the legwork to rid it from our prep athletic system.

Open up lines of communication with coaches and change rules to make it easier to investigate or research an allegation that’s been made.

If discovered to be guilty, drop a hammer on the cheaters and take them out of power for good.

Because at the end of the day in prep athletics, the players are kids. And to me, all kids deserve the opportunity to compete on a playing field that’s equal to all.

Watching the Top 28 a few weeks ago opened my eyes and proved to me that what’s in place now is everything but equal.

The numbers and subsequent research confirmed what almost every public school coach already knew: they enter every season at a huge disadvantage.