DO OR DIE FOR LHSAA

Louisiana principals will decide the future of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association today.

If unsatisfied with the decision made, private schools may form their own league at the completion of the meeting.

The LHSAA will hold a special meeting today at 11:30 a.m. in Baton Rouge and principals have four items to vote on — all regarding how Louisiana’s postseason format will be structured in coming years.

If none of the items pass, the association will be governed by the expanded split proposal, which was passed in January and would feature a public/private split in football, basketball, baseball and softball.

Support for each proposal varies, which leads some to think that they all may fail. Others have more optimism that one will garner the majority needed to pass. All seem to realize the meeting has potential to be heated — one way or another.

“It’ll be a show,” said one coach who asked to remain anonymous. “We know that there’s tension all around the state and one way or another, a lot of people will be unhappy — no matter what happens.”

Each item will be voted simultaneously during the meeting, which will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Whatever the outcome, the consensus among local coaches is that they just want something concrete so that they can plan their future.

“We’ll be playing football here before we know it,” Thibodaux football coach Chris Dugas said. “We’d like to know what we’re up against and what’s going to be in place. We have plans that we like more than others, but really we just want to know one way or another so that we can move ourselves forward.

“We don’t pay much attention to it, honestly,” South Lafourche baseball coach Jacob Midyett added. “We’re not in a position to make those decisions, so we just focus on staying active and working hard. We will play whoever and wherever they tell us to go play.”

PLAN 1: PRIVATE SCHOOL MULTIPLIER

The first plan on the meeting agenda would eliminate the public/private split and would return Louisiana to the postseason format it had for the majority of its history — one which all schools are competing together, regardless of public/private distinction.

But there’s a caveat. Private schools may have to play up a class in the process.

Proposed by Mandeville High School Principal Bruce Bundy, the

first proposal would classify all schools together by enrollment size with same-sized programs competing against one another within Class B and Class C and then Class 1A-5A.

Public schools would use their true enrollment to determine their classification. Private schools would have to take their enrollment and multiply it by 1.5 — a formula that would see several private teams around Louisiana jump up a class for competitive balance.

Locally, the impacts would be minimal. Covenant Christian Academy and Houma Christian would remain in Class 1A. Vandebilt would remain in Class 4A. The only change would see E.D. White moving from Class 3A to Class 4A, which would likely add them into District 7-4A with Vandebilt, South Lafourche, South Terrebonne, Assumption, Ellender and Morgan City.

Proponents of the plan say that by multiplying the enrollment, it lessens any perceived advantage that private schools around Louisiana may have.

At the convention in January, Bundy proposed unsuccessfully to kill the public/private split altogether — a split which records show he voted to enact in 2014.

“We need to come together,” Bundy said in January. “Let’s come back as one, then figure out how to go from there as best we can.”

PLAN 2: ENACTING CLASS 6A

The second plan outlined on the meeting agenda would also eliminate the split. While doing it, it would see the creation of a ‘superclass’, which would be composed of the largest enrollment schools in Louisiana.

Proposed by Ruston High School principal Ricky Durrett, plan two would change Louisiana from a seven-class to an eight-class state for all of its major sports.

The additional class would be Class 6A, which would feature the top 32 enrollment schools in Louisiana.

Durrett’s plan also has some of Bundy’s concepts within it. For schools which generate more than 25 percent of enrollment from outside of assigned boundary lines, enrollment will be determined with the 1.5 multiplier.

In the Class 6A plan, no local team would compete in the super class.

But Vandebilt, South Lafourche, South Terrebonne and Ellender would move up to Class 5A, while E.D. White would jump to Class 4A.

Dugas said he supports this plan, and wouldn’t mind seeing it come to light.

“I think that’s a pretty good plan,” Dugas said. “It takes the biggest schools — the programs that have these massive enrollments and it puts them all together. I think that would be fair. I’d like to see that plan pass. I think it could work for everybody.”

PLAN 3: EVENLY DIVIDED CLASSES

Plan three is the first plan on the books that would re-enact the public/private split.

Proposed by Iowa High School Principal Mike Oakley and Vinton High School Principal Mitch Manuel, plan three on the agenda would aim to make every classification the exact same size — while also keeping the split in place.

In Oakley and Manuel’s plan, Class B and C would be eliminated and Louisiana would operate with just Classes 1A-5A.

The classifications would be split equally by enrollment size for all sports, which would create classes with identical number of schools.

In non-football sports, public school classifications will be broken into five, 20-percent pieces with the smallest 20 percent of schools going to Class 1A — on upward with the largest 20 percent of schools in Class 5A.

In football, it will be even more condensed, as the plan calls for just four public classifications — divided evenly into four, 25-percent pieces with the smallest quarter of schools going to Class 2A on upward with the largest quarter playing in Class 5A.

Once that’s done, private schools would also be broken into four even pieces for all major sports — Division I-IV.

The Oakley/Manuel plan is a slight tweak to the plan passed in January. The most significant change is the push for equal enrollment in each class — a move being made to eliminate smaller postseason brackets.

Under the new format, South Lafourche would move up to Class 5A, while Vandebilt would move from Division II to Division I — the largest private school league.

PLAN 4: COMPROMISE PLAN

In the final plan, Louisiana principals can keep schools split apart — just in a different way than the public/private split.

Proposed by the LHSAA School Relations Committee and backed by Executive Director Eddie Bonine, the ‘compromise plan’ would give some togetherness and some separation to the LHSAA.

In the plan, Classes 5A and 4A would return together for all sports without a split — much like it’s been for non-football sports in the past several years.

In Class 3A, 2A and 1A, schools would be separated into six classifications with rural schools playing in their own leagues and urban playing in others within each class.

If passed, the plan would only affect E.D. White, CCA and Houma Christian locally.

E.D. White would be classified as a rural Class 3A school.

In Class 1A, Houma Christian is listed as rural, while CCA is currently on paper as urban.

Bonine said at the annual convention in January that a rural/urban separation had his support.

The compromise plan is intended to serve as a trial run. If successful, it’s expected to expand to Class 4A and Class 5A, as well.

“I think this could be good,” Bonine said in January. “I ask that you consider it. I think that it could be a good solution to a longstanding problem in our state.”

PLAN 5: KEEP JANUARY’s VOTE; EXPAND SPLIT

If none of the plans pass, the expanded public/private split passed in January would stay in effect.

In this plan, public and private schools will be divided in postseason competition for football, boys’ basketball, girls’ basketball, baseball and softball.

If that happens, it’s widely expected that Louisiana private schools would eventually pull out of the association and would make their own league.

Talk has centered around the new league throughout the spring, and it’s been widely reported that an “athletic cooperative” could be formed, which would welcome both public and private schools who are willing to pay a membership fee to enter.

Top-tier coaches from around Louisiana have chimed in on the topic, including Riverside men’s basketball coach Timmy Byrd.

At the LHSAA Top 28, Byrd alleged public schools of discrimination, saying that the voted upon format is unethical and is not in the best interest of the kids.

“We don’t discriminate,” Byrd said. “We don’t want to be a part of any league that does. We don’t think it’s right to do what they’re trying to do.”

The Houma Times will be at Wednesday’s meeting and will be providing updates as they occur.

To keep up with the action, follow Sports Editor Casey Gisclair on Twiter @casey_gisclair.

LHSAA Executive Director Eddie Bonine (pictured) has a lot on his plate. Today in Baton Rouge, Louisiana principals will vote on the association’s future — a ballot which may send the century-old organization into disarray. There will be four proposals on the agenda — all regarding the future of postseason in the state.

CASEY GISCLAIR | THE TIMES