Saturday in Hershey

[WPIALD7]

Altogether here are the public school wins.

A Boys- Philly Roberts Vaux
AA Boys- Beaver Falls
AAAA Boys- Lower Merion

A Girls- Tri-Valley
AAA Girls- South Park
AAAA Girls- Spring-Ford

6 out of 8, people will still be crying about the catholic and charter schools despite the public schools proving they can hang.

[sparky]

Oh snap, he broke out the personal threats

[usatf oldguy]

Altogether here are the public school wins.

A Boys- Philly Roberts Vaux
AA Boys- Beaver Falls
AAAA Boys- Lower Merion

A Girls- Tri-Valley
AAA Girls- South Park
AAAA Girls- Spring-Ford

6 out of 8, people will still be crying about the catholic and charter schools despite the public schools proving they can hang.

I will be one of the people complaining. The small school classes(A,AA) have been totally dominated by privates in the past 20 years in basketball. This trend will continue. Privates have no business in small school. The impact of a couple players coming into a program is huge in basketball.

[Head Roadie]

Don't put Vaux in the "public" category. Yes, maybe on paper but....it is a non-boundary school. Anyone in the Philly City school system can 'elect' to go there.

Here's what I'll associate Vaux with. Imagine that Blair and Bedford County decided to form one big school district with various existing schools specializing in some form of education at their building. Now let's say 8 of the best 12-15 basketball players from both counties elect to attend Claysburg-Kimmel. Claysburg-Kimmel pounds Forbes Road for the ICC title and Ferndale for the District 6 title enroute to the state title with those players. Would that be considered a true public school state champion?

I don't think this raging basketball debate is public vs private as much as it's boundaries vs no boundaries.

[southpaw]

Exactly HR. That's why advocate using more than just enrollment to classify sports. Use enrollment plus the square mileage (area) a school encompasses. All non-boundary schools would get an area of 1 sq. mile. This would really shake things up across the state.

[deepcreek]

I personally like the multiplier and other information someone posted on the board about how IL handles it. That would work well in PA as well. Whomever that was, can you post the link in this thread as well. Maybe a grass roots campaign to get that implemented here would make a difference. And no, I am not a private school hater. Just would even the playing field a bit especially in small school category. I think there were even provisions to account for privates that did not have success making them exempt from the multiplier.

[WPIALD7]

Vaux is more of a public school than our schools, it is a neighborhood school. All the kids that go there live in the same neighborhood is what I have been told. I've heard Vaux kids have the oppurtunity to choose a different school, but I've never heard that other Philly kids can choose to be bussed into Vaux. It is a neighborhood school. So yeah I will put them firmly in the public category, they also close down in a little over two months. They are the last "neighborhood" school.

[WPIAL~Titan]

Simple solution: Place any private school who has the ability to recruit student/athletes from anywhere or any charter or magnet school within the boundaries of a AAAA district like Vaux, etc, in AAAA.

AAAA would then consist of public schools with the very largest enrollments and a bunch of private, magnet, and charter schools.

It's really not that difficult.

[Portage Alum]

Neighborhood school? What? Vaux is no different than say a Perry Traditional in the Pittsburgh City School System, kids can be bussed in from anywhere in the city if they decide, or are able, to attend that school.

Again, no boundaries, this is the problem.

[WPIAL~Titan]

That's the operative word: CAN.

Students residing withing the city boundaries CAN attend any school in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia public.

Now, the McCort/Carroll/Guilfoyle folks won't like this but any student in Cambria/Blair/Somerset/Bedford/Centre, or anywhere else CAN attend those schools as well. As a matter of fact, student athletes from all over CAN AND DO attend places like BG.

Exhibit A: Rene Portland's son went to Bishop Guilfoyle, and resided in State College, over an hour drive away by car.

Exhibit B: One of the Ronan boys lived in Ashville and attended BG, a 40 minutes drive.

The stark reality is that in terms of recruiting, private schools MUST RECRUIT OR THEY FAIL TO EXIST. Any private school supporter who says, "We get kids from the parhocial system, they feed our program, the kids are legacies, blah-blah-blah is full of baloney. Private schools recruit or they fail to exist. Period. End of discussion. McCort/Carroll/Guilfoyle should be playing in AAAA, but instead they stay in A/AA and stockpile some of the best athletes in the area. Granted, the Cambria/Blair/Bedford/Somerset/Centre county isn't exactly a hotbed for HS boys basketball, but if you get much more than your fair share of the best players from the area, you'll win games. A LOT of games....and you SHOULD win a lot of games. Bishop McCort has the most TALENT of any boys basketball team in 6AA. Yet they did not win the championship. Losses happen in one-and-done scanarios though.

PGH and PHL public schools have open enrollment and restricted enrollments for magnet schools (ie-you need to apply at certain schools that specialize in things like the arts, science, etc. I guess Vaux was the Phila Public basketball magnet school this year (tic).

Personally, I believe that the PIAA needs to consider enrollment and geograohic territory from which schools draw when developing classifications, but until then it is what it is. No sense being bitter about it. Makes it all the sweeter when a public school that plays they hand they're dealt knocks off recruited teams.

BTW, in boys' AAAA St. Joe's Prep from Phila had a PG going to Notre Dame, a SG going to Wake Forest, and a post going to Delaware, and they lost to Chester with 2 high major and one mid major commit, LOL. Good stuff!