Louisiana Softball Championships--I hope Texas never merges public/private teams!

[Old Cardinal]

I attended the Big State Championship all Classification Tournament for Louisiana. It was shocking in that Baptist,Catholic, and Lutheran schools, plus other private school had at least 80% of the final four teams in divisions-C,B,A,AA,AAA,AAAA,AAAAA. It's a matter that these non-public schools recruit over a 4 state area and the public school just play with what is locally available in their District!

I HOPE TEXAS DOES NOT END UP IN THIS TYPE MERGED SITUATION

It's is so crazy over there-- a private school is placed into a given classification based on the number of "boys" in the school; therefore the private schools can recruit as many girls as they want for all sports and yet try to move into small-school classifications. The whole thing over there is like ole time Huey P. Long politics.
Oh well: we did see some great softball and many girls that will be playing college ball. At a tournament in Sulphur, LA some time back during this season--Huntington, Port Neches-Groves, Bridge City and Nederland we invited to play what Louisiana High School Athletics Association preceived at that time as their most promising 5A teams(2400+ enrollment).

I followed the teams this weekend that Bridge City had faced early on and here were their standings in their state bracket climb.
#1 Sulphur was eliminated 2-1 by Denham Springs in the 5A semifinal--(BC played them twice this season)

#2 Barbe HS Lake Charles was eliminated in the 5A simifinals. BC's 9th grade pitcher Shandi Conner had pitched a one hitter against Barbe when they were rated #5 on a national poll.

#3 Ridgewood-a lower classification State Champion was beat 3-1 by BC with Meagan Godwin hurling. They were surprising eliminated in the semi's and they had the same pitcher who had pitched them to the Championship the year before.

#4 Denham Springs beat Sulphur 2-1-- then lost to St. Amant a giant multi-state recruiting school out of New Orleans for the Championship of 5A. Bridge City had lost to Denham Springs 4-1 in preseason tournament play this season. It was kind of amusing, the previous year BC had beat Denham Springs by one point when they were rate #2 on one national poll. Denham Springs was one of the few public schools in the final four of all classifications.

All in all, it was a great experience for Huntington, Nederland, Bridge City and PN-G to have the opportunity to go against their best big teams early this postseason.

Folks, it you have read this far--please be informed there is a political force in TX athletics that wants to merge private schools to play merged in with public schools--it would not be good to do that. What happens is every time a public school child excells in sports of any kind the private schools offer free tuition etc: in order to induce the parents to switch to the private school. That creates hard feelings. Even Coaches are offered jobs as Coaches in certain private schools at big salaries if they can deliver a group of premium players out of the public schools! It will create a big mess for Texas if certain political thoughts prevail on forced merger.

Please express any thoughts that you have on merging privates and public....

[District303aPastPlayer]

it still says something bout public schools if they can win the state title....

[Old Cardinal]

30-3A--Denham Springs lost to the Private School Machine call St. Ament 2-1 for the 5A State Championship. The only private school that won the State Championship was in Class A when Merryville beat St. John's (a Catholic Private School), 5-3. St John's is one of the private schools that recruits only athletes and keeps their enrollment very low so they can compete with smaller public classification schools.

[LH Panther Mom]

Originally posted by Old Cardinal
Folks, it you have read this far--please be informed there is a political force in TX athletics that wants to merge private schools to play merged in with public schools--it would not be good to do that. What happens is every time a public school child excells in sports of any kind the private schools offer free tuition etc: in order to induce the parents to switch to the private school. That creates hard feelings. Even Coaches are offered jobs as Coaches in certain private schools at big salaries if they can deliver a group of premium players out of the public schools! It will create a big mess for Texas if certain political thoughts prevail on forced merger.

Please express any thoughts that you have on merging privates and public....

I am against it. If public schools are "good enough" to play regular season schedules and compete against for titles, public schools should be "good enough" to attend for education. I am in no way against private schools, but if parents want their children in that setting, they need to compete against other private schools. It seems to me that offering "free" tuition would be against some UIL regulation for competetition and if not, then it needs to be.

In addition to this, there is currently a bill in front of the state legislature for home schooled children to be allowed access to one or more public school classes, and to participate in extracurricular activities such as athletics and band. I have the same opinion...if public schools were "good enough", the children would be attending full time.

[44INAROW]

Originally posted by LH Panther Mom
I am against it. If public schools are "good enough" to play regular season schedules and compete against for titles, public schools should be "good enough" to attend for education. I am in no way against private schools, but if parents want their children in that setting, they need to compete against other private schools. It seems to me that offering "free" tuition would be against some UIL regulation for competetition and if not, then it needs to be.

In addition to this, there is currently a bill in front of the state legislature for home schooled children to be allowed access to one or more public school classes, and to participate in extracurricular activities such as athletics and band. I have the same opinion...if public schools were "good enough", the children would be attending full time.

AMEN LHPM, well said!!:clap: :clap:

[mwynn05]

It's already happened here Old Card, just not on that scale, it's like that in almost all states.

[Old Cardinal]

LH Mom....I have not been able to decide for myself on the "home schooled children" issue. In our area, their are many engineers, supervisory and professional people that are trying to home school and get their kids in a superior position for college. They legally have a right to do so. On the other hand they pay school taxes: in many cases a whole lot of school property taxes. They contend that in off hours their youth ought to have the right to use, say, laboratory facilities that they cannot access at home--after all they are paying a whole lot of school taxes. They further argue that many in the public schools have parents that live off the government in taxpayer-funded public housing and they have the right to all types of school equipment while contributing absolutely nothing. Those with home schooled children feel they are being pentalized for being industrious while other parents are just a burden on society.
I can see a number of views from both sides of this issue at this time.

[LH Panther Mom]

Old Card, I can certainly understand the home schooling parents position, for those that are truly trying to give their children a leg up. I also know that are countless instances where "home schooling" is a crock. My neighbors across the street, both parents working full-time, have a daughter that just didn't like school. She was in my stepson's grade, now 21. At the beginning of her junior year, she didn't go to school. The sheriff & h.s. principal showed up at the house a few days after school started with truancy papers. Her response was that she was being home-schooled. Her "school" time was spent on the front porch smoking or bringing her boyfriend over to the house.

There are a few kids in my mother's school district that in their upper years are "home-schooled". These kids are on the ranch working for their father.

I don't have a problem with home schooling and I know that in most cases, those children are actually getting an education which may sometimes be more effective than public school. I know that a parent can't set up a biology or chemistry lab and for the child to use public school facilities for that is fine with me...the school will get money for that. My main problem is allowing the children to participate in the extracurricular activities. There is no feasible way to differentiate the legitimate cases from the ones where it is a "way out" of school for the child. It seems to me there should be leagues set up for the home-schoolers to participate in for athletics and/or band.

[HighSchool Fan]

it really shouldn't matter to you old card. if the private school isn't from SE Texas, they won't be any good any way.

[Old Cardinal]

LH Mom: That was a well thought out answer--really something to ponder. Yes I have seen home schooling go either way also. To the Collinsville wonder, glad I could get something to stick in your craw, oh that's right you probably don't know what a craw is, LOL. Maybe some of those old folks that that make up most all of the 19,000 residents in Gainesville can tell you what a craw is?;)

[HighSchool Fan]

Originally posted by Old Cardinal
LH Mom: That was a well thought out answer--really something to ponder. Yes I have seen home schooling go either way also. To the Collinsville wonder, glad I could get something to stick in your craw, of that's right you probably don't know what a craw is, LOL. Maybe some of those old folks that that make up most all of the 19,000 residents in Gainesville can tell you what a craw is?;)

the only thing that sticks in my crawl are liars and ignorace. especially people with both.

[Old Cardinal]

Whoo Whoo--settle down big fellow are you might have a heart attack!

[Phantom Stang]

Originally posted by Old Cardinal
LH Mom....I have not been able to decide for myself on the "home schooled children" issue. In our area, their are many engineers, supervisory and professional people that are trying to home school and get their kids in a superior position for college. They legally have a right to do so. On the other hand they pay school taxes: in many cases a whole lot of school property taxes. They contend that in off hours their youth ought to have the right to use, say, laboratory facilities that they cannot access at home--after all they are paying a whole lot of school taxes. They further argue that many in the public schools have parents that live off the government in taxpayer-funded public housing and they have the right to all types of school equipment while contributing absolutely nothing. Those with home schooled children feel they are being pentalized for being industrious while other parents are just a burden on society.
I can see a number of views from both sides of this issue at this time.
By all means, those taxpayers children should have every right to ATTEND and PASS academic classes in public schools. By doing so, they would EARN the PRIVILEGE to participate in extra-curricular activities. After all, their kids ought to be entitled to the same opportunities to learn values as those of the non-taxpayers.

[Old Cardinal]

To Phantom Stang: I think you will find a lot less folks that think they(the youth) should play on the HS sports teams. The question that looms biggest is the use of public school labs etc: in off hours.
Their are a lot of kids especially girls that are home schooled and play select team ball and are poised for college scholarships in softball and other sports.
They are outstanding athletes and they have recieved top quality Coaching. They are just not interested in the majority of HS teams since their select team level play is so far superior to most HS team and Coaching techniques.

[Phantom Stang]

Old Card.... To use lab facilities and what-not during off hours would be an added expense to the ISD in question. Would it not?

[Bandera YaYa]

Originally posted by Old Cardinal
To Phantom Stang: I think you will find a lot less folks that think they(the youth) should play on the HS sports teams. The question that looms biggest is the use of public school labs etc: in off hours.
Their are a lot of kids especially girls that are home schooled and play select team ball and are poised for college scholarships in softball and other sports.
They are outstanding athletes and they have recieved top quality Coaching. They are just not interested in the majority of HS teams since their select team level play is so far superior to most HS team and Coaching techniques. But what kind of education are they getting from mom or dad???? Sports are great, but what kind of parent puts that before their child's education???? :thinking:

[Old Cardinal]

To Bandara Ya Ya: The empirical evidence shows that those children that are home educated by fairly educated parents that really care about their childrens future knock the tops out of college entrance exams. That is why many that want their kids to really excel are folks with degrees in something besides Bird Watching or Basket Weaving. etc: They help their kids with excellent home study courses, field trips with other home schooled children, extensive travel exposure etc:
There are some good public schools, many good private schools and some kids that are getting a super college prep home school education. Go to The Woodlands, Tomball, and all on the NW of Greater Houston and you will see many super bright home schooled children of successful people.
This is America you have your choice on how you want to climb Mt. Everest, LOL.

[Bandera YaYa]

Originally posted by Old Cardinal
To Bandara Ya Ya: The empirical evidence shows that those children that are home educated by fairly educated parents that really care about their childrens future knock the tops out of college entrance exams. That is why many that want their kids to really excel are folks with degrees in something besides Bird Watching or Basket Weaving. etc: They help their kids with excellent home study courses, field trips with other home schooled children, extensive travel exposure etc:
There are some good public schools, some good private schools and some kids that are getting a super college prep home school education. Go to the The Woodlands, Tomball, and all on the NW of Greater Houston and you will see many super bright home schooled children of successful people.
This is America you have your choice on how you want to climb Mt. Everest, LOL. No thanks, I'll stay in the Hill Country empire.........where we also care about the futures of our super bright children......

[HighSchool Fan]

Originally posted by Bandera YaYa
No thanks, I'll stay in the Hill Country empire.........where we also care about the futures of our super bright children......

BYY, did you not forget that SE Texas is the greatest at everything

[Bandera YaYa]

Originally posted by HighSchool Fan
BYY, did you not forget that SE Texas is the greatest at everything Dang, my bad!

[Old Cardinal]

This is kind of interesting in that I started out defending the public schools of Louisiana against a private school unlevel playing field. I end up defending the parents of home schooled children.
I think that no one way is the correct way. I just wonder if it is constitutional to tax folks for school taxes that choose to send their kids to private schools or choose to educate them at home--surely they could use the money to educate their on children-- and likewise let others do the traditional public school route via forced taxation.

[Phantom Stang]

Originally posted by Old Cardinal
This is kind of interesting in that I started out defending the public schools of Louisiana against a private school unlevel playing field. I end up defending the parents of home schooled children.
I think that no one way is the correct way. I just wonder if it is constitutional to tax folks for school taxes that choose to send their kids to private schools or choose to educate them at home--surely they could use the money to educate their on children-- and likewise let others do the traditional public school route via forced taxation.
As long as we keep the schoolhouse doors open to their children should they decide to send them, their taxes are well represented. ;) IMHO

[LH Panther Mom]

Originally posted by Phantom Stang
Old Card.... To use lab facilities and what-not during off hours would be an added expense to the ISD in question. Would it not?

My understanding of the bill is that funding would be provided to the school for use of the classroom facilities.

[Old Cardinal]

Phantom Stang: I am a supporter of public education. Some kids are born to lazy parents and the only education that they can get to raise themselves by their bootstraps is via public education. As most people see it today-"education" is in shambles. Classroom teachers get sorry pay while administrative aristocrates are drawing giant salaries at the taxpayers and childrens expense. Politics is stacking the schools with bureaucrats that don't teach classroom courses; and that is the tragedy of modern education. So some folks opt to pull out: that is their privilege; it should also be their privilege to get the non-teaching bureauratic fluff with the giant salaries out of the superstructure of the school systems! We folks support education for classroom teachers and children: we don't support fat cat's feasting on taxpayers money at the expense of the children.

[LH Panther Mom]

Old Card, it looks like I caused this to get off the original subject, which was not my intent. I completely support each parent's right to make the decision for what education is best for their child. I don't, however, consider myself lazy because I chose to send my children to public school rather than teach them at home. For any parent that chooses to send their child to private school, those children are getting a quality education. And I applaud parents who are educating their children at home, when it is done for the right reasons. When we moved to Central Texas, our main concern was getting our children in the best school system we could. We compared TAAS scores, school report cards, etc of several schools before we made the decision to move to Liberty Hill.

However, the thread was not about education nor what type is best. It was about private schools competing with public schools...I threw in the home school situation originally as it related to having those children compete as well. If parents choose to have their children attend private school, the private schools should compete against each other. If parents choose to home school their children, there should be opportunities for home schooled children to compete against each other. Select leagues is one perfect example. Of course, I've seen kids competing in select leagues not because of their talent, nor where they attend school, but because their parents had the money to pay for it.

[18handicap]

After being a head softball coach at a public high school in Louisiana for 7 years, I can spend a lot of time talking about the inequities of their system of putting the privates and publics together in the same districts. They claim that schools don't recruit, or that they catch schools that do -- that is a bunch of bunk. If so, how can a school with 250 students (AA in Louisiana) play in a AAAAA district (1200+ students) and win the state championship in football over and over and over.

I've witnessed it first hand and I don't like it. We have a much better system here in Texas, even if some things need to be adjusted.

CORRECTION: In an earlier post on this thread it mentioned that Denham Springs lost to a private powerhouse, St. Amant, in the state tournament. Sorry guys, St. Amant is the name of a town just east of Gonzales, LA, (30 mile SE of Baton Rouge) and that is a PUBLIC school.

In fact because of some the names of the parishes, there is some confusion over whether schools are public or private in our eyes. EXAMPLES of schools that are PUBLIC:
St. James -- Only high school in St. James Parish on the west bank of the Mississippi
East. St. John (LaPlace), West St. John (Edgard) -- Only HS in St. John the Baptist Parish
Assumption (Napoleonville)-- Only high school in Assumption Parish
West St. Mary (Centerville) -- Consolidated HS in western St. Mary Parish
St. Amant -- Public HS in Ascension Parish in St. Amant, LA.
East Ascension -- Public HS in Gonzales, LA

Hope this tidbit of information helps clear up some stuff.
BH

[Old Cardinal]

Thank you for the clairification. The guy next to me said the St Ament team had a number of youth recruited from the 18 & U New Orleans Voodoo Select team.

[WOS1]

Originally posted by Old Cardinal
Some kids are born to lazy parents and the only education that they can get to raise themselves by their bootstraps is via public education.

Well OC, you once again have managed to insult the majority of the people in this state with that "well thought out" statement. On the contrary, I think that those being home schooled or privately educated are the offspring of families LUCKY enough to have the means to afford the tuition of the private schools or can make it on one salary and keep the mother in the home (something our wonderful economy has all but eliminated).

[Phantom Stang]

Originally posted by Old Cardinal
Phantom Stang: I am a supporter of public education. Some kids are born to lazy parents and the only education that they can get to raise themselves by their bootstraps is via public education. As most people see it today-"education" is in shambles. Classroom teachers get sorry pay while administrative aristocrates are drawing giant salaries at the taxpayers and childrens expense. Politics is stacking the schools with bureaucrats that don't teach classroom courses; and that is the tragedy of modern education. So some folks opt to pull out: that is their privilege; it should also be their privilege to get the non-teaching bureauratic fluff with the giant salaries out of the superstructure of the school systems! We folks support education for classroom teachers and children: we don't support fat cat's feasting on taxpayers money at the expense of the children.
Old Card: I agree with much of what you said there.When you talk about beaurocratic fat cats and under paid teachers, you're preaching to the choir. I do believe that most public school students are children of hard working taxpayers of all economic levels. I also believe that the most successful of these students, receive more than their fair share of "schooling" at home. Unfortunatly, It's the kids of the "lazy parents" who often suffer the most in our school system. Sorry to say, I don't know the remedy.

I also feel that Parents should remain to have the right to home-school their children, or to send them to a private school should they choose to do so. I don't think however, that these parents should be entitled to special compensation from our governments for exercising that privilege.

[Old Cardinal]

You know Phantom Stang, I agree with you on every point except these industrious people are not wanting government special compensation(hand-outs). They are just wanting to use the labs at the schools in off hours because they are paying a lot of taxation to the school district. I am sure they are willing to pay if need be--they want to develop in their youth the ability to set short-term and long-term goals that included higher quality education as a springboard.
These type folks don't see industrious people that are living out their dreams as being LUCKY. They see American with it's fantastic standard of living so available; as the greatest land of opportunity. They thrive on a positive outlook and are willing to do what it takes to get job training upgrades on their own to join the bigger contributors to the great American way. Likewise, the children of positive attitude parents see a great example to follow.

[Phantom Stang]

Where, in any of my posts on this thread, have I mentioned anyone as being lucky??

[Old Cardinal]

To Phantom Stang--That was not refering to you in anyway. I appreciate your thoughts that you have shared.

[Phantom Stang]

My pleasure Old Cardinal.:D