Leveling the Playing Field
Private schools add more weight with their successes – in the form of “imaginary students”
Like Washington D.C. is to America, and Springfield is to Illinois, Bloomington is the capitol
of Illinois's high school sports. Bloomington is home to the governing body which creates,
interprets and enforces the rules of high school sports in Illinois.
We like to think of the Illinois High School Association as the government of Illinois's high
school sports. Some even think the IHSA is a part of the state's government, when in fact
it is a private organization.
When issues such as Public/Private and Prayer (Freedom of and from Religion) and
Photography (Freedom of the Press) are brought up in the high school sports scene, the
reaction is that the IHSA has to follow the lead of the government. However, because the
IHSA is a private organization, it doesn't not have to.
American citizens can choose for themselves whether or not to be religious. Therefore,
they can choose what school they can send their children to – either the public school or
the private school. The two types of schools actively compete against each other in high
school sports. Each school has it's advantages, and private schools have several
opportunities that public schools do not have.
It's led to a debate about “leveling the playing field.”
During the first couple of decades of the twentieth century, public and private schools
competed against schools just like them. The public schools only played public schools in
the IHSA postseason, while catholic schools played against other catholic schools in the
Illinois State Catholic High School Athletic Association (ISCHSAA). It wasn't until 1941 that
Catholic schools began competing in the IHSA state tournament series. As the years
progressed, more and more private schools joined the IHSA. The final holdout was the
Chicago Catholic League, which joined in 1974.
The Chicago Catholic League was a force of its own when it came to football. Each year
the Catholic League and Chicago Public League champion played each other in the
popular Prep Bowl to crown an overall champion. Oak Park Fenwick, Mt. Carmel, St. Rita
and Weber were just a few of the dominant programs in the league when it joined the
IHSA.
Together with the traditional power of a conference joining the IHSA, the post-World War II
suburban growth also saw a growth in the number of private schools in the suburbs.
Schools like Addison Driscoll, Lombard Montini and New Lenox Providence opened up
during the 1960s.
The exploding population base made it easier for the private schools to attract students.
The IHSA limited its private schools to attract students from just a 30-mile radius from the
school. Such a radius in the Chicago suburbs may total a couple of million.
It's important to realize that most of the school's enrollment comes from the public high
school district the school is located in. Less than 10% of a typical private school's
enrollment is from more than 20 miles away.
The new group of Chicago area private schools became state powers in most IHSA
sports, but perhaps most dominant in football. As the years went on, private schools used
their unique circumstances to help them achieve state championships. From 1974 to 1999
(26 years) the private school state title breakdown is as follows: Class 1A six, Class 2A
ten, Class 3A eight, Class 4A 13, Class 5A 12, Class 6A four. Smaller private schools
were dominant during the 1980s with private schools winning 16 of 30 state
championships in Class 1A through 3A. That number slipped in the 1990s, but the
number of large school championships won by private schools increased that decade.
Seven of the 10 Class 4A championships were won by private schools, and six of the 10
Class 5A championships were won by privates. Mt. Carmel, a CCL team, won five Class
5A state championships in the 1990s. Providence won four Class 4A state championships
in the 1990s.
The female counterpart of football, volleyball, was also dominated by private schools: with
the Mother McAuley teams of the 1980s and the Breese Mater Dei and Wheaton St.
Francis teams of the 1990s.
Public schools during the 1980s and 1990s were wondering what makes the private
schools so dominant in athletics. The biggest argument was that private schools could
recruit prospective and current high school athletes to attend their school. It's a practice
that public schools cannot do. One of the biggest differences a private school has that a
public school does not is a religion curriculum. Most, if not all, private schools require four
years of religion plus various required services that have to do with religion.
It's a fact that a religion curriculum and a religious presence helps kids establish a
successful relationship with God. It's though the relationship that enables the private
school athletes to perform better and to learn how to succeed in their goals successfully.
Religion itself makes the playing field not-so-level. However, religion can not be taken
away from the young kids (Freedom of Religion). The public schools have to find a way to
step up its play in order to achieve the balance. Task forces and various committees were
formed in 1981, 1995 and 2001 to help combat the matter.
The topic of leveling the playing field was visited in the sport that was most dominated by
the private schools. In May of 2000, the IHSA Football Advisory Committee agreed to
recommend to the Board of Directors a proposal that would abolish the fixed Football
Enrollment system for the public schools, but to keep it for the private schools. The
proposal for class expansion also came from the meeting. The Board rejected the
proposal, but approved the recommendation to expand the number of classes in football
from six to eight.
Nothing considerable was done until December of 2003, when the Football Advisory
Committee recommended to the Board a change so that private schools' enrollment was
doubled for that sport only. The Committee's rationale was:
The recommendation was tabled by the Board in March of 2004. However, discussion
about the recommendation sparked a heated debate within the Board. The end result was
a formation of a Public/Private Task Force: formed to come up with ideas and iron out any
arguments regarding the situation. Chairing the Task Force was Board President Joseph
Schlender of Hoffman Estates Conant.
The Task Force was divided into three subcommittees: General Issues, Multiplier/Other
State Approaches, and Classification. (The Classification committee's findings are
discussed in the section on Class Expansion). The General Issues subcommittee studied
“the boundary issues, transfer by-laws, and recruiting issues.” In addition, the committee
also examined “the issue of enforcing the current by-laws.” The Multiplier/Other State
Approaches subcommittee studied “the how, why and rationale used in other states.”
Schlender was the Board Liaison of the Issues subcommittee. Members of that committee
were: Sue Franklin of Chicago Whitney Young, Jan Welch of Richmond-Burton, the Rev.
Don Sebestyen of Providence, Nicole Fairman of Wethersfield, Joe McDaniel of Decatur
St. Teresa, and chairman Dennis Litteken of Breese Mater Dei. Ron Conner of Clinton
was the Board Liaison of the Multiplier subcommittee. Members of the committee were: co-
chair Melver Scott of Chicago Crane, Doug Domeracki of Grayslake, Ross Cucio of Oak
Lawn Richards, Mike Papoccia of Sterling Newman, Cindy Helmers of Bloomington, Helen
Dulle of Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin and co-chair Sara Keene of Columbia.
At the third meeting of the Task Force in October, a discussion was planned for the
Principal's Rule Meetings the following month regarding a Multiplier in addition to class
expansion. The exact number of the multiplier was not yet determined. Soon after the
Rules Meetings were conducted, a survey of the issues raised was handed out to member
schools. The results of the survey were made public in December with 75 percent of
schools responding.
Seventy-three percent of surveyed schools thought that the 30-mile radius is too large in
Chicagoland, 50% thought it was too large in central Illinois, and 26% thought it was too
large in southern Illinois. For the question “Should all schools without boundaries, whether
private or public, be subject to a multiplier,” schools agreed 394-168 with 10 private
schools voting in the affirmative. Most schools agreed that a multiplier should not be
installed for schools with “unusual” success (122-440). Most schools also believed that
“population density be a factor when determining how large of a multiplier to apply to
schools without boundaries” by the vote of 376-185 in the affirmative (all 24 large private
schools voted “no”). Also asked was the question about whether or not a seperate playoff
system should be used for public and private schools, with most schools voting “no” 236-
322.
The multiplier subcommittee then put together a proposal to establish a tiered enrollment
multiplier for all schools, public or private, based on the number of public high schools
within the school's enrollment boundary. It would have also established five different
multipliers for each unique situation. However, the multiplier was the only proposal to be
rejected at the recommendations meeting of the Task Force in January 2005. The Task
Force asked the multiplier subcommittee to come up with another plan.
On March 19, 2005 the IHSA Board of Directors approved a multiplier of 1.65 to be
applied to non-bounded schools with an enrollment of over 450. The definition of such
was established as including all private, lab, charter, residential and magnet schools.
The new concept did not bode well with private schools at all. Lawsuits were threatened if
the multiplier were installed. One Illinois State Representative took matters into his own
hands by proposing a House Bill (HB 2007) on April 12. Rep. Patrick J. Verschoore of the
72th District, which includes the Illinois Quad Cities and Alleman High School, proposed
the “High School State Tournaments, Competitions, and Championships Act.” The Bill
included the following statements:
The Bill was sent to the Rules Committee on April 15 and did not make it out.
A waiver process was organized by the IHSA in June. Schools could apply for a waiver
from the multiplier by submitting various data aimed at convincing the IHSA to not apply it.
Nineteen schools applied for a wavier by August 1. Nine schools were granted waivers,
while 10 were denied. Four denied schools (including Alleman) appealed, with just one
school having their denial overturned. That one school was Chicago Leo, who won the
Class A State Basketball championship a little more than a year prior.
Private schools continued to fight the multiplier. On September 27, 2005 32 schools (all
Catholic) filed a suit in Cook County Circuit Court. The two sides reached a settlement
eight days later. The multiplier would continue into the 2005-06 fall sports season, and
would ultimately be resolved through the IHSA’s legislative process. Schools had until
October 24 to submit IHSA by-law proposals for consideration. Sport-specific waivers were
also introduced as a part of the settlement. Private school volleyball and boys soccer
teams were granted a waiver if their win-loss record was below .500 as of October 5.
Private school cross country teams whose average placement was at the middle or lower
50% were also granted a waiver. Private school football teams with a regular season
ending record of 5-4 or under, if qualified, were given a waiver except for those teams that
advanced to the state semifinal game in the past couple of seasons.
Fr. Sebestyen of Providence proposed three by-law changes that had to do with
classification. A by-law barring such a multiplier, except for that of single-sex schools was
proposed. Another one he submitted was that of a success quotient, in which teams that
have succeeded over time (definition: “semifinal”) were bumped up a class with each
continuing successful season. The other was class expansion. In addition to these
classification changes, Sebestyen proposed a by-law change making the transfer
guidelines applicable to varsity competition, as well as a change that included school
parent and booster clubs responsible for transfer by-law punishments. A proposal
submitted by Jason Woodworth of Danville Schlarman made private school students who
reside outside the public school district the private school is in counted as “two-for-one.” A
similar proposal by Greg Bradley of Mt. Zion made it “three-for-one.”
The multiplier by-law proposal was submitted by Jay Thompson of Harrisburg and Terry
Gutshall of Bureau Valley. The proposal differed from the current policy by having a
multiplier for all private schools, not just those with over 450 students.
Out of the above proposals, the Legislative Commission only passed the multiplier
proposal. The multiplier proposal was then sent to the member schools, who voted 450-
143 in favor. The multiplier was now official, and would take place on February 1, 2006.
Attempts to curtail the multiplier have been proposed in the form of by-law changes
through the rest of the decade. A proposal to re-establish the waiver process was offered
each year. The 2008 try made it out of the Commission, but was voted down by the
schools 197-218. The 2009 try also made it out of the Commission and is currently being
voted on by the member schools (the vote will be finalized on January 7, 2010).
Class expansion was made official in March of 2007. Expansion into a three-class or four-
class system gave more meaning to the multiplier. It created two more classification
boundaries which affected smaller private schools (including some who were briefly saved
by the original under-450 rule) and mid-to-large sized private schools. The multiplier also
made it possible for football teams to be bumped up two classes.
The 1.65 multiplier may have hindered the successes of certain programs, but there were
a significant number of programs that have achieved state championship success in the
multiplier era. Edwardsville Metro-East Lutheran, one of the schools active in the
reinstatement of the waiver, took second place in Class 2A baseball in 2008. Belleville
Althoff girls basketball took runner-up honors in Class AA in 2006. Lombard Montini
wrestling took runner-up honors in Class AA in 2007 and won State in Class AA in 2008
and Class 2A in 2009. Addison Driscoll won the 2009 Class 3A state championship. In
football, Wheaton St. Francis won the 2005 Class 5A championship, Bloomington Central
Catholic and Aurora Christian played in the 2008 Class 4A football title game (Central
Catholic winning), and Mt. Carmel took runner-up honors in Class 8A in 2006 having been
bumped up two classes.
One of the programs to not be phased by the multiplier is the golf program at Normal
University. The boys program has continued to win state championships dating back to
2002. The girls program won state championships in 2007 and 2008.
The success of the private school sports programs often overshadow the structure of the
schools themselves. While students, coaches and programs have a burden of a multiplier
weighing them down, they are often faced with the fate of the school itself. The Catholic
Church has been in a recession for years, dating back to the mass closure of small
Chicago city schools during the 1980s. The economic recession of the late 2000s made
school closures a revisited topic.
On April 2, 2009 the Joliet Diocese announced that Driscoll Catholic High School would
close at the end of the school year. The news came less than a month after the
Highlander girls basketball team won the Class 3A State Championship. The closure of
Driscoll also ended one of Illinois's greatest high school sports dynasties: that of Driscoll
Football. The Highlanders put together a string of seven consecutive state championships
from 2001 to 2008 – the later seasons being un-phased by any multiplier.
Multipliers and level playing fields were not the only controversies involving private
schools. With most of the mess behind them, another stab was executed in January 2009.
At that month's IHSA Board Meeting, the Board voted to ban public prayer at its state
tournament series events. They voted “to include a policy in the IHSA handbook and
terms and conditions for every sport/activity that prohibits prayer over the public address
system at IHSA state series events.” Schools could still conduct a prayer over the public
address system during regular season events because the event is being run by the host
school. State series events are run by the IHSA. The origins of the situation are not clear.
If the current multiplier waiver proposal does not pass in January 2010, there will continue
to be pressure from the state's private schools to restore what they believe is a level
playing field: before the days of the multiplier.
Private schools add more weight with their successes – in the form of “imaginary students”
Like Washington D.C. is to America, and Springfield is to Illinois, Bloomington is the capitol
of Illinois's high school sports. Bloomington is home to the governing body which creates,
interprets and enforces the rules of high school sports in Illinois.
We like to think of the Illinois High School Association as the government of Illinois's high
school sports. Some even think the IHSA is a part of the state's government, when in fact
it is a private organization.
When issues such as Public/Private and Prayer (Freedom of and from Religion) and
Photography (Freedom of the Press) are brought up in the high school sports scene, the
reaction is that the IHSA has to follow the lead of the government. However, because the
IHSA is a private organization, it doesn't not have to.
American citizens can choose for themselves whether or not to be religious. Therefore,
they can choose what school they can send their children to – either the public school or
the private school. The two types of schools actively compete against each other in high
school sports. Each school has it's advantages, and private schools have several
opportunities that public schools do not have.
It's led to a debate about “leveling the playing field.”
During the first couple of decades of the twentieth century, public and private schools
competed against schools just like them. The public schools only played public schools in
the IHSA postseason, while catholic schools played against other catholic schools in the
Illinois State Catholic High School Athletic Association (ISCHSAA). It wasn't until 1941 that
Catholic schools began competing in the IHSA state tournament series. As the years
progressed, more and more private schools joined the IHSA. The final holdout was the
Chicago Catholic League, which joined in 1974.
The Chicago Catholic League was a force of its own when it came to football. Each year
the Catholic League and Chicago Public League champion played each other in the
popular Prep Bowl to crown an overall champion. Oak Park Fenwick, Mt. Carmel, St. Rita
and Weber were just a few of the dominant programs in the league when it joined the
IHSA.
Together with the traditional power of a conference joining the IHSA, the post-World War II
suburban growth also saw a growth in the number of private schools in the suburbs.
Schools like Addison Driscoll, Lombard Montini and New Lenox Providence opened up
during the 1960s.
The exploding population base made it easier for the private schools to attract students.
The IHSA limited its private schools to attract students from just a 30-mile radius from the
school. Such a radius in the Chicago suburbs may total a couple of million.
It's important to realize that most of the school's enrollment comes from the public high
school district the school is located in. Less than 10% of a typical private school's
enrollment is from more than 20 miles away.
The new group of Chicago area private schools became state powers in most IHSA
sports, but perhaps most dominant in football. As the years went on, private schools used
their unique circumstances to help them achieve state championships. From 1974 to 1999
(26 years) the private school state title breakdown is as follows: Class 1A six, Class 2A
ten, Class 3A eight, Class 4A 13, Class 5A 12, Class 6A four. Smaller private schools
were dominant during the 1980s with private schools winning 16 of 30 state
championships in Class 1A through 3A. That number slipped in the 1990s, but the
number of large school championships won by private schools increased that decade.
Seven of the 10 Class 4A championships were won by private schools, and six of the 10
Class 5A championships were won by privates. Mt. Carmel, a CCL team, won five Class
5A state championships in the 1990s. Providence won four Class 4A state championships
in the 1990s.
The female counterpart of football, volleyball, was also dominated by private schools: with
the Mother McAuley teams of the 1980s and the Breese Mater Dei and Wheaton St.
Francis teams of the 1990s.
Public schools during the 1980s and 1990s were wondering what makes the private
schools so dominant in athletics. The biggest argument was that private schools could
recruit prospective and current high school athletes to attend their school. It's a practice
that public schools cannot do. One of the biggest differences a private school has that a
public school does not is a religion curriculum. Most, if not all, private schools require four
years of religion plus various required services that have to do with religion.
It's a fact that a religion curriculum and a religious presence helps kids establish a
successful relationship with God. It's though the relationship that enables the private
school athletes to perform better and to learn how to succeed in their goals successfully.
Religion itself makes the playing field not-so-level. However, religion can not be taken
away from the young kids (Freedom of Religion). The public schools have to find a way to
step up its play in order to achieve the balance. Task forces and various committees were
formed in 1981, 1995 and 2001 to help combat the matter.
The topic of leveling the playing field was visited in the sport that was most dominated by
the private schools. In May of 2000, the IHSA Football Advisory Committee agreed to
recommend to the Board of Directors a proposal that would abolish the fixed Football
Enrollment system for the public schools, but to keep it for the private schools. The
proposal for class expansion also came from the meeting. The Board rejected the
proposal, but approved the recommendation to expand the number of classes in football
from six to eight.
Nothing considerable was done until December of 2003, when the Football Advisory
Committee recommended to the Board a change so that private schools' enrollment was
doubled for that sport only. The Committee's rationale was:
The recommendation was tabled by the Board in March of 2004. However, discussion
about the recommendation sparked a heated debate within the Board. The end result was
a formation of a Public/Private Task Force: formed to come up with ideas and iron out any
arguments regarding the situation. Chairing the Task Force was Board President Joseph
Schlender of Hoffman Estates Conant.
The Task Force was divided into three subcommittees: General Issues, Multiplier/Other
State Approaches, and Classification. (The Classification committee's findings are
discussed in the section on Class Expansion). The General Issues subcommittee studied
“the boundary issues, transfer by-laws, and recruiting issues.” In addition, the committee
also examined “the issue of enforcing the current by-laws.” The Multiplier/Other State
Approaches subcommittee studied “the how, why and rationale used in other states.”
Schlender was the Board Liaison of the Issues subcommittee. Members of that committee
were: Sue Franklin of Chicago Whitney Young, Jan Welch of Richmond-Burton, the Rev.
Don Sebestyen of Providence, Nicole Fairman of Wethersfield, Joe McDaniel of Decatur
St. Teresa, and chairman Dennis Litteken of Breese Mater Dei. Ron Conner of Clinton
was the Board Liaison of the Multiplier subcommittee. Members of the committee were: co-
chair Melver Scott of Chicago Crane, Doug Domeracki of Grayslake, Ross Cucio of Oak
Lawn Richards, Mike Papoccia of Sterling Newman, Cindy Helmers of Bloomington, Helen
Dulle of Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin and co-chair Sara Keene of Columbia.
At the third meeting of the Task Force in October, a discussion was planned for the
Principal's Rule Meetings the following month regarding a Multiplier in addition to class
expansion. The exact number of the multiplier was not yet determined. Soon after the
Rules Meetings were conducted, a survey of the issues raised was handed out to member
schools. The results of the survey were made public in December with 75 percent of
schools responding.
Seventy-three percent of surveyed schools thought that the 30-mile radius is too large in
Chicagoland, 50% thought it was too large in central Illinois, and 26% thought it was too
large in southern Illinois. For the question “Should all schools without boundaries, whether
private or public, be subject to a multiplier,” schools agreed 394-168 with 10 private
schools voting in the affirmative. Most schools agreed that a multiplier should not be
installed for schools with “unusual” success (122-440). Most schools also believed that
“population density be a factor when determining how large of a multiplier to apply to
schools without boundaries” by the vote of 376-185 in the affirmative (all 24 large private
schools voted “no”). Also asked was the question about whether or not a seperate playoff
system should be used for public and private schools, with most schools voting “no” 236-
322.
The multiplier subcommittee then put together a proposal to establish a tiered enrollment
multiplier for all schools, public or private, based on the number of public high schools
within the school's enrollment boundary. It would have also established five different
multipliers for each unique situation. However, the multiplier was the only proposal to be
rejected at the recommendations meeting of the Task Force in January 2005. The Task
Force asked the multiplier subcommittee to come up with another plan.
On March 19, 2005 the IHSA Board of Directors approved a multiplier of 1.65 to be
applied to non-bounded schools with an enrollment of over 450. The definition of such
was established as including all private, lab, charter, residential and magnet schools.
The new concept did not bode well with private schools at all. Lawsuits were threatened if
the multiplier were installed. One Illinois State Representative took matters into his own
hands by proposing a House Bill (HB 2007) on April 12. Rep. Patrick J. Verschoore of the
72th District, which includes the Illinois Quad Cities and Alleman High School, proposed
the “High School State Tournaments, Competitions, and Championships Act.” The Bill
included the following statements:
The Bill was sent to the Rules Committee on April 15 and did not make it out.
A waiver process was organized by the IHSA in June. Schools could apply for a waiver
from the multiplier by submitting various data aimed at convincing the IHSA to not apply it.
Nineteen schools applied for a wavier by August 1. Nine schools were granted waivers,
while 10 were denied. Four denied schools (including Alleman) appealed, with just one
school having their denial overturned. That one school was Chicago Leo, who won the
Class A State Basketball championship a little more than a year prior.
Private schools continued to fight the multiplier. On September 27, 2005 32 schools (all
Catholic) filed a suit in Cook County Circuit Court. The two sides reached a settlement
eight days later. The multiplier would continue into the 2005-06 fall sports season, and
would ultimately be resolved through the IHSA’s legislative process. Schools had until
October 24 to submit IHSA by-law proposals for consideration. Sport-specific waivers were
also introduced as a part of the settlement. Private school volleyball and boys soccer
teams were granted a waiver if their win-loss record was below .500 as of October 5.
Private school cross country teams whose average placement was at the middle or lower
50% were also granted a waiver. Private school football teams with a regular season
ending record of 5-4 or under, if qualified, were given a waiver except for those teams that
advanced to the state semifinal game in the past couple of seasons.
Fr. Sebestyen of Providence proposed three by-law changes that had to do with
classification. A by-law barring such a multiplier, except for that of single-sex schools was
proposed. Another one he submitted was that of a success quotient, in which teams that
have succeeded over time (definition: “semifinal”) were bumped up a class with each
continuing successful season. The other was class expansion. In addition to these
classification changes, Sebestyen proposed a by-law change making the transfer
guidelines applicable to varsity competition, as well as a change that included school
parent and booster clubs responsible for transfer by-law punishments. A proposal
submitted by Jason Woodworth of Danville Schlarman made private school students who
reside outside the public school district the private school is in counted as “two-for-one.” A
similar proposal by Greg Bradley of Mt. Zion made it “three-for-one.”
The multiplier by-law proposal was submitted by Jay Thompson of Harrisburg and Terry
Gutshall of Bureau Valley. The proposal differed from the current policy by having a
multiplier for all private schools, not just those with over 450 students.
Out of the above proposals, the Legislative Commission only passed the multiplier
proposal. The multiplier proposal was then sent to the member schools, who voted 450-
143 in favor. The multiplier was now official, and would take place on February 1, 2006.
Attempts to curtail the multiplier have been proposed in the form of by-law changes
through the rest of the decade. A proposal to re-establish the waiver process was offered
each year. The 2008 try made it out of the Commission, but was voted down by the
schools 197-218. The 2009 try also made it out of the Commission and is currently being
voted on by the member schools (the vote will be finalized on January 7, 2010).
Class expansion was made official in March of 2007. Expansion into a three-class or four-
class system gave more meaning to the multiplier. It created two more classification
boundaries which affected smaller private schools (including some who were briefly saved
by the original under-450 rule) and mid-to-large sized private schools. The multiplier also
made it possible for football teams to be bumped up two classes.
The 1.65 multiplier may have hindered the successes of certain programs, but there were
a significant number of programs that have achieved state championship success in the
multiplier era. Edwardsville Metro-East Lutheran, one of the schools active in the
reinstatement of the waiver, took second place in Class 2A baseball in 2008. Belleville
Althoff girls basketball took runner-up honors in Class AA in 2006. Lombard Montini
wrestling took runner-up honors in Class AA in 2007 and won State in Class AA in 2008
and Class 2A in 2009. Addison Driscoll won the 2009 Class 3A state championship. In
football, Wheaton St. Francis won the 2005 Class 5A championship, Bloomington Central
Catholic and Aurora Christian played in the 2008 Class 4A football title game (Central
Catholic winning), and Mt. Carmel took runner-up honors in Class 8A in 2006 having been
bumped up two classes.
One of the programs to not be phased by the multiplier is the golf program at Normal
University. The boys program has continued to win state championships dating back to
2002. The girls program won state championships in 2007 and 2008.
The success of the private school sports programs often overshadow the structure of the
schools themselves. While students, coaches and programs have a burden of a multiplier
weighing them down, they are often faced with the fate of the school itself. The Catholic
Church has been in a recession for years, dating back to the mass closure of small
Chicago city schools during the 1980s. The economic recession of the late 2000s made
school closures a revisited topic.
On April 2, 2009 the Joliet Diocese announced that Driscoll Catholic High School would
close at the end of the school year. The news came less than a month after the
Highlander girls basketball team won the Class 3A State Championship. The closure of
Driscoll also ended one of Illinois's greatest high school sports dynasties: that of Driscoll
Football. The Highlanders put together a string of seven consecutive state championships
from 2001 to 2008 – the later seasons being un-phased by any multiplier.
Multipliers and level playing fields were not the only controversies involving private
schools. With most of the mess behind them, another stab was executed in January 2009.
At that month's IHSA Board Meeting, the Board voted to ban public prayer at its state
tournament series events. They voted “to include a policy in the IHSA handbook and
terms and conditions for every sport/activity that prohibits prayer over the public address
system at IHSA state series events.” Schools could still conduct a prayer over the public
address system during regular season events because the event is being run by the host
school. State series events are run by the IHSA. The origins of the situation are not clear.
If the current multiplier waiver proposal does not pass in January 2010, there will continue
to be pressure from the state's private schools to restore what they believe is a level
playing field: before the days of the multiplier.
“Non Public schools have a larger population base to draw from than the
public schools. The non-public schools have been winning more than their
fair share in the playoffs with the five (5) year total of non-public schools
winning 135 games while the public schools have won 48 games that were
played between public and non-public schools in the playoffs. Since 1999,
non-pubic schools have won 14 of the 36 state championship games, which is
38%. Non-public schools make up approximately 11% of the schools that
play football. This year 556 schools competed in football, with approximately
496 being public and 60 being non-public. The reason for deciding on 2.0
was because it seemed to give the fairest distribution of schools throughout
the eight (8) classes.”
public schools. The non-public schools have been winning more than their
fair share in the playoffs with the five (5) year total of non-public schools
winning 135 games while the public schools have won 48 games that were
played between public and non-public schools in the playoffs. Since 1999,
non-pubic schools have won 14 of the 36 state championship games, which is
38%. Non-public schools make up approximately 11% of the schools that
play football. This year 556 schools competed in football, with approximately
496 being public and 60 being non-public. The reason for deciding on 2.0
was because it seemed to give the fairest distribution of schools throughout
the eight (8) classes.”
“That certain organizations holding State tournaments that purport to award
State championships or State titles based on fair competition have passed
rules that have the appearance of discriminating against parochial, private,
and magnet schools.”
“That if publicly funded schools participate in sports tournaments that purport
to award State championships or State titles, then these tournaments must be
conducted consistently with the spirit and requirements of due process and
equal protection under Section 2 of Article I of the Illinois Constitution, and
that race, religion, creed, and national ancestry should be irrelevant to and
shall have no part in the competition.”
“That State titles and State championships should be won on the basis of
excellence on the fields of play and roughly equal contestants on the fields of
play, and that it is inconsistent with the notions of public education that any
school should be barred from competition or put at a competitive
disadvantage by organization or association rules that apply to one school in
the competition and not the other.”
“That smaller schools cannot fairly compete with substantially larger schools,
and that it should therefore be permissible to create classes, such as Class A
and Class AA, but that these classes must be based on actual enrollments
and not upon imaginary students.”
“That devices, such as multipliers, that create the illusion that a school has
more than its actual number of students should be forbidden.”
State championships or State titles based on fair competition have passed
rules that have the appearance of discriminating against parochial, private,
and magnet schools.”
“That if publicly funded schools participate in sports tournaments that purport
to award State championships or State titles, then these tournaments must be
conducted consistently with the spirit and requirements of due process and
equal protection under Section 2 of Article I of the Illinois Constitution, and
that race, religion, creed, and national ancestry should be irrelevant to and
shall have no part in the competition.”
“That State titles and State championships should be won on the basis of
excellence on the fields of play and roughly equal contestants on the fields of
play, and that it is inconsistent with the notions of public education that any
school should be barred from competition or put at a competitive
disadvantage by organization or association rules that apply to one school in
the competition and not the other.”
“That smaller schools cannot fairly compete with substantially larger schools,
and that it should therefore be permissible to create classes, such as Class A
and Class AA, but that these classes must be based on actual enrollments
and not upon imaginary students.”
“That devices, such as multipliers, that create the illusion that a school has
more than its actual number of students should be forbidden.”
| Northern Illinois Sports Beat http://www.northernillinoissportsbeat.com |
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