LHSAA ponders new alignments
Published 10:09 am Thursday, January 22, 2015
LAFAYETTE — Change may be coming to the Louisiana High School Association and its member schools, but whether that change leads to more or less separation between public and private schools remains in the air a week before the annual state convention.
The agenda for the convention was discussed by LHSAA officials and school representatives Wednesday at a pre-convention area meeting.
Next week’s agenda will feature several proposals for restructuring football. One, submitted by the LHSAA’s School Relations Committee, would reunite public and private schools in Classes 5A and 4A. Private schools in Classes 3A-1A would be divided into two divisions for the playoffs, giving the state seven champions, down from the current nine. Currently there are five public school champions and four private school champions.
An alternative proposal would create a Class 6A, comprised of the 32 largest schools by enrollment and any schools — public or private — that choose to play up. Remaining schools would be divided into five classes. Enrollment figures for private schools would be multiplied by 1.5 for classification purposes in this proposal.
Other items on the agenda would create 12 state champions — seven public and five private — in baseball, softball and basketball have been placed on the agenda. None of those sports currently separate public and private schools for the playoffs.
LHSAA officials are hoping member schools take a more patient approach to figuring things out.
“I think if we passed these proposals we are hamstringing (incoming LHSAA Executive Director Eddie Bonine) to begin with,” said interim Executive Director Jimmy Anderson of Lake Charles. “My philosophy is we need to get football right before we start splitting anything else.”
Other agenda items include the creation of an Executive Director Evaluation committee, which would perform annual reviews of LHSAA’s executive director, going from three divisions to four in soccer due to an increased number of participant schools and changing the format of the Class 4A baseball playoffs to follow the format used in Class 5A last year, when the regional and quarterfinal rounds featured three-game series rather than single-elimination games.