larrystaley
11-13-2006, 08:30 PM
I was viewing from the Hillsdale side on Friday night (as a good friend of ours son is the starting center on the Hillsdale HS football team) watching Hillsdale literally get hammered by Aragon, final score of 43 - 8. The thought occurred to me of WHY more is not done to strive for more parity among ALL the teams in the Ocean and Bay Divisions.
While it is true that every once in a while one of the lower division teams will sneak up and maybe surprise with a .500 season or one of the consistently stronger teams has say a subpar 6 - 4 record, I would remind everyone that that is far more the exception than the rule.
So where does the problem lie? Is it tremendous differences in coaching? talent? strength of schedule? Well, maybe a combination of all those and some more. However, the ONE thing that can be done is an allocation of funds each year so the more struggling schools would get proportionally MORE than the top schools. The top schools are already getting a lot more per alumni and others perhaps willing to invest in their strong football programs. There is also the idea of having a strong and weak division - i.e. the Bay and Ocean divisions, but we would hope some day, if long term parity were ever achieved, than the shifting of teams between divisions would no longer even be necessary.
It is interesting to me also that everyone admires a DeLaSalle or Serra. However, the Catholic schools have ALWAYS had a far far larger geographic and recruiting area to draw from. So any degree of fairness between the public high schools and Catholic high schools is soon eroded. Seems an asterisk should ALWAYS be next to that DeLaSalle all time consecutive winning record. And of course those programs then get more money, better training facilities, etc. etc. - I could go on and on. So again, maybe far more funding is entitled to the public schools to start and make things fair.
Anyhow, I would enjoy hearing from others on ideas to bring some real parity to HS football. Wouldn't it be interesting someday in the future, to have both equal Ocean and Bay divisions and when the predictions are made in early September, anyone in either division has a chance to win the division that season!
While it is true that every once in a while one of the lower division teams will sneak up and maybe surprise with a .500 season or one of the consistently stronger teams has say a subpar 6 - 4 record, I would remind everyone that that is far more the exception than the rule.
So where does the problem lie? Is it tremendous differences in coaching? talent? strength of schedule? Well, maybe a combination of all those and some more. However, the ONE thing that can be done is an allocation of funds each year so the more struggling schools would get proportionally MORE than the top schools. The top schools are already getting a lot more per alumni and others perhaps willing to invest in their strong football programs. There is also the idea of having a strong and weak division - i.e. the Bay and Ocean divisions, but we would hope some day, if long term parity were ever achieved, than the shifting of teams between divisions would no longer even be necessary.
It is interesting to me also that everyone admires a DeLaSalle or Serra. However, the Catholic schools have ALWAYS had a far far larger geographic and recruiting area to draw from. So any degree of fairness between the public high schools and Catholic high schools is soon eroded. Seems an asterisk should ALWAYS be next to that DeLaSalle all time consecutive winning record. And of course those programs then get more money, better training facilities, etc. etc. - I could go on and on. So again, maybe far more funding is entitled to the public schools to start and make things fair.
Anyhow, I would enjoy hearing from others on ideas to bring some real parity to HS football. Wouldn't it be interesting someday in the future, to have both equal Ocean and Bay divisions and when the predictions are made in early September, anyone in either division has a chance to win the division that season!