By BRET H. MCCORMICK, Journal Sports
Monday’s ruling by a Baton Rouge judge that temporarily threw out the Louisiana High School Athletic Association’s definition of what classifies a “select” school left local coaches with a lot of questions and no shortage of opinions.
During the 2022-23 school year, the LHSAA changed the definition of a “select” school to include all private, magnet and charter schools as well as schools located in districts that offer students open enrollment. The latter designation left all 11 public high schools in Rapides Parish competing in the “select” playoff brackets in the sports of football, boys and girls basketball, baseball and softball.
Six of those schools – Tioga, Buckeye, Glenmora, Rapides, Northwood-Lena and Plainview – along with three others from Monroe (Neville, Carroll and Wossman) filed suit against the LHSAA to overturn the new definition, and 19th Judicial District Judge William Jorden of Baton Rouge ruled in their favor on Monday.
“What’s the new definition of ‘select’ in the LHSAA now?” asked James Halle, a former baseball coach at Alexandria Senior High and assistant at Tioga who served as the Indians’ interim coach last season. “I think that’s one of the
questions … that nobody knows right now.”
LHSAA Executive Director Eddie Bonine sent out a memo to member schools on Tuesday, telling them that LHSAA executive staff will meet to discuss potential resolutions before making a presentation to the LHSAA executive committee for discussion.
“Once this process is complete,” Bonine wrote, “expect a communication from this office with particulars.”
Buckeye softball coach Justin Kees brings a unique perspective to the situation. He has led the Lady Panthers to a non-select and select state championship in back-to-back seasons, and he also is involved with the LHSAA as a football official.
Kees said he didn’t believe the LHSAA’s changing of the select definition to include any school that could enroll a student from out of zone was the correct way to handle the situation, but he also admitted it led to a system that produced much better postseason results than the old system.
“As a football official, that’s the most competitive (postseason) I’ve seen in years,” Kees said. “My championship game in the Dome in 2022 was a three-point game. It’s a lot more competitive playoff format.”
While Kees argued the change in postseason format was generally positive for Rapides Parish schools, Halle said that was not the case for Tioga. The Class 4A Indians were forced to play up in the playoffs against larger schools in the Division I playoffs, which consisted of Class 5A schools and the largest 4A schools.
“We are not a Division I school,” Halle said. We are not. We are Division II because Division II is nothing but 3A and 4A schools like we are.”
While Tioga was forced to play against larger schools, which hampered their chances at advancing deeper in the playoffs, several Rapides Parish schools had extremely successful runs in the select playoffs.
Northwood-Lena’s girls basketball team repeated as state champions, a year after winning the title as a non-select school, while the Gators’ boys basketball team won the first boys basketball state championship in school history.
Oak Hill’s girls basketball team won its first state championship, Peabody’s girls made the semifinals for the first time since 2007, Pineville made the baseball semifinals for the first time since 1985, and Tioga’s softball team played in the title game for the first time since 1979.
One major issue local coaches and administrators had with last year’s format was that it treated all Rapides Parish schools the same, regardless of how many students enrolled from other zones.
Tioga has a total of 47 open-enrollment students for the 2023-24 school year out of roughly 950 total students, Halle said. Many rural schools – such as Northwood-Lena, Rapides, Oak Hill, Glenmora and Plainview – lose way more students than they attract.
That’s why Halle and Kees are proponents of adding some sort of percentage requirement to the select definition.
That definition used to include 25 percent of students coming from out of zone. Halle said he would be happy with 20 percent.
“I think that would pacify a lot of people,” Halle said.
Alan Tinsley, who has spent the past 37 years coaching boys basketball and led Northwood-Lena to the 2023 Class 1A select title, said he’s hopeful Louisiana doesn’t return to the system that was in place prior to the 2022-23 school year where seemingly everyone made the playoffs. Instead, he said, only “the elite teams” should be allowed into the postseason.
“How can we have – as best we can – a playing field that promotes fair competition and promotes high-school athletics at not only the highest level but also gives kids the most opportunities to enjoy the sports they want to play and have at least a chance at what everyone wants, which is to win a state championship?” Tinsley pondered.
Tinsley said he believes now could be the time where Louisiana sees momentum build to add a multiplier as other states in the region do. In this scenario, teams that would fall under the “select” designation have their enrollment multiplied – perhaps by 1.5 times or some other similar figure – to determine where they would be classified.
“You can’t just say it’s an even playing field and we’re gonna do that,” Tinsley said. “You can’t just say that. It’s a lie.”
Kees discussed the idea of creating six classes for all sports with football being divided one way and all other sports being divided separately, including the consolidation of Classes B and C into Class 1A.
No matter which way the LHSAA leadership decides to go, there’s little question at this point that tough decisions have to be made and soon.
“We continue to fight this same battle every year – split, no split,” Halle said.
“I don’t think we’re ever gonna come back to (the way things were before the split),” Kees said. “I think that ship has sailed.”