I'm surprised that this did not come up sooner. Some politician from downstate has this up for consideration to separate the state tournaments between public and private. A number of states still do this, Texas for example. An alternative approach toward "leveling the playing field" is to apply a multiplication factor to a school's enrollment for purposes of tournament classification. For example , a private school with 600 students might be assigned a factor of 1.5 with an assumed enrollment of 900 for tournament classification purposes. Some states also do the calculation for public schools with "open enrollment". Will this work in a tiny state with less than 50 secondary schools? I doubt it. I don't know what is driving the pol's reasoning but it won't work in the First State.
Proposed changes to State Championship Tournaments
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For what it’s worth , this Rep. had a kid playing baseball for CR this year , who lost to Sallies in the Championship game 🤔
SEN. Buckson has been talking about this for a while but tied it to the DIAA NIL vote. He is a good guy. Just wrong on this..
https://www.delawareonline.com/stor...il-delaware-high-school-athletes/73440564007/
https://www.delawareonline.com/stor...il-delaware-high-school-athletes/73440564007/
Let's not pretend that Eric Buckson has not been involved in high school sports for the last 30 years. Saying this a Daddy ball move is an absolute joke. I will say I don't agree with him but he has his own thoughts.
Senator Buckson has tabled the legislative proposal. His comments were that he wants DIAA to consider possible ways to make the system fairer so that championships wouldn't be so private school dominated. He feels that the private schools have an unfair advantage. He said that as long as DIAA considers this, he will live with the DIAA decision no matter what it is. Based on his previous comments, he was not going to run with legislation if DIAA didn't approve NIL. They did. When DIAA approved NIL, he introduced the legislation - which was really a symbolic gesture.
Remember this guy has been a 30 year public educator, a member of the Kent County Levy Court and is now a State Senator. He is thoughtful and believes there is an issue of fair competition. I think that DIAA will probably have some serious discussion of various ideas of the private/public issue and then let things continue as they are.
Remember this guy has been a 30 year public educator, a member of the Kent County Levy Court and is now a State Senator. He is thoughtful and believes there is an issue of fair competition. I think that DIAA will probably have some serious discussion of various ideas of the private/public issue and then let things continue as they are.
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I agree with you bumster and just add, I’ve known Eric since High School and he is a great guy. CRHS athlete, teacher,friend to many and a decent golfer. He’s not much different from a lot of the fathers that post on this site. I still believe in to be the best you have to beat the best.
dove, there are like 5 days left on the legislative calendar. He knew the bill would not get heard this session. Look, I am defending Buckson based on everything I know about the guy. Let’s see if DIAA gives this serious discussion.
Even if I think he is wrong, consider his perspective.
Even if I think he is wrong, consider his perspective.
Buckson is a solid citizen and is currently working on how schools should be handling discipline and that's far more important if public schools actually want to get better, IMHO. With regard to the public/private schools splitting championships, how the hell do you deal with Salesianum? You can add the male enrollment at all the private schools and you may not even have as many as sallies. Can't imagine a prep conference where TH has to play sallies in football every year. Last thing is will charters and vo-tech be considered public or private since you have to apply and be accepted just like a private school.
I think we should stop focusing on football for this particular issue and look at the state champions for the past 30-40 years in girls basketball, soccer, and volleyball. It’s an issue in ladies sports more than it is in men’s sports.
Bummy will stick to boys' competitions. Here is a consensus of opinion from like 4-5 old guys. Keep Baseball, Basketball, Football and Wrestling as is. Come up with a way to award a public school state championship in soccer, lacrosse, track, cross country, swimming and volleyball. One old guy said; that these were boutique sports? His most quotable line was: "if they had the state HS Lacrosse Championship in my backyard, I would close the blinds." Then he proceeded to say the same thing about all the other sports except FB, Baseball, Basketball and Wrestling.
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High School State Championships? Who gives a shit about that anymore.. It's all about scholarships and Nil cabbage now.. AAU and club teams are the deal these days.. High School teams, pfff...,,,
I heard BiB was behind the glass monoliths popping up in the desert, just sharing
100% agree.
99% of the teams DONT win championships. That’s why championships are special. High school sports should be about so much more with winning a championship being a cherry on the top.
While I do think a public/private split would be good for high school aports (natural rivalries, playing teams with similar resources), “championships” isn’t really a reason for me.
Private and Public should been split years ago.. Not even about beating best in Stae.. Prime example Ursline Academy.. G.G and Taylor do not even live in Delaware.. They live Philly.. but they drive to Ursline everyday for school.. He 💯 right split it up.. Private schools been getting away with that for decades.. Most of them enrolled in these private schools not even from DE.. Better yet some of them from different Countries.. To make it a fair .. Let Public schools transfer anytime they want and how many times they want. But DIAA will not do because Public schools will assemble power teams.. lol..
He got right idea but wrong way of doing it.. Simple fix.. Do not change tournaments at all.. DIAA should change one rule to even out playing field. He should said.. " Let Public schools transfer students anytime they want to and as many times they want too.. But them Private Schools would cry like babies... lol
Unless someone fixes public schools in DE, nothing will change for most of the schools athletic programs. You will not be able to get enough transfers a year for 80% of public schools to be competitive across the board. The time when a school district, like BSD, could offer both strong academics and athletics is long gone. Cape, CR and a few others can keep both going but that's because they are mostly home grown. Everyone needs to stop obsessing about athletics and refocus on academics.
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