This year it was Private/Charter Corvain Community that made waves in just its 3rd year of football. A few years ago it was Pine Lake Prep and Mountain Island Charter. Congratulations to them.
I just looked at the Charlotte Observers Statewide Top 10 in BASKETBALL, for each classification.
NO privates in top 10 of Public 4A, 3A Boys, or Girls in 4A through 1A.
Public 2A Boys has 1, Pine Lake Prep at #5.
But, wait for it, wait for it,,,, But in Public 1A Boys 6 of Top 7 are..... 1,2 and 3 are.... Private/Charter whatever you want to call them. And Corvian has just started playing basketball (last years runner up to State Champ Wilson Prep) that returns most of their last year's starters.
Sure am glad those Private/Charters do not recruit/select with in their 25 mile radius or they would most likely have the remaining 4 spots in the Top 10 1A .
I guess it is just easier to Not Recruit/Select in Basketball than it is in Football. But it is coming, I guess, in football as it is in already here in Basketball and Soccer.
And then there is last years Baseball for the 2nd year in a row, State Championship team, Uwharrie Chapter. No recruiting. None at all. I am positive. But my goodness I am not sure how a "small" private/charter outside Asheboro gets that many D1/D2 players including an (reported) 18 year old Sophomore pitcher/short stop that was absolutely lights out good.
Mount Airy did win one of 3 in the Championship Series because Mt Airy had the 1A Pitcher of the Year and College Scholarship player. Won 1-0 with a 1 hit shutout (I believe the one hit is correct), but they absolutely kicked our butt the other two games. Congratulations to them and their NOT RECRUITED Team of all stars.
I am not opposed to either private or charter schools. It is just the unfairness in the way they are set up, the advantages they are given by the money grubbing, profit seeking, on the take right wing legislators that are doing all they can to hurt, if not destroy, public education for the masses (that is all the rest of us).
Sports is just the way the advantages are showing up most often and most clearly at the current time.
More and more the disadvantages are showing up through the criminal cases that eventually hit the newspapers with the disappearance of money, or the various other wrong doing gets reported. The "schools" that do not actually teach, or the hiring of completely unqualified teachers or administrators. Certainly not in all the private/charters schools. But way to often is it happening and the individuals (mostly the students) that are hurt and damaged have almost no recourse.
Sometimes it (the problem) is a long time in coming to light, primarily because there is very little oversight or safeguards legislated. Of course it is not present in every case, but over time, more and more things come to light. Unfortunately the damage done can not be undone when it does happen.
Before any one jumps to high and mighty, I got my Associates degree from a private, non-secular junior college, a secular 4 year university for my undergraduate degree and a state supported public university for my Masters degree. I value my time, and association, at each one of these institutions. Every single day that I was a college student I was also a full time employee somewhere. I paid my way through school. My education was not given to me, not provided to me. It was earned by me, both in the classroom and the work place.
I am not bragging or complaining. Just explaining where I come from in my value system. I have always admired what the Catholic Church has done with its efforts in offering and making available an education option, not limited to just its members. My understanding it was through their on funds and tuitions paid by the students' parents. Not public funds.
But the political desire to destroy public education, the desire to turn public education into a profit opportunity first and foremost, the desire to return to the good old days of segregation, be it race based or economic based, or religious based, is just down right anti-American to me. And it is wrong, plane and simple, to use public tax money for these purposes.
The playing field needs to be flat, and fair, whether it is the classroom or the athletic field. No more, No less.
Have a nice day and enjoy the holidays in front of us.
