Will Laurel Highlands public schools vote to eliminate the Catholic schools?

... Decision to take place on Wednesday 

For the 2016 football season, the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference has 12 high school football teams competing in it. Nine of those are public schools, while three are parochial -- Catholic.

After its meeting on Wednesday, the league may have a much different alignment. In fact, the Laurel Highlands as we know it today may no longer exist. It may be a 10-team league of all public schools that will include the present nine public schools along with Chestnut Ridge.

No one knows for certain.

Vote against Bishop Carroll

In its last meeting, the conference voted to eliminate Bishop Carroll ostensibly because it was not certain that the Ebensburg school could field a football team next year.

That is a reasonable concern, but subsequently, Carroll CEO Jerry Stephens announced that Carroll would indeed field a team in 2017, one in which he felt that the roster would contain more than 30 players.

In the first vote, Bishop McCort and Bishop Guilfoyle, the other two Catholic teams, joined Carroll in voting against the proposal, so it failed.

Since then, McCort and Guilfoyle have reportedly been warned by league officials that if they vote again with Carroll, the LHAC will vote to disband and form the 10-team league.

I have not confirmed that with conference officials, but that is the report going into Wednesday's meeting.

Background

Bishop Carroll was also responsible for the dissolution of the highly-successful Appalachian Conference, but that was due more to its success and the animus of the Indiana County schools in the AC toward Carroll.

The Indiana County schools, along with Laurel Valley, Ligonier Valley, and Northern Cambria,  then formed the Heritage Conference. The merger of Ligonier and Laurel Valley created the opening for West Shamokin, but now many in the Heritage world want to eliminate Ligonier Valley, which they claim is too big for the league. [Two Heritage teams are AA besides LV: Marion Center and West Shamokin.]

The other AC teams formed the WestPac, which has been successful as a good conference with Somerset and Cambria County teams.

One of the ironies of the LHAC is that when Bishop Carroll was admitted to the LHAC approximately 15 years ago, one of the schools that supported their membership was Somerset. Today, Somerset is reportedly one of those teams adamantly pushing for their removal.

Why dump the Catholic schools?

Many public schools have long believed that private schools should play up a class because they can attract students from a large geographical area, unlike most public schools -- except some in Philadelphia and Pittsburgn -- that are restrained by geographical boundaries.

Many public schools are upset with the success of the private schools in the playoffs, more basketball than football, but football is also a concern.

I wonder if the success of Bishop Guilfoyle, which has not lost a game in three years and has two consecutive single-A state championships while competing for a third, may be the target of the LHAC moreso than Carroll, which has struggled in football in recent years.

Concern about points

The LHAC schools do have a legitimate point about Carroll and Guilfoyle since they are both single-A schools. That hurts the LHAC schools in the postseason rankings, though that may be diluted somewhat by the increase of classification groups to six from four.

If that is a concern, why not ask Carroll, Guilfoyle, and even McCort, to play up a class. That would even them with Chestnut Ridge, a AA school. BG and BC may be willing to consider such a move to continue their participation in the league. McCort may be unwilling to move up to AAA.

However, if the concern is equity, why not eliminate the two AAAA schools, Somerset and Johnstown, from the conference? The LHAC is designed, and was when it was originally conceived, primarily as a AA-AAA conference. Currently, it has four AA schools under the new alignment, four AAA schools, and the two A schools. It would sound fair to eliminate the two AAAA schools that have a significant enrollment advantage.

Understand, I am not advocating eliminating those two schools. I am just talking about equity.

This is not anti-Catholic

While many Catholic school backers scream "anti-Catholic" when these discussions occur, this is an anti-private school issue. The unfortunate part of this for the PIAA is that they allow charter schools to also be aligned as a public school when they are decidedly private in nature.

Conclusion

Will Carroll, McCort, and Guilfoyle be seeking a new home next fall? Will Carroll alone be seeking a new home? Or will the LHAC cave and allow the conference to remain the same for the foreseeable future?

Tomorrow's meeting may tell that tale.

Laurel Highlands classifications

AAAA

Johnstown
Somerset

AAA

Bedford
Forest Hills
Penn Cambria
Central Cambria

AA

Bishop McCort
Westmont
Cambria Heights
Richland

A

Bishop Guilfoyle
Bishop Carroll