The following comes from Todd Holcomb and Chip Saye’s Monday edition of the the Georgia High School Football Daily:
In the last of a series of articles, Wesleyan football coach Franklin Pridgen today offers his side in the debate about whether private schools have an unfair advantage in Georgia high school sports. Last week in Georgia High School Football Daily, football coaches Larry Campbell of Lincoln County and Blair Armstrong of Banks County argued that private schools do have an unfair edge.
Armstrong and Campbell want to bring back a multiplier on private schools’ enrollment that will allow the Georgia High School Association to move many of them into higher classifications. Private schools make up less than 10 percent of the GHSA’s membership but have won 45 percent of the state championships this academic year.
Armstrong went so far as to say, “They have an unfair advantage, and … you are blind, stupid or both not to see it.”
Westminster’s Gerry Romberg and Our Lady of Mercy’s Chad Flatt have defended private schools, saying they see no advantages.
At the GHSA, executive director Ralph Swearngin has declined comment other than to say the issue is divisive and moot. With reclassification looming in the fall, it is highly unlikely any changes will be made in the GHSA’s bylaws until the next four-year reclassification cycle is complete – in 2014.
Here are the comments of Pridgen, whose Wesleyan team won the Class A football title in 2008:
“I am disturbed and disappointed to see that these accusations are once again being mentioned in a public forum. Furthermore, it saddens me deeply to see the inflammatory language and derogatory tone this debate has adopted recently. It sounds less like a civil discussion of differences between professionals and more like a political attack between adversaries.
“I am curious about several things regarding this debate, however, such as why are these accusations being re-hashed now? Presumably because we are entering the second of a two-year cycle and are on the threshold of a new four-year one and some are campaigning for action to be taken. Perhaps also because a private school won a state football championship in 2008, something that has only happened three times in the last 20 years across all classifications. So I wonder about the timing of this latest salvo.
“I can only speak on behalf our football program, although I certainly appreciated the recent responses offered by Coach Romberg and Coach Flatt. I thought they made very salient points in their rebuttals, and hopefully everyone will consider the facts they present. I want to say as clearly as possible that our school does not recruit athletes. It is illegal, unethical and completely contrary to our stated mission, so therefore we do not do it. There are no scholarships given for athletics or academics. Financial aid is need based, and that need is not determined by the school but by an independent agency, and the pool is limited. Clearly, however, some are insinuating that our school in Norcross has been breaking the rules by recruiting football players and thus enjoying some sort of ‘unfair advantage.’ I can say without hesitation that this is utterly absurd and lacks any type of factual basis.
“Here are the facts, and were this issue not so serious I would laugh out loud at how far off the reality is from the critics’ myth:
The academic standards for admission to our school are so stringent that applicants must undergo intense scrutiny before the question of football ability is ever even mentioned, let alone considered. That means not everyone gets in regardless of whether or not they are good football players.
Of our six all-state football players in 2008, three have been at Wesleyan since kindergarten, two came in middle school when their parents moved to Norcross from out of state, and one came in ninth grade having never played football before!
In the 2008, playoffs we never enjoyed a physical advantage over any of our opponents. Just ask anyone who saw us play.
How many Division I-A football scholarship offers were received by our current senior class? Zero. How many offers have our players received in the last five years? Again, zero. How many in the history of our school? Just one, and that was eight years ago. Hardly the stats of a school involved in recruiting players.
We have no superstars, no blue-chippers. Just great kids who are good athletes but work very hard, love to play together as a team and respond to good coaching.
“If families approach us because they desire to be a part of our school community, they embrace our Christ-centered mission, they crave our demanding college-prep curriculum, and they wish to contribute to our thriving athletic program, then good for us. We are doing something right. Our product is in high demand. That is not recruiting by any definition and to call it so is uninformed.”
For copies of GHSF Daily issues that included the comments from Campbell, Armstrong, Romberg and Flatt, please e-mail us at ghsfdaily@bellsouth.net.
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