Ty Bunnell | Sports Editor
Marshfield hosted the 3A basketball state championship last month. Of all the teams on the boys side of the bracket, only one team was a public school. Dayton was the only public school, and ended up placing third, while the championship featured two of the private schools, Blanchet and Horizon Christian, battling it out for first place. Obviously the number of private schools far outnumbered public schools in this elite athletic competition. This can be seen in other classifications as well. Private schools are typically more successful in athletics than public schools, because they simply do not have to follow the same rules.
Private schools are allowed to accept and reject students as they please. Public schools do not have the same option. This gives private schools an advantage in being able to pick and choose students they want and still have the same number of students in school. Getting the “cream of the crop” gives the smaller schools a huge advantage in athletics, whereas public schools have to accept every student who enrolls.
Private school students are also not required to live in the district boundaries. Students can choose to drive from anywhere in the state to attend school. On the contrary, public schools can only have students who live in certain boundaries attend.
Private schools can offer free tuition to students they want to attend their school, but cannot afford it. Giving kids scholarships can be seen as a way of recruiting, and the reason they can afford to do this is because the school has enough money from the other kids who pay full tuition. Typically, students who have access to money have a greater opportunity to become better athletes. These families can afford to send their kids to sports camps and have personal coaches or trainers.
Marist High School has won the Midwestern League in football for the last several years, and is choosing to play at the 5A level instead of 4A. Since Marist joined the Midwestern League, Marshfield has not beaten them in football. When private schools are allowed to play by a different set of rules, it gives these schools an unfair advantage in all sports, but Marist is playing up by a classification to play more competitive teams. All private schools should be required to play up by one classification like Marist, to make athletics more fair.
