FanSpeak

Congratulations, golfers

I'D LIKE to congratulate the Jackson golf team and the soccer team for winning their districts. Good luck through state.

Move to 4A is deserved

I'D LIKE to comment on Notre Dame moving to Class 4A. I think it's a move that should have been made years ago. They play all these little schools that have to play with the athletes that they've got. They don't to go out and hand choose a team.

Where's the logic?

GIVEN THE logic of the high school association, maybe they should also require that private schools put 6.6 players out for every nine players that the public schools have. This is really fair.

The old way is out

MY CHILDREN go to a local, large parochial school. One is at high school, one is in eighth grade. I am a secretary for a principal in a large area public high school. Brad Wittenborn claims that public schools recruit just as much as the private schools. I don't know how he knows we "recruit" because we don't. I'm the principal secretary. I've seen students transfer in from other districts, coming from another district here. Their previous principal would not sign their release to play sports. My boss abides by the Missouri State High School Athletic Association rules. We won't recruit. However, in my experience as a parent of a parochial school students, I've sat in the bleachers many times and listened to how they're trying to get this kid or that kid to come to their private school. You can recruit. Public schools cannot. You want to be separate and special, not separate and equal. Well, those days are over.

Form your own league

IF THE Catholic schools think they are being treated unfairly by the new multiplier classification, why don't they just create their own parochial league and play each other?

It's not about athletics

IT IS very unfortunate that the public schools feel the need to multiply the enrollment of private schools by 1.35 so they can win more games. Parents send their children to private school so that they can receive a well-rounded, higher level of education than is offered in public schools. Perhaps we should multiply the GPA of all public school students by 1.35 so that they can be academically competitive as well with the private schools.

Notre Dame isn't that big

THIS NEW system of weighting private schools against public schools is crazy. To pretend Notre Dame is bigger than Central and has to play in 4A sports is crazy. They're a small school. Everybody knows they're a small school and they ought to be playing the small schools like Kelly and Chaffee.

Innocent are punished

IT'S A sad day for high-school sports when a group of athletic directors can get together to level the playing field by imposing sanctions on schools that have broken no rules. If they were really interested in a level playing field they would have given the 12 percent private school members a weighted vote to make it fair. Regardless of where we compete we will be winners and our kids will be winners. I'm proud of our student athletes and it appears the athletic directors think an awful lot of them too. Sorry they don't have as much respect for their own students.

Abide by boundaries

NOTRE DAME may not recruit, but how many players from Jackson played on the Notre Dame state championship basketball team? If people who live in the Scott City district have to go to the Scott City school and people who live in the Chaffee district have to go to the Chaffee school, then why don't the people in the Cape district and only the people that live in be allowed to go to a Cape school?

It makes us better

THE FACT that my classmates will count as 1.35 students next year is interesting. Does Notre Dame recruit athletes? No. Notre Dame makes athletes. Private schools teach good work ethic, motivation, dedication, and discipline in the classroom as well as on the athletic fields. We might as well make a division solely for private schools since the public schools seem unable to handle us. Go ahead, count my classmates as 1.35 students next year (I'm a senior and won't be able to enjoying being more than one person next year). That will only make their drive for success even stronger.