A group of Rowan County Schools has started a proposal that might lead to Charlotte Catholic, Bishop McGuinness and Cardinal Gibbons being removed as members of the N.C. High School Athletic Association. Read more here
Here is the official response from Charlotte Catholic, Bishop McGuinness and Cardinal Gibbons to a proposal from Rowan County Schools to have them removed from the N.C. High School Athletic Association.
The letter is signed by Janice Ritter, interim superintendent of the Diocese of Charlotte, Dr. Michael Fedewa, Superintendent of the Diocese of Raleigh as well as the principals of Charlotte Catholic (Jerry Healy), Bishop McGuinness (George Repass) and Cardinal Gibbons (Jason Curtis).
Now that we have had an opportunity to review the Proposal for Amendment and By Law Changes, we would like to take the opportunity to respond to each point raised.
While our schools do not have established geographic boundaries, we do deal with other factors that create boundaries for our system. Experience has shown that distance and transportation are two major factors for parents in school selection. When our system was admitted in the NCHSAA, we agreed to a transfer rule policy in order to address this issue. For the past 50 years, this policy, unique to our schools, has served to level the playing field.
As all member schools, our enrollment numbers reflect our total population, which includes students with mild to severe handicaps.
All our schools have a clearly articulated admission process. Our first obligation in this process is to fulfill our mission of providing a quality Catholic education. As such, priority is given to participating Catholics in our feeder systems. Other levels of admission are in place, and nowhere is athletics taken into consideration.
Any student transferring in from a member school is excluded from participating in athletics for two semesters. They are told this during the admissions process. Only students transferring in from non- member schools can use the appeal process, which is controlled by the NCHSAA.
We hope this clarifies the issues presented by the proponents of the amendment change. We appreciate your consideration of our position. This is the second time we have been put through this very difficult process. In 1986, a similar amendment was submitted to the general members for their consideration, and thankfully it was rejected. We have been a faithful member of the NCHSAA for 50 years, and we hope to be able to continue our relationship.
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45 comments:
Charlotte Catholic long ago should have moved to the CISAA; those schools like Country Day, Latin, Christian etc. have more similar missions to Catholic than the public high schools. Bishop McGuinness should join Forsyth Country Day & Greensboro Day's conference & Cardinal Gibbons should join Cary Academy's & Ravenscroft's.
As a graduate and athlete from Charlotte Catholic, I can honestly say the "edge" people assume we have is blown out of proportion. The transfer rule of sitting out of competition levels the playing field and it deters students from enrolling. From experience, we have far less recruitment issues than current CMS schools where many students will move into certain zones just to play a particular sport.
Bishop McGuinness has won 6 or 7 straight 1A Girls Basketball titles with players from all over the US playing for them. Is this exactly fair. Charlotte Catholic should post a list of players and their parents hometown address. This should clarify the situation. Let them go play other private schools.
Why do these schools want Catholics out of the NCHSAA? Are they afraid of the competition? These Catholic schools are larger than most private schools and compete fairly with the public schools. Has any harm come to any public school from competing against a Catholic school? I don't think so. Maybe they don't like to say a prayer prior to each game.
They should have been removed a long time ago. None of the other member schools can recruit they way they do. They choose to be different, or non- public...yeah for them... now play by your non-public rules on the field and court too!
The Salisbury AD hides his real reasons behind athletic fairness. Who does he think he's kidding.
As members of the NCHSAA, these three private schools are not allowed to recruit, and they follow this rule to the letter because they want to play in the conference with the large public schools, rather than tiny private schools. Just because a school is successful doesn't mean it breaks the rules.
The students that attend these schools live anywhere in the Charlotte REGION. There is NO BOUNDARY LINE. You guys saying you don't recruit is laughable. Your students are attracted to your football, tennis, basketball, etc programs because of the program and it's ability to cherry pick the players that perform there. You even are allowed to DENY enrollment to any student you don't want, thus maintaining your athletic classification. Athletic gerrymandering if you ask me, just WITHOUT THE LINES. We applaud your programs they are good but definitely NOT put together the same way public schools are. You are not pitting apples vs.
apple at all. Keep up the great work and play schools just like you!
Where is your proof of the compostition of Bishop McGuinness' roster? Put up or shut up!
P.S. How many kids in last decade + moved into Independence's or Butler's boundaries so they could play for these schools?????
These schools cannot and do not deny enrollment to students they don't want. When enrollment is determined, athletics are not a factor, as you are saying. Do you really think a high school coach, who is likely a teacher at the school, resulting in a full workload, goes out to recruit middle school kids to come play on his/her team? That's absurd.
@6:45.......Yes. Win games, make gate $ for the school, name recognition for upward mobility. Parents today LOVE when coaches "want" their superstar player too...bragging rights. Wake up and smell the Sanka....
This is stupid...Charlotte catholic also has a feeder middle school where they learn the catholic playbook for football...and notice they all play together until senior year of high school..you will find that an extremely low amount of kids that play sports at catholic..didnt go to the middle school...all these accusations that catholic "recruits" are false but if you sleep better at night thinking that is the reason you lost to us..then do what you want..or rewrite your gameplan
...by the way...it costs a lot of money to go to catholic...and costs even more if you aren't catholic....and they offer no tuition assistance...and catholic is much smaller then all these public schools...they have restictions too
Facts First.
Charlotte Catholic does not recruit period.
Football Coach knows NONE of his players names. Great QB's transfer to Latin Butler.. 100% of kids transfer from CC to Latin and Country Day to play sports, and get a better education. ( Not the other way around)
When catholic moves to the largest division with Ardrey Keil Providence Butler South Meck Myers Park they will only be competive in football and swiming and soccer.
Basketball they wont win 50% of games
Baseball they wont ever ever win . Best season they will be 500.
After having kids go to Catholic a public school and Latin I have seen it all.....
Catholic has ALOT of depth in football only...They can bairly field a jv and varsity baseball team...( Ardrey keil has 100 kids in there baseball program and so does providence> ( no one comes to catholic to play baseball or basketball or lacrosse or golf or bowling or track. The privates ( country Day Latin ) have better coaches and programs, then the publics ( largest ones where catholic should be) Catholic is way behind the times its poorly run (like it has been for the past 5o years) FOR OTHER 3AA SCHOOLS ITS NOT FAIR....BUT WAIT ..CATHOLIC WILL HAVE TO UPGRADE ITSELF IF IT WANTS TO BE COMPETIVE IN THE NEW CONFERENCE........
WE OWN CATHOLIC IN FOOTBALL AND WERE A 75% SMALLER SCHOOL....BETTER COACHED BETTER STUDENTS GO HAWKS..................
Here is the bottom line. CCHS has been competing in the NCHSAA for 50+ years. For most of that time, Catholic had a small but reasonably competitive athletic program. In other words, they were not a long-term threat to anyone. However, in the last 15 years, the influx of Catholics to the Charlotte area -- and these families' recognition of the inept and pathetically managed CMS school system -- has enabled Catholic to grow to 3AA and eventual 4A size. Now, the athletic programs -- and I mean all programs -- at Catholic can compete with any school of any size -- period. This is the reason -- along with some peoples' hatred of Catholics -- why some schools want the Catholic-based private schools kicked out of the NCHSAA. Catholic, Bishop McGuiness, and Cardinal Gibbons are now a true threat to the dominance of the public schools in the NCHSAA. Face it people, YES, the Catholic schools now have better overall athletic programs than their public school counterparts. It is a fact -- like it or not. If these schools are forced out and end up in the NCISAA -- they will dominate that too.
In the end it doesnt really matter people go to Charlotte catholic for academics... Not sports
As a former multi-sport athlete at Charlotte Catholic, hearing the accusations of recruitment is absurd to me. The vast majority of athletes playing for Catholic's successful teams grew up in the Mecklenburg Area Catholic School System. Due to the rules we have for transfer students, not to mention tuition and costs of traveling, very few students ever transferred, even for sports. Every major athlete I remember playing with or watching came from the middle school, Holy Trinity. Also, the fact that Charlotte Catholic was the only Catholic High school in the Charlotte area attracted a lot of students who want a better education (until Christ the King opened this year). Charlotte Catholic has been a proud member of the NCHSAA for over 50 and allowing these false accusations to put and end to that is ridiculous. Where's the proof? Yes, Catholic has been successful in a number of sports, but that is due to the superb coaching, dedication of the athletes, and continuous practice. If recruiting is really the issue here, then maybe you should take a look at the Butler and Independence football teams, where it is much easier to recruit. This hasn't been an issue in over 25 years and not much has changed, so why is this resurfacing?
Is any one afraid to call the AD at Salisbury a bigot? We'll I'm not. It's time we called a spade a spade. Him I'm not surprised but the other Rowan schools I can't believe he bullied them into this.
A lot of athletes move to a public schools zoning just for athletics, you hear about it every year...I have never heard of anyone going to Catholic for athletics only...and I don't understand how one small county and a couple small town schools can make the NCHSAA vote to take out Catholic... and another thing...how many big time college and pro athletes do you hear about that went to Catholic? Zero...yet some of these big time public schools are producing college stars...and you think our success comes from recruiting?? Some people need to rethink their opinions.
Please give the public schools a chance to win state titles. These schools are dominating and can pick from mostly metro areas with little to no boundaries. Money is the root of all evil! I could take the best 6 players from my tennis conference and another conference in the east and we still wouldn't beat Cardinal Gibbons! When 2 private schools(Cardinal Gibbons, Charlotte Catholic) get to finals in tennis, it doesn't look good as this happens often! Have some common sense-put them in independent school association to play by same rules-if they kill everybody there too then other schools can play by same rules whereas public schools can't!
Who ever the Latin fan boy is can shove it. Oddo and crew own McNulty. Once Hanson left you went back to your place behind Country Day.
Go Cougars.
If Catholic recruits, that must mean they do so when kids are in preschool... If you look at the majority of the top players in the last 15+ years, they came up through the Catholic School system through elementary school and had older siblings and parents who did the same. I doubt any football scout is good enough to figure out if a 4 year old is going to be a football star. I mean really, use your heads here.
People just get nervous when they get some competition... I'm sure people would have tried to kick Indy and Butler out too if they could. Absurd. Last time I checked it's the North Carolina High School Athletic Association... Not the North Carolina Public School Athletic Association. Catholic is a grade 9-12 high school like the rest.
Tommy Knots recruited at Independence!!! Chris and CJ Leek "just happened" to move in across the street right when they would be getting to play football.
Cause you live in hick ville and redneck land and everyone that lives up there sucks at sports so get over it. We don't even play you. And you area is less populated there for you wil have even less people that are good On top of where you live why don't you just move ? You should just play the 6 schools that are complaining about this and be in your own conference but don't kick us out no one else is complaining not even the schools we play example Harding garinger and west meck. We don't want to play crap teams like you anyway. It's a waste of our time and we don't benefit. You should just be put into the 0A and we wouldn't have an issue example south meck providence ak Myers park Marvin ridge butler porter ridge olympic aren't complaining cause they are actually decent and we have competition and don't beat them like we beat other team 6,7,8,9 to 0
I went to Ardrey Kell and I have friends who went to CCHS . Trust me they don't recruit most of them go from St Matts to Holy Trinity to CCHS so thats a lie. They are also really only compete in football . Their basketball and baseball programs are ok . If and when they move into the same conference as AK,Butler and Prov etc, they won't be a big factor in athletics besides football, soccer,swimming and lacrosse. Baseball will continue to be dominated by AK and Providence . Finally CCHS never plays a Rowan county school so why do they care. If Mecklenburg schools don't have a problem than this is a non-issue. I support CCHS staying as a member of the NCHSSA it just makes sense
Catholic is a PRIVATE school. The only reason they play in a public league is 50 years ago there were no other private schools. It's time to even the playing field. Do you really think that if Catholic did not have a good football program that these kids would be going there? Like you said, they would go to Independance and Butler where their admission policies are less stringent.
To: JIMUNC said...
Where is your proof of the compostition of Bishop McGuinness' roster? Put up or shut up!
Megan Buckland, High Point, NC
Sammi Goldsmith, Greensboro, NC
Erin Fitzgerald, Greensboro, NC
Megan Rembielak, Akron, OH
Not exactly home grown in Kernersville.
Don't think you should be putting
kids names out here like that.
If you do that you should be willing to post your real name.
shame on you.
Each item of information was located online. I didn't throw out a name that was not readily available through the schools' websites and social media networks. Shame on anyone that thinks my post invaded anyone's privacy.
Very few people are "home grown" in Charlotte.
Ever think that the students who are not from Charlotte, like the many THOUSANDS, are here because of a parental job relocation?
The coaches that want to kick Catholic schools out of their league are idiots.
Envy disguised as "fairness" is dishonest and unbecoming. We have too much of this type of thinking in our country these days. The Rowan county principals should be ashamed of themselves for setting such a bad example for their students.
I think maybe what the group is trying to say is that Charlotte Catholic has done a great job in building their sports programs and tailoring their Catholic education to the curriculum that will develop their children into productive citizens. The below is a prime example where Charlotte Catholic could benefit from removal within CMS and create a more competitive league within the private sector. It was printed in the paper today! It is a non income generating sport but Catholic has won 22 conference championships and 150 straight victories. This has to get old if you are the players and coaches. They would definitely find great competition from Country Day, Providence Day and Latin.
Charlotte Catholic tennis team: Won 22nd consecutive conference championship with 9-0 win over Harding. The Cougars have won 150 straight conference wins. Catholic’s last conference loss was in 1990.
This is absurd. CCHS doesn not recruit. If CCHS recruited they would have better facilities, but actually their facilities suck. Their wieght rooms sucks. Their locker room sucks. Their training room sucks. If any stud player was to compare CCHS' facilities to Butler or Indy or AK, CCHS would never get picked. I've been a volunteer coach at Holy Trinity and have seen stud middle school players choose NOT to go to CCHS for the very reason of better faciliites at the public. The recruting agrument fails to hold water.
Interesting article: Nope, no sir, no recruiting at those Catholic schools:
http://www.highschoolot.com/content/story/10998341/
Show me a recruited player at CCHS and I will show you a liar. When I started in Catholic schools in kindergarten here in Charlotte how good the football team at CCHS was at the time was of no concern to me and my parents. I later moved out of state and when I returned I went back to elementary school in MACS, sports still had no impact on my parents' decision. I had a sibling who started at Holy Trinity when we moved back, athletics still had no impact on that. We work hard to get where we are and we do lose to public schools, but not the ones that we go out and work harder than. I have played football at Catholic and win or lose we learn from it. Our mental and physical toughness is what makes us good. Not some sob story and recruiting.
I guess we need to kick Independence out of the NCHSAA because they won like 10 straight high school footbal championships and 90 straight games at one point. Maybe they should have gone to the NFL.
Double standards and a bunch of haters just because CCHS has been successful. People need to get their facts straight before being so vindictive. My guess is that most of the people commenting on recruiting, wealth and food programs at CCHS have never been to CCHS or don't know anyone from there. That is called reverse discrimination, not very moral at all.
Go Cougars!
I have no affiliation with Charlotte Catholic...but i've been to a couple football games and I will say this...Charlotte Catholic is a great model to what high school football is all about....they have great support and fans...and if you take that away from the NCHSAA...then you all are idiots...i support CCHS.
Catholic wins all those conference championships because they were in a terrrrrible conference...Harding, West Meck, Garinger...c'mon people...only good out of that conference is basketball...which catholic is not known for
I looked back at all the big stars that came out of catholic since 2000...All of them went thru the entire catholic school system from elementary school...I support CCHS...let them play!
Latin poster...Give me coach Oddo
any day over the cocky coach Mac.
Coach Oddo is a humble man who
understands what the high school game is about.See below just
one of the things Coach instills in his players.
Talent is God given - Be Humble
Fame is Man given - Be Thankful
Conceit is Self given- Be Careful
He lives by those words.
LT - I know first-hand that CCHS abides by the rules set forth by NCHAA. My daughter attended CCHS for both her freshman and sophomore years and was on the swim team. She decided to go to a local public school because it is much closer to home. She attended that school for only 13 days and when she transferred back she COULD NOT SWIM ON THE TEAM nor could she particpate in any sport at Catholic. Get over it people - we have good athletes who have gone through the Catholic school system since they were little! I guess we are great recruiters because we get kids in Kindergarten!
What I think is the most unfair is Charlotte Catholic's ability to admit students who live in nearby Tega Cay, SC. These students do not live in North Carolina at all, yet they are allowed to compete under the NCHSAA.
Catholic has been successful lately last10/15 years because of the influx of 25000 catholic families to Charlotte furring that period. If they had just average coaches they would of won 100 more state championships. As a former parent of a graduate there it's a very backward school . It's the farthest thing from a prep school. It's a catholic public school . Teachers get paid poorly hence there poor teachers. Kids win there in sports because there more athletes. I think the answer is make them play at the largest classification .
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