Lawmakers should stay out of sports
WATCHING the multi-year cycle of major budget shortfalls that occurred even as taxes were increased, Oklahomans have good reason to wonder how state politicians created such a financial mess. Here’s one explanation: The politicians aren’t paying enough attention to serious issues.
That was reinforced when it was announced Sen. Ron Sharp, R-Shawnee, thinks lawmakers need to carefully investigate which Oklahoma schools play other schools in sports. Apparently, fostering economic growth and job opportunity in the state will have to take a back seat.
Sharp, a former tennis coach at Shawnee schools, has joined with Blanchard Superintendent Jim Beckham to demand that the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association further restrict the ability of private school athletic teams to compete against public school peers.
Keep in mind, the OSSAA already requires private schools with programs that succeed at a high level to play in the next-highest classification, so a 3A-sized private school must play a 4A schedule. Even so, Sharp and Beckham seem to think it’s the public schools that are being mistreated.
Sharp said he requested the study because he was being contacted by his local superintendents, coaches and athletic directors, who say it is “disheartening for our teams to come up with such tremendous competition.” No doubt it is disheartening to know a smaller private school has a better team than you despite your superior numbers, but it’s also disheartening to lose to teams from similarly sized public schools. Just ask any coach fired after a losing season. And isn’t part of sports learning how to overcome adversity, persevere and improve regardless of the outcome on the field?
Sharp said private schools “are obviously in urban areas” and have access to superior facilities and staff. That will come as a surprise to the kids playing for Corn Bible Academy in western Oklahoma. That school is so small it plays in Class C. Also, the Corn football team went 1-7 in 2017 despite all the supposedly unfair advantages Sharp attributes to such schools.
While private schools are most common in urban areas due to population, the reality is many also exist outside the state’s two major metro areas. And relatively few private schools are financially able to field teams in a wide range of sports. Just 23 private schools are OSSAA members, a fraction of the total number of private schools statewide.
Sharp complains the OSSAA “has got a major problem in trying to create equity.” If he wants equity, Sharp can push to do away with the games and just give every student at every school a trophy. Otherwise, the whole point of athletic competition is to demonstrate a hierarchy of achievement. There’s a reason people brag about win-loss records.
Beckham has long been obsessed with this issue and previously sought to bar private schools from playing public schools in the postseason. The OSSAA board spoke loudly when it voted Beckham’s proposal down, 12-2.
Oklahoma lawmakers should accept that verdict and let the schools govern their own sports competitions. The last thing Oklahoma needs is for politicians to do for school athletics what they’ve done for state finances.