Letter to the Editor: Public versus private issue in high school sports also debated in Tennessee

Don Crim’s story about the Illinois High School Association Board of Directors voting to implement changes to address what it calls “competitive equity” and simplify the postseason classification process was a nice article on this age-old issue. I enjoyed reading the same.

After moving to Tennessee, it was interesting to see how they handle this problem. The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association has two classifications, one for private schools and one for public schools. Within each classification, there are different tiers for different sports. For example, in basketball, there is Division I for public schools and Division II for private schools. Then within Division II for example, there is Division II-A for the smaller private schools and Division II-AA for the larger private schools, with the distinction between the two being enrollment numbers. 

What I have come to discover is that Tennessee is smaller in population than Illinois but has more private schools per capita than Illinois does. We moved to Franklin, Tenn., and it has a little more than 30,000 people than Quincy, but it has three private schools and three public schools. This may be a reason why they have the system, as well as why the system works for them.

Nonetheless, there is still some of the same issues between private and public schools. For example, the private school I help with has a difficult time getting public schools in their town and general area to agree to schedule them for basketball. There are often players going to the private school who would have otherwise gone to the public schools in the area.

Not sure that the issue will ever be resolved, but it is always good to see open and honest discussion about the issue. 

Norman Rodriguez
Former John Wood Community College women’s basketball coach
Franklin, Tenn.