They "overstate" numbers just like everybody else...final game sat night might have had 20.000...not bad though...best game was seeing coach from Edna Karr "wig out" in the Neville game and get flagged(probably would have been tossed if it hadn't been the finals)...and every game they have major big screen ads on "sportsmanship'...no really great games except St. Charle/Amite...all Monroe schools dominated..amazing..
To anyone that does not believe it is about money, pull your head out from under the rock. Within the State of Louisiana you are about to see a transition towards dominate programs the likes of which have never been seen. Vouchers will enable private, parochial, and charter schools that agree to take them to no longer have to offer scholarships to players, but instead be paid by the state to go recruit them. What is the LHSAA doing to attempt to stop this process? NOTHING, or better said, they are changing nothing about the "rules" that are in place currently to stop such abuses, which do not work.
Secondly,now that you have multiple schools attempting to "recruit" the same players, guess what is happening to the incentives for these students or their parents to choose certain schools. Soon, I’m expecting and believe you are going to have a group of administrators approach the LHSAA to attempt to establish a rule that will provide "hardship monies" to those students that are leaving C, D, and Failing schools to transfer to these elite programs. How different is that than the NCAA allowing universities to offer additional monies to their athletic scholarship recipients. Actually, it would be much worse because in such a scenario, the state “your tax dollars and mine” would pay schools to do it.
Paid to play will be legal and it will create the same division within Louisiana High School Sports as you see happening between BCS and the rest. Actually, just through scholarships to high schools, this is already happening. Now that the private, parochial, and charter schools are going to be paid to take these student athletes, imagine what the gap will look like. Perhaps this is why I recently heard a Neville Parent explaining in a local doctor’s office how they were in the process of “recruiting” 100 student athletes for all sports now that they were going to be a charter.
Solution, create a 6A category and anyone that provides "financial assistance" for a student to play or who takes vouchers allowing student athletes to play is put in this category. Let’s see how many of these schools simply want to take the student to help each academically. I’d bet that far fewer would be taken if such a category were created and the “rules” were enforced. Unfortunately, that does not put more money in the pocket of the haves. As such, I wonder how long the OCS’s and Cedar Creeks can hold fast to their policy of not taking vouchers. My guess is that it will take as long as it takes for St. Fred to complete their recruiting and start regularly beating both.
While my views are visable on this subject, I do want to express praise for the LHSAA. So far, they have not caved to the pressure being put upon them to allow voucher students to play immediately. At least this will for the short term force certain private schools to contiue to go towards Texas and Mississippi to get their players.