Public vs. Parochial Once Again Rears Its Ugly Head

There are three sure things in life:

 ·      Death

·      Taxes, and

·      People complaining that parochial schools have an advantage over public schools when it comes to athletics.

After each sports season in the state of Michigan – Fall, Winter, and Spring – the private versus public argument again rears its ugly head. The rhubarb was ever present this past weekend when the Michigan High School Athletic Association crowned its four state baseball champions for 2026 at McLane Stadiumon the campus of Michigan State University – and all four winners happened to be parochial schools.\

To recap:

• Detroit (Novi) Catholic Central won the Division 1 title by defeating Rochester Adams, 7-0

 • Orchard Lake St. Mary’s won the Division 2 title by defeating Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills, 6-4 (8 innings)

 • Traverse City St. Francis won the Division 3 title by defeating Kalamazoo Christian, 9-0

 • Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart won the Division 4 title by defeating Marcellus, 10-0 (5 innings)

It should be noted that Detroit Catholic Central won its last baseball title in 1999. Orchard Lake St. Mary’slast won in 2008. Traverse City St. Francis repeated this year, but it was their first since 1996. You need to go all the way back to 1996 for Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart’s last baseball championship.

The results, which featured shutouts in three of the four contests, had many crying foul. The very first place disgruntled individuals go to is that ugly word – “recruiting,” saying that parochial schools have an unfair advantage because they can draw from a wide area.

However, if you go back and look at the last 10 champions in each division, of the 40 schools that won a title, 30 were public schools and 10 were private. Of those 10 private schools, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s accounts for three titles by themselves. Many have said OLSM had the best team in the state regardless of Divisions. To put it in perspective, Swan Valley High School had the finest baseball team in Saginaw County this past season and they lost to Orchard Lake St. Mary’s 13-3 in the regional semifinal. The Vikings, who have five consecutive district titles under their belt, finished the season with an outstanding 34-7 record. SVHS won its lone baseball state title back in 2001 when Dennis Zehnder coached the Vikes to a 4-1 victory over Wyoming Park to win the Division 2 title.

But I digress. Back to the original argument of public schools versus parochial/private schools.

There are many who want a separate state tournament for public and parochial schools. Others are vying for parochial schools playing “up” a division for a level playing field. I’d consider this argument so long as the cost of facilities (fields, gyms, pools, etc.) is also part of the equation. Because hands down, more public money is being spent on facilities than with private dollars.

In California, the divisions are still divided up by size, and most leagues are still mixed with public and parochial. Playoffs, however, have multiple divisions plus an open division. If you win your division, your school is encouraged to move up the next year and forced to after two years – or, you can just choose to go play in the open division.

Back when Norwaine Reed built Buena Vista High School into a state basketball powerhouse, the Class B Knights played any Class A opponents during the regular season to prepare themselves for the playoffs. And many media members called them the best team in the state.

Certain individuals have urged the MHSAA to not only have separate tournaments, but separate leagues as well. The problem is that you simply don’t have enough private schools the same size to do that. For example, Bay City All Saints Central High School at one time was a Class B school. They are currently in Division 4 and are hovering around 80 total students in all four classes. At times, they’ve had to bring up an 8^th grader to fill out a baseball roster. On the gridiron, throwing a freshman onto the football field in a varsity game (because they lack a junior varsity team) isn’t exactly apples to apples. I’ve witnessed freshman getting pummeled in football going against an upper classman whose been lifting weights for 3-4 years. The Cougars often play schools twice and three-times their size in various sports just to fill out a schedule.

Because of open enrollment, any student-athlete can attend any high school they choose. There are schools, however, that circumvent the rules. Yes, there are schools that manage their enrollment so they can keep beating up on the small-town teams that they keep poaching players from.

Public schools often have a much larger pool of students to pull from. And their facilities are funded and equipped to the max. Private schools allow and encourage and need its athletes to play multiple sports to fill out rosters. Some public-school coaches tell athletes to commit to one sport because there may not be a spot for them in another sport.

Which takes me to club sports or AAU competition. These athletes decide where they want to play. Many times, these state championship rosters are kids from AAU teams who have played together all summer long. They ultimately decide which school to play for and load up a roster for a better chance to win a state title . . . either at a private school or a public school through school of choice.

This past season, Niles Brandywine girls’ basketball coach Josh Hood called attention to the dominance of private schools following his team’s 31-29 loss to Arbor Prep in a Division 3 state semifinal at the Breslin Center. Brandywine, which came into the game 26-0, beat Kalamazoo Christian in the regional final and Calvin Christian in the quarterfinal before falling to Arbor Prep. It was the Bobcats’ second loss to Arbor Prep at the Breslin Center in as many years, having fallen to the Gators in the 2024 state championship game.

 I should mention that Brandywine was up by eight points in the final stanza and lost by two. It’s sour grapes. Instead of giving credit to his girls for having a good season, he chose the post-game presser to register his complaint about losing to a parochial school. By the way, Arbor Prep isn’t a private school. They are a public charter school. About 1 in 4 students in Michigan attend a school outside their district because of school of choice.

In the Great Lakes Bay Region, I see billboards as well as television and radio commercials for many public schools during the summer months. That’s not recruiting?

At what point do you stop complaining and just go out and play the game? Prepare the kids to compete and stop making excuses for them. Going into a game worrying about if you’re playing a parochial school puts the kids at a disadvantage. Sometimes you don’t win if you’re not as developed, organized, supported, and as prepared as your opponent.

In case you are scoring at home, all four MHSAA softball champions were won by public schools. I guess there is no money in recruiting for softball.

The MHSAA is a member-driven institution. It will do what its members demand. If you don’t like it, create a new statewide Athletic Association.

 Why not 4 divisions? One for public, one for public with school of choice, one for charter schools, and one for private.

 Everybody gets a trophy!