Idea would ditch the independent, dues-paying organization legislators have complained about for years
By Skylar Laird
SCDailyGazette.com
COLUMBIA — After studying for months how to level the high school playing field, a House GOP leader believes the answer is to ditch the South Carolina High School League and create a new board to govern student athletics.
Calls to change the classifications of high school sports teams have ramped up for years following the rise of athletics-focused charter schools that can attract students from anywhere in the state. Coaches, students, parents and principals of traditional high schools say it’s unfair to pit their small teams against schools where students spend half their day training and practicing.
Among other things, the proposal considered last Thursday by a House study panel would create a new governing board made up largely of legislators’ appointees. It would consider how well a team performs against other schools in its bracket, along with geography and student population, in deciding whether to bump the school up a level.
In South Carolina, high school sports consist of five brackets, with 1A made up of the state’s smallest schools by student population and 5A consisting of the largest.
“If you are trouncing your opponents with double-digit scores in baseball games or soccer and they’re not scoring anything, or you’re winning all your playoff games and your championships at a lower level and it’s consistent at a two-year pace, that’s a competitive advantage,” said House Education Chairwoman Shannon Erickson, a Beaufort Republican leading the charge for the new approach.
Two weeks ago, the South Carolina High School League’s executive committee, made up of representatives of member schools, adopted what’s known as a multiplier for all students outside a school’s normal attendance boundaries. Under the new multiplier rule, every student outside that boundary, whether they play sports or not, would count as three students when it comes to classifying the school.
By triple-counting students who live outside the lines of the local school, the decision would bump those athletic charter schools into higher brackets. While written for them, the rule doesn’t just apply to charter schools. It would do the same to any school with students outside its boundaries, which would mean private schools too that are part of the league.
That creates the potential for smaller schools to be pushed up a bracket because of out-of-district attendance, just perpetuating the problem of unfairness, Erickson argued.
“They’ve just flipped the scale,” Erickson said. “It’s really kind of mind-blowing, that you would go from one bad scenario to another bad scenario.”
The South Carolina High School League is an independent, dues-paying organization that sets and oversees the competition rules for participating middle and high schools.
A spokesperson for the league did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Executive committee members at the meeting declined to comment because they had not yet read the proposal.
What else is proposed?
Other changes in the proposal include allowing student athletes to transfer schools only once in middle school and once in high school while continuing to play a sport, to deter teams recruiting athletes from one another. Another complaint against the athletic charters has been that they draw students from the state’s largest high school schools. A bill with similar requirements passed through the House last year and is awaiting a hearing in the Senate.
Private school students would also be allowed to try out for public school teams if they can’t muster enough players for a team of their own, a process already allowed for homeschooled students.
Overseeing the decisions would be the new, 11-member board. Beyond legislative leaders, the state Superintendent of Education and Governor could also name their picks.
Erickson contends that would provide increased scrutiny from the state, including financial audits and more oversight.
It remains to be seen whether Erickson can gather the support needed to turn the proposal into law. Legislators have long threatened to eliminate the High School League but never followed through.
“I think it’s about time for us to look at this process so we can make it better,” said Rep. Terry Alexander, D-Florence.
Skylar Laird covers the South Carolina Legislature and criminal justice issues. Originally from Missouri, she previously worked for The Post and Courier’s Columbia bureau.
