There are two possible items that would provide the private schools with a benefit that the public schools do not have.

1. The private schools recruit
2. The private schools have a bigger pool to draw from

While number 2 may be a concern, it doesn't appear to be the real issue. It has been pointed out that the Olathe school district allows students to choose which Olathe high school they attend, thus having a bigger pool to draw from.

The heart of the issue is whether the private schools, mainly Catholic, recruit. Recruit meaning that an athletically gifted student, non-Catholic, was recruited by another parent or coach to attend. The second piece of the recruiting is the financial piece, ie were they given any type of tuition relief. It is important to distinguish between the two.

Recruiting to Catholic schools happens. It can happen via parents and coaches. It happens directly and indirectly.

It happens directly by parents talking to other parents about the school, possibly the athletic program, and promoting the school. It seems the Moeder kid would not have looked at SJA if the Cokely kid weren't there. To be fair, this also happens with families where the kids do not play sports. It's normal. In some areas people have moved into different school districts for the same reason.

There appears to be a second type of direct recruiting that appears to be more blatant. Of course no one can provide proof. Examples of this would be the two older Rush brothers who added Pembrooke Hill (one of the most expensive HS in KC metro). After growing up in KCMO, they went to Pembrooke Hill and lived with a family in Mission Hills (pretty expensive) while their mother continued to live in KCMO. There were articles in the KC Star about it. The younger Rush, the one that played BB at KU, bounced around HS in KC and ended up in some academy in Virginia I believe. Miege has had a few exceptional athletes n the past 5 years who were not Catholic and attended Miege - Rellefords and Justin McKay (D1 kids).

To be fair, there is also indirect recruiting that occurs. This happens when a program has success and people want to attend to be part of it or to benefit from it. An example. If you live in the KC area, think your son has the ability to be a major college football player, and can afford Rockhurst HS tuition, many parents would consider it. Rockhurst has a stellar football program and has a large number of kids play D1 football. There are a lot of Kansas Catholic kids who go to Rockhurst to play football. IF you live in the KC area and have a daughter who plays soccer, volleyball or basketball, the Catholic schools have the best programs. If you thought it would give your child an opportunity and could afford it, most would consider it. This also happens with families whose son or daughter is not an athlete and happens in public schools. Blue Valley is a great school district and people will move their for the education. An acquaintance of mine sent their son to a Catholic school because he had some problems and they wanted to get him away from his crowd and were hoping it would help him. He did not play sports and it was apparently a great experience for him.

With all that said, it's hard to believe the private (Catholic) schools are ONLY successful because they recruit the non Catholics that would otherwise attend the local public school. Catholics have a deep tradition in sports and have strong youth programs. I would guess if you look at the majority of the Catholic HS rosters, you will find the majority of kids grew up going to Catholic schools and participating in Catholic youth sports. I would challenge someone to do that with a roster from one of the recent state championship teams. IF the majority, 95% plus, of the students went to Catholic church or school, than the argument that they have a bigger pool and recruit is not as strong. They are pulling from a pool of students (primarily Catholic) that creates a student body that is approximately the same size as the public school.

You could argue that if the Catholics wanted to dominate in sports, they would limit the number of HS in a metro area to 1, similar to Lawrence High for a while. Combining Bishop Ward, Miege, SJA and STA would probably be a pretty dominant 6A program. You could also argue that if you had multiple Catholic HS in one metro area (Miege, SJA, STA, Rockhurst, etc...) that they are competing for Catholic students and that could be a disadvantage.

I believe there is recruiting that happens with Private/Catholic schools. I don't think it is as significant as people would like to make it out. I don't think the majority of the Catholic schools have a significant benefit. As stated above, there are some obviously blatant examples and those examples give credence to the argument. I also believe it happens in the public schools as well.

The unfortunate thing is that I'm sure there are some Catholic schools that have won state championship teams with full rosters of Catholic kids, only to be criticized for recruiting by people who really don't know.

It is a good debate, but one that won't end regardless of the potential rule changes. It's a chicken and egg discussion.