By Jeff Reed
STEPHENS MEDIA
LITTLE ROCK — After months of spirited debate, Arkansas postseason high school athletics will remain as one.
The Arkansas Activities Association Governing Body on Tuesday voted down a proposal to ban aid-providing private schools from competing against public schools in postseason play.
The measure was defeated by a vote of 114-93. Proposal No. 7 was put forth by Berryville and Mountain Home to separate the two parties for season-ending championship tournaments.
Passage would have required a two-thirds majority of votes on the measure within the 492-member organization.
“It went about like I expected,” AAA Executive Director Lance Taylor said after the vote. “I felt coming in that the votes would go that way on Proposal No. 7.
“One thing I like about the AAA is we are a democratic organization. We get proposals from the principals and superintendents and we vote on them. That is the way things operate. If we get something they don’t like, they can present another proposal and change it.”
What did pass, by a 247-25 vote, was Proposal No. 8 from the AAA Board of Directors. It disqualifies all students who transfer from public schools to private schools from participating in interscholastic athletics for a year.
“I don’t think it will have that big of an impact on us,” said Greg Jones, representative for Shiloh Christian School in Springdale. “Most of our students are in place by the seventh grade. Now we do have some who move in because of Wal-Mart.”
Of the 21 private schools that are members of the AAA, 18 provide financial aid.
“This is not a Shiloh vs. Berryville problem,” said Randy Byrd, school superintendent at Berryville, which lost to Shiloh 65-0 last year.
“After our game, we had Lance Taylor talk to Shiloh about sportsmanship,” Byrd said.
“We’ve had them play up and that did not work. We had a multiplier and that did not work. We had another multiplier and did not work. Now we have them playing up again and that is not working,” he said.
The AAA places member schools in competitive classifications based on enrollment. Rules require private schools to play in leagues one classification above their actual student population.
Byrd and Mountain Home Superintendent Charles Schriber spoke on behalf of Proposal No. 7 before Tuesday’s vote. Byrd also urged members of the governing body to pass Proposal No. 8 if they could not support No. 7.
Vilonia Principal Ed Sellers spoke against the proposal, citing speculation that the private schools would stop providing aid to remain in the playoffs.
“Who is to say that aid would not be provided under the table and the school not be aware?” Sellers said.
Jones noted Shiloh has played Berryville several times since the football playoffs last year.
“I know they beat us both times in basketball. There has been no fallout,” he said. “In fact, we have a Tyson plant in Springdale and they have one in Berryville. There are kids who transfer back and forth because of their jobs. It is probably one community that we have a connection with.”
Today’s vote was the latest showdown between public and private schools within the AAA. For example, the organization has gone back and forth for years in setting rules to determine which classifications private schools will compete in.
“I think we will probably be back again in a few years,” Jones said today.
