Photo courtesy of Kelli Graves

Raleigh, NC–For the first time in 8 years, a public high school was crowned champion in Men’s Basketball in the NCHSAA 1A classification. Hayesville knocked off Chatham Charter this past weekend in one of the best basketball games I’ve ever seen. The Yellow Jackets finished the season undefeated and capped off a two year run that will be remembered forever.

As a credentialed NCHSAA Media Member, when the state championships roll around we are sent a package highlighting the previous state championship matchups over the years, and when I saw the lack of public school representation in that little packet, I decided to dig a little deeper.

To put it into perspective, let’s take a look at the 1A Men’s State Championship matchups over the previous 10 years.

{Champions are in ALL CAPS} {Public Schools are italicized}

2022- HAYESVILLE HIGH (public) vs Chatham Charter

2021- WILSON PREP vs Lincoln Charter

2020- WINSTON-SALEM PREP vs Henderson Collegiate

2019- BISHOP MCGUINNESS vs Henderson Collegiate

2018- WINSTON SALEM PREP vs Pamlico Co. (public)

2017- LINCOLN CHARTER vs Kestrel Heights Charter

2016- VOYAGER ACADEMY vs Winston-Salem Prep

2015- EAST CARTERET (public) vs Winston-Salem Prep

2014- WINSTON-SALEM PREP vs East Carteret (public)

2013- WINSTON-SALEM PREP vs Rocky Mount Prep

Since 2013–20 teams have advanced to the Men’s 1A state championship and only 4 of those teams (20%) have been from public high schools.

Since 2013–10 of those teams have gone on to be crowned state champs, and of those ten teams, only 2 have been from public high schools (20%).

Numbers Never Lie.

In today’s NCHSAA, public schools–which are made up of local students who have grown up together and played on the same municipal recreation teams since they were 5 years old–are expected to compete against charter schools that are made up of the best athletes their coaches can recruit. That recruiting includes taking kids away from a local public high school as well as recruiting kids on an international level.

Additionally, the best players in North Carolina are no longer in our public schools, they’re attending charter schools. The top 13 men’s high school basketball recruits in North Carolina attend private/charter schools, according to 24/7 sports. Yet if public schools want to win a state title they have to go through these super teams.

Now, I’ve heard all about the Charter Schools “lottery system,” and how students have to apply for the lottery and have their name be chosen, etc. However, it seems to me a lot more like the University-style recruiting system. This type of unfairness isn’t just evident in men’s sports, it’s fluid across the board and affects our women’s sports too. 

This previous year in the Elite 8, Murphy High School’s girls basketball team was knocked out of the playoffs by Bishop McGuinness, a catholic charter school in Kernersville. A few days after Bishop got the victory, the Winston-Salem Journal posted an article about the Bishop McGuinness Villians talking about how some of their players came to attend the school. Below is a short excerpt from the article:

“Adelaide Jernigan [the team’s standout freshman point guard] felt it immediately. From the time she first visited Bishop McGuinness when she was a seventh-grader at Summit School in Winston-Salem, she knew where she wanted to go because “it felt like home.” She had played basketball for Robinson [Bishop Head Coach] in the Winston-Salem Stealers AAU program and had been a teammate of some of the current Villains.”

Does that not sound like a kid on a college recruiting visit?

People around high school sports ask themselves all the time why the participation rates are dropping, and I’m not saying there is a direct correlation here, but if you’re a high school kid playing ball and being beaten out in the playoffs by a private school year-in and year-out, it’s probably pretty disheartening. You also may not be so encouraging to your younger siblings or friends to pick up the sport.

I think everyone around our area knows that there is a problem and that an unfair advantage is given to charter schools, but I don’t think everyone realizes how big the problem is yet. In the South, football is king, and the disparity hasn’t made its way onto the grid-iron yet. When it does, that’s when I think we will see real change in the NCHSAA classifications.

No one seems to know the best way to correct this inequity, but it seems the best option for the NCHSAA would be to take a look at some of the high school athletics organizations in other states and consider adopting some of their regulations to make a change for the better. In North Carolina, we use 3 things to determine classification: Average Daily Membership, State Cup Score (which is idiotic), and Identified Student Percentage. You can take a look at those three things being broken down in this article here: https://www.hillsborough-sports.com/2021/01/13/two-cents-from-the-franklin-mint-its-still-a-bloated-mess/

In Alabama, they more or less use something called the “success rate theory” or “competitive balance”. If used in North Carolina, this would mean that schools with repeated success, such as Winston-Salem Prep and Bishop McGuinness, would have to move up a classification. In Georgia, they have the 1A schools separated into public and private divisions, and also have a multiplier placed on schools who are drawing kids outside of their district. For example, if a school has an enrollment of 135 kids but 35 of those kids are out of district kids, then a 3 times multiplier is placed on those 35 kids. That means their enrollment goes from 135 to 205, which could move them up into the next classification. From my understanding, in Georgia the multiplier is used for all schools with out-of-district students, and in Alabama it is used just for private/charter schools. 

There are many options available for the NCHSAA to make a change, they just have to be put in a position where they feel like they have to make a change. When the unfairness has been brought up in NCHSAA meetings, the response from the higher-ups has always been to look at the success of the public schools. And while we have had some success–i.e. Hayesville’s girls run of State Titles and Murphy’s girls back-to-back State Titles–it’s time to look at the success of charter schools and see that in the last decade the scales are no where near balanced. A public school shouldn’t just have “a shot” at winning a state championship every few decades. 

If you want to make a change now and let your voice be heard, send an email to NCHSAA Commissioner Que Tucker ([email protected]) and voice your concerns about the unfairness that is going on in North Carolina High School Sports.