Notre Dame jumps to 4A in an unwelcome change

Notre Dame Regional High School moved to its new location in 1998 with dreams of rapid enrollment growth.

It's "enrollment" grew by 156 students on Thursday, but not in the way envisioned.

Thanks to the 1.35 multiplier approved by members of the Missouri State High School Activities Association, the school's real enrollment of 444 ballooned to 600.

The reactions of coaches and administrators at Notre Dame ranged from diplomatic to blunt, but all were left upset about the state's attempt to level the playing field between private and public schools.

"We're very disappointed in the outcome of the vote," Notre Dame athletic director Chris Janet said. "This is a very drastic measure that is really going to affect non-public and public schools alike."

"It's stupid," said Notre Dame girls' coach Jerry Grim, who recently led the Notre Dame girls' basketball team to its first Class 2A state championship. "We go from 2A to 4A. Some of the schools a lot bigger than us are still down at 3A."

Notre Dame principal Brother David Migliorino tried to take the step toward fairness a step further.

"My question is, will the state give us additional Eisenhower funds now that our enrollment has increased by nearly 200 students?" Migliorino said. "It appears to me that if we're going to be penalized on one side, we should be able to reap the benefit of our new enrollment that we don't have."

The idea of the multiplier originated in the Northwest section of the state. While it may try to address inequities in the counting of students, to some it's seen as a response to a disproportionately high percentage of state titles won by private schools as to their composition of Missouri high school members. The alleged recruiting by Pembroke Hill in Kansas City and Cardinal Ritter in St. Louis, both 2A schools, may also have helped spur the motion.

"The Northwest has always complained and been very loud and vocal against non-public schools," Janet said.

Migliorino said all private schools are paying for the alleged crimes of a few.

"That would be like me expelling an entire class if two sophomores did something wrong," Migliorino said.

Notre Dame has won six state championships over the years, and the girls' basketball team just won the first female title in school history. Regionally, Notre Dame has always competed well. While the girls did win their first title, their district championship was the sixth in a row.

"I think the whole deal in not necessarily the recruiting, but the area we get the draw from," Grim said. "I don't know, it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense."

Recruitment has always been a touchy subject in high school sports, and Notre Dame sometimes encounters the murmur.

"People come here because it's a Catholic high school," Migliorino said. "I think the underlining message was recruitment. I don't think it was because we can draw from a larger area. I think people were afraid to come out and say that. And I think that if people were doing that, they should be penalized, but they weren't. They punished everybody."

Notre Dame will lose district rivals like Scott City, Kelly, and Charleston for bigger partners, possibly competing in districts with Dexter, Perryville, Sikeston, Festus, Ste. Genevieve and Fredericktown, among others.

"I would love to see a breakdown to see who voted for it and who voted against it," Grim said. "I don't know that they will do that, but I think it would be very interesting. But we'll play whoever they tell us to play."

Central athletic director Terry Kitchen and Jackson athletic director Kevin Bohnert declined to discuss how their schools voted on the issue. With most private schools in smaller classifications, neither school would be affected much by the rule, although perennial boys' basketball power Vashon is expected to drop to 4A. Bohnert said his school is more concerned with the desegregation issue in St. Louis and Kansas City.

"I know there were some pretty strong feelings in Southeast Missouri with some of the smaller schools," Bohnert said. "Basically a lot of small schools, as soon as they get out of district, they hit some of the private schools out of St. Louis."

Janet said he wasn't surprised by the vote.

"Unfortunately we're the minority in the membership," he said. "I think there were a number of public school in St. Louis that did not support that issue, but it wasn't enough."

MSHSAA officials had requested a rejection of the proposal to allow for more discussion and a more exhaustive look at options, something Janet would liked to have seen.

"We'll compete," he said. "It's not the end of the world. I don't think it was a very fair way to address an issue that I think has some merit. The merit should not be based on recruiting, but on enrollment issues. We'll have an enrollment of maybe 460 kids and we'll be competing against schools with over 1,000. I don't know where the fairness comes from."

Up the road

At St. Vincent, where the multiplier should not result in as many sport class jumps as Notre Dame, the news was also unwelcome.

"It's unfair to schools that never caused any problems," St. Vincent athletic director Bruce Valleroy said. "We abide by all the rules. We do not recruit. We don't get in trouble with the state. It seems like a couple schools have gotten in trouble and it's affecting all of us. We do everything right and we're still getting punished."

St. Vincent was already getting bumped to 2A in basketball due to the five-division realignment, but now finds itself borderline 3A.

"If we got bumped into 3A I would say that would be a major, major change," Valleroy said. "If we're in 2A it's pretty much what we've been expecting, and we've been 2A before."

Because the new district football alignments have already been established, and the lower number of schools with football, the Indians will remain in 1A for football the next two years. The Indians played for state championships in football as recently as 1998 and 2000.

Valleroy said two of the school's other strong sports -- baseball and golf -- might be most affected by the multiplier. The Indians have played in the last two state baseball championship games in 1A, having won the title in 2000, and are the defending 1A state golf champs, one of two titles won in the last four years.

Valleroy doesn't anticipate moves up in softball and soccer.

"I'm sure it's not over with yet," Valleroy said. "I'm sure there will be some lawsuit before it's over with. From our standpoint just have to live with it and go on from there."

jbreer@semissourian.com

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